Minimal Cleaning Routine – part 1: Simple cleaners

A clean house is welcoming and comfortable. In order to make the process of cleaning as enjoyable as the result, I developed my personal minimal cleaning routine. Minimal, because I want to reduce the overall time spent cleaning, while using as few chemicals as possible and reducing the costs related to cleaning products.

To start off, I want to share with you my top 5 cleaning ingredients and how they can be used in your home to clean.

#1 Citric Acid

You can get this as powder packaged free, in bulk, or in a supermarket. I have also seen it in liquid form; however, you can easily make this liquid yourself from the powder itself by adding water.

I love Citric Acid as it is not harsh towards plastic, and it smells much better than vinegar. I use it in its purest form to descale my water boiler. To do that I put just a teaspoon of Citric Acid powder in the kettle, fill it up with 1 liter of water and after heating it up the kettle looks like new.

#2 Vinegar

I prefer apple cider vinegar as I also use it for cooking. In this way I have only one kind of vinegar at home that I need to take care of. I prefer using vinegar in the bathroom and in the kitchen sink to remove chalk from the stainless steel. For that, I put just a little bit on a cleaning cloth and wipe down the taps and sinks.

#3 Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3)

Sodium Bicarbonate (also know as Natron) helps against bad smells and sediments and therefore it is perfect to clean the toilet with. For a quick clean, I just spread the powder across the bowl and rub it with the toilette brush before clearing it out again by flushing afterwards. If your toilet needs a deep clean, put 2 cups of vinegar in the toilet before adding 2-3 tablespoon on top and rub it with a brush. Let it sit for 15 minutes before flushing the toilet.

#4 Washing Soda (NA2CO3)

Washing Soda reacts even better and more intensely than Sodium Bicarbonate and therefore Sodium Bicarbonate is my general preferred choice, however for two specific applications I prefer Washing Soda, namely, making grayed laundry white again and as a drain cleaner. For the first, just soak the grayed clothes overnight in a bowl with 3 liters of water, add 3 tablespoons of washing soda and wash it the next day as usual in the washing machine. To unclog the drain, add 4 tablespoons of washing soda powder directly to the sink and pour about half a cup of vinegar on top of it. When the foaming bubbling are gone, rinse with plenty of hot water.

#5 Olive Oil

Yes, this might sound surprising, but Oil can be used in many ways to clean. For example, to remove labels from glasses, use olive oil on a piece of cloth and rub the clue off. For treating my wooden garden furniture and also for cleaning my wooden cutting board I use olive oil. It acts as a disinfectant on the wood and makes it shine again. Just rub the oil into the dry wood, remove the overrun with a dry piece of cloth and let it stand overnight before using the board again.