For many years now we’ve used a variety of environmentally friendly products. We now take the opportunity of running The Barn Vegetarian Guest House as a way of testing out new ones and passing on information about them to our guests.

It’s a sad fact that so often many of the products just don’t live up to their toxic counterparts. Planet friendly Bleach, for example, is a poor relation to the traditional heavy duty stuff we all generally use. And distilled white vinegar really doesn’t shift limescale in the same way that the chemical version does.

So it’s wonderful when you find new eco products that are not only as good but sometimes better than their damaging cousins. Let me share with you a couple of examples. We’ve recently converted to the Enjo cleaning range. Enjo use sophisticated fibre technology to make a wide range of cloths and cleaners that work brilliantly. To be honest I don’t know how they work so well – it’s a bit of eco magik like the lump of stainless steel we have in our dishwasher that stops it smelling. But Enjo saves huge amounts of chemicals, water and packaging and the results are really impressive. True, the initial outlay is a lot but the cloths (a very superior version of the e-cloth) last for years and can be washed over and over. So overall Enjo probably saves money in the long run.

Another great little gadget we’ve found is Interflush. This was invented by a wonderful man from Yorkshire as a way of dramatically cutting down on water usage. It allows you to control pretty precisely the amount of water you use each time you flush the loo. It only works with siphon cisterns (those with a front handle rather than a push button). We’re on a water meter and our bill has reduced by around 20% since installing these devices. So hundreds of litres of water have been saved and the Interflushes have more than paid for themselves.

Do you have any gadgets, products or ideas to share?