How to clean and wash sustainably

Practical tips you can start using today

It always happens: you’ve just finished tidying up, and then you immediately remember that endless mountain of laundry—so big it almost looks like a football team lives in the house rather than a family. And ever since your little explorer arrived, the apartment has never really been tidy; it would need a deep clean every other day. Isn’t that right? ;)

Especially right now, more and more attention is being paid to the products you buy to clean your home and care for yourself. At the same time, many families want daily life with a child to be as environmentally friendly as possible and to reduce their ecological footprint—especially when it comes to household chores. So, how can you start washing and cleaning in the most sustainable way? Which products are eco-friendly and effective at the same time? In this article, you’ll find some helpful tips.

How to get started?

Start by looking around you—many brands now offer high-quality products. It’s easy to think you need to switch to natural products right away by throwing out everything you already have at home, but that’s not the case!
Start by avoiding single-use items: Continuously buying new products increases the amount of plastic that needs to be recycled, and as you know, at LILLYDOO we care deeply about this issue. Together with Plastic Bank, we remove even more plastic from the environment than we use in our products. So what can you do? Choose glass bottles or options that only require refills. Many stores offer bulk products, so you can simply bring your own container and fill it up. Alternatively, you can buy refills or solid products, which are generally sold in paper packaging.

The wide selection at the supermarket

In the supermarket cleaning aisle, you’ll find products for everything: floors, faucets, tiles, chandeliers, glass, wood—and the list could go on forever. But are all these products really necessary? Actually, no! For cleaning, just a few products are truly enough, so the keyword is: reduce.

What do your products contain?

Read the label carefully; you’ll often find formaldehyde, soda, bleach or various acids, fragrances, artificial dyes, and preservatives—these are among the most common active ingredients, but in reality there are many more. These products can release harmful substances into the environment, affecting health (drying out the skin and mucous membranes and triggering allergies in adults, but especially in children with very sensitive skin), and they also end up in wastewater.

Clean in an eco-friendly way

Here are our tips for sustainable cleaning:

Dish soap has a degreasing effect and can also be used to clean the kitchen. There are also some natural remedies you can use instead of harsh detergents. Citric acid, for example, is effective against limescale; baking soda helps against grease; and baking soda and vinegar can help with clogged drains and burnt-on food.

Use sparingly. No matter which detergent you use, a smaller dose means fewer harmful substances are released into the environment. Suggestion : let detergents work for longer, or gently scrub to remove stains—this way, you’ll need less detergent.

When it comes to cleaning cloths, cotton ones are excellent and can be easily washed at 60 degrees and reused multiple times. To help them last a long time and stay hygienic, use one for each room, wash them after each cleaning, and always let them dry thoroughly. Old pillowcases that are a bit worn and no longer nice to look at can be reused for cleaning—just cut them into rectangles and voilà: dust cloths. No more paper towels that end up in the trash after a single use!
If possible, avoid certain products such as fragrance dispensers and sprays, as they usually contain a large number of fragrances and artificial additives. Once again, homemade remedies are the most sustainable alternative.

Wash sustainably

We all use the washing machine, and with a child it can feel like it runs 24 hours a day. Two factors in particular can have a negative impact on the environment:

  1. the detergent can be a cocktail of chemicals that are non-biodegradable and harmful—for water pollution and for people, animals, and the environment.

  2. Frequent washes increase electricity use and therefore energy consumption.

Therefore, there are a few things you can pay attention to in order to make washing more eco-friendly:

When purchasing a washing machine, consider its energy efficiency: A++ and A+++ are the most eco-friendly.

Washing as much laundry as possible in one go maximizes each wash cycle and reduces how often you need to start the washing machine. The washing machine is optimally loaded when there is a hand’s width of space between the laundry and the top of the drum.

Many people use more detergent than necessary to get truly clean clothes. It’s better to follow the instructions on the detergent packaging. Another tip: water hardness also affects the optimal amount of detergent (the harder the water, the more detergent is needed). To find out the water hardness level in your area, simply ask your water supplier.

In general, powder detergents are less harmful than liquid ones, which contain more surfactants that are harmful to water.

One example is white or apple cider vinegar and baking soda, which can replace common fabric softeners without polluting—and can even help remove stains! Additionally, vinegar and baking soda are effective allies against bad odors, and both help fight limescale deposits, leaving laundry nice and soft. The typical vinegar smell disappears as soon as the laundry dries.

By lowering the temperature, you can save a lot of energy with each wash cycle. For most laundry, wash temperatures between 30 and 40 degrees are perfectly adequate. However, it’s advisable to wash at 60 degrees at least once a month (towels, bed linen, and underwear) to prevent germs from forming in the washing machine. Additionally, it’s recommended to run a hot wash twice a year to dissolve limescale, bacteria, and deposits, which helps extend the lifespan of the washing machine.

With modern washing machines, this program is usually not necessary to get well-cleaned laundry. If you have heavily soiled items, try pre-treating them with natural stain removers such as Marseille soap or lemon juice.

With a modern washing machine, you can comfortably do without high spin speeds. The spin cycle consumes unnecessary energy and also wears out the washing machine.

The advantage is clear: the tumble dryer consumes a lot of energy, while air-drying produces zero emissions.

Most washing machines today have an eco program. This process takes more time, but washes at a lower temperature. Since the water doesn’t need to be heated as quickly and the detergent has more time to work, the eco washing cycle saves energy while still delivering equally clean results.

Polyester, nylon, and similar materials can release harmful microplastics into the water cycle during washing. If you wash synthetic fabrics, place them in a special laundry bag that collects the fibers shed during washing.

How to properly wash children's clothes?




  1. Before wearing them for the first time, it’s important to always wash children’s clothes and other linen items that come into contact with the child , para eliminar cualquier residuo químico.

  2. Underwear, bed linen, cloth diapers, and other very dirty items should preferably be washed at 60 degrees, while 30–40 degrees is sufficient for other clothes. Natural materials such as wool or silk can be washed by hand or with the delicate wash cycle.

  3. To prevent your child’s sensitive skin from coming into contact with fragrances and artificial additives, it’s advisable to use a gentle detergent . Fabric softeners, additional hygiene detergents, or disinfectants aren’t necessary; in fact, they can even cause skin irritation. The most stubborn stains can be pre-treated with natural stain removers such as bile soap .

    It’s also a good idea to wash new stuffed animals before letting them accompany your little explorer everywhere. It’s best to wash them by hand with a gentle detergent and repeat the cleaning from time to time, as soon as your beloved travel companions get dirty. Non-washable plush toys can be placed in the freezer for 48 hours to eliminate germs.

When your baby starts exploring the environment with all their senses, you want to make sure your home stays clean—but special antibacterial agents aren’t necessary. As you can see, a few small precautions are enough to make washing and cleaning a bit more eco-friendly. To make family life more sustainable, you don’t always have to change everything at once: step by step, making eco-friendly decisions isn’t so difficult.