I try very hard not to buy proprietary cleaning stuff – they’re stuffed full of chemicals, cost a fortune, and are usually not needed. What we do buy – washing up liquid, washing powder – we try to have eco-friendly stuff.
Normally I get buy with bicarb of soda, and vinegar (but not together!). Bicarb is a magical thing – you can clean almost anything with it; I used it to clean some tarnished silver earrings the other day! For bad stuff – perhaps a burnt-on pan (but not an aluminium one, please) – just make a paste of bicarb and water, and brush it on. Leave for an hour or so, then clean it off and voila – no burn. You can get grease off a cooker with it, too.
Vinegar is a great cleaning substance too – and don’t worry about the smell, because it will disappear within 20 minutes or so. I use it for worktops and so on. Also, for cleaning the floors, I have a handy steam mop, which uses no chemicals at all; it’s also terrific at cleaning the bathroom tiles, windows, and so on.
Also for the bathroom, I can strongly recommend the bathroom set from Deeply Clean – the sponge cleans the bath with no added chemicals, and gets all the horrid soap scum off. You can get this from Sainsburys, and I think Oxfam shops sell it too.
And this post was actually inspired by Sharon’s post on Finding Simplicity, about making your own multipurpose cleaning fluid innabottle, which I shall try out forthwith – thanks!