keeping it clean - naturally

Before this big renovation, we had the luxury of having someone clean the house 

every week. Such luxury I know, but as a full time working mum I never stopped 

appreciating the fact that I didn't have to spend my time at home 

cleaning the bathroom and kitchen and mopping the floors.

Since we have renovated, I have been reluctant to go back to having a cleaner - 

for many reasons.The first reason is that it will be a lot more expensive 

now given that we have more floor space and toilets/bathrooms.

 I also am still fairly precious about the house and am not yet over the novelty of all 

the sparkly new basins and toilets..... and I have this lofty idea that

 it's good for the boy of the house to see that we keep the house clean ourselves 

and don't just pay or expect someone else to do it. Sounds good though in

 practice I end up cleaning when he is fast asleep - but 

I guess it's the principle that matters.....

I have a whole new range of cleaning dilemmas though - more bench space, tiled

 showers, and glass shower screens. I have written before about wanting to 

find some sort of more "natural" way to clean at home. It's not the

 most exciting or blog worthy of topics of course, but I figure we 

all have to clean.

My quest to find a more natural solution to cleaning started with the shower screens -

after our builder recommended a product that they use on car windscreens to keep them

shiny and water repellant. 

No thanks.

Shannon Lush has the following suggestion for them:

mix 1 part methylated spirits with 1 part vinegar and 2 parts water.

Rub the mixture over the screen with a cloth.

 Shannon Lush is a bit of a domestic goddess where cleaning is concerned. It seems

there is nothing that can't be cleaned with a bit of bicarbonate of soda and 

vinegar. Sometimes I yearn for less of the vinegary odour though....

 I have always thought that Gumption was a great all purpose

cleaner with very little in the way of "nasty" ingredients -

though there isn't much on the tub that tells me what's in there.

Maybe I have been led astray by marketing.

 This UK brand was recommended to me by a friend who had used 

their products while working over there.

The glass cleaner in particular seems to be lovely and works 

a treat on the shower screens - nice minty smell and 

no big nasties

I only discovered this brand - Murchison Hume - by chance

last month. It is like the holy grail of "natural" cleaning products -

smells lovely, safe around food, and you don't have to wear gloves.

$$ though :(

So for the time being I am using a combination of the Shannon Lush approach, with intermittent use of 

either method or Murchison Hume products. 

I'll report back :)

Method products: UK website here and Australian details here

Available at selected IGA stores in Australia 

(I found them in the Ritchie's IGA in Westfield Carindale)

Murchison Hume website here