It’s great that we are now considering how we consume and what we consume. It’s really needed as the world heats, the oceans fill (not with fish) and the earth’s resources are depleted in a bonkers fashion.

But it’s hard to consume more sustainably, more consciously and with less waste. It’s made hard because supermarkets give us the option to only consume linearly (i.e use it once and chuck it in the hope of it being recycled). It's made even harder when big businesses play with our weak will power with advertising, winking at us with their incredibly tasty food but incredibly single-use packaging. Or is this just us?

At Homethings we like to try to help you do your bit (check out our IGTV). We think it’s awesome that our community wants to do their thing to help the planet. We salute you.

So here’s a few options for you to get into zero waste cleaning: 

Option 1

Get yourself to a zero waste store. 

These places are full of things to make you feel sustainably great. Take your empty jars and bottles there and fill them up with your cleaning products. 

Just remember to check the price of things before decanting it into your jar. We’ve found organic peppercorns to be particularly expensive. 

For Londoners, here’s a great resource that lists the zero waste stores - Useless. For everyone else, we’ve just got Google. Sorry.

Option 2

Make your own cleaning products.

We’ve all got used to conducting a single-use, toxic extermination when we clean. “99.9% of bacteria gone” is a tagline I’m sure you’ve all heard. But, hang on, ‘what about the good bacteria Dettol?’ says Homethings. 

You can try making your own cleaning products which are zero waste and non toxic. One recipe we like can be found on the Eco Boost website. It calls for a 50 / 50 mix of vinegar and water, with 10 drops of essential oils to mask the fish and chip smell. Just remember to get your vinegar from a zero waste store and your water from the tap (obviously). A plastic bottle of vinegar defeats the object. 

There’s another good recipe on the great Moral Fibres blog too.

Option 3

Absolutely no apologies for the plug. It’s the Homethings website.

Our non-toxic cleaning tabs mean that you can make your cleaning spray at home in your long lasting bottle by just adding a tab and some tap water. A great clean with zero waste. (Well, there is the delivery packaging, which is at a minimum recyclable, but we cannot wait to see what you can reuse it for. Please think outside the box for this and tag us in your posts.) #HomethingsMakesSense

Image via Oliver Hale @4themorningshoot