As you know and as I’ve discussed in the past, I love make up and skin care products. While I don’t talk about it as much, I also really like cleaning products. Now don’t get it twisted….I don’t really like to clean but I do like the products. I really like products that (1) smell good and (2) clean good. More recently, I’ve been exploring less toxic, more earth friendly products.
For many years, mostly due to what I grew up with, I used the typical cleaners-Formula 409, Windex, and Comet cleaners. Just in case you aren’t familiar, Formula 409 is an all purpose cleaner, Windex is for glass and Comet is a cleaner that we used in the bathroom primarily or kitchen sink. These products are very effective; they clean very well but they do not smell good. And they can be quite irritating to the lungs and skin.
For years, we were taught that the most effective cleaning products were those that had a strong smell. However, it now appears that those cleaners my generation grew up with are not good for our lungs!
When “natural” or more earth friendly products came on to the scene, people were very excited. The problem though was that while the products weren’t toxic they also did not work well. You had to sacrifice effectiveness for less toxicity and quite frankly that didn’t feel like a fair trade.
Nowadays, we have so many choices that are more earth friendly and less toxic to humans. As with anything though, do your own research and decide what works with you, your family and your environmental philosophy.
Today, I’m going to share with you the products I’ve been using and my thoughts about them including whether or not they are products that I will continue to use.
I’ll also share a couple of products that I’ve recently heard about that have piqued my interest.
Current Products
For most of this year, I have been using Mrs. Meyers cleaner, Method (Target), and Thieves (Young Living) cleaners. They are all plant based (earth friendly) cleaners. These are all purpose cleaners that I use in my kitchen and bathroom. I use Pledge or End Dust on my wood furniture and a cleaner specifically for granite in my kitchen. At this point, I’m not planning to change either of these. Ideally, I’d love to have one cleaner for everything but I don’t think that’s possible.
I really liked the smell of the Mrs. Meyers cleaner. I had the geranium scent which is a spring scent. Mrs. Meyers is known for having seasonal scents in their cleaners. There are all purpose cleaners, laundry soap and hand soap. It did work well but it ran out very quickly. It was likely due to user error because I felt like I had to spray a lot!! Not cost effective at all. I used the Method cleaner in my bathrooms and again, liked the smell. They seemed to work well but I was underwhelmed overall.
My most favorite cleaner is the Thieves cleaner from Young Living. They are most known for their essential oils. This is from a MLM company and I have a friend who is a distributor. The cleaner is in a concentrate and you mix it with water to the strength you want it. It smells heavenly (cloves, cinnamon, lemon, eucalyptus and rosemary) and works really well. It is an all purpose cleaner that can be used on surfaces and glass. I used it on both and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked on both surfaces.
I also recently tried the E-Cloth. This is a cloth that cleans with just water. I got the one for windows/glass because it is my most frustrating cleaning job. I do not like streaky windows and mirrors and find it very difficult to clean them without streaks. I am happy to report that this thing works! And it works well. It is two cloths-one that you wet to clean the glass and the other buffs it clean and clear. I have used it on all the mirrors in my home including the most filthy ones! There are other e-cloths that are for general purpose cleaning. I am reluctant to try these in the kitchen and bathrooms because, you know, germs and bacteria. If you decide to try, let me know what you think.
For now, I will continue with the Thieves cleaner for all purpose and the e-cloth for windows and mirrors. The other thing I do is that I limit my paper towel use. I buy microfiber cloths from the Dollar Store and use those to clean. They can be washed hundreds of times before needing to be replaced.
Future Considerations
Recently, I have become aware of a couple of interesting cleaning products that have heightened my curiosity.
JAWS
This product attempts to reduce the footprint by using one bottle per product and using refill pods which contains the product. Less stuff to throw out. There are individual pods for glass cleaning, bathroom and kitchen and hardwood floors.
Norwex cloths
This is a specific brand of e-cloths. I’m curious about the other cleaning cloths but also scared.
Glass food containers
The other change I am considering making is to throw out my plastic food storage containers and replace them with these glass containers. Other than the health benefits of managing the use plastic containers, they would also like take up much less space. I have more plastic containers than I use but can’t bear to part with them. I could keep some plastic ones to take my lunch in (I don’t normally have food that I heat up at lunch).
Do you have any cleaning products that you like, hate? Anything you’re interested in trying?
Share in the comments.
