Switch Up Your Kitchen: Our Top Swaps To Eco-over Your Kitchen!
Ok confession time: the kitchen is probably our worst 'eco' area; we still have too much plastic/packaging from certain foods and we definitely have more mismatched reused pots and tubs than streamlined mason jars and chalk labels
BUT
The kitchen is an area where there are lots of eco swaps to be made and we've cut down on a heck of a lot of waste just by using a few carefully chosen products...in fact, our kitchen swaps are some of our most loved and used products around our home.
Now our kitchen is less cluttered, our products give us more value for money and we're kinder to the planet!
Here are a few ideas of what we use:
Unsponge and dish brush: when it comes to washing up plastic scrubbers and sponges are terrible for the environment. We've switched to a compostable dish scrubby which is much prettier and just as effective and a coconut brush for those harder to clean pots and pans. These are great value and can be easily washed and reused for months.
This brings me neatly on to washing up liquid and soap. We personally use a Primal Suds dish splash bar which is palm oil free, vegan, plastic-free, and doesn’t contain any of these 'naturally derived' eco swerves. It’s got FOUR ingredients and reminds me of old-fashioned dish soap that our grandparents would have used.
Obviously, with all eco products, it isn’t going to be as easy as a squirt, a bubble up and it’s done…you will need to put a bit of work into washing your dirty dishes but we've found it to be very effective, especially when travelling.
If that sounds like too much hard work we also have Bio D Mandarin or Pink Grapefruit washing up liquid which we have on refill. It smells delicious and is cruelty-free, vegan, has no toxic ingredients and incredible cleaning power so it's an easy swap without any hassle or drop in quality from the leading brands.
Keeping a kitchen eco clean doesn't have to be tricky...when it comes to kitchen cleaning we love Dri-Pak; old-school retro green cleaning that packs a punch without the packaging or price tag. We do also have some Bio D sprays on refill such as the All-Purpose Sanitiser. All the ones we stock and use are also palm, paraben, and SLS free and meet vegan approved and cruelty-free standards.
And then there's the oven. There’s no doubt that for most of us, cleaning the oven and grill pan is the worst chore in the kitchen, and most oven cleaners don’t measure up to the task.
Well, meet the exception!
Industrial Strength Oven Mate Gel removes stubborn baked-on grease and oil rinses off easily. We were astounded by Oven Mate, and you will be too as this powerful, biodegradable oven cleaner leaves your oven looking like new, even removing the most stubborn baked-on grease. Best of all Oven Mate has no acrid smell and you won’t need to scrub.
But what about cloths and wipes?
We're a wipe-free house so we use reusable cleaning cloths. Depending on your budget we'd highly recommend Ecoegg's reusable washable kitchen roll which works out better value than kitchen roll plus it's more durable and 10 times more absorbent as it's made from bamboo; simply wipe, wash and reuse up to 85 times per sheet. We also love our cloth kitchen roll; this is more of an investment but we have cotton terry poppered kitchen roll which is effective at wiping up the Childebeest's spills or cleaning and lasts years (in fact I've yet to see a worn-out set!).
Let's move on to food storage:
We ditched cling film in favour of reusable food wraps and pouches; we have wax wraps for leftovers and sandwich and snack pouches for lunches and out and about. Again, these are a little bit more of an investment but will massively reduce your food and packaging waste. We also find we don't buy specific lunch individually packaged foods for the kids anymore so no small packets of biscuits, crisps etc. to worry about which has reduced our shopping bill too!
We also switched to mesh and organic cotton produce bags; these very versatile bags are perfect for taking to the shop for your fruit and vegetables or bakery items and being washable, they allow you the satisfaction of shunning the single-use alternatives.