Green cleaning tips

What do olive oil, left-over tea and banana skins all have in common? They're all ecofriendly ways to clean your home.

Rub olive oil into wooden furniture to keep it gleaming

Keep your furniture in tip-top condition, simply by mixing two parts of olive oil to one part of lemon juice and rub on using a lint-free cloth. The lemon juice cuts through grease and grime, and the olive oil ‘conditions’ and polishes the wood.

Bicarbonate of soda scrubs away hard water marks

Bicarbonate of soda is a great ecofriendly cleaner. Simply sprinkle onto a damp sponge, scrub surfaces and rinse clean.

Clean your taps with lemon juice

Lemon juice is a natural bleach and disinfectant. Try rubbing a cut lemon over stainless steel taps for a fantastic shine!

Use salt and boiling water to unblock greasy drains

Add two tablespoons of salt to a boiling pot of water and then pour down the drain. Leave for about 20 minutes and then flush with another pot of boiling water. The salt will help dissolve the build-up that is clogging the drain.

Tried cleaning your shoes with a banana skin?

To get an ecofriendly shoe shine, simply rub the inside of a banana skin all over your leather shoes and then polish with a soft cloth. The reason this works is because bananas are rich in potassium – one of the main ingredients in commercial shoe polish.

Watch our cleaning shoes video to see how!

Tea left in the pot? Use the cold dregs to feed houseplants

The flavonoids, essential oils, vitamins and minerals found in a pot of black tea make a great fertiliser for plants. Just as we take in the nutrients, so do plants.

White vinegar cleans windows brilliantly

Fill a plastic spray bottle with one part of vinegar to three parts of water, give the bottle a shake and then spray the mixture onto your window. Rub clean with a piece of newspaper and then with another piece of newspaper rub dry.

Watch our cleaning windows video to see how

Help keep your home warm with foil

Fixing foil behind your radiators, shiny side out, reflects heat back into the room and will help reduce the cost of your heating bills