Getting Green in the bathroom

So after having all this work done on my bathroom, I thought I could go through ways of being green in the bathroom, I'll slowly move to other rooms in the house ;) when I chance of course.

The bathroom normally uses a lot of energy also a lot of money due to the fact you can normally have your washing machine in there, all hair related items (hair dryers), toilet and of course the bath/shower, anything that uses gas or electricity. (NOTE,  Normally plugs outside of the bathroom also you might have a separate cleaning area for the washing machine and laundry).

Cleaning Products

First I would start with cleaning products better for the environment, sometimes more expensive but they do reduce potential allergens, and toxic cleaning products have been linked to childhood wheezing and asthma. In the UK our main green cleaning products is ecover, which smells good, my parents have been using it for years, I have started to recently. What I find about the products sometimes you might have to scrub a little bit harder but other than that no difference.

Home-made solutions to cleaning products:

Scrubbing sinks, tubs, and counter tops with a paste of baking soda and water effectively removes dirt rings and some stains; if that doesn't work, try a paste of washing soda and water, and be sure to wear gloves.

For cleaning windows, fill your own spray bottle with water and either one-quarter cup white vinegar or one tablespoon lemon juice to cut grease.

Polish furniture with a mixture of one teaspoon olive oil and one-half cup white vinegar, or look for solvent-free products that use mineral or plant oils.

Washing Machines

Now we all know that washing machines use a lot of water and even more so if you have a baby or a young family, now I have tried a few different types to save money.
First one was this soapnuts, now it says this about them:

Soapnuts (Sapindus Mukorossi) are grown in India and Nepal, harvested in a sustainable way in October from 15m high trees. The soapnuts are sticky and golden in colour when removed changing to reddish brown when dried. Soapnut shells contain saponin (a natural detergent) and when they come in contact with water they make mild suds. Soapnuts are a natural, organic, environmentally friendly alternative to soap, detergent and shampoo.

Which I thought would be an amazing idea, and I was keen on them, I tried them so many times but they did not work for me which was really disappointing.  I personally think it was because my husband (who I adore) is a little overly sweaty.
At the moment I am trying ECOZONE - ECOBALLS which are two balls contains these natural pellets, they are hypoallergenic and only cost 7p a wash.  So far with these I have had clean smelling washing.

Some other home-made solutions to washing machine cleaning related:

To remove stains from clothing, try soaking fabrics in water mixed with borax, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, washing soda, or white vinegar. Or, look for "non-chlorine bleach" made from sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate, available from Bio Pac, Ecover, Naturally Yours, Shaklee, or Seventh Generation.

Fabric can be softened by adding one-quarter cup of baking soda to the wash cycle; this recently worked on several pairs of catalogue-bought cargo pants made of a cardboard-stiff cotton that literally scraped a teenager's skin. A quarter cup of white vinegar will also soften fabric, as well as eliminate cling.

Toilet

It was not until I had an issue with my toilet that I realised how much it costs me to run my toilet about £500 in six months just from the toilet alone, it was leaking day and night.

Now I would recommend to everyone that you get what is called a hippo bag they are normally free from your water company, you place them in your toilet inside the cistern under the ballcock and fill up with water while you are flushing, this saves about 3 litres of water when flushing.

Bathing/Showering

As they always say to save money and water have a shower, we had one fitted recently and it is amazing how much less water you use, I am hoping that the bill will show how much it is saving plus it takes less time and the water stays hot the whole way through washing.

Ideas around this one is to have a low-flow shower head and if you have a shower curtain use a vinyl one instead.

Paint

Now see I didn't think of this one so much it wasn't until I was researching that I came across this one, according to it you should use paint with a low volatile organic compounds (VOC) label as it is not so toxic.  I guess I will have to try this one out when I get around to re-painting the bathroom.

Also another idea is the normal one replace light bulbs with energy savings ones.

Links of interest:

• http://www.ecozone.com/


• http://www.twinkleontheweb.co.uk/


• http://www.hippo-the-watersaver.co.uk/

Whoa long post, okay next week I'll move onto the kitchen area.