TrendingUpdated for March 2026

You've Switched Your Cleaning Spray. But Is That Actually Enough?

Most people stop at the spray. Here's why that's only the beginning.

BY CLAIRE MORGAN | UPDATED: MARCH 2026 | TESTED BY JAMES WHITFIELD, PRODUCT TESTING MANAGER

Cleaning spray mist particles in a bathroom — chemical exposure during routine cleaning
ShieldChemical-Free Formulas
GlobeFull Transparency
HeartPlant-Based Ingredients
LockIndependent Testing

If you've already moved away from mainstream cleaning sprays, you're ahead of most households.

The big brands — your Dettols, your Flashes, your Zofloras — use a chemical called benzalkonium chloride to kill bacteria.

Every time you pull the trigger on one of those bottles, you're sending a fine mist of it into the air around you.

Research measuring air samples during a typical bathroom clean found those particles sitting in the breathing zone at levels high enough to inhale, not just touch.

Add in the heavy fragrance chemicals most of them use, and you've got a product that actively loads your indoor air with chemicals every single time you clean.

So if you've moved on from those, that's great.

The question now is which of the genuinely cleaner alternatives is actually worth your money, and whether there's a real difference between them.

Two products dominate this space in the UK right now. Purdy & Figg Counter Clean and Dip Multi-Purpose Cleaning Sheets.

Both have built real followings and are honest about what's in them.

Neither contains those disinfectant chemicals or hormone-disrupting compounds, so put either of them next to a mainstream spray and you've made a clear upgrade.

But they're not the same product, and the difference matters more than most people realise.


The Problem Nobody Talks About: The Three-Source Problem

Most people, when they think about cleaning up their home's chemical load, think about the spray under the sink.

That's understandable. It's the most visible product. It's the one you're actively spraying into the air. But it's only one of three major chemical sources running in the average UK home, and switching it while leaving the other two untouched is a bit like fixing a leak in one pipe while two others are still dripping.

The three sources of household chemical exposure — spray, laundry, and dishwasher
1

Your Cleaning Spray

The most visible product. You're actively spraying chemicals into the air every time you use it. This is the one most people switch first.

2

Your Laundry Detergent

Fragrance compounds in mainstream laundry liquids don't fully rinse out. They're designed to linger on fabric — released into the air around your family all day, through clothes, bedding, and towels. You're not just wearing them. You're breathing them.

3

Your Dishwasher

Heated cycles push chemicals from detergents into your kitchen air multiple times a week. Most households never connect that to what they're using inside the machine.

AlertThe Three-Source Problem

Switch your spray and do nothing else, and you've dealt with one source. The other two are still running. This is why so many households who've already made the switch to cleaner products still feel like they haven't quite cracked it. Both products in this comparison solve source one. Only one of them solves all three.


TrophyBest Surface Spray
Purdy & Figg Counter Clean — premium glass bottle with plant-based concentrate

Purdy & Figg Counter Clean

Purdy & Figg started in a garage in Hertfordshire in 2018, when a nurse and a horticulturalist got fed up with toxic products in single-use plastic bottles and decided to build something genuinely better. They spent four years developing the formula, testing over 670 plant-based ingredients before landing on what became Counter Clean.

Counter Clean is a concentrate system. A small glass vial mixed with tap water in a reusable glass bottle gives you around 230 sprays of multi-surface cleaner. No single-use plastic, no measuring, nothing to spill. The cleaning agents are plant-derived, and the formula contains no disinfectant chemicals, no hormone disruptors, no triclosan.

  • CheckPure essential oil blends — citrus, floral, vetiver, chamomile & seasonal options
  • CheckWorks on glass, stone, wood, metal, and sealed surfaces
  • Check300,000+ UK customers and 20,000+ Trustpilot reviews (4.3★ avg)
  • CheckReusable glass bottle — zero single-use plastic

If you want the best-smelling, most premium surface cleaner available in the UK right now, it's very hard to look past Purdy & Figg. The scents are exceptional, the format is beautiful, and the following they've built is completely well deserved. Customers consistently describe their homes smelling like a spa after using it.

£6.80 per bottle on subscription.

Shop Purdy & Figg Counter CleanArrow

AwardOur #1 Pick — Solves All Three Sources
Dip Home Detox Bundle — multi-purpose cleaner, laundry sheets, and dishwasher sheets

Dip Multi-Purpose Cleaning Sheets

Dip approaches the problem differently. Instead of a liquid concentrate, it's a dissolvable sheet. Drop one into a reusable glass bottle, fill with water, shake, and you have 300ml of multi-purpose cleaner ready to go. No plastic packaging, no measuring, nothing to spill.

The ingredient profile is clean across the board. No disinfectant chemicals, no hormone-disrupting compounds, no triclosan, no phthalates. The surfactants are plant-derived, and unlike most spray products on the market, Dip publishes a full breakdown of every individual fragrance ingredient rather than hiding everything behind a single word on the label.

  • CheckFull ingredient transparency — every fragrance compound disclosed
  • Check~£3.75 per bottle vs £6.80 for Purdy & Figg — materially cheaper per use
  • CheckOne product, one bottle — every room, every surface
  • CheckNo disinfectant chemicals, no hormone disruptors, no phthalates

SparklesBut the real story isn't the spray

Dip also makes a laundry sheet and a dishwasher sheet, both built to the exact same ingredient standard. All three are available together in the Home Detox Bundle — currently £30, covering 30 laundry washes, 60 dishwasher cycles, and a full multi-surface cleaning pack with a glass spray bottle and cloth included. Over 60,000 UK families are already using Dip, with more than 2.5 million washes completed.

Dip Home Detox Bundle — multi-purpose spray, laundry sheets, and dishwasher sheets

That's the Three-Source Problem solved in a single order.

Shop the Dip Home Detox Bundle — Currently £30Arrow

Quick Comparison

See how the two products stack up against each other.

FeaturePurdy & FiggDip
FormatGlass vial concentrateDissolvable sheet
Price per bottle£6.80 (subscription)~£3.75
No disinfectant chemicalsYesYes
No hormone disruptorsYesYes
Full fragrance transparencyNoYes
Solves surface cleaningYesYes
Solves laundryNoYes
Solves dishwasherNoYes
Plastic-freeYesYes
Money-back guaranteeNoYes
Best forPremium surface spray scentWhole-home chemical detox

Which One We'd Pick

Honestly, both of these are excellent products and a genuine upgrade on anything you'd find in a mainstream supermarket aisle. If your only goal is to find the best-smelling, most enjoyable surface spray available, Purdy & Figg wins that conversation. The scent range is exceptional and there's nothing quite like it in this space.

But if your goal is a genuinely non-toxic home, not just a non-toxic spray, the choice becomes straightforward.

Your family isn't only exposed to chemicals through the surfaces you clean. They're wearing them, sleeping in them, and breathing them in from the kitchen every time the dishwasher runs. Solving one source while leaving the other two untouched means you've made a start, not a switch.

And if you wanted to build the equivalent setup yourself, sourcing Purdy & Figg for your surfaces and then separately finding a non-toxic laundry product and a non-toxic dishwasher product that meet the same ingredient standard, you're looking at three separate research jobs, three separate orders, and a combined spend that comfortably exceeds £30. Most people who try never quite finish the job, because it's genuinely time-consuming to find products across all three categories that you actually trust.

Dip is the only brand in this space that solves all three with the same level of ingredient scrutiny, in a single order, for less than it would cost to piece together the alternatives.

AwardOur Verdict

The Dip Home Detox Bundle is the most complete answer we've found.

Dip Home Detox Bundle — spray, laundry sheets, and dishwasher sheets together

The Home Detox Bundle covers your spray, your laundry, and your dishwasher — and right now it's available for £30. That's all three sources of chemical exposure in your home, resolved in a single order.

If you've been trying to work out how to actually clean up your home's chemical load rather than just swapping one product at a time, this is the answer. The £30 bundle price won't be around forever.

Shop the Dip Home Detox Bundle — Currently £30Arrow

GuaranteeEvery order covered by a 100% money-back guarantee. No forms, no friction.

Disclaimer: This is an advertorial. While we believe the information provided is accurate to the best of our knowledge, it is not a news article, clinical report, or consumer protection publication.