How to detox your bathroom

Many of us try our best to live a more eco-friendly life, but there are often areas in which we can do better – or maybe we’ve become beholden to habit and need to make small changes. The bathroom is an easy place to start and the products you use can be tweaked to make them more environmentally friendly.

You can keep your bathroom gleaming without eye-watering chemicals, and it certainly makes this chore more pleasant. Look for plant-based non-toxic bathroom cleaners, ideally bought in bulk. Here’s my tips for one of the challenging tasks on all cleaing lists as well as my recipe for making your own cleaner.

Shower and toilet

For shower screens, I spray with my homemade cleaner (try my recipe, below), scrub with a natural brush, then rinse with hot water. Scrubbing shower tiles with a toothbrush using a bicarb soda and water paste will also help remove build-up and stains (don’t combine vinegar and bicarb soda as they negate each other).

When it comes to the toilet, my all-purpose cleaner also works well for regular cleaning. If you get a build up of scale, however, I’ve found nothing will remove it as well as elbow grease. Glove up, add ½ cup of vinegar to the toilet bowl, grab a strong bristled brush and do some harsh scrubbing!

Make your own cleaner

To save money, I make my own bathroom cleaners. My toolkit includes bicarbonate of soda (commonly known as bicarb soda, a mild abrasive); white vinegar (an acid that can dissolve dirt, grease and grime); and pure soap. Here is my all-purpose cleaner recipe:

1 teaspoon pure soap flakes or eco-friendly liquid detergent

3 teaspoons vinegar

1 cup water

Mix together in a spray bottle and shake until soap is dissolved. Spray on surfaces and wipe clean with a cloth. 

Jessamy’s full article first appeared in our Early Autumn 2023 magazine (OG 139). There’s a selection of back issues available here — you can also subscribe and get the most recent issues delivered to your door!