Citric Acid Powder gives you the ability to tackle some of the most difficult cleaning tasks in the house – limescale and grease. Citric acid makes descaling your kettle, cleaning your shower screen, your taps and toilets easier than ever. Plus citric acid easily biodegrades, doesn’t emit noxious fumes and most people can use it for their cleaning tasks without the need for rubber gloves. We love our citric acid so much that we have packed it in compostable and resealable pouches.

Citric Acid Powder gives you the ability to tackle some of the most difficult cleaning tasks in the house - especially limescale and grease. Citric acid makes descaling your kettle, cleaning your shower screen, your taps and toilets easier than ever. Plus citric acid easily biodegrades, doesn't emit noxious fumes and most people can use it for their cleaning tasks without the need for rubber gloves. As a responsible business we pack our citric acid powder  in compostable and resealable pouches.

INGREDIENTS Citric acid powder (anhydrous)

Citric acid is an organic acid made commonly from citrus fruits - it is commonly used as a food ingredient, acidity regular and preservative in both food and cosmetics. It is also invaluable as a natural cleaning agent.

How to Use Citric Acid as a Cleaner

Either use directly at point of use when extra cleaning power is required, just sprinkle some onto your cleaning cloth.

Make a solution in hot water. The citric acid powder will easily dissolve. Here are some tasks to get you started.

Never mix citric acid with chemical cleaners.

Descale a kettle with citric acid

Normal kettle descalers require you to boil a whole kettle of water with the descaling chemical, and then you reboil a whole kettle of water to help rinse the kettle. Even after this your coffee might still have a chemical taint.

Try using citric acid  which I believe is better in ever way and certainly cheaper than specialist descalers.

This is my method.

When you boil the kettle to make tea, add an extra 1/2 litre of water of your kettle

To the remain 1/2 litre of just boiled water, add 2 tablespoons of citric acid powder.

Re-boil the kettle. At this point all the limescale is removed. Tip the contents away.

Swill the kettle out with tap water. Job done.

I descale my kettle once a week and it is so fast and easy that I can do it while I am waiting for a pot of tea to brew!

Make a Descaling, Cleaning and Deodorizing Toilet Cleaner

Conventional toilet cleaners are full of a cocktail of chemicals. They are toxic to the environment, create toxic air in your home and dangerous to keep in the house if you have children or pets. Plus they come in plastic bottles - even if your are the perfect recycled, only about 9% of what you put in your recycling bin is currently actually being recycled.  Make your own safe toilet cleaner. More eco friendly toilet blocks are available, but they only clean the area where the water rests, not the jets and rim where germs and limescale accumulate.

This is my tried and tested toilet descaler / cleaner recipe.

Into either spray bottle or a squeezy bottle, or even a plastic bottle with a jet cap (perhaps an empty chemical toilet cleaner bottle) add...

1. 1 tsp hemp oil soap - this  soap is naturally antibacterial detergent and it has fast deodorising properties. The soap will also leave a slippery trace on the inside of the toilet bowl which makes it difficult for limescale to adhere.
2. 1/4 of hot water (don't use boiling water because it will damage the container) - this is to dissolve the soap which comes in a concentrated gel for
3. 2 heaped tbs citric acid - this will dissolve the limescale
4. warm water to top up the bottle.

Simply add the hemp oil soap to the bottle. The tip of a knife is useful for this. Add the hot water. Close the lid and shake well. The aim is to completely dissolve the hemp oil soap. The liquid will go cloudy.

Now add the citric acid. I make a cone shaped funnel from a piece of paper and add 1 tablespoon of citric acid at a time.

Once you have done this, top up with hot water, put the lid on and give it all a good shale. It is ready to use.

How to use citric acid and detergent toilet cleaner

If you live in a hard water area, the only way to prevent limescale build up is to use the toilet cleaner after each toilet flush. The most efficient way to use the cleaner is to squirt some on the top of the toilet brush bristles and apply first to the underside of the water jets. If you can keep the water jets limescale free the toilet will flush more efficiently and less limescale will build up. Take the side of the toilet brush around the rim and then around the bowl and around the water level
Once a day add a squirt of toilet cleaner to the toilet brush bristles and brush the lower part of the pan under the water level.

Using citric acid to clean taps, shower fittings and sinks

Use the same mixture as before and use a with a scrubby (heavy duty eco cleaning pads with stiff fibres). The scrubby will help you to clean the details such as the joint between the tap and the basin, around the edge of the plug hole, the plug - they are remarkable versatile. Polish the taps afterwards with our lint free cleaning cloth.

Using citric acid to clean the shower screen

Shower screens get splattered with limescale and and oils and fats from the body. To clean them easily you will need to make up a detergent that contains a limescale remover, something to remove the fatty deposits and a cutting agent to help the mixture get through the layers of film which have built up.

For this shower screen cleaning solution mix the following in a bowl, small bucket or jug:

• About 50mls of soapnuts solution (a dried soapy  tree fruit) - place a small handful of organic soapnuts in a bowl or jug and cover in hot water. Leave until the soapnuts release an amber coloured detergent. This soapnut solution will degrease the shower, help to cut through the limescale and most importantly leave the shower screen super shiny. The hemp oil soap would on the other hand leave a film!
• 2 tablespoons of citric acid
• If you have glass shower screen, add 1 teaspoon of walnut shell power to give this cleaning solution extra grist.
• Add about 300ml of hot water - the solution should have bubbles on the surface.
• Get your scrubby ready to launch into action

My trials have been done using this mixture and scrubby. This is how it went. I made my shower cleaning solution up, applied it to both sides of my glass shower screen. Already the screen was looking nearly clean. I reapplied the solution and by the time I had done both sides, it was ready to rinse. I rinsed it with the lint free cloth and dried it with a rubber squeegee. I was shocked the first time I did this at the speed of the technique.

Basics about cleaning with citric acid

For most cleaning tasks, you will need to rinse the surface after using any of the recipes above. The interior part of the toilet bowl is the exception where you want traces of the toilet cleaning mixture to remain inside the bowl to reduce limescale build up.

Not suitable for cleaning marble or stone surfaces
Not suitable for cleaning laptop, tablet or phone screens.

Eco Swaps

Please swap out household bleach for citric acid. I can't think of anything that bleach can do that citric acid can't do. Bleach is very dangerous to use and it does effect your health. Bleach is made from the organochloride group of chemicals and these can take centuries to decompose.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441921/ Please try Citric Acid in place of bleach.

Packaging

These resealable pouches are made from kraft paper, cellulose and starch. They are designed to be industrially compostable. You should be able to add them to your recycling bin, but you might want to check with your council first.

Storage

Keep the packaging dry and reseal between uses

WARNING

Keep away from children and pets
Keep away from eyes. If you do get this in your eye rinse with copious amounts of fresh water.
Keep packet sealed between uses.