Tips for energy efficient cleaning at home
- Published in
- Living Green
- on
- Sep 12, 2025
A lot of effort goes into domestic cleaning, and you may also be surprised as to the amount of energy that also goes into cleaning.
As you know, electricity is created with the buring of fossil fuels. As such, domestic cleaning acts such as turning on your vaccuum cleaner, heating water and almost evey other process in your house, releases carbon dioxide emissions into the air.
By reducing the amount of energy that you use up as a household, you can reduce the negative impact that you have on the planet.
Here are some ways you can reduce the amount of energy you use when cleaning your household:
When vacuuming, try to limit the amount of time that the vacuum cleaner is left on. Do as much as you possibly can manually by moving things out of the way, and sweeping before you even get the vacuum out. If you need to move something half way through the process, turn the vacuum cleaner off, instead of leaving it running for a second.
When cleaning with water, you don’t always need it to be hot. For example, wiping down surfaces with a sponge, or rinsing out a cloth will not require hot water, so just use cold water and save that little bit of energy in not having to heat the water.
Sometimes, using energy is simply being a little lazy. For instance, do you really need to dry your clothing in the dryer, when you could be hanging it out in the sun? Being able to understand when you are using energy unnecessarily is a big part of ensuring that there things are kept down to their minimum.
If you do your domestic cleaning in a timely manner, then you will be able to reduce the need for larger, more energy hungry cleaning services. For instance, attending to stains on the sofa immediately will give you more of a chance of getting rid of them, and that will reduce the need for steam cleaning. Upholstery cleaning and carpet cleaning are expensive and also use a lot of energy. You will find that reducing the need for this kind of service will mean that you will save money while also reducing the energy use and the environmental impact of domestic cleaning has.