You can buy Method Toilet Cleaner from our natural products online store

Being part of Method’s cleaning product range, the Eucalyptus Mint Bowl Patrol of course looks fantastic! It’s a really unique bottle shape that looks like it’s been designed to clean the Queen’s toilet and anything less would be an insult to it. The design is not without its disadvantages though; the bottle does take up a fair amount of space (it can’t be neatly hidden under you sink, but perhaps that’s not a bad thing for this product) and it doesn’t quite fit in the hand correctly, not an issue if you have dry hands, but being a professional cleaner often my hands will be a little damp and I fear I’ll one day be fishing this out of someone’s toilet bowl. As this product is non-toxic there is no need for a security lid, instead there is a screw cap, making it nice and simple to use. I’ll explain in a moment why I think this works great on this particular product.

The main cleaning ingredient to combat the dirt appears to be lactic acid (produced from plants). Method claim that this toilet cleaner “removes ring-around-the-rim, deep cleans, deodorises and decalcifies – naturally�. Given plenty of time perhaps they’re right, however I find that toilet cleaners need to work fairly quickly else they’ll get washed away by the next user, which unfortunately it doesn’t. If you’re looking for a green deep toilet cleaning product then keep looking, but if you’re after something to use as a regular toilet cleaner for light dirt then this is more then adequate to do the job.

This product has a eucalyptus mint scent, which undesirably is from a synthetic perfume. I would normally explain how I don’t see the point of perfumes in cleaning products but this is probably the only place that it works really well. The scent lasts for as long as I have been able to leave the product down my toilet and it smells great, even if the rest of the room is a pit, the scent covers it up and makes the toilet smell exactly how a clean, disinfected bathroom should smell. As mentioned above the screw cap has an additional bonus; when you find you are nearing the end of this product try leaving the bottle in the room with the cap unscrewed. This will slowly let out a fresh clean scent all day giving the impression the room has just been deep cleaned by a professional.

There are pros and cons to the actual cleaning solution. It’s fairly thick so thankfully means it wont come flowing out of the top as soon as you turn it to it’s side, however it clumps together too much that you either have to spray some around and then use a brush to evenly cover the whole bowl, or use a lot to ensure you get an even clean, quickly increasing the cost. The light shade of blue is a great choice as it allows you to easily see any areas missed.

When the price of Method’s Bowl Patrol toilet cleaner is compared to other eco-friendly toilet cleaners (~£3 compared to £1.50-£2) it’s a little on the expensive side. Other eco-friendly toilet cleaners can do just as good of a job, however i am yet to find one that has as good of a scent as this which is just where it’s needed. The cleaner is great for light dirt and it has a really great unique design. I am willing to spend the extra money to get a product I can show off to my customers and be happy knowing that when they return home it will be to a clean smelling bathroom, so this is defiantly one green cleaning product that is in my cleaning box.

You can buy Method Toilet Cleaner from our natural products online store

Given our love for Method’s products and the increasing success they have had over the last few years it made sense to review one of their cleaning products. Method’s Pink Grapefruit All Purpose Cleaner was one of the first products we chose to try as it’s fairly low price (~£3) with many uses, so if we didn’t like it we knew it’ll only be around for a short time and not sitting under our sink collecting dust.

The Design

As with all Method cleaning products the first thing we noticed was how stylish it looks. It’s pink (though unfortunately because of a dye), the labeling is modern and simple, and the bottle is not the typical shape; it’s perhaps not the best design for usability and appears more focused on being nice on your shelf then nice in your hand, but none the less it does it’s job well enough for minimal use. I like that it’s a larger size bottle then i’m used to; 828ml compared to the normal 500ml.

How Green is it?

In what appears to be a way to increase the products visual appeal, the label is kept fairly simple and as a result the list of ingredients are slightly lacking on the back, however Method have been kind enough to have it easy to find on their website. An absolute must from the green cleaning products that we use is for them to be non-toxic; this all purpose cleaner ticks all the correct boxes and more. It doesn’t contain any nasties such as acids, chlorine, phosphates, etc, so it’s nice and green, but one thing I found when doing a bit of research is that it isn’t 100% hypoallergenic.

“Because method contains natural ingredients such as Chinese ginger and chamomile essential oils, it is not 100% hypoallergenic. However, method formulas are particularly mild compared to most common cleaners and will generally not bother those with most types of allergies. If you have a specific allergy and need more information, please contact us directly via phone or email.�

While the pink grapefruit scent is fairly nice, there’s a strange after-scent that wasn’t too appealing and perhaps their french lavender all purpose cleaner would have been a better choice. One thing I do have to say is I’m lost when it comes to prefumes in cleaning products. Although they may smell nice when being used, the only person who will smell them is the cleaner and it’s only momentary as the smell quickly dissipates.

It’s Green, but can it Clean?

We tested this on most surfaces you’d find around your house, such as kitchen surfaces, tables, bathroom surfaces. This product cleans using a different method, rather than chemically degrading the dirt (and your hands) it absorbs the dirt. Given a few moments to soak in, Method’s Pink Graprefruit All Purpose Cleaner can clean a surface fairly well; you simple spray, leave for a few seconds, then wipe off (though it’s non toxic so it’s safe to leave on). It works well on cleaning surfaces that have light daily dirt, but heavier dried on dirt becomes a little bit more tricky. Small amounts of grease is easily removed but this is mostly because of the power of microfibre cloths used and thats about as far as it goes. I did try using the Method’s Pink Grapefruit All Purpose Cleaner in the shower, but was not pleased by its performance.  It didn’t do much to remove soap scum build-up nor did it do much for the general cleaning of the tub.

Overall Experience

Method’s Pink Grapefruit All Purpose Cleaner requires a good amount of elbow grease, but it’s worth the effort to be green. I’m not a fan on un-nessasery perfumes and dyes in products and also style over usability which appears to be exactly what Method prefer. It doesn’t make the product bad in anyway, however you end up paying extra for a product to be designed in a fashionable way which seems a waste of money when it’s simply a cleaning product.

Will I buy it again?

This was bought as a test product and it shall remain as one. There are far better alternatives that match our own ideas for green cleaning products. Method appear to be focused on bringing the cleaning products out from under the sink and onto the shelf (minimal label, the use of dyes and perfumes, the bottle design, etc) and this product is in keeping with their goals.

I’d reccomend it but only as it’s easily available in offline stores such as Homebase and Tesco which is rare for green cleaning products.