Pot & Bottle Brushes

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up Tagged , 8 Comments

There I was happily scouring away when I realised it was taking longer than usual to shift the burnt remnants at the bottom of the pan. When I checked out my little brush I found was well past its best. Its bristles were all flattened and splayed.

Off I trotted to buy a new head only to realise some time later I had been had! The beasts who made my pot brushes have replaced the organic bristles with plastic. When I  looked closely you will see my cute little brush is in fact part plastic. If you want to know more about bristles (and sneaky plastic imposters), you can read about them here.

This it seems is quite common with local brushes. Even when I have found a natural bristle brush, buying single replacements heads is not easy.

Redecker Brushes

If you are fully committed to a brush on a stick, there is the rather expensive  Redecker, a German company, who do brushes and head replacements such as this:

Large Natural Bristle Dish Washing Brush – Stiff Plant Fibre (Pack of 2) by Redecker from £5.90

  • Impressive cleaning power, made with natural materials
  • Stiff plant fibre bristles ideal for all dish washing purposes
  • Large 5cm diameter brush head (cleaning area approx. 7cm diameter )
  • Untreated beechwood handle with metal loop for hanging to dry
  • Replacement brush heads also available to purchase separately

You can buy all the above from Amazon and Ebay.

Buy Local (Bradford) scrubbers at saltaire

In Saltair, world heritage site, the mill has been converted into a lifestyle space. The ground floor is a gallery housing the work of Bradford boy made good, David Hockney. Upstairs there are some great cafes and lots of lovely, designer shops includingthe homeware shop that sells a wide range natural bristle brushes from pot cleaners to tradition scrubbing brushes.

More Kitchen Brushes

Redecker do a  natural bristle brush for just about every job. I went a bit mad and invested heavily.How strange the twists of fate. I never thought I would be the kind of woman to get excited about cleaning products – yet here I am reliving the 1950s, beaming about my new kitchen aids; but they dont just look good, they work well too.

The bottle brush is ideal for radiators while the pan scrubs – well they scrub. Not quite sure what the tickler on the left is for but my new Clean n Gleam persona will surely find a use for it.

Even better once these scrubbers are past their best then its into the wood bruning stove with them. For a moment they will warm us –  then their ashes will be scattered on the gooseberry bushes.

  • 1 x Redecker Natural Bristle Pot Brush pot brushes featured
  • Redecker Plant Fibre Bristle Dish Brush
  • Redecker Natural Fibre Sink Plug Hole Brush
  • Redecker Plant Fibre Bristle Dish Brush 4cm
  • Redecker Natural Fibre Bottle Brush With Cotton Ball Tip
  • Redecker Natural Fibre Bottle Brush With Wooden Handle
  • Redecker Natural Bristle Bottle / Flask Brush

 

 

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Dishwash Powder

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up, 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged

I have tried to make my own dishwasher powder but with variable success. Rather sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t and it can’t be so green to wash them twice. Very glad then to hear tell of plastic free dishwasher powder on sale. Not used it yet but will be trying it very soon.

Sainsbury Supermarket

have come up trumps with this dish was powder in a cardboard box. Not used it my self but   who sourced this  assures me the packaging really is plastic free. Hooray.

Though according to Louise” they now have a small plastic attachment to the pourer that is black so non-recyclable in my area. Previously this pourer was metal and previous to that cardboard.”

Waitrose Supermarket

Vicky tells me that Waitrose essentials come like this too.

My Hand

For those of you who prefer washing up old school you can find how to do it, plastic free, right here. Everything from washing up liquid to rubber gloves!

More

While you are there you can check out these other Sainsburys plastic free products.

And see what other supermarkets do here.

 

 

 

 

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Washing Up Liquid Soap

by Posted in 3.1 Cleaning Up, 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged , , 2 Comments

Soap Flakes

I did try to use soap flakes to wash up. I did not find it  pleasant. Yes it cleaned the pots but everything was so slippery that it was a stressful experience. If you want to try this I advise you to make a soap stew as it seems to take a while for the pure flakes to dissolve. You can also use the stew for washing your hair. You can find out more here.

Washing Up Liquid

Then I found that I can get my ECOVER washing up liquid bottle refilled  at Half Moon Health Foods 6 Half Moon Street , Huddersfield. If you are not local then Ecover have a postcode search on their site to find the nearest refill point:

So though the bottle is indeed plastic it can be reused many many times. I now have three bottles on the go – that allows for forgetting to take the empty into town, not once, not twice – but for weeks at a time. But I can proudly say I have thrown away no washing up bottles since.

Need More?

Try this… How to wash up plastic free

Other Products

You can also get refills for ECOVER –

TOILET CLEANER
LAUNDRY LIQUID,
FABRIC SOFTENER,
MULTISURFACE CLEANER,