h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's important to remember the impact constant cleaning can have on the wider world. "Homemade" cleaning products- bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, alcohol, beeswax etc can be much greener, and there's also commercial products that keep this sort of thing in mind- I use funny plastic ball-type things that ionise the water to clean clothes without detergent. What do other people think- how much do you take this into consideration and can environmentally-friendly cleaning be effective enough to satisfy you?

I generally don't clean, but when I do, I just use water with the bare minimum of whatever the cleaning agent is.

Constant cleaning of everything can actually be bad for children's health. This is because the chemical kill the the germs, bacteria, and viruses in the vicinity. These then don't enter children's blood, so their immune systems don't fight them off and get the necessary experience. This means that, when they venture out into the wider world, they are suddenly assailed by all kinds of deadly paprsites which they should be immune to, but are not.

Hi elmsyrup - do the funny plastic ball-type things work? I've seen them in those catalogues that fall out of Sunday papers and often wondered.

Deb

They do work, Deb- the clothes also get softer (especially towels) and don't need fabric conditioner due to no detergent stiffening and roughening the fibres. Also, if I use washing powder on my bed-sheets I get horribly itchy rashes. So yeah, good for sensitive skin.

Not just the environment suffers from cleaning stuff. All those spray polishes are horrible to breathe in. Ditto bleach. Anyway, I don't believe in disturbing dust, and getting it airborne. It's not doing anyone any harm trapped in the carpet...

I've never seen ads for those ball-y things (don't buy newspapers). They sound interesting. Can you buy them online?

You can buy them online but I'm not supposed to advertise!

Give us a clue. What words would you google?

I just google'd with "ball-y things environmental laundry", and voila!... Try it ! You'll get loads of those comapnies selling laundry balls, laundry discs and whatnot !

C.L.

I agree with Hussassan! People clean too much these days and I swear thats the reason for the increase in childhood asthma and the like! I remember the days of eating sweets that fell on the floor and sharing chewing gum and lollipops with your friends and it certainly never harmed my health. I crnge whenever I see those adverts where the mother wipes every single surface with anti-bacterial wipes.

Give your child some germs! You can't wrap them in a plastic sterile bubble forever!

I tried one of those balls, and found it rubbish! Things never came out clean, so I went back to environmentally friendly powder.

Those blasted anti-bacterial wipes
And throw-away dusters
throw-away polishing wipes
flush-away lavatory brushes

I never use anything disposable if I can help it. Much better to wash up and reuse!

According to this text: http://www.optc.com/~btoback/laundrystuff.html , the laundry balls and disks are nothing more than a placebo. I might try using less detergent though.

Thanks for that link! The little ball thing I had, had small balls inside it, rather than liquid.

I do use it when washing sheets, as they don't get dirty as in stained, so just a rinse round the machine freshens them up. Perhaps I'll just stop putting the thing in, to see what happens!

the stuff I use actually has small chalky-looking particles inside it too, and they do come into contact with the water (the balls have holes in). So not quite the same.