Economical cleaning – how to ensure that you are not spending too much on your domestic cleaning

House work is not a lot of fun, and to add insult to injury, doing the maths on how much you spend on it will show that the cost of cleaning the home can be pretty outrageous! Imagine that, paying so much money for something that is no fun at all! Unfortunately of curse, it all needs to be done, otherwise there are serious repercussions in terms of both the way that the house looks, and the health aspect of keeping a place dirt and dust free.

The harmful bacteria and allergens that exist in the dirt found in a house can be really quite bad for you, and if you have young children than they are even more susceptible. So, it is not a case of being able to clean less often, but more a case of looking at what you spend on which areas of the cleaning process, and how to cut back, whichever way you can. Ensuring that your cleaning remains effective is essential, but there are always ways to make the pennies go further. Knowing where to stretch the money and how can be difficult sometimes, so a few hints and tips in the right direction will often be of use…

For a start, how sustainable is your cleaning process? If you are concerned that you may be throwing things away and buying new ones too regularly, then perhaps it is time to change the way you clean? The biggest contenders for greatest waste comes in the form of the paper towel, followed closely by the J-cloth. Along with washing up sponges, these items are all terribly bad for both the environment and the wallet in terms of how regularly they are chucked out, especially seeing as they are rarely recycled, more often finding their way to the tip or the land fill site. Why not make your own cloths, from old clothes, cut into squares? These will be washable and reusable, and it will ensure that you know that you are not buying new cleaning items every other week!

Perhaps think about how much the cleaning products you buy cost you. Are you only buying big name brands? Are you paying for the cleaning power, or just the advertising budget? Try doing a test, to see if you can work out whether a cheaper brand, or a supermarket own brand will do the job as effectively. Simply make a note of every time you clean with one of the products, and see which product lasts the longest by way of multiple cleans! You may well find that you had been using the longest lasting product all along, but at least you know that there is little that you can do to improve on that front!

In terms of cleaning products being as long lasting as possible, it is worth thinking about the tools that you use. ‘Tools’ meaning your mop and bucket, dustpan and brush etcetera. How long do the things that you use to get your home clean last? Often, plastic buckets and brushes and the like can be very quick to crack or bend, and therefore become useless, which leads you to buy a new one more quickly. Spending a little more on a metal bucket, or a sturdy wooden mop will often mean that you save more in the long run, as they last a lot, lot longer!