Nancy Birtwhistle: ‘The cost savings of going green are tangible’

If you want to have a clean home, save money and help save the planet, Nancy Birtwhistle has the magic recipe for you.

Well, several magic recipes, actually.

Instead of focusing on recipes for home-baked goodies, the eco-friendly author, baker and influencer, who won the fifth series of The Great British Bake Off in 2014, is on a mission to encourage the nation to make their own ‘green’ cleaning products, ranging from her multi-purpose Pure Magic “beast of a cleaner”, to laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, stain removers, furniture polish and even dental retainer stain remover.

Grandmother-of-10 Birtwhistle started becoming more green-minded more than 10 years ago after seeing on TV how discarded plastic polluted the oceans.

“I think it was the [Sir David] Attenborough programmes that first raised my awareness, when you saw the plight of – especially aquatic life – affected by discarded plastic and I thought this was horrendous,” she says.

Since then, she has increasingly championed reducing the use of single-use plastics and harsh chemicals, and has been creating her own cleaning products using everyday, affordable ingredients like baking soda and white vinegar.

And as well as cookery books, she’s written books about eco-friendly living, and her latest is Clean Magic, in which she outlines her latest cleaning solution recipes, and urges everyone to try making them at home.

“Once you’ve made the switch and you see how good it is, and that you’re doing your bit for the planet, but fundamentally how much money you’re saving, you’ll never look back,” she promises.

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. I can, in my little house, do something to help every single day. And as well as the brilliant cleaning up of our homes, the cost savings of going green are tangible.”

The 71-year-old is urging people to turn their backs on expensive, brightly-packaged, single-use “harmful” cleaning products and try a natural way to clean instead, explaining that when she first went green, she set herself three objectives for any eco-friendly switches she suggested.

“The first thing was the switches have to be simple – if it gets too complicated, people aren’t going to do it. The second thing is they have to cost the same or less than I’m already spending on supermarket-own brands, and thirdly, and the most important, it has to work, otherwise people aren’t doing it.

“But there’s not a better feeling than walking down the cleaning aisle in the supermarket with an empty trolley, because you don’t need any of it.”

She started making her own cleaning products about 10 years ago, and says that over the years she’s tweaked her recipes to either improve performance, extend shelf life, or make the solutions go further.

“Obviously, the better I get at what I’m doing, the better the recipes become,” she says, explaining that most of the cleaning solution recipes in her book use the same or similar ingredients,  such as eco-friendly washing-up liquid (unperfumed without citrus scents), distilled white vinegar, citric acid, green bleach (sodium percarbonate), bicarbonate of soda, and washing soda (sodium carbonate).

“A few staple natural ingredients are absolutely all I ever need,” she says.

“When I look at reverse labels and what’s contained in food, cleaning products, cosmetics, you name it, I want to try and steer away from ingredients I don’t understand.

“For me, it’s become a lifestyle change. I used to buy all the products, I loved them, and all the perfumes, until I started to understand that those things are often made with synthetic chemicals. And there have been studies done all over now to show that breathing in synthetic chemicals, whether we’re cleaning or using sprays or deodorants or whatever it is, they’re not great for health.

“So it’s about looking at what we do, how we live our lives, and critically examining the products we buy. And if you can make it yourself, I’ll make it myself.”

Birtwhistle says she cleans her house every Saturday “from top to bottom”, but stresses: “I like a clean house, but I refuse to be a slave to it.

“I see some houses, especially on social media, and I think how do you keep them white and clean – these images of little children running around and the carpets are cream and all the furniture is white, and there might even be a dog there. And I’m thinking ‘You don’t live in the same world as me. That’s not real life’.

“A clean home has to be lived in – you can’t make everybody’s life a misery.”

Her advice to those thinking of switching to making their own cleaning solutions is to just start with one simple thing.

“Start slowly, with one item, and then let it grow from there. When something runs out, whether it be a polish or your toilet cleaner or bathroom cleaner, think ‘Right, I’m going to make this one myself from now on’.”

She suggests starting with her simple all-purpose spray. This was one of Birtwhistle’s first cleaning solution recipes, and she says it’s still often her ‘go-to’ for daily cleaning tasks.

To make it, you simply need to mix 60ml white vinegar, 150ml water, 40ml surgical spirit or cheap vodka, and 10 drops of essential oil (optional) in an empty spray bottle.

She explains: “That will clean the bathroom, paintwork, glass, mirrors – it’s got lots of uses. You can even spray on stains on your laundry before you pop them in the washing machine.

“So you’ve got a simple product that will replace probably four or five things.”

She suggests writing the ingredients on the back of the bottle, “and then you’re good to go.

“Once you embrace this new cleaning lifestyle change you will get to know the recipes and you can have a think yourself about what to try,” she says. “You will be delighted with the results. Most products have more than one use, and that is what is so fantastic about making your own.”

She’s very proud to say the cleaning solution recipes are all her own work, and explains: “I can honestly say, for those recipes I haven’t borrowed from anybody.  With lots of food recipes, you can look at another recipe and get inspiration from it, maybe tweak a few ingredients and that sort of thing, but with the cleaning recipes like Pure Magic,  Pure Magic Gel, Cream Cleaner, Basic Magic, they’re all out of my own head.

“They’ve not all been perfect from the start, and I’ve had to tweak them and mess about with them – the dishwasher detergent, for example, took me nearly 10 years to get right, but I know that it’s my work.

“I’m immensely proud. I think it’s become my life’s work.”

Clean Magic: Essential New Tricks for a Sparkling Green Home by Nancy Birtwhistle is published in hardback by One Boat, priced £15.99. Available February 19.