E-Cloth Green Clean Challenge – One week in!

The Soundtrack to My Eco-Cleaning This Week!

Well it’s been a week of chemical free cleaning – and so far, so good! (You can read more about the challenge here!). With Glenn Miller booming in the background I have been well away, a cleaning diva, and have actually found it much easier than expected – so much for the convenience of modern methods! The three products I want to tell you about this week are below!

The E-Cloth Glass & Polishing Cloth.

My favourite so far! I loathe cleaning mirrors, which is unfortunate as I have two large ones in my bathroom alone. Regardless of what cloths and sprays I have used in the past they have always look streaky. To be honest I didn’t really expect this to be a whole lot better (after all I have tried a LOT of different cleaning methods to counteract my lack of glass-cleaning skill) but was very pleasantly surprised! Using just water I cleaned my mirrors easily, even the one over the sink with toothpaste spatters all over it (thanks Kieran!). No streaks or residue, perfectly clean and shiny mirrors. Good as new. I would highly recommend this product for this alone, but can also report it is great on all shiny surfaces I’ve used it on, taps, kettles, mirrors…. perfect! With a RRP of £4.99, this is a staple item now in my cleaning cupboard. See the E-Cloth website for more.

Eco-Zone Washing Balls

EcoZone Ecoballs

Curious looking thing! Each box contains two of these balls and refills and a tube of eco stain remover for heavy stains that need pre-treatment. The pack info says the contacts should last 150 washes and I completely believe it! I have been washing pretty much constantly this week and the pellets barely seem to have broken down at all! No messy powder or tablets, easy to use, saves you money and is eco-friendly. Works for me.

You can buy these from EcoZone (via Amazon!) for £10.56 with free delivery, which may seem a lot but unless you use very cheap laundry powder, these will save you money. You don’t need to buy new ecoballs when they eventually empty out, but can get pellet refills instead for £8ish. I fully intend to replace my powder with these from now on.

It’s worth noting that ecoballs don’t have any scent so if you like scented washing, a few drops of essential oils in your drawer might be an idea, or if you use tumble drier sheets these will do the same. Scent doesn’t bother me with washing so these are perfect.

Natural Air-freshener

This is a non-aerosol air freshener from Australian company Bio-Logic. It contains essential oils, purified water & sugar cane ethanol and is organic. Despite being called “Rosa” it isn’t an old lady rose smell, in fact if I had to describe it I would say it was a mixture of an expensive flower shop & turkish delight! A lovely fragrance which lasts – freshens and really lifts the room. It comes in a 125ml spray bottle and is very economical. You can purchase this spray from MyPure for £5.99 (expensive I think, but that depends on whether it lasts the length of the trial ie longer than a big brand plug-in or room deodoriser) and is available in two other scents, lavender and Alpine Air.

I love the Rosa scent (I’m big on smells) but I think I’d balk at paying out £5.99 each time I wanted to replace it (plus P&P). Eco yes, economical – the jury is still out on that.

So do I think I will be able to change over completely to eco-cleaning considering cost, ease and results? Too early to tell but so far, so good!

More from E-Cloth on their website or over on Twitter.

Tommee Tippee Microwave Steriliser #review

When you have a little one, your first concern obviously is keeping them safe,well, healthy & happy. One thing I don’t take chances with is cleanliness, particularly Taylor’s bottles etc. I had never had a microwave steriliser before, always favouring the larger electrical ones, but when my electrical unit went to the big scrapheap in the sky I jumped at the chance to test one out!

I’ve not been disappointed!

This steriliser holds four bottles and all accessories, is easy to load, use and store. Simply wash your bottles as you usually would, pour 200ml of tap water into the bottom of the steriliser (use a bottle to measure), load up and in 4-8 minutes, depending on the wattage of the microwave, you are done! According to instructions the bottles stay sterile for 24 hours if the lid in unopened, and you should leave the steriliser for *three minutes to cool before opening to avoid steam scalds.

The big advantage this product has for me is the ease of storage. Compact & lightweight, it needn’t take up any room on your kitchen worktop. I store mine in the microwave, or on top when it is in use. Additional benefits include being easy to clean, no electric cables etc so you can quite literally pop it into the sink, and no need to descale, ever! Being smaller, it is perfect to take for trips away.

The steriliser came with a **small Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottle, a soother and tongs for easy removal of teats, and everything is BPA free.

I am perfectly happy with this steriliser, it is the best and certainly the most easy to use and clean that I have ever had and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

You can purchase the steriliser from retailers such as Tescos, Boots, Mothercare (etc) and direct from the Tommee Tippee website (where at the time of posting it is on offer for just £12!)

*I leave mine for 5 mins as I find it still quite hot to handle after 3mins

**This is perfect for cool water drinks when your baby takes more at each feed than these 5oz bottles hold.

Tommee Tippee were kind enough to send me a microwave steriliser to test and review. This is where their input ended. The review findings are my own and in no way influenced by TT.