November 15, 2023
Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products You’ll Love
We often see eco-friendly labels on various cleaning products, but have you ever wondered what exactly they mean and why they are important? Cleaning supplies loaded with harsh chemicals became popular due to their fast and effective action. However, it is your family’s health that pays for quick cleaning results. According to this study, 53% of tested supplies contained ingredients harmful to the lungs while 22% of the products were packed with asthma-triggering chemicals.
Green cleaning solutions, on the other hand, are created with sustainability in mind and can cope with different messes just as powerfully but without causing any harm to the environment. However, the problem is that some bad-faith manufacturers hype the “green” term to boost sales but never care about any real testing or obtaining sound certifications as green producers.
Having been in the cleaning industry for a decade and using different “green” products for our work, we encountered many greenwashing brands and products. So we decided to share a list of certified eco-friendly cleaning products we trust and use at White Glove Cleaner in New York City. They are suited for home use too and can be purchased online or in stores. We have checked their content and tested them in various work situations inside out and can affirm that they are what they should be and that they work.
Our 10 Trusted Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
1. Safely Universal Cleaner – Multi-surface Cleaner
Multi-purpose cleaner is a must-have product in every house. We use it extensively on most slightly dirty surfaces in our home cleaning practice, so it is important for us not to inhale chemicals every time we spray it. This product by Safely brand contains only natural ingredients like coconut oil and salt to dissolve any kind of grime, and it smells like paradise.
2. Blueland Bathroom Starter Set – Versatile Bathroom Cleaner
The bathroom is one of the dirtiest rooms in every house and combines many surfaces in one place. So we were looking for a product that could cope with everyday bathroom grime, whether it is on a tub, a tap, a shower head, or tiles. Despite being 100% green, Blueland’s bathroom spray can compete with some heavy-duty bathroom products. To prepare the cleaner with the amazingly invigorating Eucalyptus mint scent, you need to dissolve a tablet in a spray bottle filled with water, so you should do it at least an hour before cleaning.
All toilet cleaners we used before had harsh overpowering scents. Even those not bleach-based could easily make us feel dizzy. Maybe the manufacturers think a strong fragrance can help us believe in the product’s strong cleaning properties. We decided to go against the mainstream and tested eco-friendly toilet bowl cleaners. Since then, we have our favorites that never let us down. Eco-me is one of our favorites. It does not contain bleach, ammonia, and other toxic chemicals. Instead, it cuts through filth and mineral deposits by leveraging the power of plant essential oils.
4. Brandless Tub & Tile Cleaner – Soap Scum Remover
Hard water makes bathroom cleaning a pain. However, even if we cannot change the water mineral content in our area, we can always make removing soap scum and hard-water stains in the bathroom a breeze. What we love about Brandless Tub and Tile Cleaner is that they make it in the form of dissolvable tablets, which do not take up much space in our office. Read fewer plastic bottles and less harm to the planet. And number two: this cleaner is merciless to the hardwater aftermath. Your bathroom tiles and shower doors will shine like new in a blink.
5. Koala Eco Peppermint Glass Cleaner
Window cleaning is a standard component of our home cleaning services in NYC, deep, regular, or green cleaning, and oh my goodness, windows are a huge piece of work! The wrong cleaning product would mean worse results and more time wasted! It took us a while to test glass cleaners available on the market, and now we have a favorite that has never disappointed us. Without aggressive chemicals in the bottle (only peppermint essential oil is its main active ingredient), Koala Eco Cleaner easily copes with smears and fingerprints, disinfects, and even repels insects as a pleasant side effect.
6. Method Wood Floor Cleaner – Wood and Laminate Cleaner
Sealed hardwood floors can last for generations, but at the same time, they are sensitive to the cleaning method. So we had no choice but to adopt the right “Method”. This eco-friendly wood cleaner gently but effectively removes grime, does not require rinsing, dries fast, and leaves no oily residue. Its no-wax, plant-based formula with a rich almond scent is also safe to use on laminated floors.
7. Branch Basics Oxygen Boost Powder – Grout Cleaner and Stain Remover
Oxygen cleaners are safe and powerful natural solutions that easily cope with different kinds of messes when activated with hot water. Stains, dirty grout, burnt cookware, bedlinen that lost its whiteness, food stains on mugs, ceramic kitchen sink, and rust, to name a few. So you are always on the tidy side if you have a package of a trusted oxygen cleaner at hand. We love Branch Basics for fragrance- and dye-free formula that is absolutely safe for allergic people.
8. Seventh Generation Dish Liquid Soap
This dish soap is perfect for families with young kids as it is safe for washing baby bottles! Its essential oils-based formula cuts through dried-on food and grease easily, without drying out even sensitive skin and annoying with a horrible scent. Lavender and mint is our favorite version of this dish soap, but they have a fragrance-free version too.
9. JuniperSeed Mercantile’s Laundry Stain Stick – Stain Remover
If you usually pre-treat stains before laundering, you will love this stain remover for its absolutely genius ease of use. It is made in the form of a soap bar. Just dampen the stained area and the bar itself and rub the bar against the stain, making some foam. Leave to work for a while or, if lightly stained, toss the clothing directly to the washing machine. Also, the bar works magic even in cool water if you need to hand-wash delicates such as underwear, bras, or swimming suits.
10. Eco-me No-fragrance Granite and Marble Cleaner
Natural stone counters and sinks look extremely durable, but their gorgeous gleam can be easily ruined with improper cleaning. Manufacturers seal items made of natural stone to protect them from daily tear and wear. However, the sealant can be damaged by mechanical scratching and acidic cleaning products. For cleaning mild daily messes, regular dish soap is sufficient. Nevertheless, the benefit of using specialized cleaners for granite and marble is that they help protect the surface from further staining. We recommend cleaning kitchen granite and marble with a natural plant-based cleaner, such as this one by Eco-me, as it is 100% safe to use on surfaces that come in contact with food.
11. Clorox Compostable Cleaning Wipes – All-purpose Wet Wipes
Cleaning wipes are a genius solution for busy people who want impeccable cleaning results fast. We also use wet wipes in our cleaning business. In your home cleaning, you can use them to remove dust from hard surfaces, ceiling fans, light fixtures, cleaning blinds, clean shoes, and even spot clean walls and floors. These compostable Clorox wipes are made of plant-based cloth and do not contain dyes, fragrances, or bleach, which makes them a safe solution for use around home animals and kids.
12. Seventh Generation Laundry Detergent – For Sensitive Skin
Laundry detergents have the closest contact with us, literally. So it is important to launder our clothing with a certified eco-friendly product. Seventh Generation is a trusted eco-conscious brand faithful to the sustainability ideals in all they produce – from children’s diapers to this particular laundry detergent. Its content is 97% biological, which is probably the best result among green laundry detergents, plus it also has outstanding stain-removal properties.
13. Baking Soda – The Most Versatile Home Cleaning Product
This unsung kitchen hero is capable of substituting most of the cleaning products you use around your home. In our cleaning business, we use it for cleaning silverware and oven interiors, removing rust stains, refreshing the fridge interior, unclogging the drain (mild impurities), removing water stains on shower doors, mirrors, and cookware, and many, many more. If you mix baking soda with hydrogen peroxide to achieve the consistency of a paste, you get a versatile cleaner to restore the purity of your grout, remove burnt-on oven grease, and finally get rid of that ugly burnt-on oily film on baking trays and pans.
Allergy triggered by home cleaning chemicals has already become a problem for many families, causing them to look toward green, hypoallergenic cleaning supplies. They do a great job removing grime without harming the skin or creating a strong supply of chemical odors.
However, green cleaning products are only the first step to protecting your family’s health. You should reconsider the way you clean, too. Allergy triggers like pet hair, dust mites, and mold spores can be difficult to deal with on your own. For those households struggling with allergies (or just eco-conscious people) in New York and Manhattan, we offer green cleaning services delivered through carefully selected, certified eco-friendly cleaning products (for which you do not have to pay additionally), responsible cleaning techniques, and professional equipment.