Thursday, May 26, 2011

Norwex -- What does Wanda think?


The Cleaner Sweep
designed by Allin Faragalli
of Leaf & Bud Naturals



Many of you will remember Wanda's intimate review of The Diva Cup. Well, Wanda is back again today with her take on Norwex cleaning products. Follow Wanda on her The Cleaner Sweep Facebook page.

I added links to the products Wanda mentions. The links take you to Sherri Dmyterko's website which was mentioned in my review of Norwex cloths.





I've always loved the idea of being domestic... Cooking, washing, folding. But when it comes down to it, I've never loved cleaning. Cleaning has always been a necessity. Add to it all the toxic chemicals that we get to deal with and cleaning has just never been fun for me.

I didn't realize, until a few years ago, that those same chemicals that made cleaning so stinkin' unhealthy also made it harder for me to clean. They have the appearance of cleaning a surface, but they leave so much unhealthy residue behind that the dirt clings to it even more next time around. So when a friend of mine introduced me to cleaning cloths that work with just water, no fancy spray or toxic chemicals, I was at first skeptical and then elated.

I love cleaning now! I love it so much that I started my own cleaning company using these products. And I want to tell you about them. But if I do, it may start to sound like I'm trying to sell it to you. I promise I'm not. I just love these products so much that I get a little excited about them.

Let me break down the basics for you. The company is called Norwex. It was started in Norway when hospitals there were battling “super-bugs.” A group of scientists came up with this mirco-fiber cloth which, in hospital tests, proved to reduce harmful bacteria better than conventional cleaning products. These cloths are used all over Norway now, in hospitals, schools, businesses and homes. They are different from your typical micro-fiber cloth though. The typical micro-fiber is the size of a hair split six times. These Norwex cloths are the size of a hair split 100 times. They have much more surface capacity for grabbing those nasty germs. Once the cloth is saturated in water and rinsed, the fibers are flooded and release the germs. But beyond that, many of their cloths (including the all-purpose cleaning cloth, called the Enviro Cloth) also have silver in them. Cells cannot survive when in contact with silver, so your silver-lined cleaning cloth kills any germs that don't get washed away as you rinse your cloths.

Are you still with me? That's the very basics of how all this got started. Don't worry, there won't be a test at the end of this blog.

I have found Norwex to have a comparable (if not better) cleaner for nearly every job in my house. (I'll tell you the one thing I cannot clean with Norwex at the end.) Here are my favourites that I use weekly with the Enviro Cloth:

The dusting mitt is amazing. I always hated dusting. I would dust and then the next day all the dust that I just dusted would re-settle in the exact same spot. This micro-fiber mitt has a static charge to it that grabs the dust and honest-to-goodness holds onto it until I'm done. Sometimes, I'll have to bang it against the gate outside my door if I haven't cleaned in quite a while, but that just bangs all the dust off and I can go at it again until my whole house is dust-free.

The window cloth may very well have saved my marriage. Okay, that's a tad dramatic since I love my cleanliness-loving husband and our marriage has never been in trouble. But when it comes time to clean the windows I have always dragged my feet. Windex stinks and I have to use about 4 paper towels to get one window clean. I would always put off windows as long as possible. With Norwex I can wipe down the window with the Enviro Cloth and then shine it up with the window cloth. It gets rids of streaks so easily. But if you realize that you missed a spot, you just wipe it off. No need to spray more Windex. The window cloth is also great for shining faucets and mirrors after they've been cleaned.

Those are the three must-haves if you ask me: the Enviro Cloth, dusting mitt and window cloth. There is a whole range of products that you can purchase and I could tell you about them, but you would be sitting here reading till next Tuesday if I told you about everything. I know they can't all be favourites, but the Oven and Grill Cleaner, the Carpet Stain Buster and the Cleaning Paste are also high on my list.

I'll be around Green Grandma's Faceboook page, so if you have any questions about Norwex products or about purchasing, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Oh, and the one thing Norwex can't clean so far? The black mold in the grout of my shower tiles. If you have something other than bleach that can get rid of that, please let me know.

3 comments:

  1. Peroxide and baking soda paste can do it for the mold.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another thought on the mold problem, aside from letting a baking soda and peroxide paste sit on it for awhile, try a whitening toothpaste or those tooth whitening strips- they work in a pinch. It's a hack I used once in my first apartment. Grout is usually porous like our teeth and soaks up the bleaching agent well. Not the most enviro-friendly solution, but one many folks already have on hand. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Have you tried your Norwex cleaning paste yet? I read it works!

    ReplyDelete

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