We tested Splosh – eco cleaning products with super-concentrated refills which come direct to you, through the post.

Read our Splosh cleaning products review to find out the Just Helpers‘ verdict and how it works.

Step One: Order your cleaning products online.

There’s a great range including kitchen and bathroom cleaner, laundry detergent and fabric conditioner, and washing up liquid, There’s even hand-wash and shower gel so you can wash yourself too! The products arrive through the post in durable plastic bottles, ready filled.

Step Two: Order Refills

When you’ve used up your products, you are ready to order your refills. It’s easy to order and there’s even an app so you can do it while you’re on the go.  The refills come in a super-concentrated, slim pouch which fits easily through the letterbox.  Conveniently releasing you to get on with your day rather than waiting in for the postman.

Step Three: Refill Your Bottles
Part fill your empty bottles with warm water, then add the concentrate and shake to mix. Each pouch is enough to refill your bottle several times.

Step Four: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
By refilling, Splosh claim you reduce your plastic waste by 90%. Yes, you heard it right! 90%! Plus – you can send the empty pouches back for recycling – which means a massive 97.5% reduction! If your reusable bottle breaks, Splosh will replace it for free.  All of this makes us smile here at Just Helpers.

The Just Helpers Verdict

Splosh products are easy to use and they smell great. We chose Clementine and Lemon Kitchen Cleaner, and Grapefruit Washing Up Liquid, which both have a lovely zingy, citrus fragrance. They cut through grease very effectively, and we found them kind on our hands, too.

We also tried the Spearmint and Melon Bathroom Cleaner. We loved the fresh minty fragrance, and it whizzed through the bathroom cleaning with ease – it even tackled limescale!  Sticking with the minty theme, we chose Mint and Green Tea Handwash – another fresh fragrance that was nice to use.

Refilling – Ordering refills was really simple, and they arrived quickly. We thought the packaging was well designed and it was great to see that the outer cardboard can also be recycled. Refilling our existing bottles was a very simple process, with clear instructions on the back of the concentrate pouch.

As well as the eco benefits, the concentrate pouches take up much less room in the cupboard than full size bottles – so you are saving space as well as saving the planet.

When it comes to cleaning, our Helpers have high standards. So who better to carry out a cleaning product review?

We asked our Just Helpers team to review Astonish Cleaning Products. Here’s the verdict.

Astonish Cleaning products are “cleaners with a conscience” – so they are perfect for Just Helpers! The products are approved by the Vegan Society . This means they contain no animal ingredients and are not tested on animals. Astonish are a UK family business, and part of their mission is to keep their road miles to a minimum. Their laboratories, manufacturing and packaging are all under one roof.

But do the products work? Our Just Helpers team put them to the test in some everyday cleaning tasks. Here’s what they said: 

Astonish Premium Edition Kitchen Cleaner (Citrus Grove)

• Tested in kitchen (including oven)
• Has a synthetic lemon smell
• Quite good at dealing with grease
• Effectiveness score 4/5

Astonish Premium Edition Multi-Surface Cleaner (Citrus Grove)

• Tested in kitchen and bathroom
• A lovely smell
• Good on grease
• Effectiveness score 3/5

Astonish Oven and Cookware Cleaner Paste

• Tested on oven and cookware
• Smells okay
• Less effective on old burnt-on grease
• Effectiveness score 3.5/5

Astonish Ultimate Limescale Remover

• Tested on bathroom and kitchen sink
• Smells lovely
• Effectiveness score 5/5
• Would definitely recommend – “Highly impressed!”

Astonish Bathroom Cleaner and Floor Cleaner

• Tested on bathroom and floors
• Lovely smell – “I’m really please with how Astonish smells”
• Effectiveness score 5/5 – “strong and very efficient”
• Definitely recommended – “I’ve already recommended it to a few of our customers”.

Astonish Window & Glass

• Tested in the kitchen
• Smell okay
• Effectiveness score 5/5
• Recommended

Astonish Mould and Mildew Blaster

• Tested in the bathroom
• Smells okay
• Effectiveness score 4/5
• Recommended

Overall verdict

We got some great comments about these products from our Just Helpers Team. Everyone agreed that the cleaning products were economical to use. They used about the amount they would expect, to get results.  Most of the team also liked the smell of the products.

Where to find Astonish Cleaning Products

We bought our Astonish products in Dunelm Mill, and Poundland. For more stockists, click here.

If your carpets are clean and smell fresh, it makes a big difference to your home.

Like many cleaning tasks, prevention is better than cure when it comes to carpets.

Regular Cleaning

Vacuuming your carpets regularly helps to keep them clean. It also reduces allergens such as house dust mites, pollen and pet dander.

Ideally, you should vacuum your carpets twice a week.  Focus on areas where crumbs and dust gather, such as under the dining table or around the sofa.

In high traffic areas such as the hall and stairs, you might want to vacuum more frequently to stop your carpets getting flattened and grimy.

Choosing a Vacuum Cleaner

You can’t beat cordless for convenience. Most cordless vacuum cleaners are lightweight too, so are perfect for the stairs. A cordless vacuum is perfect for a quick whizz around, but the on-board battery can mean you run out of power before you’ve finished the job. Most brands sell spare batteries, which allow you to have one on charge all the time.

A traditional corded vacuum cleaner (very much your Helper’s preference) gives you unlimited cleaning time, and they are often much cheaper to buy than the cordless versions. Look out for a model with a long power cable, especially if you have stairs. Always vacuum with the cleaner at the bottom of the stairs to avoid the risk of it falling onto you.

Make sure your vacuum cleaner has a good range of tools. Upholstery and pet attachments are particularly useful, and a turbo tool can give you an extra boost when you need it.

We remain stalwart supporters of the Miele range. Look out for Miele bargains around the summer sales.

Treating Spills and Stains

Look at any supermarket cleaning aisle and you will see a huge selection of stain removers for carpets. Always make sure you use a product that is suitable for your type of carpet, and do a patch test in an inconspicuous area, just in case.

For dried-in stains, use a sponge to dab the stain towards the centre. Don’t be tempted to rub too hard or you may make the stain bigger! Use a dry white cloth to blot the area, then leave to dry.

Eco Alternatives

Bicarbonate of soda is a great stand-by for dealing with spills or pet accidents.  It quickly neutralises nasty odours. Once you have removed the spillage from the carpet, sprinkle the dry powder over the affected area. Leave for an hour or two, then vacuum.

The Big Clean

Every six to twelve months it is well worth giving your carpets a deep clean by shampooing them. You can hire a machine from many DIY stores. Why not consider splitting the cost by sharing a weekend hire with a neighbour? I recently hired a Rug Doctor machine from my local supermarket. The whole process was surprisingly easy and gave my beige carpets a well-needed lease of life.

When you’re shampooing your carpets remember:

• Vacuum your carpets thoroughly before you begin
• Always read the instructions for the machine carefully
• Check the care instructions for your carpet and do a patch test first
• Use the correct cleaning solution for the machine
• Be careful not to make the carpet too wet
• Open windows when you have finished to let out the moisture, to avoid mildew.

Top Tips for Clean Carpets

• Choose your carpets carefully. If you are replacing carpets, avoid very pale colours, especially in high traffic areas such as halls and stairs. These colours might look beautiful when they are new, but they will show up every mark!
• Consider opting for carpets which are stain resistant.
• If you have young children or pets, this is especially important.
• Use barrier mats or rugs to protect carpets from muddy paws or food spills.
• Treat spills and stains immediately if you can – it will make them much easier to remove.
• Vacuum regularly to keep carpets looking their best.

If you’d prefer to relax and let us look after your carpets for you, contact us here to book your helper or let us arrange a service with one of our tried and trusted carpet cleaning partners.

Useful Links
Big Green Smile offer a range of eco-friendly carpet and floor cleaning products.
More tips here on shampooing, from Vax.

Hoping to take on an oven clean? Here’s a couple of tips we’ve gleaned from years of experience.

Everyone knows that smell.. the pool of a sticky or fatty spillage smoking in the bottom of the oven when it gets hot. Even if you haven’t got time to go for a thorough clean, get a few pieces of kitchen towel and mop up the worst of the spillage before you turn the oven on again – the more times you ‘cook’ that spillage the harder it will be to get off. Better still, prevent spillage by putting a baking tray underneath the usual suspects.

Stick it to the sticky stuff

A Which? Best Buy report from 2012 rates the leave-it-over-night gel cleaners as generally the best performers, heralding Oven Pride as the most widely available top product for its removal of tough baked on grime, a little bit of scrubbing will still be needed on the oven walls of course. In my time, when I had to get an oven done without the luxury of leaving it over night I used to use Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner and leave the spray foam to soak but this still requires a lot of elbow grease to help Mr. Muscle’s muscles along. All of these products use caustic chemicals to dissolve the dirt, leaving a very bad smell in the air and risk of damage to your clothes and any other surfaces that are not the inside of your oven. It can also mean that your oven will smell for a few days while the chemicals in your oven burn off, even with plenty of rinsing this is hard to avoid.

Eco alternatives

To eradicate the need for chemicals you must to start as you mean to go on: cleaning your oven on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Although there are many eco-alterntives on the market, none of them can cut through hard burnt on grease to the same extent as sodium alkyl ethoxy sulphate and sodium hydroxide.

There are a few brands who offer a mineral based paste that you can spread on and wipe off, normally made of a vegetable soap and mineral abrasive, here’s one from Astonish. Or you can make your own paste with bicarbonate of soda and ‘bake’ it on. If you are planning on doing the scrubbing regularly, you might want to soften the grime first by putting a bowl of water in the oven and setting it to 100℃ for 30 mins to steam, this also works well in microwave ovens on a short 4 or 5 minute setting.

Oven cleaning is one of our Helpful Add-on Services.

When you speak to your cleaning manager they can arrange for this to be added to an existing clean for an extra cost, some of our other add-ons include cleaning blinds, taking duvets to the laundry or washing down walls; those jobs that no-one ever seems to have the time to do.