Hideously Cold Outside, Ridiculously Clean Inside

BRRRRRRR!!! It is so very cold today(-35 degrees windchill, I think), and the wind is just crazy, blowing and blowing as if it were the big bad wolf trying to blow our house down. After driving the kids to school, the rest of us hunkered down in the library (which I call the sauna room) with blankets and warm jammies. I was very thankful to be in our house made of brick!

The baby was in a fairly good mood this morning, and was content enough to play on the floor near me as I got to finally play with my new cleaning products. (Yes, I am so pathetically boring that I get excited over cleaning items and household tools. Gee whiz, what has happened to me?) With 3 kids having asthma, and Laura in a respiratory class of her own, I have been on a quest over the last year or so looking for products not laden with chemicals, but which also actually work to clean the messes we have. This has been a difficult task, not leading me to many positive results. The best products I have found so far relate to my baby and his very sensitive derriere which early on in his life led me to discover: Seventh Generation chlorine-free diapers and wipes, Burt's Bees diaper ointment and the California Baby line of washes and creams(including sunscreen). These have all been the best baby products I have ever used, and I would never give up or trade a single one. I wish I had known about them before baby #7!

Mixing my Shaklee products today, I tried to check my anticipation and excitement that has only led to disappointment in the past. Why would this stuff work any better than the other things I have tried? Certainly, coming from one of those pyramid scheme groups, this would just be another over-priced sham. I started with the window cleaner mix I had prepared: 2 little drops of concentrated cleaner mixed with 16 ounces of water. Two drops of cleaner? You've got to be kidding...clearly this was not going to work. To my surprise, it was fantastic!!! This stuff worked like a charm! Not a single streak was left behind, and no strong ammonia smell. My windows were simply clean! Windex does not even compare to the crystal clear sheen of my Shaklee cleaned windows. I was stunned.

After happily cleaning all of my windows and mirrors on the main floor with such amazing results(and the stubborn fingerprints on my grand piano which I have not been able to get off correctly for months), I was ready to tackle the next mix. The degreaser was the most concentrated~a whole 1-1/2 teaspoons in 16 ounces of tap water. Yeah, but is it going to tackle my microwave? Not likely! But wait! It is doing the job.....almost effortlessly! What seems to be missing? Oh...the strong cleaner smell and my reactive cough. Boy, I don't miss either of those things.

With the sun shining through my pristine windows on this cold day, and my microwave gleaming, I was now convinced that the third mix would work well too. And by golly, it did! The general cleaner easily wiped up our morning breakfast mess of dried oatmeal on vinyl placemats, and sticky spills of gooed up juice on my wooden table. This biodegradable, safe, earth/people-friendly cleaning trio has passed the initial try-outs I set before them. And what about the dishes I ran last night with the chemical-free detergent and mineral laden water(as our softener had not yet been replenished)? Not only are the dishes clean, there is not a single drop of residue~neither cleaner , nor food, nor mineral deposits to be found. Oh, and since my washer is broken, I sprayed a bit of the all-purpose cleanser on the baby's clothes from this morning's huge poop(he had been saving it up for 4 days), and wouldn't you know, it washed that yellow mess out without fading any clothing color. Nothing else I have can do that!

Not to sound like an infomercial, but I am hooked. Though I am seeing the huge difference looking around my house today, I can guarantee that Bob won't notice a thing. His idea of "clean" means "picked up". There could be 2 inches of dust on every surface and smears of doggie poo dried all over the tiled floors, but if all the toys are put away and things are off the floor, then our house is "clean" according to him. I like the house picked up too, but it is the filth that makes me crazy if it is covering my home, and that is always my top priority. I want my kids to at least be in a healthy environment, and for us, that includes free of so many chemicals. I am so pleased with these initial results, that my excitement to tackle the rest of my house is overwhelming. I can't wait to clean my toilets, and scrub my floors next. When my washer gets fixed, look out laundry, here I come!