You don’t need incense sticks to clean sustainably

The aromatic smoke of incense sticks is said to have a purifying effect in many cultures. So to speak a kind of energetic house cleaning for the soul and the personal environment. And that is a very tempting idea.

No matter how you feel about this topic, and whether you do your cleaning with or without smoke, the result is a clean, well-kept, bright and friendly environment that safely lifts the mood and provides positive energy. Strictly speaking, 94% of all respondents in an international study believe that a clean home is important. And not only the classical spring cleaning is meant here, but the regular cleaning. And that is obviously clearly less attractive. At least the many, more or less “funny” sayings and quotes let this assume to the topic “cleaning”, if you do a quick google research..

Even if most of us surely enjoy a good cleaning result, the way to get there, i.e. the actual cleaning process, probably for most os us is not among the Top 3 of the most popular occupations. In fact, only about 15% of those surveyed in Germany enjoy cleaning, for 35% have little to no pleasure at all (Splendid Research 2018). But no matter how much and how often one likes to clean, whether it is the statistically determined 3.2 hours a week or more, whether with music entertainment or without (in Germany, two thirds of all respondents let themselves be musically accompanied by).

Whether with the support of an entire machine park or “only” with rags, buckets and brooms. There is no getting around dealing with the subject. And also to take a look into your own cleaning cupboard. In particular to the ingredients of the cleaning agents used.

Cleaning. A “clean thing”. Is this true for the environment as well?

Clearly, in the first place the effectiveness stands with the choice of the cleaning agent, directly in second place stands, at least in Germany, the price. And what about the ingredients and the environmental compatibility? The demands are different with regard to the age of the consumers: For young people up to 30 years the price as well as the brand are particularly relevant, older people over 50 years on the other hand pay more attention to the environmental friendliness of the products.

Of course, for us as a hotel business, the effectiveness of cleaning products is also a top priority. A clean and well-kept environment is indispensable for our guests to feel at home with us. But we also have to keep in mind the compatibility for people and the environment, especially because we clean very intensively and comprehensively as a hotel business. And a safe daily usage, without health impairment for skin and respiratory tract, is also indispensable. Already ordinary “household” cleaners often do more harm than good, and for the making one ‘s way through  the “professional shelf” for professional usage, it seems that  a completed chemistry study is necessary, in order to be able to interpret the list of the partly very aggressive ingredients. And to interpret the various danger symbols.

A lot helps a lot. That’s not true at all

Many special cleaners and highly concentrated agents are in fact often “too much of a good thing”. And the wrong (namely too high!) dosage in the application does the rest, in order to do a lot of harm to the environment and nature. According to test.de, the 5 “must haves” in a clean household are an all-purpose cleaner, an acidic cleaner against lime deposits (which we do not really need because we have a water softener device in our house), a scouring agent, a hand flushing agent and a toilet cleaner. And household remedies such as vinegar, soda, sodium bicarbonate and citric acid are also good tools for effective cleaning, which also reduces the amount of plastic waste. So, no space science, but “common sense”. No rocket science, but kitchen logic, so to speak. We don’t have a special cleaner for every stain either.

There are now numerous manufacturers with high-performance, yet ecologically friendly household cleaning products. In the specialized trade and drugstores, in addition, in the supermarkets. Or for us as a hotel from a cleaning agent professional store. By the way, “organic” and “eco” are no protected, reliable terms, when used on cleaning agent bottles. And a look at the small print on the back is always recommended. Good orientation is provided by test seals such as “BLAUER ENGEL” or “ECO CERT“.

We work with a highly concentrated universal cleaner from GRŸN, which is suitable for almost all vicissitudes of cleaning life. It is ecologically compatible, degradable, vegan and made from renewable raw materials. A 10 kg canister provides up to 250 litres of application solution, replacing up to 500 spray bottles. The empty weight of a canister is approx. 400 grams, a standard spray bottle weighs approx. 40 grams. And that simply means that plastic waste is considerably reduced by up to 98% compared to ready-to-use products.

The GRŸN ingredients are quickly and easily biodegraded. Without formaldehyde, without CHC and CFC, without perborates, without phosphates, without EDTA. Without organic halogen compounds and many others from the “poison kitchen”. The GRYN product is also Vegan certified. And what else makes the company so likeable? It also shows social responsibility. Regular donations to organisations such as UNHCR, unicef, NABU, BUND, B.A.U.M or VIVA CON AGUA. And instead of Christmas cards for business friends, there are 50 newly planted trees for all of us.

And just for information

We don’t get percentages or discounts from GRŸN or other manufacturers. And of course, we select all our products ourselves. In addition, we like to point out that we pay all products at full price and do not enjoy any special treatment. But we just think that good things that inspire us should be talked about.