Lovely eco business cards

Hooray for new business cards! My Green Cleaner no longer has to scrabble for pen and paper when people ask for our details as we now have these lovely cards designed by Comedia Design. My Green Cleaner tries to be as sustainable as possible and we thought long and hard about whether business cards were necessary. After trialling working without them it became clear that they do make life a lot easier and would really help spread the eco-cleaning message.

We have just received them and they look fab! They are as eco-friendly as we could find using vegetable based ink and printed onto 100% recycled, FSC certified card.

Freshen-up your washing machine

Washing machines can start to emit bad odours which often has people reaching for the bleach. The natural solution to this is vinegar and baking soda:

1. Start with an empty machine and programme it for the hottest cycle
2. When the machine has filled with water add 3/4 pint of vinegar and 1/4 pint of baking soda
3. When the water starts to drain skip forward to the spin cycle
4. Once the spin cycle has finished wipe down the drum
5. Run a complete cold wash to finish
   

My (almost) favourite smell

Synthetic plug-in air freshners are on the increase and despite their natural names, evocative of woodlands and meadows they usually contain manufactured chemicals as well as being a health risk to asthma and allergy sufferers.

When I was expecting my son, Ziggy, I got seriously into lavender. I had lavender bath salts, lavender bags in my drawers and lavender growing in my garden. Ever since I have loved the smell of lavender as it reminds me the excitement of waiting for his arrival. But there is a serious new contender for my favourite smell and that's freesia. My lovely friend Tash bought me a freesia scented candle made by True Grace and the smell is just mmmmmmm. True Grace candles are hand-made in the UK from 100% natural wax using natural fragrances. They also sell refills saving money and packing and are the eco answer to a sweet smelling home.

Cleaning windows naturally

I love having sunshine streaming through my windows. At least I do now that my windows are nice and shiny - I'm almost too embarassed to post the 'before' picture above but that really is how dirty they were! I used to spend ages using shop-bought window cleaners but they always left smears and smudges. This year I'm using vinegar and newspaper and the results have been amazing. Fill a spray bottle with some water and vinegar and then wipe down with a newspaper (a microcloth works brilliantly too). Our windows are now gleaming and it's really cheap and easy to do. Use the same solution for mirrors and glass cabinets.

Re-using baby food jars

A lot of our clients have babies so here's an idea for re-using those cute little jars that baby food comes in. All you need is a baby jar and lid, a small circle of fabric and some rafia. If you're in Bristol, Evangelina's in St Nicholas' market is great for rafia and ribbon and there's also's a brilliant old-fashioned sweet shop called Treasure Island for stocking up on sweets.

Firstly, make sure that the jar is clean. You can soak the jar in hot water to remove the label but if it doesn't come off completely use vinegar. Then fill with sweets, replace the lid and tie on the fabric with raffia. I made about 50 of these for the children attending my daughter's naming ceremony and decorated them with a photograph.

Kind planet cleaning

Many people switch to natural cleaning due to the health risks associated with having toxic chemicals in their home. But the products we use have a much longer life span than just within our home, working their way through the water cycle and ending up in the environment.

The attached article from Junior magazine references a study undertaken by Birmingham and Warwick university in which soil contaminated with an ingredient used in many cleaning products also contained high concentrations of drug-resistant bacteria. The conclusion was that the growth of drug-resistant bacteria is triggered by chemicals used in houshold products, which has the knock-on effect of medicines no longer being able to treat dangerous diseases.

Using natural products is not only kinder on your home and cleaner, but on the planet too.

Vinegar - not just for chips!

I love a good splash of malt vinegar on my fish and chips, but the uses of vinegar extends to more than flavouring this British seaside favourite.

It's a well-known fact that vinegar is great for cleaning windows, and Vinegar - 1001 Practical Uses, by Margaret Briggs, cover this and lots of not so well-known uses too. With a useful intro on different types of vinegar and the various methods of production the book is pretty much an exhaustive list of the many, many uses of this humble product. It's split into chapters such as 'In the Laundry' and I guarantee there'll be something in this book that surprises you - I never knew that adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the water makes hard-boiled eggs easier to peel!