Green Cleaning

For a while now, I've been into "green" cleaning.  After getting one too many headaches from the fumes of cleaning products, I decided to seek out better options.  And having kids in the house only reinforces the notion of not wanting crazy chemicals in the house even more.

For a long time, I was a huge fan of Method.  However, they aren't the easiest to find (around here, only Target sells them) and, they keep discontinuing the scents I like best.  Seventh Generation also makes some good products, but some of them are kind of lacking in their effectiveness (dishwashing liquid, I'm looking at you...). 

Recently I started trying Shaklee products.  A friend of mine, Rebecca Colby, is an independent distributor and had been posting about them on Facebook.  Intrigued, I checked out her web page and wanted to get their Clean Water pitcher (our Brita had just broke, and I was tired of the yucky black bits from the filters.  The Shaklee pitcher uses a solid carbon block in the filter instead of granules.)  So, since I wanted to order that, I figured I would check out other products from them as well.

I was very interested in their laundry products.  Baby J is a HUGE barfer.  Seriously.  We thought it was reflux, but nope, he just spits up.  A LOT.  All of his clothes are pretty much covered in it by the end of the day.  I was getting really tired of going through a gallon of Spray and Wash every few weeks, not to mention that I wasn't convinced it was rinsing out of his clothes very well - they really smelled like Spray and Wash and seemed stiff coming out of the washer.  Since I have to be really careful with any laundry residue for big brother K (ultra sensitive skin), I was looking for something new to try.  Enter Shaklee's Nature Bright laundry booster.  I am in LOVE with this product.  One little half scoop in the laundry load, and that's it.  No spraying, no spot treating, everything comes out perfectly clean and no more stains!  Seriously, it's amazing stuff.

In a recent order, they mistakenly sent me a pouch of their Dish Wash Automatic Concentrate instead of the Nature Bright (an easy mixup, the bags are the same size).  When I called, they graciously let me keep the dishwasher detergent and re-sent the Nature Bright.  This was a great turn of events, because it meant I got to try a product that I might not have ever decided to buy.  And what can I say, again, I LOVE it.  We have a really cheapo dishwasher (when we bought it, the salesperson pointed it out as, "the model landlords buy on the cheap so that they can say their rental has a dishwasher").   It's just not very powerful, and there was always yucky food residue and bits left over.  Sometimes I used to have to use twice the amount of detergent in order to get the dishes clean.

The Shaklee dishwasher detergent blew me away.  2 tiny little scoops, equaling a total of 4 measly teaspoons, and that's it.  My dishes come out perfectly clean, no residue, no little bits left over.  Last week I made a slow cooker chili, and left the dried-out dirty pot for a couple of days before I ran the dishwasher. The ultimate test, right?  That thing came out spotless.  I am hooked - I honestly don't think I will ever buy another brand of dishwasher detergent again.

I also use their powdered vitamins, because I like being able to just mix it in the boy's food, and they are a company I trust to have done the latest research and studies on their products.

If you're interested in learning more about Shaklee products, check out Rebecca's site here:  http://waterways.myshaklee.com/us/en/.  She also blogs at http://midwestgreenliving.blogspot.com/.

Sometime this month, Rebecca is going to offer a sample giveaway on my site for Shaklee's most famous cleaner, Basic H.  I'll be reviewing it - stay tuned.

Disclaimer:  This post was not sponsored by Shaklee or Shaklee Independent Distributor Rebecca Colby.  I was not asked to do this review or compensated in any way. I purchased the products and opinions are my own.