I was walking along the laundry isle at the super market today looking at all the cleaning products in all their flashy brightly colored packages and I started thinking about how nasty these chemicals are and how much of it we flush, rinse and drain away into various water systems which one way or another eventually end up in our environment. Which got me wondering about what MacGyver would use for cleaning?
Almost certainly he would use natural products where-ever possible, things such as white vinegar as a general cleaner are far safer and friendlier to the environment than the harsh concentrated chemicals of most cleaning products. It has hundreds of uses around house as you can see in the below link. I would think that for things where you couldn’t use a natural alternative, such as laundry and dish washing, he would use an eco-friendly product.
1001 uses for white distilled vinegar
Another alternative I think MacGyver might use is a steam based cleaner. These work by pumping steam through a cloth covered cleaning head. The heat from the steam breaks down and loosens dirt and grease and kills bacteria and the cloth picks up and holds it all making cleaning as simple as wiping the cleaning head over the surface with no chemicals being used.
Even things like vacuum cleaners have had me thinking from the MacGyver angle. What would he look for in a vacuum cleaner. Would he go for the best clean for the least amount of electricity? If so he would probably be using an upright vacuum as they are considered more efficient than the canister models because the suction is right next to the carpet (instead of at the end of a long tube) and therefore at its strongest and usually employ a rotating brush roll or beater bar, which removes dirt through a combination of sweeping and vibration meaning a quicker clean and so less electricity being used. He may of course prefer a robotic option which vacuums for him when he’s not at home, which would certainly be a sensible use of time and energy.
I guess it comes down to thinking about what impacts your current cleaning methods have on the environment and how you can reduce the impact without reducing the results.
MacGyvering Your Life is a regular series looking at ways we can incorporate aspects of MacGyer’s values, ethics and mindset into our own lives. we encourage feedback and discussion via the comments section below and if you would like to contribute with your own article you can contact us here.
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