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Green Housekeeping: Recipes and solutions for a cleaner, more sustainable home
Christina Strutt of Cabbages & Roses reveals how to have a calmer, healthier, eco-friendly home.
Saving the planet for future generations is a laudable aim, but what about the current populace? Why wait when even quite small lifestyle changes can make a big difference now? Green Housekeeping is full of advice and information to help you take a more sustainable path. Recycling, reusing, and shopping at farmers’ markets are a good start, but cutting down on the use of poisonous chemicals is just as important—it’s perfectly possible to clean a house using nothing more than lemons, baking soda, vinegar, and plain water. Here old-fashioned methods are complemented by newer ideas and innovations, and applied not only to cleaning but also to caring for clothes, furniture, and even silver and glassware. Growing some of your own vegetables, fruit, and herbs can be very satisfying, and you can use any extras to make jams, oils, and chutneys using the handy tips and delicious recipes. Make beauty preparations and bath oils, too, for soothing, effective treatments to enhance everyday health and wellbeing. To become eco-friendly doesn’t require self-sacrifice—just some readjustment; and by following the advice in this invaluable guide you will find yourself living a calmer, greener life.
Saving the planet for future generations is a laudable aim, but what about the current populace? Why wait when even quite small lifestyle changes can make a big difference now? Green Housekeeping is full of advice and information to help you take a more sustainable path. Recycling, reusing, and shopping at farmers’ markets are a good start, but cutting down on the use of poisonous chemicals is just as important—it’s perfectly possible to clean a house using nothing more than lemons, baking soda, vinegar, and plain water. Here old-fashioned methods are complemented by newer ideas and innovations, and applied not only to cleaning but also to caring for clothes, furniture, and even silver and glassware. Growing some of your own vegetables, fruit, and herbs can be very satisfying, and you can use any extras to make jams, oils, and chutneys using the handy tips and delicious recipes. Make beauty preparations and bath oils, too, for soothing, effective treatments to enhance everyday health and wellbeing. To become eco-friendly doesn’t require self-sacrifice—just some readjustment; and by following the advice in this invaluable guide you will find yourself living a calmer, greener life.
192 pages, Paperback
Published August 13, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 23, 2020
Recently I've been interested in a more sustainable or zero waste lifestyle so I was excited to get this book for Christmas, though unfortunately it ended up being quite disappointing for a variety of reasons.
Some of this is just due to the fact that I'm already aware of a lot of the points covered so they weren't of as much use to me as to someone who's more recently gotten into sustainable living, and some is admittedly due to my own bias. Initially I started out enjoying the book but then Strutt starts complaining of dangerous undetermined 'chemicals', 'detoxing' (your kidneys and other organs manage this fine by themselves, and if they don't you need more than some celery water to help you) and not wanting to use things which she doesn't fully understand. This is a fairly common strand of reasoning in these sort of circles, where people use their own ignorance to say that something they don't understand is 'bad' and shouldn't be used. This is obviously fine as a personal choice, but this is also the advice in a book that she's charging £15 for. Strutt says that she's not an expert in this field which again is fine, but if she's going to charge you then she really needs to show her working and research, and sadly with a few exceptions like a study showing that wooden chopping boards are more hygienic than plastic ones, she doesn't. There are now so many people making blogs and youtube videos (for free) who have training, jobs in sustainability or at least show their sources, that you have to wonder what Strutt is offering that you couldn't easily find elsewhere.
Whilst some of the lack of sources is annoying others are actively worrying. In the pet section it recommends adding vinegar to your pet's water bowl to kill fleas, however a simple Google search suggest that for cats this may be actively dangerous and PetMD, a presumably reliable website, says that this isn't even effective for dogs. Even worse is the Healthcare section which begins with the contradictory points that you should get advice from a herbalist before using herbal remedies, but also says that herbalist isn't a protected term and herbalists may not have any professional or accurate medical training. If that's the case then how can she put them down as a source of information about people's health? Even if she did tell people to speak to an actual doctor (and in a more prominent position than hidden next to the publishing date info) she must know that most people aren't going to bother and will just take her word as gospel. In that case she really needs to reference the advice of a well-respected and reliable medical body which unfortunately she does not. Taking St John's Wort as an example I was pleasantly surprised to see that the NHS website also backs its use for cases of mild and moderate depression, but at the same time she also fails to mention the evidence that it inhibits hormonal contraceptives, an issue which has been talked about online for some time.
There are several other omissions which just seem bizarre. She makes no mention of adopting a more plant-based diet, instead of encouraging people to shop at the local butchers, most likely because she probably eats meat herself. With the exception of a brief mention hidden in the appendix, she also doesn't talk about buying clothes second-hand, instead suggesting that people buy from sustainable shops. These are obviously better than buying from fast fashion stores but still seems like an odd choice until you remember that she owns a sustainable clothing brand and it isn't in her best interests to encourage people to stop buying new clothes.
Some omissions are likely due to the age of the book. Whilst this version was published in 2019 it was originally published in 2008 under the name Cabbages and Roses Guide To Natural Housekeeping, and it seems that it hasn't been updated in that time. There is no mention of zero waste shops which have become increasingly popular in the last few years, reusable period products, and in the energy section it says that Good Energy is Britain's only 100% renewable energy supplier despite the fact that the renewable companies Bulb and Octopus Energy were established in 2015, 4 years before this version was published.
Other issues which don't fit these points include recommending grass lawns rather than decking despite the fact that lawns take lot of water to maintain and are poor for biodiversity, using lemon juice on the skin despite the fact that this can cause severe blistering in the sun, and even suggesting questionable skin 'lightening' treatments.
A lot of the suggestions also tend towards more affluent readers, and whilst it's obviously fine to have ideas that can be used by a wide variety of people including those on higher incomes, installing solar panels & wind turbines or harvesting wood for log burners are laughably inaccessible to the huge numbers of people who rent and/or live in flats.
It's easy to fall down the rabbit hole of nitpicking this book to death, but there are some genuinely useful or at least interesting ideas, particularly the cleaning section which details every single use for distilled vinegar and baking soda (though the chapter could certainly be condensed), using newspaper to make plant pots and several nice sounding recipes. Even some tips that you're unlikely to be able to do are at least interesting, such as drying clothes on lavender bushes to give them a fresh scent.
This review contains a lot of complaining, but it's frustrating that in the 11 years since this book was first published it doesn't seem like Strutt has gone back to update her work or add any more research, instead sticking with a stereotypically inaccessible and privileged view of sustainability which I'd hoped the movement had outgrown. If you want to learn more about sustainability there are plenty of good people on youtube (I'd recommend Sustainably Vegan and Shelbizzle but there are many others), and definitely don't waste your money on buying this book new, it isn't worth the resources.
To balance out all the whinging above, I'm going to add Amy's Top 5 Sustainable Tips that, whilst less aesthetic are more useful than a lot of things in this book:
1. Vote for politicians with green policies. I know, it's not a cute and aesthetic point, but it'll have a more wide reaching impact than going to the farmers market to buy organic celery.
2. Reduce your consumption. Before buying new things ask yourself if you really need this item or do you already have something that can do the same job. Only buy it if you're unable to borrow or buy the item 2nd hand, and try to buy from an ethical/sustainable/local source if possible. This is obviously hugely dependant on your financial situation/accessibilty/lifestyle/disability etc.
3. Try to reduce your consumption of animal products particulary beef. Even if you can't (currently) go full vegetarian/vegan, every little helps.
4. Switch to a renewable energy company/tariff.
5. Reduce traveling by plane or car and instead opt for public transport/cycling/walking. Again, this is obviously hugely dependant on accessibility/disability/work/family etc.
Bonus point: If you have periods look into reusable period products, whilst there is a larger upfront cost they save you money in the long run and also save on a lot of waste.
Some of this is just due to the fact that I'm already aware of a lot of the points covered so they weren't of as much use to me as to someone who's more recently gotten into sustainable living, and some is admittedly due to my own bias. Initially I started out enjoying the book but then Strutt starts complaining of dangerous undetermined 'chemicals', 'detoxing' (your kidneys and other organs manage this fine by themselves, and if they don't you need more than some celery water to help you) and not wanting to use things which she doesn't fully understand. This is a fairly common strand of reasoning in these sort of circles, where people use their own ignorance to say that something they don't understand is 'bad' and shouldn't be used. This is obviously fine as a personal choice, but this is also the advice in a book that she's charging £15 for. Strutt says that she's not an expert in this field which again is fine, but if she's going to charge you then she really needs to show her working and research, and sadly with a few exceptions like a study showing that wooden chopping boards are more hygienic than plastic ones, she doesn't. There are now so many people making blogs and youtube videos (for free) who have training, jobs in sustainability or at least show their sources, that you have to wonder what Strutt is offering that you couldn't easily find elsewhere.
Whilst some of the lack of sources is annoying others are actively worrying. In the pet section it recommends adding vinegar to your pet's water bowl to kill fleas, however a simple Google search suggest that for cats this may be actively dangerous and PetMD, a presumably reliable website, says that this isn't even effective for dogs. Even worse is the Healthcare section which begins with the contradictory points that you should get advice from a herbalist before using herbal remedies, but also says that herbalist isn't a protected term and herbalists may not have any professional or accurate medical training. If that's the case then how can she put them down as a source of information about people's health? Even if she did tell people to speak to an actual doctor (and in a more prominent position than hidden next to the publishing date info) she must know that most people aren't going to bother and will just take her word as gospel. In that case she really needs to reference the advice of a well-respected and reliable medical body which unfortunately she does not. Taking St John's Wort as an example I was pleasantly surprised to see that the NHS website also backs its use for cases of mild and moderate depression, but at the same time she also fails to mention the evidence that it inhibits hormonal contraceptives, an issue which has been talked about online for some time.
There are several other omissions which just seem bizarre. She makes no mention of adopting a more plant-based diet, instead of encouraging people to shop at the local butchers, most likely because she probably eats meat herself. With the exception of a brief mention hidden in the appendix, she also doesn't talk about buying clothes second-hand, instead suggesting that people buy from sustainable shops. These are obviously better than buying from fast fashion stores but still seems like an odd choice until you remember that she owns a sustainable clothing brand and it isn't in her best interests to encourage people to stop buying new clothes.
Some omissions are likely due to the age of the book. Whilst this version was published in 2019 it was originally published in 2008 under the name Cabbages and Roses Guide To Natural Housekeeping, and it seems that it hasn't been updated in that time. There is no mention of zero waste shops which have become increasingly popular in the last few years, reusable period products, and in the energy section it says that Good Energy is Britain's only 100% renewable energy supplier despite the fact that the renewable companies Bulb and Octopus Energy were established in 2015, 4 years before this version was published.
Other issues which don't fit these points include recommending grass lawns rather than decking despite the fact that lawns take lot of water to maintain and are poor for biodiversity, using lemon juice on the skin despite the fact that this can cause severe blistering in the sun, and even suggesting questionable skin 'lightening' treatments.
A lot of the suggestions also tend towards more affluent readers, and whilst it's obviously fine to have ideas that can be used by a wide variety of people including those on higher incomes, installing solar panels & wind turbines or harvesting wood for log burners are laughably inaccessible to the huge numbers of people who rent and/or live in flats.
It's easy to fall down the rabbit hole of nitpicking this book to death, but there are some genuinely useful or at least interesting ideas, particularly the cleaning section which details every single use for distilled vinegar and baking soda (though the chapter could certainly be condensed), using newspaper to make plant pots and several nice sounding recipes. Even some tips that you're unlikely to be able to do are at least interesting, such as drying clothes on lavender bushes to give them a fresh scent.
This review contains a lot of complaining, but it's frustrating that in the 11 years since this book was first published it doesn't seem like Strutt has gone back to update her work or add any more research, instead sticking with a stereotypically inaccessible and privileged view of sustainability which I'd hoped the movement had outgrown. If you want to learn more about sustainability there are plenty of good people on youtube (I'd recommend Sustainably Vegan and Shelbizzle but there are many others), and definitely don't waste your money on buying this book new, it isn't worth the resources.
To balance out all the whinging above, I'm going to add Amy's Top 5 Sustainable Tips that, whilst less aesthetic are more useful than a lot of things in this book:
1. Vote for politicians with green policies. I know, it's not a cute and aesthetic point, but it'll have a more wide reaching impact than going to the farmers market to buy organic celery.
2. Reduce your consumption. Before buying new things ask yourself if you really need this item or do you already have something that can do the same job. Only buy it if you're unable to borrow or buy the item 2nd hand, and try to buy from an ethical/sustainable/local source if possible. This is obviously hugely dependant on your financial situation/accessibilty/lifestyle/disability etc.
3. Try to reduce your consumption of animal products particulary beef. Even if you can't (currently) go full vegetarian/vegan, every little helps.
4. Switch to a renewable energy company/tariff.
5. Reduce traveling by plane or car and instead opt for public transport/cycling/walking. Again, this is obviously hugely dependant on accessibility/disability/work/family etc.
Bonus point: If you have periods look into reusable period products, whilst there is a larger upfront cost they save you money in the long run and also save on a lot of waste.
September 12, 2024
I like the optimistic tone of the book, and I think the advice is mostly good. I don't know if you should put vinegar in your pets' water or visit herbal healers who might not be qualified to help you, but I think that reusing items and trying to buy locally is smart. I would recommend this book, but take everything with a grain of salt.
September 5, 2019
The photos were pretty....and the ideas were cool, but in no way is this close to my lifestyle where I could do some of these. I appreciate it, though.
September 22, 2019
Very good household cleaning tips and recipes. Possible purchase.
January 29, 2021
An excellent book if you are moving to the countryside or just want to live in a more sustainable way.
I really enjoyed the chapter about medicinal plants and harvesting and storing.
I really enjoyed the chapter about medicinal plants and harvesting and storing.
December 11, 2021
this is 100% my shit
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews