Eco Friendly Cleaning

Apart from being bad for the planet, household cleaning products can have other not-so-pleasant effects. I have noticed my throat and lungs being affected from the regular use of harsh cleaning products when cleaning our guest bathrooms, so I’ve started looking at alternative solutions. It’s not something we’d even thought about before starting the B&B – let’s face it, in busy family homes,  bathrooms don’t get cleaned as often as they should, but our guest rooms and common areas are all kept spotless, which involves very regular and thorough cleaning and therefore more exposure to the chemicals.

Copious amounts of research on t’internet has revealed that the best natural products for cleaning are in fact white vinegar and lemon. White vinegar appears to be a miracle product – it cleans, degreases, deodorises and sanitises 👌 Who knew?! The only trouble is…. yep, It smells quite strong! 😫. We have previously tried a recipe involving mixing cooled boiled water, vinegar and lemon juice (which wasn’t lemony enough and the smell of vinegar took over 12hrs to dissipate). As this isn’t viable for short turnaround changeovers where new guests are checking-in shortly after the room has been cleaned, we’re trying a new recipe which involves steeping the lemon peel in the vinegar for a couple of weeks before straining and diluting. We also added some sprigs of rosemary from the garden on our first try, for an extra depth of scent, but this is optional and we mostly don’t use it now.

The Result?
We were really, really surprised! It surpassed our expectations, and we have now been using this recipe for over a year, both in our B&B rooms and our home. As long as it’s used regularly (every few days or so) and the limescale isn’t allowed to build up, then this clever solution will keep everything clean, fresh and germ free, without the use of harsh chemicals.

The Recipe:
Place the peel from a whole lemon into a clean jam jar. Pour in white vinegar almost to the top and place on the lid. Leave this mixture to sit for at least a few weeks. Once the liquid has turned yellow-ish and the peel is much paler, you know the lemon has infused into the vinegar sufficiently. Grab a clean, empty spray bottle (we use an old antibacterial spray bottle from the supermarket). Get a funnel that will fir into the top of the bottle and place a coffee filter paper into the funnel. This is to strain out any little bits of lemon. Pour the vinegar/lemon mixture into the filter paper and let it drip through into your spray bottle. Once this is done, you can either use cooled boiled water, or the condensed water from your tumble drier (as we do). You want a jam jar’s worth – so equal quantities of vinegar to water. Pour this through the filter paper also, then once it’s done, put your spray nozzle onto the bottle and give it a little swirl around to mix. And you’re done! Easy isn’t it?

Tips:
If you have lemons left over from a recipe, you can peel them and pop the peel in your freezer, so it’s ready to go next time you need to make a batch of cleaner. Just pop them in the jam jar frozen.

You can add woody herbs such as rosemary if you want to change the scent too. Also you can mix the lemon with lime – but we felt the lemon smelt better. We haven’t tried grapefruit yet – if you do this, let us know if it works!

What Shouldn’t you Clean With Lemon And Vinegar?
White vinegar and lemon are great natural cleaners, that are safe and effective in many different cleaning applications around the home. However, it’s important to remember that both lemon and vinegar are acidic.

Several surfaces around your home should never be cleaned with acid-based cleaning products:

You should also never mix vinegar-based cleaning products with any conventional cleaning products containing bleach, or any homemade cleaning products containing hydrogen peroxide. Bleach is alkaline and reacts with the acids

Natural stone, granite, marble, quartz, or similar are good examples to avoid using vinegar and/or lemon on. This is because both vinegar and lemon can, over time, corrode unsealed stone, leaving etch marks on the surface of your worktops or flooring.

Metallic paint is another surface prone to damage from acid-based cleaning products like vinegar and lemon.

Have fun making your own cleaning products! And if you like the sound of a seaside B&B that uses natural cleaning products, refillable toiletries and no single-use plastics in our guest rooms, check us out at www.no4cromer.com