In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of environmentally friendly practices in all aspects of our lives and home environment, including cleaning. Green cleaning, also known as eco-friendly or sustainable cleaning, involves using products and methods that minimise environmental impact and promote health and well-being.
In this blog, we explore the benefits of green cleaning for both your health and your home, and why it's an essential practice for today's conscientious individuals.
Traditional cleaning products often contain harsh chemicals and toxins that can be harmful to both humans and the environment. You only need to read the warning labels on the products to be alarmed at how toxic they can be. By switching to green cleaning products made from natural ingredients you can reduce your exposure to these harmful substances and protect your health, the health of your family, pets and the environment.
Many commercial cleaning products contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can pollute indoor air and contribute to respiratory problems such as asthma and allergies. Green cleaning products are free from these harmful chemicals, helping to improve indoor air quality and create a healthier living environment for you and your family. To further promote indoor air quality open doors and windows daily to circulate fresh air. You may also like to read our article, Benefits of Indoor Plants which outlines the benefits of indoor plants and which plants are best.
Children and pets are particularly vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals found in traditional cleaning products. Green cleaning products are safer and gentler, making them a better choice for households with young children and furry friends who may come into contact with cleaned surfaces.
Green cleaning products are made from renewable, biodegradable ingredients that have minimal impact on the environment. By choosing eco-friendly products and methods, you can reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to a healthier planet for future generations.
Harsh chemicals in traditional cleaning products can also damage surfaces over time, leading to wear and tear that requires costly repairs or replacements. Green cleaning products are gentler and less abrasive, helping to preserve the integrity of surfaces such as countertops, floors and appliances.
Contrary to popular belief, green cleaning doesn't have to break the bank. Many eco-friendly cleaning products are affordable and can be made at home using simple ingredients like vinegar, lemon juice, and olive oil. Additionally, the long-term benefits of green cleaning, such as improved indoor air quality and reduced maintenance costs, can result in savings over time.
Green cleaning is more than just a trend. It’s a responsible choice that benefits both your health and the environment. Making the switch to green cleaning is easier than you may think. Many of us choose to buy chemical cleaners without giving them a lot of thought.
However, you may be surprised how readily available natural and eco-friendly products are. They can easily be incorporated into your regular routine. Natural products are often more cost-effective and do a better job than chemical alternatives. Make the switch to green cleaning and reap the rewards of a healthier and happier home. In our article, 10 Natural Home Cleaning Hacks, you’ll find some great tips on how to incorporate some simple ideas and household products into your regular cleaning routine.
Decluttering your home can feel like a daunting task, but breaking it down room by room can make the process more manageable and less overwhelming. When you declutter your home, it also offers a range of benefits that positively impact your physical health, mental well-being, productivity, and overall quality of life. It's a simple, yet powerful, way to create a more harmonious and fulfilling living environment.
In this guide, we'll take you through each room of your home, offering practical tips and strategies to help you declutter effectively and create a more organised living space.
Living Room
Kitchen
Begin by emptying cabinets and drawers, discarding expired food items, and donating or getting rid of kitchen gadgets or appliances you no longer use.
Bedroom
Bathroom
Home Office / Study
Laundry
Benefits of Decluttering Your Home
Decluttering your home offers a multitude of benefits, both practical and psychological. When your home is organised and free of clutter you will find the space more calm, inviting and relaxing, allowing you to enjoy your haven so much more!
Some additional benefits of decluttering your home include:
By following these practical tips and strategies, you can tackle clutter effectively and create a more peaceful and harmonious environment in your home. Remember to use natural cleaning products when cleaning your home during the decluttering process. You may be interested in reading our article, Why Using Natural Cleaning Products is Better which also provides some home cleaning tips.
If you have carpets or rugs in your home, you can also access our Guide to Maintaining Carpets which provides an overview of the different types of carpets and the best way to maintain their cleanliness.
Are your cupboards full of cleaning products from supermarket shelves? These seemingly innocent and friendly looking products harbor many chemicals and toxic substances. They are covered up with lovely fragrances, bight packaging and promises of easy cleaning, but at what cost?
The toxicity in many traditional cleaning products are astounding. There’s a wide array of soaps, detergents, bleaching agents, polishes, glass cleaners, and specialized bathroom cleaning products that disinfect and make things germ free but these contribute to indoor air pollution and are poisonous. Some cleaning agents can cause respiratory irritation, watery eyes, chemical burns and others have been associated with chronic, long-term effects such as cancer and respiratory illnesses.
Going green is a personal choice. It’s one that is embraced by individuals who become aware how harmful these toxic products can be. It’s embraced by those who want to live a longer healthier life, those who want to create a better environment for their family and pets and those who are concerned about our planet and want to make a difference.
At Bliss Home Care, we’re incredibly passionate about spreading the benefits of going green. In our own homes and our clients’ homes we only use green cleaning products.
You can dramatically improve the indoor air quality of your home by removing harmful toxins and pollutants. In particular, if you have young children or any family members who have respiratory ailments such as asthma this will be a breath of fresh air. You should also regularly open doors and windows for ventilation and add indoor plants to your living areas which help to reduce carbon dioxide levels and increase humidity.
Traditional and commercial cleaning products pose risks such as chemical burns to your skin and eyes. Always avoid any cleaning products that come with warnings on their labels – why would you knowingly bring these into your home and use them? Green cleaning products are not corrosive and must meet strict standards in Australia regarding inhalation toxicity, combustibility and skin absorption. Always choose green products to avoid harmful effects to your health.
You can save considerable amounts of money by mixing and using your own cleaning products. There are 3 simple products that you will mostly likely already have in your kitchen pantry that you can use to keep your home sparkly clean without the toxins – bi-carb soda, lemon and white vinegar. Take a look at our earth friendly cleaning blog for ways you can incorporate these into your cleaning regime for safe and effective earth friendly cleaning: https://blisshomecare.com.au/earth-friendly-cleaning/
You don’t need a whole arsenal of toxic products to keep your home clean. Tackle your cleaning with green products that you can either make yourself (as detailed above) or consciously make the decision to choose green cleaning products. Green cleaning products generally have multiple uses rather than having to switch between products for different areas of the home. For example, vinegar can be used to clean mould and mildew, as a window cleaner and toilet bowl cleaner just to name a few.
Choosing to use natural cleaning products means you will make cleaning safer - not just for yourself but also during pregnancy and when you young children. Kids love to help out and get involved and green cleaning products, particularly those you make at home, are safe enough for them to use. You won’t have to worry about gloves, you won’t have to lock up harmful cleaning products, you won’t have to worry about poisoning or toxic cocktails.
When you go green, you are reducing your carbon footprint. By reducing the amount of pollutants you use, you are reducing the amount of harmful toxins that get washed away into our waterways and environment. This will have a huge impact on the environment and will create a cleaner and brighter future for future generations and our planet.
Once you begin using green cleaning products and methods you will realise how effectively they work and how beneficial it is to your health and lifestyle. Don’t be shy about your green cleaning ways - spread the word! Tell those you care about how easy it is and how you do it. You’re setting a great example for others and also encouraging future generations to opt for a brighter and healthier planet.
Make a conscious decision to switch green cleaning products and practices in your home. Not only will you save time and money but you will dramatically improve the lifestyle for yourself, your home, family, pets and our planet.
Start by taking small steps to going green and you will make a BIG impact in the world.
Family having a barbecue party in their garden in summer
Summer is all about being outdoors, having fun in the sun, firing up the BBQs and celebrating the holidays. Over the cooler months we often neglect the outdoors by spending more time indoors. Now that Summer is here it’s time for outdoor cleaning and enjoying the sunshine, warm days and balmy nights. Here are 10 outdoor natural cleaning tips to get your outdoor area looking its best, ready for entertaining and all the fun that Summer brings!
Have a brighter outlook of the outside world by cleaning your door and window screens. Dip a damp wire brush into baking soda and scrub away, rinse thoroughly with a damp sponge and you’re done!
Crystal clear windows are a must and white vinegar is just what you need to get them that way. Mix two parts warm water to one part white vinegar into a spray bottle and spray directly onto windows. Then wipe dry with a clean, lint free cloth.
Outdoor furniture can easily get neglected but can be effectively cleaned with a simple baking soda solution. Use one cup of baking soda mixed with some warm water, wipe on the furniture, then rinse off thoroughly.
Protect your deck from germs and mould by spraying it with undiluted white vinegar. This will also clean, disinfect and get rid of any stains it might have.
Stubborn charred remains on your BBQ racks? Apply some baking soda and then dab with vinegar which will start it foaming. Let it sit for a few minutes then rinse thoroughly before use.
Time for the kiddies pool to come out and be cleaned so that it’s ready to be filled and splashed about in. This is easily done by mixing equal part white vinegar to water and scrub with a soft brush, then rinse.
During the off season the kids pool and beach toys will have accumulated some musty smells. Get them clean by washing them with a solution of 1/4 cup baking soda to 1 litre of warm water.
Lime and salt aren’t only margarita ingredients - they also remove rust! Get your gardening tools rust free by laying them on some newspaper and sprinkling them with table salt. Squeeze some lime liberally all over the salt covered rust and allow it to sit for three hours. Scrub the mixture off using the remaining lime and rinse under running water. Make sure to dry them thoroughly to avoid more rust!
There’s nothing worse than seeing a clothesline with dirt or grime, which is of course going to transfer to the clothes you’ll be hanging out there now that it’s summer! This can easily be cleaned by mixing a solution of equal parts warm water and vinegar, then wiping down each line removing all dirt and allowing to dry.
Dirty and stained pavers aren’t a good look and you need to get them nice and clean for all that entertaining you’ll be doing! Spray undiluted vinegar onto the pavers and make sure they are thoroughly soaked. Leave them for an hour and although you’ll notice the dirt will have loosened, you will need to scrub away with a wire brush to get them really clean.
Now you’re ready to sit back, relax and enjoy your time and summer!
We all know that our actions can really impact the environment, and although most people would like to do what they can to make it better, they believe that green living can be hard - we’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be!
Here are some simple actions that will make your home environment greener and healthier for you and your loved ones and will also benefit our amazing planet.
What’s better than heading into the backyard and grabbing some fresh veggies that taste great, along with the knowledge that they are free of chemicals? Not only will your body thank you but so will the planet for reducing contamination to the environment.
When choosing what you’d like to grow, it’s a good idea to make a plan so that you can stagger the sowing of seeds to give you a constant supply of those fresh and seasonal veggies! Get the kids involved too – you might find that they eat more vegetables seeing as they helped create them.
When you’re done creating your veggie garden and have reaped those benefits, you can use those, along with other food scraps to create compost (your free organic fertiliser) and reduce landfill waste!
You can invest in a compost bin or you can just start a pile in a heap on the ground. It’s a good idea to keep your compost moist, not wet, and add food scraps, lawn clippings and coffee grounds to the mix.
It also will require some aerating so turning the compost with a fork once a week will help it along. Decomposition time varies and is dependent on what you’ve used to create your compost and the moisture and aeration of your heap. When it all looks and smells like very dark soil your compost is ready to be used. Use it in your garden to create an abundance of healthy soil for your veggie patch.
There are a few things you can do to improve the quality of air within your home, making it much healthier for your family to live in and is beneficial for the environment!
Firstly, you need to get rid of all those toxic cleaning products that are plentiful on our supermarket shelves these days. Healthier options are always available - one of which mixing a ratio of 1 part vinegar to 1 part water which cleans and disinfects!
Another thing that you can do for the air quality is to invest in a cold air oil diffuser. Using a variety of natural oils in a diffuser can neutralise chemicals and bacteria, eliminate the need for any synthetic air fresheners and keep your home smelling amazing!
We strongly recommend not to use air fresheners and avoid scented cleaning or laundry products that don’t disclose their fragrance ingredients on the product label. These products may trigger allergies and often contain suspected endocrine disruptors, such as phthalates and synthetic musks.
If we all do our little bit it will collectively amount to a lot - so do yourself, your loved ones and our environment a favour and start living green today!
Spring is here and it’s time to breathe some new life into your home with a good Spring clean!
Spring Cleaning
It’s a time when those neglected areas finally get some TLC, the de-cluttering of the pantry and cupboards finally happen, and those items stored in boxes that you haven’t needed all year can get used or perhaps get their marching orders. It’s time – you know it is…
Spring cleaning is not only great because it gets your home organised and clean, but it’s also an important thing to do for your health. One advantage that shouldn’t be overlooked is that you will burn a whole heap of calories, but more importantly you will also get rid of allergy culprits including dust and mould that may be lurking in your home.
Here are five tips to get you inspired – get started on your spring cleaning and have some fun along the way!
Inspect your home and make a list of what you need to do. List the order of priorities so that you know where to begin. Don’t forget to tick off the items as they’re completed. This is a great way to keep motivated and feel a sense of accomplishment once each item is done. If you really want to make it fun get some friends (or your kids) involved and reciprocate the favour when their house is ready for a clean!
Have some fun by creating and mixing up your own natural cleaning products. You’ll need some spray bottles, water, vinegar and baking soda – these products will clean just about everything!
Here’s an all-purpose cleaner recipe to get you started:
Equal parts water to white vinegar
Few drops morning fresh or dish washing detergent
10 drops of tea tree, lavender or lemon essential oil
Mix the essential oil and vinegar with a little water in a clean spray bottle. Fill it to top with water (based on 350ml bottle). Gently shake it and you’re ready to go!
Bi Carb Soda
Sprinkle bi-carb soda in the bath tub, sinks, vanities then spray with your vinegar product. Leave it for at least 10 minutes before giving it a good scrub.
Is there anything that you can up cycle in those stored boxes? There are so many clever ideas online for turning your old items into something new. Try your hand at some arts and crafts - create something unique that you be can be proud of.
This is a great time to consider donating old books, appliances, clothes, tools or anything else you may no longer need to charity. De-cluttering and helping someone less privileged – it’s a win-win!
Last but certainly not least, make a playlist of your favourite dance tunes and turn the music up! Music is one of the best ways to lighten the mood and keep you motivated – perhaps even help you clean at a faster pace - you’ll have the house beautifully clean in no time!
Our point here is that Spring cleaning doesn’t have to feel like a boring chore after all. You can have some fun along the way and you and your home will feel refreshed afterwards.
If you’d love a spring clean but simply can’t find the time we can also help. We only use eco-friendly cleaning products and methods to keep your home free of toxins and safe for all family members. Enquire now at https://blisshomecare.com.au/enquire-now/
This month we get into the nitty gritty of mopping and which method is best for your home.
What is the safest and cleanest way to clean our homes? We are often inundated with conflicting information via clever marketing tactics in retail outlets so we’d like to provide you with some clarity and provide you with some tips on the best environmentally friendly cleaning solution for your home.
While mopping is a chore many people don’t like, it’s necessary to mop our floors to keep things hygienic for our personal environment. This is probably even more important to you if you have young children who are in the crawling or floor play phase. The benefits of using a microfiber flat mop far outweigh traditional mopping options.
Microfiber fabric is a manufactured man-made product using two fibres – polyester and polyamide. The microfibers are incredibly thin and are wedge shaped allowing them to grab, trap and hold dust soil. Microfiber is tough and durable yet gentle on surfaces because they are non-abrasive. They are also lint free so this eliminates streaky results and can be easily laundered and reused hundreds of times.
So if you’re looking for an easy, effective and eco-friendly way to keep your floors healthy and clean be sure to choose a microfiber mopping system. They are ideal for use on tiled surfaces as well as polished timber floors. The simple fact that you don’t need to use any toxic chemicals in your home by far outweighs any other mopping options.
When we established Bliss Home Care Services we decided we wanted to be an innovative cleaning company that uses only earth friendly cleaning products. The products, together with our proven earth friendly cleaning practices ensure the highest grade of cleaning for homes and offices which is not only safe for our environment but for families, pets and children.
One of our favourite cleaning products is Biological Cleaner. This product is a general purpose cleaner that contains active “good” bacterial ingredients and is the perfect alternative to harsh chemical solutions. The active bacterial ingredients means that it is able to effectively remove grease, grime, dirt and soap scum that is commonly found throughout all homes. The most important thing about this product, apart from the fact that it’s a highly effective cleaning product, is that it’s 100% chemical free, is biodegradable and non-hazardous.
This natural, earth friendly cleaning product is even effective enough to be used to keep bathrooms and restrooms free of germs and build up of unhealthy bacteria, mould and soap scum. It is often used to clean busy washrooms, urinals and toilets and is much safer for the environment and human health in comparison to chemical cleaning products.
When considering purchasing cleaning products please ensure you choose wisely and carefully to maintain and protect this beautiful planet we live on, now and into the future.
Earth Friendly Cleaning - Easier Than You ThinkAs consumers, we are constantly bombarded with new cleaning products that will save time and get things done better or faster. Using natural products and resources for earth friendly cleaning is not as difficult as it may seem.
With a spike in the number of adults and children suffering from allergies, asthma, sinusitis or bronchitis it's imperative for us to avoid using synthetic chemicals in our home environment. Using commercial products that are filled with chemicals, even when they claim to be 'natural' is introducing allergens and poisons into our homes.
By making a conscious decision to switch to earth friendly cleaning products and practices in your home, you will be saving money as well as improving the lifestyle for your home, family and pets. There are many inexpensive and easy to use alternatives that can used safely to replace chemical laden cleaning products.
Here are 3 powerful natural items, which you may already have in your pantry, that can easily be incorporated into your cleaning regime for safe and effective earth friendly cleaning:
This is a versatile product which can deodorise, soften water and scour away grease. It's safe to use in your kitchen so simply mix it with a little water to clean bench tops, stainless steel sinks, microwaves, range hoods, cooking utensils, the list is endless. You can also use it to wash fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables safely removing unwanted chemicals and wax on the outer layer. It is a great odour eater - simply place a small bowl in your fridge or sprinkle it into smelly shoes. It's also wonderful to have a relaxing bath in and leaves your skin clean and smooth.
Lemons are high in citric acid so it makes them one of the best natural cleaners due to its low pH and antibacterial properties. You can even use lemon juice in your laundry to replace bleach - it does a great job of whitening while leaving a fresh lemon scent.It's a great cleaner for bathrooms including taps, shower doors and build up of hard water deposits. And don't just throw away the peels once you've used your lemon! Use these in your spray bottles to create a citrus smelling cleaning spray.
White vinegar is an effective cleaner and is able to cut grease, remove mildew and odours. If you have persistent odours in your home, leave a little bowl of vinegar out overnight. You can also use it as a hand rinse to remove strong scents such as garlic and onion from your hands. You can also create an effective window cleaner by diluting vinegar with water and using this in a spray bottle and you can even use this spray along doorways, windowsills and bench tops to keep ants at bay.
Making small changes in your immediate surroundings and cleaning practices will help with the long term goals of protecting not only your home but our environment.
NOTE: do not use vinegar and lemon on natural stone e.g. marble.
