Maintaining a clean, fresh and tidy home has a lot of potential for sustainable urban living practices. Without noticing, we expose ourselves daily to chemicals hazardous to the environment and our health. In fact, most commercial cleaning supplies and household products pose a health risk. Therefore, we need sustainable cleaning tips.

Anyhow, the majority of households use commercial (unsustainable) cleaning products. However, there is an uncomplicated decision you can make: Switch to sustainable cleaning products. Even better, make the cleaning products you need yourself. Then you will know what your household products exactly entail – environmentally friendly and safe for your human health.

Ditch your hazardous chemistry kit with simple tips and tricks to make your cleaning habits more sustainable. This article will cover laundry practices, freshening apartments and general tricks to make sustainable urban living effortless.

Sustainable cleaning tips, super easy to implement

Learn sustainable laundry practices. Let us talk dirty: Washing clothes can be very resource-intensive (energy and water). It falls back onto our habits to do our laundry environmentally friendly. Even better, you can save some good money when you unlearn habits that are not beneficial – for you and your clothes.

Here are some of the laundry habits to unlearn:

• Washing in cold water saves 90% of the energy which goes towards heating the water (there is a whole website dedicated to washing your clothes in cold water because it is beneficial for your clothes, the Earth and your wallet: Cold Water Saves).
• Hot laundry myth debunked: Hot water washes do NOT wash best (anymore). The detergent technology evolved so that they work better in cold water.
• Air-dry your clothes if possible on a drying line or rack.
• Study your clothes labels to wash and treat them to support their durability.
• Wash only full loads to reduce the number of washing cycles. If you have only a couple of items that need cleaning, hand wash them.
• Instead of washing clothes too often, air them out.
• Use natural detergents and avoid fragrances that cause allergies, and skin irritation, make breathing difficult and can harm reproductive cycles.

Deter laundry detergents that harm you and the environment. Commercial man-made chemical inventions are far from sustainable. The potential toxicity is concerningly brushed away by the majority of people. Most detergents contain synthetic chemical compounds which hardly occur naturally. However, the concerns of using detergents and their impacts are well described in this article by Green Matters: How Does Laundry Detergent Affect the Environment?

Tips to switch your harming detergents with more sustainable alternatives:

• Powder detergent instead of liquid. The benefits of laundry powder are that it comes in bigger quantities and you need less.
• Get fragrance-free detergent.
• Consider going zero waste with refillable packages.
• Go 100% natural and make your own detergent or get soap nuts.

Freshen your apartment naturally. Similar to laundry detergent, most fragrances contain dubious ingredients which have a negative impact on your health and are not environmentally friendly. DIY is in demand again. Sustainable urban living is about knowing what you are surrounded by to make a better decision. So, when you experiment with natural sources of smell, you become aware of your contribution to eco-conscious practices. 

Natural fragrances for your home are:

• Flowers
• Herbs
• Peels of citrus fruits
• Organic and natural room sprays
• Natural odour eliminators: Coffee beans, vinegar, baking soda

Adopt a plant or two or three… A never-ending story begins. If you do not have plants in your apartment, you might want to reconsider this. Not everyone has a green thumb, but greening your apartment contributes to your well-being. However, it can be frustrating to buy plants and a few weeks later they are dead. Unfortunately, the majority of household plants are mass-produced, which is resource-intensive combined with a negative environmental impact. 

Since the pandemic, everyone has a plant enthusiast in their circle and they have the solution: cut-offs. Get in touch if they have some to spare, gain advice on how to take care of your new plant members and watch the magic of natural growth captivate you.

Make your own cleaning products – easy-vinegar lemon squeezy. Commercial cleaning products entail bleach, ammonia, chlorine, glycol ethers or formaldehyde. The issue: Those substances are hazardous and I really wonder why they are sold in the first place. Our urge to have an ultra-clean home can lead to irrational decisions because we all grew up with household cleaning products. 

The most harmful household cleaning products are antifreeze, bleach, drain cleaners, ammonia and air fresheners. If you experience (chronic) respiratory problems, allergic reactions or headaches, it might be a good idea to ditch chemicals altogether in your home. 

Therefore, check your cleaning supply collection and study the ingredients list. If there are more than three substances you have no clue about what it is, ditch this product. Replace them with DIY cleaners 100% based on natural substances:

Last but not least…

Leave your shoes at the door. Sustainable urban living aims at improving your health. One underestimated health hazard is wearing street shoes at home. It is scientifically proven by Patrick Taylor and Gabriel Filippelli who study indoor contaminants. You not only bring some dust or dirt into your home but also drug-resistant pathogens, cancer-causing toxins and other nasty things which you would not invite in the first place. 

Sustainable cleaning has never been so friendly and cheap!

Living sustainably is a rewarding pathway. Indeed, I enjoy revealing habits that are the norm or socially accepted, to not be normal at all. Aha-moments help to rethink the way we live and make decisions that are better for us. Moreover, sustainability is portrayed as complicated and expensive, but the opposite is the case. Evidently, we can save money, reduce our environmental impact and contribute to our health and well-being by applying simply sustainable (urban) living strategies at home. 

Related:

Sustainable Energy Living: Saving The Planet One Switch At A Time

If you have any suggestions which can be added to the list, let us know in the comments. I want this article to be as inspirational and up-to-date as possible. 

Moreover, if you want to learn how to implement sustainability strategies, I recommend you to sign-up for the Reimagine Sustainability Newsletter. You will receive this free gift on how to apply the Rs of sustainability in a way that fits your lifestyle:

Remember, unsustainability is the current norm and it has nothing to do with fault regarding your lifestyle. It is about readjusting our understanding of how we want to live. Do we want to be surrounded daily by toxins that impact our health negatively? Do we want to live on the cost of the planet and consume as if there is no tomorrow?