Cleaning Up My Act

It is both a blessing and a curse to have a friend that knows you to your core. The blessings are obvious. She understands your woes and fears, truly celebrates your big accomplishments and picks out perfect birthday gifts, to name a few.

The curse is less apparent. Like when your friend shares with you a product (or many) that she knows you'll appreciate and suddenly you find yourself emptying your wallet on cleaning supplies. Is that just me? Well, Kacie too at least. That's exactly what happened. 

Kacie "innocently" sent me a link to a blog she follows, Clean Mama. A perfectly coordinated and organized approach to keeping your home clean. My constant gallivanting has left my home in less than spotless condition. So when Kacie told me she'd adopted a cleaning routine from Clean Mama I was all ears. And fingers. As in, my fingers were loading up my online shopping cart. 

Not all the products Clean Mama recommends are her own. She endorses a myriad of natural, organic and hypo-allergenic goods. A lot of which can be purchased on Amazon. As James and I prepare to settle into Houston, and hopefully our first home, I want to replace our abrasive, chemical-laden cleansers with non-toxic ones. So here's how I've started to clean up my act...

Laundry

The Laundress is a New York company with an entire line of natural detergents that are simply fabulous! I have started with their signature detergent for darks and the whites detergent and bleach alternative for whites.  

What I've discovered from a few loads of laundry is that these products smell amazing! Even as the laundry is going, the entire room is filled with the scent of essential oils that stay on your clothes through the dry cycle. 

Environmentally friendly, you only need 2-4 capfuls for an entire load of laundry, based on the quality of your washer. I couldn't believe how little detergent I used. One large bottle can do up to 64 loads of laundry! It's a little messy actually pouring the detergent into the cap, but I think eventually I'll get an eye for the volume and be able to pour detergent directly from the bottle without measuring. 

Oh, and the whites came out fantastically bright. No more smelly bleach in this house!

Homemade Cleansers

Clean Mama has a line of containers and cloths to organize all your d-i-y cleansers.  You can shop the gorgeous, color-coordinated materials, here.  I started off with a couple of spray bottles, mason jars and microfiber cloths. I bought the recipe labels too! There are more labels than I intend to use off the bat, so I decided to hold off on buying too many containers at once. 

I have moved forward to replace an all-purpose cleaner and a disinfectant. In addition, a window/mirror cleaner, a soft scrub and a nightly sink scrub. These are ones I have immediate use for, but others include wood and laminate flooring spray and one for granite counter tops. Slowly, but surely, I'll expand my collection of homemade purifiers. 

Wood Working

James brought into our relationship a gorgeous coffee table, and basically all of our grown up furniture. I've always been afraid to put something on it that might damage it (more than the time I dropped an ornament, accidentally scratching it.) 

Clean Mama recommends the Daddy Van's Furniture Polish, which comes in a lovely orange-lavender scent. I purchased some microfiber applicator pads to administer the polish, but they turned out to be comically larger than the container of polish. I'll have to find another application method. 

Dish Soap

I've switched out my Dawn for Mrs. Meyers Dish Soap. I picked up a bottle at Sprout's, but it's readily available both in-store and online. Clean Mama recommended it for cleaning makeup brushes in addition to its traditional use. I have tried it and can vouch for its effectiveness. Plus, Mrs. Meyers commits to making its products from renewable plant sources, so win win!

I've never been so excited about cleaning my home. I can thank Kacie and Clean Mama for the inspiration.