If you want to make changes bit by bit towards living more naturally and eliminating artificial chemical methods of doing things, sometimes, it’s good to consider the way you live on a room by room basis. This list of tips and hints looks at the heart of the home: the kitchen. This is the place where food is prepared, and sometimes the eating as well. It is one of the most important rooms to keep clean and tidy. This list of tips doesn’t just include ways to eliminate toxic substances as much as possible from your environment; it also gives some suggestions for living more sustainably… which has its own effect of improving not just your immediate environment but the environment as a whole.

* Keep a dish of baking soda in the fridge to absorb strong odours. Change this frequently – use the old baking soda to clean the fridge out while you’re at it. Avoid using chlorine based products or ammonia based products to clean out the fridge, as these leave fumes that taint the food you eat.

* If you have a microwave, avoid covering food with plastic wrap or heating things in plastic. Some of the substances in the plastics can leach into your food during the heating process. Instead of covering a dish or bowl with plastic wrap, cover it with a china plate or with a paper towel. The china plate is the most sustainable option, as it can be re-used again. Microwave food in china, glass, wood or paper bags.

* Microfibre cloths (e.g. Enjo cloths) work wonders in the kitchen, especially for degreasing splashbacks and other places that get grease spatters during cooking.

* Soap gel can be used for a general house cleaning and to clean the floor well enough, but it doesn’t do too good a job when it comes to washing dishes, especially in hard water areas. Detergent will have to be used here. Ecover is the best bet here for sustainable eco-friendly options. Wear rubber gloves if you have sensitive skin (hint: cut up old rubber gloves once they develop holes to make rubber bands. As they are rubber, they break down easily, so any bits of rubber glove you don’t want to turn into rubber bands can go into the compost heap).

* Keep large quantities of baking soda and vinegar in your pantry. Buy it in bulk. These two substances will clean most things, including the inside of your oven (use the baking soda for this, plus a lot of time).

* Don’t use plastic chopping boards – bits of food and bacteria become trapped in the little nicks and scratches in the board. Use wooden ones – they can stand having boiling water poured over them to sterilize them. Have separate boards for meat and for vegetables – or else cut up raw meat and fish on an ordinary china plate and then wash it thoroughly.

* Use a sunny kitchen windowsill to grow herbs – you can’t get anything fresher than straight from the plant to the salad bowl or sandwich. Some herbs also help repel flies, especially basil.

* Use a spring-loaded mousetrap instead of laying poison baits for vermin.

* Keeping food in airtight containers and keeping the bench clear will help deter vermin of all species.

* Bayleaves in dry goods helps to deter ants, silverfish and the like.

* Avoid using flyspray in your kitchen. Instead, use sticky fly paper (make this from strips of tough paper soaked in golden syrup and hung up strategically), flyswats or high-voltage lights that attract the little beasties and zap them.

* Organize your rubbish system. Don’t just have one bin that everything goes into. Separate your rubbish out as appropriate. The basic system has three parts: compostables, recyclables and real rubbish. Depending on your household, you can also add in other bins for burnables (paper and cardboard to be made into briquettes or used as firestarters) and scraps for pet food – the number of bins needed here and what goes in the pet food bins depends on how many pets you have and what type. You may need to move the rubbish (etc.) bins out of the kitchen and into other parts of your home if the system gets too bulky.

* Go through all your cupboards and your refrigerator and get rid of the junky foods with too much sugar, processed starch, trans fats and artificial flavourings – you know what they are.

Replace them with plenty of herbs, spices, fruit, vegetables, complex carbs and whole foods. These aren’t as time consuming and boring as you may think: what could be quicker than a microwaved baked potato, some scrambled eggs, wholegrain crackers or a salad?