While it’s often tedious and less than fun, spring cleaning is a must for households that want to keep up appearances and improve quality of life. The average person generally relies on a slew of unhealthy chemicals and environmentally unfriendly practices to get the job done. Spring cleaning can actually be quite green if you use these tips.
Use Organic, Homemade Cleaners
You don’t need 409 to make your home spic and span. A few simple concoctions including white vinegar, baking soda and citric acid aka lemon juice will do the trick. If you don’t feel like whipping up your own product, you can find a number of companies that make green cleaners aimed at the environmentally conscious.
Space Out Your Cleaning Schedule
If you try to cram too much cleaning into a single weekend, the results will be poor and you’ll waste a lot of energy. Driving to recycling centers and home improvement stores wastes gas and releases a lot of greenhouse gases. Plan tasks ahead of time and spread them over multiple weekends.
Don’t Blast Pests with Toxins
Taking precautions to combat pests like termites and possums is just common sense. However, you don’t need to bomb your house with noxious chemicals to get the job done. Have a company that takes a green approach to pest mitigation such as Green Pest Services with pest control in Fairfax do the dirty work for you.
Recycle Your Junk Intelligently
Getting rid of old appliances, furniture and upholstery is an integral part of any spring cleaning plan. Ditching it all at a landfill isn’t the greenest way to go about it. Carefully disassemble anything that’s headed to the dump and make sure that each part can be disposed of in an ecologically sound manner.
Organize to Minimize Future Efforts
Planning ahead is ultimately the best way to make sure that your spring cleaning efforts aren’t wasteful. If you know that you’re going to ditch a water heater, contact a salvage yard months beforehand to ensure that they can take it quickly and cleanly. Story-boarding your spring cleaning is the efficient and environmentally safe way to proceed.
Green Cleaning Is a State of Mind
If you take these tips to heart and act on them, your next spring cleaning session will be greener than ever. With time, you’ll notice more things that you can do to make spring cleaning even greener. Ultimately, every little bit counts and you’ll have a clean and green conscience at the end of the day.