Non-Toxic Cleaning Series: Product Review & Giveaway
The non-toxic cleaning series continues, I’ve been busy testing a few homemade recipes for items like rug cleaners and mildew busters. When I first started the series I had a few different companies contact me about testing their products. I told Better Life I would because their products sounded great. I know many of you don’t necessarily want to be making your own cleaning products and would rather purchase a good non-toxic alternative. So I figured I’d test them out for those of you who do.
They sent me a box with 6 different cleaners. Last weekend, when we set off the clean the house in a jiffy for some potential buyers, I put these products to the test. I was fully ready to not like them as much as my homemade cleaners. Generally I find myself disappointed in purchased products, especially with the price! I was pleasantly surprised, however and really liked these.
The what-EVER cleaner was great for cleaning cabinets and other areas with greasy/oily buildup. After using them to clean my kitchen cabinets they looked amazing. This product really does clean very well, so well in fact that I’m thinking I’ll always have a bottle on hand for those tougher jobs that my homemade multi-purpose cleaner doesn’t work as well on.
The stainless steel cleaner EINSHINE working wonderfully on my appliances. Those of you who asked about cleaning stainless steel will be happy about this product as it can be difficult to find a product that cleans it well. I’ll definitely be keeping a bottle of this on hand for shining up that beautiful stove of mine.
SIMPLY FLOORED was another hit here at Chiot’s Run. Since the entire house is hardwood flooring, we use a mop for everything. I loved that this product has just a touch of sage scent, just barely enough to detect. One of the reasons I do not like store-bought cleaners is I find the heavy scent to be very offensive to my very sensitive nose. That’s one thing I appreciated about all the Better Life Products, no overpowering scents that scream “I JUST CLEANED MY HOUSE”.
The one product I wasn’t super excited about was the glass cleaner I CAN SEE CLEARLY. I didn’t find that it cleaned my windows any better than using the window cleaner or vinegar. I also received a bottle of granite cleaner which I haven’t used since I don’t have stone in my house. The wood polish was used, but I haven’t yet decided if I like it more than simply using my homemade multi-purpose cleaner.
Lucky for you, Better Life will be giving one lucky reader a You Pick 6 box. You can choose which 6 products you’d like to try; simply comment below for your chance to win. Here at Chiot’s Run I’ll be keeping some of the what-EVER cleaner on hand from now on, and I might try their Knock-Out clothes spot treatment as well.
Which cleaning product are you least likely to make yourself at home?
NON-TOXIC CLEANING SERIES
Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
Learning to Love Castile Soap
Make Your Own: Foaming Soap
Make Your Own: Infused Vinegar
Make Your Own: Multi-Purpose Cleaner
Make Your Own: Color Safe Oxygen Bleach
Non-Toxic Bathroom Cleaning
Friday Favorite: Charlie’s Soap
Friday Favorite: Twist Sponges
Homemade Whitening Scrub
We have a winner:
Disclaimer – Better life sent me products to try to free, but I did not get paid to write this review or to talk about their products.
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The Mad Dash
Mr Chiots and I find that crazy things seem to happen to us. I’m not sure why, but it’s a common theme in our lives. This weekend was no different. When we were having our garage sale on Saturday, a lady from Louisiana stopped in. She’s currently renting a house in our little lake community. Somehow the fact that we were moving and selling our house came up (the garage sale was at our friend’s house). She quickly asked if she could come over that evening to look at the house. Since we’re in the middle of a bunch of projects, we told her we’d need until Monday evening. We exchanged information and she was off.
Mr Chiots and I don’t even have our house on the market and weren’t planning on listing it until August 1st. Since we’ve been working on so many big projects, like the countertops and bathroom, we had been letting a few areas slide.
Yesterday and today we’ve been dashing around working madly to get everything ready for them to come over. We warned her that we were in the middle of a few projects, like laying hardwood floor in the laundry room and finishing the entire upstairs. While we’re not getting our hopes up, it wouldn’t be surprising if this worked out.
The garage was cleaned and organized, firewood was given to neighbors, the basement was tidied, and the main part of the house was cleaned from top to bottom. Cleaning the basement probably my least favorite chore. The floor is rough and hard to clean and I really dislike the fluorescent lights, not to mention you can’t see outside. All these chores needed finished anyways, we just weren’t planning on completing them in one marathon session. Although it is very nice that they’re done!
What’s your least favorite chore to do around the house?
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Friday Favorite: Purging
No not that kind of purging – I mean getting rid of STUFF. There’s nothing more liberating than finding things to get rid of around the house. Every two years I have a garage sale with a friend that live in town. Over the course of two years we collect things that we no longer want or need.
I have found that saving them all of two years and then having a garage is a great deterrent and helps me not buy things I don’t need. There’s just something about seeing all your junk that you spent money on sitting on tables being sold for pennies.
We also have a good time. Rarely do I have a day where I just sit around and do nothing and get to chat with my friend. Having a garage sale allows us to meet neighbors, chat, and relax a little bit! Tomorrow is garage sale day for Chiot’s Run. This year it’s especially nice because everything I purged from the house doesn’t have to be packed up and taken to Maine.
Have you ever had a garage sale? Do you like to go to garage sales?
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Making Room for Fresh Bounty
I don’t can much in the summer. There are only two of us and I’d much rather eat things fresh from the garden than from a jar. In the winter we focus on trying to grow/eat things that don’t need canned/frozen like cabbage, potatoes, bitter winter hardy greens, and winter squash. That being said, I will always spend some time in the summer putting up jars of fresh tomatoes, some pickled items and a few jars of jams and chutneys. There will also always be dried spices and beans.
Since I don’t can that much, I don’t end up having much left at the end of the winter to eat up before lining the pantry shelves with freshly canned items. This year it looks like I have about 10 quarts of tomato soup, 10 pints of crushed tomatoes, and a few random flavors of jams/jellies/chutneys. I also have a few pounds of dried beans that need used up.
As I was cleaning out the pantry this weekend and taking stock of what I needed to use up, I realized my list of items looked like a chili. Thanks to Mr Chiot’s hunting this past fall, we also have a freezer stocked with venison, though we’ve eaten about half of that already. Venison chili it is then.
I started soaking my beans last night (I always sprout beans before cooking with them to make them more digestible) and tomorrow I’ll start a big pot of chili on the stove.
Looks like I’ll also have enough tomatoes to make some marinara; time to seed some basil! I’ll be happy to see all these jars and containers emptied, scrubbed, and put back on the jar shelf in the basement. There’s nothing better than preserving some of your own and enjoying it.
Do you carry over canned food items from year to year or do you try to eat everything up within the year? What’s your favorite, pantry cleaning recipe?
Never thought to add it, but Pat asked in the comments about my shelves. They are Seville Classics 18-Inch by 48-Inch by 72-Inch Shelving System with Wheels, Chrome and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them. I like that they are one wheels so I can roll them out for cleaning. They’re super strong so I don’t have to worry about shelves bowing or jars breaking. I have many sets of these in my basement and recommend them highly!
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And they Huffed and they Puffed
This past Friday we had an enameled cast iron tub delivered for the new upstairs bathroom. Luckily we have great neighbors that were willing to swing over to help us heave it up the stairs.
As you can see, the upstairs of our house is completely unfinished, just stud walls. We live in a small cape, so the attic has those walls that slant in. I’ve always loved this style and love the lines in the attic. The unfinished upstairs was one of the reasons we bought this little house.
We didn’t need a big house, two bedrooms was perfect for us and the price was great since it was unfinished. We knew we could finish the upstairs after a while and we’d be able to sell for more as a four bedroom two and a half bath house. With selling in our future, the upstairs is on our list of projects.
The pedestal sink and toilet arrived two weeks ago, and the tub showed up in a UPS freight truck on Friday. They said, we deliver it to the end of your driveway, you take it from there. Weighing in at 365 pounds, it was quite a challenge to be sure!
We hooked the pallet up to our car and drug it up to the porch, then Mr Chiots and two neighbors hoisted it up onto a dolly and then into the house and up the stairs. I helped push from the bottom as they went up the stairs, good thing I’ve got those gardening muscles!
We chose this vintage style claw foot cast iron tub with the shower surround, because the upstairs bathroom is going to have a classic feel. It also wasn’t much more as far as price goes when we figured in the cost of an acrylic tub/shower combo with installation and extra wall building materials for it.
The neighbor who helped us carry up the tub is going to do some of the work in the attic for us. We could probably do it ourselves but it will be much quicker to have him do it while we’re working. I can’t wait to see it all come together. The funny thing is that I’m not much of a bath person. Growing up we had a cast iron tub that I loved, but I haven’t taken a bath since I was probably 10 yrs old. I’m sure whoever comes after us will love it and appreciate all of our hard work getting this classic beauty upstairs!
Showers or baths, which do you prefer?
