Stepping toward zero waste – reusable kitchen and bathroom cleaning wipes
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I dream of the day when I’m able to call our household a zero waste home. However, given the reality of our daily lives, I’ve come to view zero waste as more of a long journey than a destination.
If I viewed this lifestyle as an all or nothing choice I’d never make any changes. It’s just too challenging to flip a switch and declare we are now zero waste. So I prefer to take incremental steps, knowing that each year I make a few changes designed to lighten our impact on the environment.
Some changes seemed obvious – I carry a reusable aluminium water bottle with me everywhere. (I picked a 32 oz. Klean Kanteen for the large capacity while still easily fitting in my purse.)
We use cloth napkins and dish towels instead of paper towels. I knit dish rags which we’re able to wash and use until they fall apart (these last for many years unless they have an unfortunate accident with the bread knife).
We also avoid paper plates and disposable silverware unless we’re camping (and even then I’ve been known to pack real silverware and glass pyrex containers to eat out of). Some changes I have had to get a little more creative about.
Even with cloth napkins and cloth dish towels, we were still going through a good amount of paper towels in the kitchen. I also was a big fan of the disposable cleaning wipes in the plastic container from a major green cleaning brand. They were great for wiping down the bathroom or cleaning up after the cat. It just didn’t seem reasonable to wipe down the counter after cooking or dry a small spill with a full sized dish towel, and sometimes the bathroom needed a quick wipe down between weekly cleans.
So after some research, I arrived at the solution of creating my own reusable cleaning wipes. These are pre-soaked and ready to go, they’re reusable after a run through the washer and dryer, and each step of this process helps reduce what’s being added to the waste stream. I’ve found these cleaning wipes not only help cut down on the number of paper towels we use, they also help me keep our kitchen and bathrooms looking and feeling cleaner. (I’ve also totally cut out the disposable cleaning wipes – no one-use wipes, no plastic container.)
If you’re interested in making your own, here’s what you’ll need:
- An airtight glass container for each room you would like to have these cleaning wipes in (I picked up a couple of pretty jars at the thrift store for less than $2 each)
- Cotton fabric – depending on the quantity and size of your wipes you will need to adjust your fabric amount, but ¼ yard should be plenty per room. I prefer 100% cotton fabric with some texture to it for extra scrubbiness. (Again, if you don’t have fabric in your scraps or stash, check a thrift store for something that will work.)
- Orange peels (this will depend on the number of jars and the size of those jars, but as a general rule, a quart size mason jar full should be enough for two jars of wipes)
- Distilled white vinegar (enough to cover your orange peels)
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This process takes a few weeks, so you won’t have instant gratification, but the cleaning solution can be used for quite some time (it usually lasts me a few months) so once you are underway, you will have plenty of time to plan ahead so you never run out!
Your first step is to make the orange oil infused vinegar. Add your orange peels to a sealable glass container and cover with vinegar. Please note that in the photo I have a few orange peels which did not make it below the vinegar level, you might be able to see they are starting to turn a funny color. These peels would have spoiled the vinegar if I had not pulled them out. Avoid this issue by ensuring that your peels are fully submerged in the vinegar. You can add to your jar over a period of a few days so don’t worry about eating all those oranges in one sitting, just be sure to continue adding vinegar to ensure the peels remain covered. Once your jar is full, leave it to sit for two weeks. During this period, the orange oil will seep into your vinegar, providing not only the citrus scent for your cleaning wipes, but also the cleaning power of citrus oil.
Once your orange vinegar mix has sat for two-weeks, set a strainer on a measuring cup and pour your mixture into the measuring cup. If you have made sure to pack your jar with oranges, this will be almost a syrup like consistency. I gently squeeze out my orange peels to avoid losing any of the citrus vinegar. Once you have finished draining your orange peels, you can get one more use out of them – run them through your garbage disposal to freshen it up! Orange peels which would otherwise have gone in the garbage have now had TWO extra uses (we rent and are not able to get compost service at our current home, so unfortunately, compost is not an option right now).
Split your orange vinegar between the airtight glass containers you will be using to store your cleaning wipes. Make a note of how much you pour into each container. Fill your measuring cup with water and pour an equal amount into each jar so they all contain a 50/50 mix of cleaning vinegar and water. Give the jars a little swirl to mix together the vinegar and water.
I like to fold my wipes in half and then in half again to make them easy to get into and out of the jars. How you handle this depends on your preference, the size of your cleaning wipes, and the opening on your glass storage container. Once you have your cleaning wipes folded as desired, push them down into the jars and ensure they are all submerged in the water. The cleaning wipes can stay in this solution for quite some time and mine have shown no ill effects. When you are ready to clean, just pull a wipe out, squeeze any excess liquid back into the jar and then use it to wipe down your surfaces.
Since my washing machine is in the basement, I like to keep a small plastic tupperware container in each room to put used wipes into until laundry day. This is a great way to reuse plastic containers which make their way into our home, but which I prefer not to use for food. The cleaning wipes can be thrown into the laundry with your other towels and washed, dried, folded and added back to the appropriate jar of cleaning solution. You can continue to use the same jar of cleaning solution until the cleaning wipes start getting dry. Once you notice that there is no longer a pool of liquid at the bottom of your jar, it is time to make up a new batch of citrus vinegar. Just follow the instructions above, but mix your orange vinegar and water in a separate container and then pour into your jars. Although you can, I do not take the extra step of pulling out my cleaning wipes and washing everything between batches.
One final note before you embark on this adventure. Although the orange oil does add a citrus aroma to the vinegar, it does not remove the vinegar scent. Over the years, I have used many commercial cleaning products which include vinegar as a main ingredient. To me, the scent of citrus and vinegar smells clean, if however, you are sensitive to the scent of vinegar, please be aware that you will have a lingering aroma after using these cleaning wipes.
Cheers to easy cleaning solutions which don’t create waste!
