Did you know that almost 2/3 of the cost of your favorite household cleaner is in the packaging and that the number one ingredient is probably water.
Let that sink in.
You just paid all that money for packaging, a label and water. It's enough to drive you to make some serious changes in the way you consume household cleaners. Here are some suggestions.
- Consume less. If a product is available in concentrate form it means that one 32 oz bottle of concentrate could save up to 16 single use bottles from the landfill. Buying in concentrate form means you need to use your own applicator, like a spray bottle. I recommend using a professional janitorial level applicator since it will last much longer and work so much better.
- Make your own. You can avoid consumer packaging by not being a consumer. Make your own household cleaners. There are dozens of recipes for everything from laundry soap to floor cleaner. You'll need your own applicators of course but will save gobs of money and waste this way. You will need to invest in a few basic ingredients, thankfully most of these are already in your kitchen. We love WellnessMama for her DIY home cleaning recipes. Of course we are working to share our own recipes here on our site, on Facebook and in our Facebook Group, Green Cleaning for DIYers.
- Keep it simple. IF a cleaner is truly multi purpose you can avoid the a lot of clutter, save money and reduce waste. Open any under the sink cabinet in America today and you'll find a small army of household cleaners that were intended for a single use: glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, marble and granite cleaner, floor cleaner, wood cleaner, dish soap, laundry soap and so on. What "they" don't tell you is that plastic containers that most household products are sold in, leach into the product creating a chemical soup. It's not healthy. It's downright toxic. It's 99% marketing madness.
When we detox homes, removing plastic bottles and containers that are over a few months old is one of the first things we recommend. What other options are there?