A Nancy Birtwhistle cleaning staple. We get this from SESI, a workers’ cooperative based in Oxfordshire. It’s £9.60/kg, and ethically sourced. Bring an old ice cream tub or similar, and fill it up with this cleaning basic. 2 teaspoons in a cup of hot water will work wonders in many situations.

We have product safety labels for you to apply to the container. If you buy it loose online, for delivery, it will come in a labelled brown paper bag.

It’s a chelator, which means it will descale your loo, lift stains from clothes and so much more.

Other staple ingredients - cleaning bicarb, cleaning vinegar, percarbonate of soda (‘oxygen’ or ‘green’ bleach - are in our household cleaning section.

Here’s some ideas from Nancy Birtwhistle and from an article in the Guardian also about her cleaning methods.