Cleaning your home, let alone your sofa, can bring on a lot of questions such as “what’s in this detergent?”, “is this safe for my kids?”, “what does X ingredient even mean?”, or “is this safe for the fabric?”. The founding team of Puratium is here to guide you through DIY natural cleaning products for your home with tried and true recipes they’ve been using for years. Most importantly, the ingredients don’t come with questions - they are common household names. 

Puratium is a zero waste & eco-friendly digital learning hub. Co-founders Laura and Abel currently live in Belgium (Brussels), and have been using these types of cleaning products for over 2 years. 

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Most of these recipes stem from traditional home remedies. Thus, implementing eco-friendlier habits in your home often boils down to going back to basics, including the use of simple and natural ingredients that have been used for centuries. 

In other words, you can decide to exclude unpronounceable and often questionable components in everyday cleaning products. 

Before throwing away your current stock, consider donating it to a person or facility in need. Acting with nature's best interest in mind implies reusing as much as possible and making our objects last longer. 

Producing your own natural cleaning products allows you to avoid toxic ingredients and non-recyclable packaging while enabling your curious self to try out new things for your home. 

Whether you are an experienced minimalist or not, have no fear these recipes are so easy to make and use. We also added a few more natural hacks to help you deal with the typical home nuisances: clogged pipes, bad smells, and the like. 

DIY Cleaning Recipes

Laundry detergent: 

Makes about 40 loads with just 5 inexpensive ingredients that you might already have at home.  

• Boil 60oz of water and let cool down for a few minutes.
• Add 4oz of Marseille soap (the green type with olive oil, not the white variety), 2oz of baking soda, and 1oz of washing soda to the mixture.
• Stir gently for two or three minutes.
• Let it cool down until it reaches room temperature, then pour 30 to 40 drops of essential oil of your liking (lavender will not disappoint you!).
• Store in a jar or container you already had (use a funnel to easily pour).

* Recommended per load: 2 and 3.5 ounces depending on how filled it is. 

We tested the detergent on our sofa pillow and cushion covers and they came out clean and undamaged! 

Check out Puratium's Zero Waste Laundry Detergent Article Here!

Universal Dish soap:

Whether for the kitchen or bathroom, our universal dish soap will effectively clean and remove stains on a budget. To clean metals like bronze, chromium, or tin, applying a bit of white vinegar on a cloth will suffice. 

• Take the equivalent of two tablespoons of black soap: let them melt in warm water by stirring gently. 
• Once diluted, pour the soap and one cup of white vinegar in a jar (ideally a glass jar with a lid that you can easily shake before each use).
• Add 5 to 10 essential oils depending on your liking in terms of intensity. Tea tree and lemon are a marvel. 

All Floor Cleaner (except marble or cement):

This recipe is similar to the dish soap formula described above. The only difference is to replace the essential oil drops with a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Add the resulting formula in a large bucket containing warm water. 

Natural Knacks To Save You From Household Troubles

Unblock Pipes:

If you are looking for a simple, natural, and 'DIY' way to unclog your pipes and eliminate bad smells, do not throw away morning coffee grounds. Simply pour the equivalent of half a cup in the pipe with a bit of lukewarm water.

Get Rid of Bad Smells:

If you cannot eliminate a foul odor from your kitchen, pour a cup of baking soda into a large bowl on your working surface. As you might know, baking soda is a powerful smell neutralizer that will work for up to a week! This also works with odor on your hand: simply rub your fingers with a bit of baking soda, then rinse. 

Remove Limestone on Glass and Crystal:

With time, limestone is often responsible for making your glasses and crystal vases opaque. Should you want to effectively clean these objects with a natural DIY recipe, do so with a mixture of one tablespoon of salt and one tablespoon of vinegar. Should the damage be severe, leave to work for a few hours (not with fragile crystal, though).

Clean Fabric Sofas:

Let one tablespoon of black soap melt in a bowl with 2 cups of warm water. After soaking a sponge in the formula entirely, remove it and squeeze it vigorously. First, apply the sponge of a hidden surface to test it as a precaution. Some fabrics are more delicate and might lose their radiance. This knack will remove most stains and deodorize any fabric sofas. 

We tested this stain solution on red wine on our Oat Upcycled Poly and the stain was able to come right out!

Final Thoughts

Implementing a low waste, natural, and DIY cleaning kit at home does not necessarily have to be drastic, costly, or part of a complex chemistry lesson. Test one recipe, then another one, and adjust according to your liking and experience. 

Adopting a more eco-friendly lifestyle, whether in your habits and purchase, is a personal journey, one that takes a bit of practice, self-tolerance, and a pinch of creativity.