Eco Household/Cleaning Haul

This week I decided to go back to old habits of buying eco household and cleaning products in bulk.  It's something I used to do all the time, until I had a disagreement with the company I bought them from, over a large container of washing up liquid that got broken en route and they were most unhelpful about it.

I did subsequently find another company to buy from, but after an order or two I stopped and just bought things from the supermarket as and when I needed them, which meant that I wasn't always using sustainable products.

As my large 5l container of toilet cleaner was almost finished, I decided it might be time to get back to bulk buying again and hopped online to find a website I could buy from. (I'd forgotten which company I'd used previously!)

Anyway, I came across naturalcollection.com and filled a basket full of products that I thought I would enjoy using. The total order came to about £55, which is very easy to reach very quickly when you are buying in bulk, and as you got free postage over £50, I decided to add a few extra things that I use regularly to take advantage of this.

A few days later the order arrived and here's what I bought:

One 5l container of Ecover Toilet cleaner - Pine and Mint scented £12.89. I've not actually tried this before, but as it has more of a perfume than the one I currently use, I'm sure I'll like it. To go with this, I also bought one 750ml bottle of a new and different scent of my original Ecoleaf toilet cleaner, which was a new Cool Blue version, as this sounded interesting.  Unfortunately, they didn't have it in a 5l container, otherwise I might have bought this.

Next came some dental items.  I bought a different kind of dental floss, Georganics Natural Bamboo Charcoal floss, which comes in a cute little glass dispenser and for which you can buy refills.  I like my current Radius vegan floss, but they were out of stock, so I opted to give this a try and see how I get on with it, as it is more of a zero waste option.  I also bought a Georganics Bamboo toothbrush. I've been using my current one for 3 months, but tend to change them over every 6 months or so, so buying these means I've always got the next one waiting.

I also bought a few packs of bags, i.e. some degradable pedal bin liners which I only use in our bathroom and then go around the house each week on rubbish day and fill the remainder of the bag with the rubbish from all of the other rooms. A pack of 30 should last me 6 months at least.  I also got a four pack of 10 black degradable refuse sacks to keep me going on the landfill waste front.

The last few items were some ECOS Fruit and Vegetable wash which I use regularly, some recycled paper kitchen towels and a 5l container of Bio D Geranium handwash, as buying lots of individual plastic bottles of hand wash somehow seems wasteful.  This did work out a bit more expensive at £19.80, but I don't mind too much, when it comes to reducing my plastic usage.

Fast forward two days and whilst checking something on eBay, an add popped up on my computer for Ecover AllinOne Dishwasher tabs on a 3 for 2 offer on the 68 tab packs.  At first I thought it was the same site I'd just placed an order with, but on closer inspection it was another eco site called biggreensmile.com. I had deliberately not bought any dishwasher tabs on my previous order, as at £7.15 for 22 they seemed a bit pricey, especially as Tesco often has them on sale at £4, but when I could get 3 packs of 68 tabs for £30, I decided that this offer was too good to miss, as this would work out at about £3.33 per 22 pack, which was even less than Tesco's sale offer. These are the only dishwasher tabs I will use, so I went ahead and ordered them and they should be good for almost a year I reckon.

To top up the order to £55 to qualify for free delivery again, I bought a 5l container of Bio-D Pink Grapefruit Washing up Liquid for £12.55, some Dri-pak bicarb cream cleaner which I was interested to try out on my sink and oven, some Cheeky panda pocket tissue packs, another 2 (Hydrophil this time) bamboo toothbrushes and a Method Passion Fruit Daily Shower spray.

With this order I also qualified for two free samples. I chose a Z-gel sachet for insect bites, etc. and a Madara Tinted moisturising fluid sample which I've used before and like. When this order came I also received a free bottle of a new brand of Marcel's green hand soap. Result.

All in all I was pretty happy with both of my orders, as I now shouldn't need to purchase hardly any household cleaning products for a good while and I'm back to using more sustainable products.  I still won't return to the original company that I had a dispute with, so I was happy to find two more sites that sold the items I needed at a good price.

In addition, whatever happens with Brexit in the next few months, I'm well stocked up and don't have to worry about getting hold of my regular products for a while.