We clean eco-friendly & gift-proof your home this May Day

Today we're sharing our best tips for eco-friendly, toxin-free cleaning at home ahead of May Day. We haven't made any drastic lifestyle changes; instead, we've focused on phasing out plastic and using more natural alternatives. We've also removed cleaning products that aren't toxin-free and started using VästerbottensSåpa, a pure product made from upcycled cooking oil from restaurant fryers. 

 

We're cleaning eco-friendly and making our home toxin-free this May Day

 

Toxin-free and eco-friendly cleaning sounds like a major project, a new lifestyle, and a touch of fanaticism, BUT it doesn't have to be that difficult.
We're not fanatical in any way at home, nor have we made any major lifestyle changes—we've simply phased things out.

What we've thrown out is plastic! We've actually cut down on plastic and made sure that the children don't eat or drink from plastic mugs, plastic cutlery, plates, bowls, or kitchen utensils such as ladles and spatulas; these have been replaced with glass, metal, and porcelain. Sure, a glass sometimes breaks, but it can be worth it.
We also try, whenever possible, to buy locally grown, locally produced, and organic products.

It wasn't that difficult, and it didn't happen in a day, but now that it's done, it feels really good. That makes it easier to live with occasionally eating something else when we're not at home; most meals are still eaten at home, and the main thing is that they consist of food and no toxins.

 

The next area to undergo a change is cleaning and housekeeping! Here too, we've phased things out, stopped buying cleaning supplies and products that aren't toxin-free. This happened naturally when we started producing VästerbottensSåpa. The more we've learned about chemicals and cleaning products, the more skeptical we've become of flashy spray bottles and strong fragrances.

VästerbottensSåpa, which is based on a recycling system in which we purify cooking oil from restaurant fryers and turn it into soap, is a very pure product. The raw material—the base of the product—is food-grade; corn and rapeseed oil are certainly not dirty industrial waste.
Now half of you are saying that you've worked at a grill restaurant and that it's disgusting! (If I had a five-krona coin for every time I've heard that?!)

Here's how it works!
1 . We don't empty everything imaginable into one large tank!
– The restaurants pour the oil back into the container it came in through a fine sieve! We take care of it fairly quickly and then purify it at our factory—the Soapery in Siksjönäs.

2. If you've worked at a grill restaurant, have you seen the tall oil used to make pine soap?
– No, exactly! It's a brown-black, viscous sludge left over from paper mills—yes, it smells like a paper mill too!
It also has to be purified before being saponified, but both resin and sulfur remain, and these also end up in the soap.

3. What happens to fat from fryers that isn't taken care of by VästerbottensSåpa?
-Well, it's transported long distances to be reprocessed or burned.

By upcycling it, we not only get a pure product but also do the environment a favor.

 

 

Back to the soap! By cleaning everything—yes, absolutely everything—at home with VästerbottensSåpa, we're also completely sure that it actually gets CLEAN and isn't coated with chemicals. We've also replaced all our brooms, dish brushes, cloths, and scouring sponges with organic, handmade alternatives. Today we've brought out the garden furniture. There's still a lot of snow, but a small snow-free patch and sunshine, sunshine, sunshine made it feel like a good idea!

 

 

Wood is both cleaned and reconditioned by VästerbottensSåpa, which is a superfat soap (like linseed oil soap), and after a winter in storage, it was much needed! Once the garden furniture was clean and smelled of soap, it was time for the year's first coffee outdoors!

 

 

 

Wonderful—and enough fresh energy to start shoveling out the garden plot 😉

Have a continued pleasant May Day, everyone!

// Sara Idenfors

 

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Questions and Answers

 

- What have you phased out to make cleaning more eco-friendly?
We've phased out plastic and replaced it with glass, metal, and porcelain, particularly when it comes to the children's tableware and kitchen utensils. In addition, we've stopped buying cleaning supplies and products that aren't toxin-free.

 

- What is VästerbottensSåpa and why do you use it for cleaning?
VästerbottensSåpa is a superfat soap made from upcycled cooking oil from restaurant fryers. We use it because it is a pure product and contains no harmful chemicals.

 

- How does the recycling system for cooking oil from restaurant fryers work?
The restaurants pour the cooking oil back into containers through a fine sieve; it is then purified and saponified into soap at our factory—the Soapery in Siksjönäs.

 

- How do you clean wooden garden furniture with VästerbottensSåpa?
We clean the wooden garden furniture with VästerbottensSåpa, which both cleans and reconditions the wood. This is particularly beneficial after winter storage.

 

- What is your next step after cleaning and restoring the garden furniture?
After cleaning the garden furniture, we feel ready to start shoveling out the garden plot and enjoy the year's first coffee outdoors.