Sunday, August 23, 2015

My Norwex discovery and anti-cleaning-chemical mission

All my free Norwex stuff!
I've been working on going cleaning chemical free for some time now.  I was doing really well, too.  I took a little tumble off the band wagon when we moved in March, but I am making up for that now!

A friend invited me to her Norwex party a month or so ago.  I had never heard of Norwex, so I went to the party with zero expectations.  At the party, I was pleasantly surprised at the demonstrations and sales pitch.  So much so that I hosted a party of my own a few weeks later!  For those that don't know, Norwex is a brand that specializes in high quality microfiber cleaning cloths for cleaning with just water.  Their cloths contain fibers that are smaller and more dense than anything else on the market.  Many of their cloths also contain silver which has anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties (Side note: When Ronnie was in the hospital at BAMC with over 50% burns, they used silverlon- silver cloth- bandages on him.).  I feel like this would be a good time for me to throw in the "trust me, I'm a scientist" spiel.

My mom introduced me to cleaning with microfiber over a year ago.  She started buying e-cloths, a main Norwex competitor, and swore by their results.  I should mention that my mom is also a lab rat like myself and is the parent from whom I received my dominant neat-freak gene.  She loves her microfiber and was super excited to learn more about Norwex.

Now- I am going to go on a slight tangent here for a minute.  I was asked recently what my thoughts are on e-cloths verses Norwex cloths.  Norwex is certainly the higher end brand and it shows in the price and the quality.  Cloths like the polishing (window) cloth and dusting mitt have superior cleaning power- one swipe over a surface does the trick.  E-cloths are much less expensive and do not contain silver but they have several innovative products that add to your cleaning arsenal (I love their stovetop/range cleaning cloth set).  They are still made of high quality microfiber that leads to disinfected surfaces with just water.  If you are looking for a place to start or are overwhelmed by the vast catalog or higher prices of Norwex, take e-cloths for a spin.  When you are ready to commit and want some really nice and durable products, talk to your Norwex sales rep.
Ultimately, both brands promote an easy and effective way to clean your home without chemicals and I applaud that.  I myself (and my mother as well) use mostly Norwex and also several e-cloth products that I love.

I would love to say that microfiber cleaning cloths are the way of the future and will take over the industry one home at a time, and that would be my goal and I would believe it.  But I work in a hospital lab that believes in the one and only, all powerful bleach and that is a culture I do not foresee changing for quite some time.  So as for me and my house, we are kicking bleach aside.  We believe we are exposed to enough in the workplace and do not need it in our home, too.  We are so excited to be chemical free AND germ free with the help of Norwex and e-cloths.  I hope you will consider it, too.

Even Ronnie got in on the Norwex action!  He was actually really impressed.  



1 comment:

Unknown said...

I have a friend that swears by Norwex cleaning clothes. I'm going to have to try them myself; I can't stand spraying and using chemicals in my house in order to clean things. What I especially don't like is using household cleaning products on the surfaces of my kitchen where it can get on food that we eat.