Environmentally friendly cleaning at home is mostly about product choice and dosage — and with the Nordic Swan Ecolabel’s new criteria there are now sharper lines for what may call itself eco-labelled. At Hilfr the cleaner uses your own products, so you decide whether the cleaning is done with Swan-labelled, allergy-friendly or fragrance-free products.
You do not need to run a cleaning company to take inspiration from this. Here is what the professional requirements can teach us about cleaning at home — without getting technical or preachy.
Why is the Nordic Swan Ecolabel tightening its requirements?
Cleaning affects the environment more than most people realise: chemicals end up down the drain, packaging becomes waste, and the cars driving between customers burn fuel. By tightening the requirements, the Nordic Swan Ecolabel pushes the whole industry towards fewer chemicals, better dosing and greener operations.
But the requirements are also about people. Fewer and milder chemicals mean a better working environment for the person cleaning day after day — and a better indoor climate for the people living in the home.
Four easy habits at home
If you want to clean greener yourself, you need neither special products nor a guilty conscience. The professional principles boil down to four simple habits:
- Choose eco-labelled products — look for the Nordic Swan or the EU Ecolabel flower next time you are buying new supplies anyway.
- Use fewer products: an all-purpose cleaner, a toilet cleaner and a little vinegar cover almost everything. A cupboard full of specialist products is mostly marketing.
- Dose according to the label — more soap does not clean faster; it just leaves a film that attracts new dirt.
- Switch to good microfibre cloths: they clean effectively with water alone and last through hundreds of washes.
Good for the indoor climate — and for the person cleaning
Harsh chemicals are felt most by the person using them — hours every day, week after week. Respiratory irritation and eczema are well-known occupational injuries in the cleaning trade, which is why the working environment weighs heavily in the Nordic Swan Ecolabel's requirements.
The same applies in your home: at Hilfr, your cleaner uses your own cleaning products and equipment as standard. So when you put out eco-labelled products and good cloths, you are doing your indoor climate, the environment and your cleaner a favour — three birds with one stone.
Green cleaning is still cleaning
Finally, a reassurance: eco-friendly cleaning is not a compromise. Modern eco-labelled products clean every bit as well as the harsh ones — the difference lies in what they do not contain.
So start with the easiest step: buy eco-labelled next time, throw out half of the specialist products, and let the cloth and the dosing do the work. Your home, your airways and your cleaner will thank you.
Still have questions? Find answers on our FAQ page — or see whether Hilfr covers your area.
