Spring Cleaning with a Summer Feeling

The weather being what it is this spring, cleaning isn’t exactly a matter of opening up the windows and letting bright sunshine and fresh air flow in and fill the place. Unfortunately.

We crave a bit of shine by now.

With things outside still grey and dull most of the time, we better rub things up a bit inside. Cleaning is not exactly a hobby of mine (but then again, nor is living in dirt), so I always appreciate everything that makes it that bit easier. And I find, coconut does.
And if there is anything that gives an instant happy summer-feeling, it’s coconut too -apart from sun, that is. The coconut products we will be talking about in this blog-post are just much easier obtained than sunshine.

(In most cases, I will admit, it is merely a matter of hitting that link, for we sell them here on our very own website too. That does not mean this blog was written to sell them to you. We would simply always want you to make informed choices before buying anything, to prevent over-consumption and needless plastic. And we wouldn’t be selling these products if we didn’t believe in them, so it makes sense that we would advise using them too.)

Coconut you say, for cleaning?

Well, not the whole coconut, of course.

We found some tips on using coconut oil as a household cleaner. And if nothing else, it will at least give your home that very summery smell.

You may choose to go the more traditional path and use soap. Our Uno Bars are actually made with coconut oil and, as people don’t always realise, they can be used for household cleaning as well as washing yourself and your hair. That’s why they’re called Uno Bars: one bar for all your soapy needs.
We do recommend the Dishwashing Soap Bar for washing up and cleaning, as it’s nice and simple and you may want to leave the more luxuriously scented ones for yourself. Simply work up a lather under streaming water (as if washing your hands and then some), rinse soap bar over your soapy water before putting aside and you’re set to go; clean away!

We can also recommend keeping your soap bar on a Safix Pad. This allows the soap to dry completely, without sticking to any surfaces, or slipping away when wet.

What is a Safix Pad?

The Safix Pad is a nifty little scrubber and a personal favourite of mine. As said, it can double as soap dish, with the added bonus that any soapy bits that get stuck inside in the process, can be used by simply using your pad to do its actual scrubbing job.

It is a great replacement for those little plastic scrubby sponges you find at supermarkets, which are often green in colour, but not at all in use. As they wear down, they send bits of plastic down the drain.

You can use your Safix Pad on almost any surface, including non-stick ones. I have already written about how I use it to clean my oven but it’s also handy on, for example, kitchen counters, (frying) pans, baking tins and the sandwich toaster or waffle maker. You could even scrub your veg with it, but I guess that wouldn’t count as spring cleaning.

And it is made, you guessed it, from coconut. To be precise: it is coconut hair bonded with natural latex. And that’s it. 100% Natural and compostable at the end of its life. But with a proper rinse after each use, it will take quite a while to reach that end.

What if I need something bigger/ rounder/ more brush-like/ easier to handle?

Sometimes, something with a little more grip is called for. Or a little more reach. Or a handle, even. To easily reach inside things when cleaning. Or just because you find it more comfortable to hold that way. That brings us to Tawashi Brushes.

Tawashi is Japanese, literally for ‘bundle’ but commonly used for scrubbing brushes and scourers. They can strictly speaking be made of any material, but the ones we’re talking about are, of course, made from coconut hair. This again makes them compostable, durable and like the Safix, suitable for use on any surface, including glasses.

We offer them in two different shapes, and with a handle. Each can be used wherever you want, so it really is mostly a matter of personal preference of what gives you the best reach and grip for where you want to use it, which one you choose. I used to have, for example, a great big oven in an impossible corner of the kitchen, where I could never properly scrub the back corners. How very handy the tawashi with a handle would have been! But it is no mistake you’ll find it called a washing up brush on our website. It does that job really well too.

Something else all together

Well, ‘all together’ might be an exaggeration here. We are still talking about a coconut hair washing up brush. If you do like the idea but not the looks of the tawashi brush, we may have just the thing for you.
Something else.
Something a bit different.
Possibly not so much different from the brushes previously mentioned, but definitely from the ones you’ll find at your supermarket. A coconut and copper scrubber. It is pretty much what you’d expect: a scrubber made from coconut -a rolled mat of coconut hair this time- and copper -just a little wire to keep it nice and sturdy.

P.S.: If you’re a real fan of coconut (no, I am not going to say a real coco-nut), why not have a look at our full coconut-range.
Apart from soap with coconut oil and scourers and scrubbers with coconut hair, there are buttons, bowls, fork and spoon sets and soap dishes made from coconut shells, and utensils made from coconut wood. The coconut may not be a nut, it sure is a useful species! And there are even coconut scented Laundry Sheets.