Hello my name is Tunde and myself and my wife Ati founded The Cleaning Cabinet in 2019. We wanted a place where everyone can fine eco-friendly alternatives to plastic waste and make plastic free choices for everyday living. I hope this page helps you to get started on your plastic free and ZeroWaste journey.
If you consider yourself as an eco-friendly courteous, waste reducing person, mum or dad and you are known to only buy what is needed and essential, you don’t give room for waste and you are constantly looking for ways to reduce your environmental impacts – I want to personally welcome you into the class of EcoSwitchers. EcoSwitch is the act of swapping your existing home and personal essentials items to a sustainable alternative.
Since we launched The Cleaning Cabinet back in September 2019. We have been so amazed at the number of sustainable household and cleaning products on the market as well as genuine body and personal care products. We have over 250 variants of products on sale now. They have all been carefully tried and selected by us to make sure we only sell viable alternatives to all your everyday essential items.
We know that many of you are not sure where to begin your sustainable journey as a family or an individual. I want to encourage you today with the list of products below. You will see that you only have to swap what is running out. For example, if your shower gel or washing up liquid is running out or you need a new toilet brush or toothbrush, replace each item with a sustainable alternative. Make sure you consider the packaging, how the product is made and the ingredients in it.
Since we have tried and tested most of our products as well as reviewing the quality of all of them, here are some products you can easily swap to for cleaning and body caring needs.
Dental care: typical plastic toothbrushes are known to last up to 650 years in the sea.
- Bamboo Toothbrushes– This is why our bamboo toothbrush will provide your household with an adequate clean, while you can probably use old bamboo toothbrushes to fire up your BBQ fire in the summer.
- Tablets plastic-free Toothpaste– just like plastic toothbrushes last many many centuries if dumped in the sea, plastic toothpaste tubes are just as bad. It is now possible to have very good quality (in terms of performance) toothpaste tablets. Yep, you heard right. Once you try it, you most likely will not stop. This goes a long way in reducing waste and saving plants and wildlife that are currently being affected by human wasteful activities.
- Dental floss – do you know that a plastic dental floss string cannot be recycled? I will recommend this plastic free dental floss made from corn. It is called “ecoFloss” to you.
Household plastic: think about all the plastic items that you have either bought, been given or had to use at work. Where do you think these plastic wastes go after you discard them? How many natural resources had to be unearthed in order to make them? Here are some ways you can easily swap plastic for other more sustainable options:
- Glass and stainless-steel bottles: single use water bottles are one of the biggest wastes of our time. Granted, there are times that plastic is necessary for certain applications but most of the time, we can certainly prevent excessive uses of throw away plastic. To make the switch to use more sustainable bottle options try reusing your existing bottles (even if they are plastics). By reusing your old spray bottles, water bottles, you will have avoided buying new containers that will eventually end up in landfill someday.
- Wooden and metal Dustpan and brush: dust pan and brush are so helpful for scooping up food off the kitchen floor and cleaning around the home. There are also so many cheap plastic options in the market today. Due to their poorer quality, we end up buying more than we should to replace the old broken ones. You can make a great switch to sustainable “wooden and metal dust pans” that are of high quality and will last a very, very long time – if you take care of them of course.
The list of all the eco switches you can make are almost endless and we are sure that you certainly can start from a simple, manageable and affordable place. Here are a few more lists of easy EcoSwitches you can introduce to your home for yourself and your family.
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Item to switch |
EcoSwitch alternative |
Benefit to you & Environment |
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Shower gel, cleaning solutions, laundry liquid |
Reduce plastic from smaller purchases and save money on bulk buying. You will also contribute towards less landfill waste |
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Shampoo and conditioner |
Most people use up a 500ml tub of shampoo and conditioner per month. This means at least 12 bottles that can be saved from entering the waste processing cycle. Using the bar version of your conditioner or shampoo often helps you to think of how much you are using. From our experience shampoo and conditioners bars are often of higher quality than most of their fluid alternatives. |
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Toilet roll and hand paper towels |
Trees need over 3 years to grow before they can harvest for toilet paper manufacturing. In most cased trees need much longer to grow. Bamboo trees are the perfect alternative to cutting down woodlands trees as bamboo only need between 3 to 6 months to grow into a mature tree. |
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Body cream and lotions |
Many lotion and body cream contain palm oil, this is the ingredient that most of us do not know about, but we use them a lot. Palm oil are harvested mostly through setting forests on fire and causing deforestation and death of much wildlife. |
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Toilet brush and cleaning brushes |
Buy wooden toilet brush in an aluminium containers |
Toilet brushes do get dirty, clogged up and worn out after some time if they are not being used properly or taken care of. Most toilet brushes are cheap and flimsy, meaning you need to replace them often. A wooden and metal alternative is a good quality alternative that will last a very long time and does not pose a threat to the environment when its end of life comes. |
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Feminine care |
Tampons and single use menstrual pads pose the same threat as most cotton wipes as they do not degrade as fast as we think. Instead, they clog up drains, enter sea life environment where they are known to disturb the smaller sea creature’s ability to live a normal life |
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Shaving kit |
Use plastic free shaver with replaceable blades |
The number of throw away plastic shavers in the market today is alarming. Even though it has been in decline since there are many shaving subscriptions out there. |
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Kitchen foil |
Foil cannot be recycled as it has been contaminated with food. We all have gotten used to foil for wrapping food, covering our food and so on. This can be easily done with the use of vegan food wrap, which can also be used as a sandwich wrap, food covering and so on. Using vegan food wrap helps to reduce the landfill waste as well the energy that goes into making the foil. Also, no animal bits are harvested to make them |
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Antiperspirant spray and deodorant |
In my opinion, Vegan deodorant works better than antiperspirant sprays. The powder deodorant from heavenly organics is my favourite as it really absorbs strong body odours and calms the underarm area very well. You will be so surprised about how effective it works until you try it. |
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Plastic cloth pegs |
Pegs have a habit of disappearing without a trace. While this may be the norm, we do not want plastic pegs to be scattered all over the bushes and fields where theory will remain there for over 400 years! This is why plastic free wooden pegs are of better quality as they are more weather resistant and they will degrade faster than plastic should they run away too. |
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| Mops | Use a rag | We don’t currently sell rags but I am sure you have plenty of rags from your old clothes that you can convert into a mop. Why not use these instead of buying a fresh virgin material? |
Thank you for reading this blog. I know it does not cover all options but it is a pretty good start if you ask me. I hope that you have been encouraged to discover your next eco swap. Please bear in mind that it is a journey not an event. The consciousness to buy and use sustainable items is more important and you should make it your duty to choose what is better for your health and the environment. In doing this, if you are a parent, your children will learn from you too. If you are single, you will have a great habit to show others around you.
If you have any further questions, please get in touch with us and feel free to browse our range of products. you can also read through our other helpful blog posts.