I recently took a look in my cupboard and found meths (methylated spirits) which I occasional use to wipe-down of benches, bicarbonate soda for soaking burnt saucepans and homemade detergent for clothes washing. 

I use safer products not only for household cleaning but for personal care as well. The hair shampoo and conditioner I use are special organic products, as is the face cream.

So, the volume and types of chemicals going out into the garden in the grey water from my kitchen and bathroom or out into the wastewater are very little indeed.

The other day I walked down the cleaning aisle in Franklin's supermarket, looking for a new mop-head, and I nearly choked on the smells. Terrible, if you are not used to them. 

Community Permaculture educator and author - Rosemary Morrow

Recently, I read an item in a newspaper that told of a man who cleaned his house extremely thoroughly for the arrival of his new baby. When the baby came home from hospital it got very ill. The hospital got on to it and found the cause to be the chemicals - the hospital had sprayed for spiders around the windows of the new babies ward and eight of them got sick with the same symptoms.

I'm far from being a baby, but when the smells in a supermarket make you gag? Another thing, and this is a big motivation, I hate shopping and the small and simpler the shopping list, the better. I buy plain soap... and that's about it.