A Fresher Night's Sleep: Mattress Cleaner

Baking soda has so many uses.  This weekend we tried out a new one to us.  Cleaning the mattress!  I have pretty bad allergies, so I am always somewhat concerned about dust especially in our bedroom (though most of the time not concerned enough to do much about it).  Our mattress is ooold.  It's the mattress I grew up sleeping on and brought along when we got married.  Since in bed is where I spend 8-10 hours a day, I decided it was high time to clean it and found a natural way to do so.

I've moved to a new website! Head on over to Heartful Habits for the natural mattress cleaner recipe. Thanks!

Norwex Series: Dry Mop

Today we are moving on in our Norwex series from cloths and onto mops, woohoo!  There is a telescopic handle which snaps onto an swiveling aluminum mop base that has velcro.  The velcro then attaches onto the different types of mop pads.  For a long time I have been using the dry mop pad.  It was one of my first purchases.  Before that I had been an avid Swiffer Sweeper user.  When I become more conscious of waste and disposable products, I knew the Swiffer had to go.  This was the perfect replacement.

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The dry mop pad is ideal for sweeping and dusting.  Its fibres pick up the tiny particles of dust, dirt, hair, crumbs, etc.  Of course, using it on the floor is great.  On top of that, it also works well for cleaning ceilings, walls, fans, and high windows.

I love my dry mop pad.  I use it mostly on our floors, and it does fantastic picking up hair, dog fur, dust, and dirt in our house.  It's still quick and easy to clean off.  I use an old toothbrush to remove the dust and hair from the mop pad.  It doesn't need to be washed after each use, and when it does, it just goes in the washing machine.  The mop pad definitely saves a lot of waste from the one-time-use type of sweepers.

What do you use to sweep/dust the floors?

Norwex Series: Window Cloth

This is the second cloth from Norwex that I use regularly, the window cloth.  This cloth is also made of their higher quality microfibre which I discussed in more detail in the enviro cloth post.  This cloth has a different weave and is much smoother though.  It also has silver woven into the cloth making it antibacterial as well.  The silver weave was also discussed in greater depth in the enviro cloth post as mentioned above. 

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The window cloth is perfect for any surface that needs to be polished such as windows, mirrors, faucets, jewelry, or any other shiny surface.  For light cleaning/polishing, spray water onto the surface then wipe with the dry window cloth.  For dirty objects, wash first with the wet enviro cloth, then wipe with the dry window cloth.  Just the cloth(s) and water, and the result is always a bright, streak-free shine.

I love using my window cloth because every time I wipe my bathroom mirror with it, the whole bathroom feels brighter and cleaner.  Plus, I know it's better for me and the environment than Windex or any of its competitors. 

What do you use for windows and mirrors?

Norwex Series: Enviro Cloth

When talking about Norwex, the Enviro Cloth is the perfect place to begin for it is the product with which the company started.  The Enviro Cloth is a microfibre cloth.  Norwex boasts of their higher quality microfibre.  Typical microfibre measures 1 denier while Norwex microfibre measures 0.14 denier (that's 1/100th the size of a stand of human hair).  Because of this, it picks up and removes dirt and bacteria much more effectively.  There is another extra-special component to the Enviro Cloth (as well as many other Norwex products).  Silver is woven into the microfibre of these cloths.  Silver is naturally antibacterial, and thus by using these cloths and water alone you will kill 99.99% of bacteria.  No cleaners required.  The silver also helps to keep the cloth itself clean, meaning you can use the cloth a few times and only rinse it out between washings.  It also keeps your hands safe from a transfer of germs while using it and prevents cross contamination between surfaces.  At every Norwex party I've been to, the consultant loves to shock the guests by informing us that we can safely use an Enviro Cloth to clean our toilet then go straight into the kitchen and wipe our counters.  They have done tests with results showing that not only is there no cross over of bacteria from the toilet to the counters, but the counters are left cleaner afterwards.

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There are 2 ways to use these cloths: dry and wet.
Dry - dusting (though I don't use it for this, I will get to what I do use later in this series)
Wet - cleaning pretty well anything: counters, toilets, mirrors, sinks, walls, tiles, any metal surfaces, on and on

I love my Enviro Cloths.  The fact that it has replaced nearly every cleaner I could need has saved me so much money.  I know that it is so much better for the environment as well not putting anything down the drain.  Better for my health as well to not have my house contaminated with cleaner residues or inhaling their fumes.  The cloths' effectiveness continues to impressive me each time I use it as well, so I am not sacrificing cleaning power.  Plus, it is incredibly durable.  I know I will be able to continue to use my same original cloths years from now (and it's guaranteed with a warranty).

What do you think of the Enviro Cloth?  What do you use for general cleaning?

Norwex Series: The Company

I just went to a Norwex party this weekend, and it has reignited my love and enthusiasm for these products.  I have briefly referenced Norwex products before, but not in much detail, so now I have decided to have a Norwex series discussing the items I use.  Today I am going to start with the company itself.

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As it reads on their website, "the Norwex mission is to improve quality of life by radically reducing the use of chemicals in personal care and cleaning."  Their whole concept is to clean without chemicals.  They even take it a step further by doing a lot of their cleaning just with water alongside their cloths.  I love how the Senior Vice President words their theme as a "reverence for the value and beauty of all life on a healthy planet."

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So, what are these products I keep going on about?  They have got everything you could need covering all the categories of:

-microfibre cloths

-mop pieces and accessories

-bath and body care

-home essentials

-kitchen cleaning

-personal care

-kids line

 The Norwex products will save you time and money, improve health, and help protect the environment.  Plus, they are the most effective cleaners I have used.  I can't wait to dig into them more during the following posts of this series.

Have you heard of Norwex?  Do you use any Norwex products?

Natural Drain Cleaner Fail

My husband is a scientist which means periodically we do science experiments in our house.  Yesterday we made a volcano in our shower drain.  Why, you ask.  Because I keep reading and hearing that vinegar and baking soda are the best non toxic drain cleaner.  I pretty well shed like a dog, and my hair has the nasty tendency to clog up our shower drain.  In the past a plunger has always done the trick, but that is no longer working.  I didn't want to use Drano, and I already had baking soda and vinegar in the house.

We put:
-1/8 c baking soda
-1/8 c vinegar
down the drain and shut the plug.  We allowed that to sit for about 30 minutes.  Then we poured hot water down the drain for about 2 minutes.  That step almost killed me with guilt for the waste of water.

The results: It didn't work.  Having the shower run for a few minutes still resulted in the tub filling up.  I have heard so many people talk about this though, so I know it must work.  I am turning to you now to ask for your experiences with this.

What did I do wrong?

*Note:
I'm now using a new platform, but you can still subscribe or just check in on your own as you wish.  I'm feeling enthusiastic about this new venture, and I hope you will join me!  You can hop on over to the new site here:

Gracepoint

Easy Toilet Bowl Cleaner

I've previously spoken about what a danger household cleaning products are to our health and the environment.  You can check out this post for more information if you're interested.  Since learning all of this, I have been switching over my cleaning products.  When I ran out of toilet bowl cleaner, I looked around on the internet for a natural alternative.

I've moved to a new website! Head on over to Heartful Habits for the borax toilet bowl cleaner post. Thanks!

Natural Multi Purpose Cleaner

Way back when, some of you may remember that I made 3 cleaning products as a bridal shower gift for a friend.  I've already covered the homemade laundry soap and a natural air freshener.  Today I am talking about a multi purpose cleaner.

I've moved to a new website! Head on over to Heartful Habits for the natural multi-purpose cleaner recipe. Thanks!

The Scent of Home - Air Freshener

Way back when I talk about my homemade laundry detergent, I promised 2 other homemade cleaning product recipes.  Today I am going to share with you a homemade air freshener from Keeper of the Home that I use.

First though, why would someone want to make their own air freshener?  Apparently having "fresh" air is a major first world problem, since 75% of Americans have some sort of air freshener in their home. Unfortunately all types of air fresheners (sprays, wicks, electric, etc) have a long ingredient list filled with toxic chemicals.  Just one example I found is trichlorofluoromethane.  With the help of my chemist husband, I was able to look into the safety of this chemical.  It has been assigned the exclamation point "danger" symbol because of its severe toxicity and damage to the ozone layer and environment in general.  Another harmful ingredient is called 1, 4-dichlorobenzene which has already been proven in studies to reduce lung function.  That is not exactly what I think of when I hear air freshener.

So, what can we do about it?  Make our own natural air fresheners!  Here is how.

I've moved to a new website! Head on over to Heartful Habits for the deodorizing bathroom spray recipe. Thanks!

Healthy Homemaking Series: Cleaning Au Naturel

Baby Step 10 - Cleaning Au Naturel

Challenge: Choose one household cleaner to replace with a less toxic, more environmentally friendly option.

Why: Cleaning products in the stores are full of toxic chemicals, dangerous fumes, and non environmentally friendly substances.  They have harmful effects on our bodies, threaten water quality and wildlife, and are dangerous to have around children.

How: This week I made laundry detergent, a multi purpose cleaner, and an air freshener spray.  I have only used the laundry detergent so far, and thus that is what I will talk about in this post.  The others will be coming too though!

I've moved to a new website! Head on over to Heartful Habits to get the laundry detergent recipe (and a natural fabric softener) from this post. Thanks!