Tips for cleaning a kitchen with less water and more

You may have trawled through the internet to find tips for cleaning a kitchen and we can bet that it’s come up with lots of extravagant suggestions including a number of chemicals, buckets of water, potions and 7 different types of tools. It’s not that complicated. What’s more, it doesn’t need to be that harmful to our environment. Check out our tips for cleaning a kitchen with less water and more eco-friendly products.

1. The best way to clean your dishes 

When it comes to saving water when cleaning your kitchen, it’s been common for a long time to tell people to stop using their dishwashers. But as the world of appliances has become smarter and more eco-friendly, this isn’t always true anymore. An eco-cycle on a dishwasher can use as little as 7 litres of water. The same as a standard washing-up bowl. Of course, there is an energy cost with both (heating up the water) and the dishwasher has a little extra with the running of the machine. But they’re not as different as they used to be. 

So, what’s the best way? Well, we’ve noticed that when we’re doing a lot of washing with many pots and pans, the best way is to use the dishwasher. Otherwise, we find we use multiple washing-up bowls of water. That being said, if we’re only washing up a couple of trays and plates, we can easily use less than a full bowl of water. The best way is to make a judgement call based on the number of items you need to wash up. 

2. Cleaning your floors with less water 

Your floors are potentially the biggest surface in your kitchen, perhaps even in your home. You might be tempted to grab a bucket of water and plenty of chemicals to clean your floor. But we urge you not to. There are plenty of gadgets that you can use to clean your floors that don’t involve an extortionate amount of water. 

If you have hardwood or laminate floors, then you need to consider that they don’t appreciate being cleaned with water anyway. So, sweep them as much as you can. Go back and forth with a microfibre cloth too. Almost ‘scrub’ the floor with a dry cloth to lift any stubborn dirt. Then, use some wax paper to lift off any remaining stubborn dirt – trust us with this one! Then all you need to do is have a quick vacuum around the place. No water or chemicals are needed at all.  

If you have tile or vinyl flooring and you need a bit of moisture to lift the dirt. Mix some vinegar, a drop of dish soap and hot water together in a bottle and spray it on your floor. You can store this liquid so it’s ready to use the next time as well. This way you only use a few squirts of water to clean your entire kitchen floor – no matter what flooring type you have. 

3. Make your own kitchen degreaser 

Possibly our favourite mixture of all time. We’ve seen so many products advertised over the years for cleaning a kitchen. If we purchased them all we’d have an entire stock cupboard filled with them! We knew there was an alternative out there and we tried many different ideas and recipes. We needed to find something that really worked on greasy parts of our kitchen. Things like our oven and hob that get covered in food while cooking.

Grab 25ml of white vinegar, 75ml of water, 12.5ml dish soap and 12g of baking soda. Alternatively, if you want to make a batch of this kitchen degreaser then multiply the numbers accordingly. We think this cleaner works best when it is used immediately after mixing. Grab a cloth, dab it into the bowl and scrub every surface you need to clean. Wipe it with a damp cloth after you’ve applied the degreaser to the entire area, and you’ll find everything lifts off incredibly! You might need to let it sit a while for stubborn dirt, but we find this is a great degreaser, and it’s relatively cheap! You don’t need to spend lots of money on the ingredients and they’ll go a long way to keeping your kitchen clean. It’s why it’s one of our favourite tips for cleaning a kitchen.

We’ve got plenty of tips for cleaning a kitchen with less water, but we know that the planet needs more than that. Our waste water doesn’t always go down our drains and into treatment facilities. Blockages, burst pipes, leaks and heavy rainfall can all cause problems with flooding into the environment. While some of these situations are preventable, some are not, so we’re always very cautious about what we’re putting in our waterways – meaning fewer chemicals and absolutely nothing manmade into our drains other than toilet paper.