Adventures in learning how to treat our Earth more gently and our bodies well, while still enjoying a life filled with good things.
Chemical cleaners smell terrible
By Coralie, on March 17th, 2009 at 09.58 AM
Category: I’ve moved. I’m in my new place! I’m still surrounded by boxes, and I’ve forgotten where it was that I found the cutlery the other day, but I’m very pleased to have finished all the cleaning that had to be done at the old place before I could hand back the keys.
I used my ENJO microfibre cloths to clean the whole of the old house, using almost only water. I did use some of the ENJO range of chemicals (more environmentally friendly, they say) such as the marble paste for the stainless steel sink and the oven door, as well as calcium remover for places such as around the taps in the kitchen and the bathroom.
Much to my shame (as I was running out of time and I think my bathroom glove needs replacing, because it wasn’t working as well as it used to) I did resort to a bottle of bathroom spray stuff for the sides of the bath. It was Windex Shower. Let me be clear, though, that I did not buy it. I’m pretty sure my ex-mother-in-law (the mother of my ex-husband. I’m really not sure what other title to give her since she’s not legally my mother-in-law anymore, yet I still have regular contact with her) put it into the cupboard for me when I moved into the place more than two years ago. It had been sitting there in the cupboard, not in use, that whole time. I only found it when I started packing.
Perhaps I’ll get into this particular topic in another article, but when I read the back of the bottle, I was horrified that it suggested you use this stuff every day in your bathroom and you don’t rinse it off. I can’t even imagine how bad that is for the environment and for your body to be exposed to that every single day.
I assumed it had soap-like stuff in it (although, now that I think of it, I’m not sure why I didn’t just use my ENJO Real Soap Plus. Let’s put it down to an extreme lack of sleep), so I decided that I may as well use it in the bath. It’s been at least five years since I’ve used anything like that. As soon as I sprayed it, I realised one of the reasons why I’ve never gone back to using that type of product ..
.. the smell was overpowering!
I don’t know how I ever put up with using chemicals as strong-smelling as that. I do remember that when I discovered ENJO, one of the things I loved about it was that I didn’t have to get into old clothing just to do some quick cleaning, lest my good clothes were accidentally bleached when I managed to splash it on myself. I also recall the joy I felt at not having to hold my breath while I sprayed foul-smelling, lung-burning chemicals around, then (literally) run out of the room again so that I could take a breath of fresh air. I also noted that I had to be careful when I got out of the bath after rubbing it around on the surface, that my feet were completely dry before I stepped out onto the carpet in the hall to avoid bleaching the carpet. There is a complete lack of those issues when using microfibre.
Despite my reticence to admitting that I even used that spray, it was an excellent reminder to me exactly why I love my ENJO microfibre gloves and cloths.
Possibly related posts:
Do stuff with this post:
I hate the smell of all those chemical cleaners too. Bleach has always made me want to heave. Also, bleach doesn’t kill mould, it just makes it white so you can’t see it. Vinegar however, kills it quite effectively because it’s mildly acidic. A spray bottle filled with a 50/50 mix of plain white vinegar and water, bicarbonate soda and an old toothbrush is the most effective “shower grout mould remover” I’ve ever encountered. It’s also quite effective in removing soap scum too.