Cleaning House for the Minimalist (and a giveaway!)
I like my house clean, uncluttered and smelling good.
Not so good for me, I have an older home I share with my husband... 4 kids... mother in law... two brothers... two dogs... a couple cats... our business... and we're on 8 acres in the country which means lots of dirt/mud/who knows what getting tracked in 24/7.
So as far as my house being clean, uncluttered AND smelling good all in one shot goes? Ha! Joke's on me!
I also am a wife... mother of 4 (including a newborn)... homeschool... run a business... run this site... blog... vlog... and try to sleep every night.
So, this 'minimalist cleaning' has to be a miracle worker in a few ways --
simple.
effective.
easy.
[Review on YouTube - Click HERE!]
I noticed friends talking about Norwex- which I had never honestly heard of, and am not a fan of any MLM product so I just didn't look any further.
Then during my post-baby #4 recovery I was finding myself browsing my phone aimlessly while I fed baby for the 579th time one day and started watching Norwex review videos on YouTube... those in turn led me to Amazon (my favorite place in the world wide web) where I found a seemingly identical product from a brand called 'e-cloth'.
Immediately I ordered the e-cloth mop and e-cloth Home Cleaning Set (an 8 cloth pack). Awesome part is-- both of these items are about the same cost as just the Norwex mop.
If you've never ever heard of Norwex or e-cloth, here's why they're perfect, especially for a minimalist home:
These cloths clean practically ANYTHING with just water and clear out 99%+ of bacteria. You heard me, JUST water. NO chemicals at all- none in the cloths, none for you to use. Here's more info from e-cloth's site.
After all my online research, I was giddy when they arrived! As anyone following me on Instagram might have noticed. 😉 My husband on the other hand- very skeptical. He went to the store to buy himself some cleaner since I had clearly fallen off the deep end telling him we would only be using "special" microfiber cloths to clean the entire house. My making my own natural cleaner products was one thing... but forgoing them all for just water and 'magic' cloths was too far.
Then I started testing them out...
I let Roby, our robot vacuum, do his job, then I grabbed the e-cloth mop, got the microfiber pad wet, and went to town. Our laminate wood floors were gross. Seriously. I deep cleaned before the baby was born and hadn't touched them since. (other than running Roby each day) It had been about five weeks of people tracking who knows what around, rainy days leaving muddy paw prints everywhere... it was pretty gross. And by pretty, I mean totally.
Even in my post c-section status, this mop was AMAZING! I just used it in a sweeping 'S' motion and had the floors in our living/dining/kitchen rooms spotless (and bacteria free!) in MINUTES! Seriously! I was done, mop head rinsed out and put up before the newborn even started fussing! I couldn't believe it! Each evening after we tuck the kids in I can run Roby and then do a quick mop with my e-cloth and the floors are SPOTLESS! It seemed too good to be true, and I maybe made my husband come look at the amazing magical mop's perfect job like a hundred times. Next-- to test the cloths...
I started in the kitchen with our e-cloth home pack. I cleaned the windows, cupboards, fridge, stove, oven door, sink, grout, counters... It took me a couple hours in one afternoon (including stopping frequently to pump/feed baby and just deal with normal mom/kiddo interruptions) and I had gone over nearly everything! Did it work? My son came in to bake cookies for his dad that night and asked me if we bought a new stove. I guess you could say the cloths worked. Everything looks AMAZING!
Next, I did the kid's bathroom. Now, I think I keep a clean house. And just a few weeks ago I deep cleaned everything. The bathroom? Oh my! I cleaned everything, literally top to bottom in under an hour and when I made my hubby come in to see when I was done-- he asked if I repainted the bathroom! That's how polished to a shine everything was- from wiping down the walls, scrubbing the sink (including the hard water build up we get), vanity, toilet, bath tub, and mirrors! When I told my hubs that even the windows and mirrors were done with these cloths and water, he couldn't believe it. Our windows and mirrors have never been so clear and shiny before!
And let me note-- I did the majority of all these things while wearing our newborn in a Moby wrap -- all this deep cleaning, with my newborn right on me, in the midst of it all -- with ZERO worries because all I was using was water! I can let all the kids get in on the cleaning action without worrying about what chemicals they may be coming into contact with. Just grab a cloth, get it damp, and off they go!
I love these products so much, I thought it would be fun to buy a second set of the cloths and the mop and give them away!
To enter the giveaway, you get one entry for following The Minimalist Homeschool on Instagram (tag a friend on a post if you're already a follower to get your entry!), one additional entry for subscribing to our YouTube channel. On March 1st we'll draw and pick 2 lucky winners -- one for the e-cloth mop and one winner for the e-cloth Home Cleaning Set (an 8 cloth pack)! 🎉
Can't wait- happy cleaning!
[This post includes affiliate links - our MINIMALIST HOMESCHOOL PLAN is released FREE of charge, checking out our affiliate links is greatly appreciated instead of having to purchase any of the homeschool content we release! 😊 Thanks a bunch!]
