Dizolve Ultra Laundry Detergent Strips: Review and Giveaway! (Closed)

Did you know that Canadians spend $890 million annually on laundry detergent, and that 33% of this is wasted due to over-use? How about that we go through approximately 134 million plastic detergent jugs each year (enough to circle the Earth more than once!) and that 94 million of these end up in landfills?

These are just a few of the scary estimates you can read about in The Eco-Impact of Laundry Detergent in Canada, an article from Dizolve Group Corporation. The goal of the article is to create awareness and steer families toward their considerably more eco-friendly solution - Dizolve Ultra Laundry Detergent Strips. I got the opportunity to try this product for myself (well more specifically, my family's never-ending mountain of laundry) and I have to say it's the cat's (clean) pajamas!


Product Info (abridged):

 

Dizolve packs ultra-concentrated cleaning power into a tiny, pre-measured strip of detergent that you just toss in the wash.

It makes your laundry washing chore easier, healthier, more economical, and much kinder to our planet.

Doing laundry has never been easier!

• Small and light, easy to carry and store
• No waste, no messy spills
• Dissolves completely in hot or cold water
• For H.E. and standard machines

 
Half load or hand wash? Just tear a sheet in half.

Just about everyone is impressed by Dizolve’s amazing concentration: 93% of participants rated Dizolve's cleaning power equal to or better than their usual brand, according to a 2012 independent research study of 177 participants washing 1,649 loads of laundry with Dizolve.

• Hypoallergenic for sensitive skin
• Free of 1,4-dioxane
• Phosphate-free
• Biodegradable
• Safe for septics

If everyone in Canada switched to Dizolve, the annual eco-savings would be enormous:

• Eliminate 134 million plastic jugs, saving 94 million from going to landfills
• Save 8.2 million litres of truck fuel and 23.8 million kg of CO2 - equivalent to taking 3.2 million cars off the road for a day, or planting one million trees

But that's not all: a portion of your purchase payment supports the environmental youth education programs of the Sierra Club Canada or another fundraising cause of your choice.


My Review:

I received a 72-load package of Dizolve laundry detergent strips to review.

 

I immediately took note of just how small & light the package was. Pretty remarkable that this tiny li'l box can handle 72 loads of laundry! (More, actually - I'll get to this in a bit.)

The product's contents - a recyclable cardboard outer sleeve, and a booklet of detergent strip sheets. That's it!

Here's a single 3-gram strip - all you need to wash a full load of dirties!

 

Needless to say, I'm sold on the company's claim that Dizolve has a considerably reduced ecological footprint.

In terms of safety, first of all the strips have an almost neutral smell which is a good thing in my books. Strong scent = narsty chemicals, in most cases. Second, I reviewed the product's full ingredient list. Each one includes a layman's description of its source and purpose, and none of them appear on several "toxic laundry ingredients to avoid" lists I found online. Convincing enough for me! Side note - the company is working on a natural scent for those who do enjoy a li'l olfactory goodness infused into their family's duds.

All of this is well and dandy, but the most important question - does Dizolve actually work? Happily, I'm one of the (quoted) 93% who believes that it does. And very well indeed! I've run about 20 loads so far in our front loader using these strips (in softened water, at different temperatures), and consistently noted the following:

• Laundry comes out smelling fresh. (Not chemically-scented "fresh" but truly clean fresh.)
• Stains are easily eliminated (or, at least, minimized)

Upon receiving the green light from my PR contact, I've even taken the plunge into cloth diaper laundering and it's been working fabulously. The standard wisdom for washing dipes is to halve the amount of detergent, and this appears true here as well. I initially used a full strip, however following my regular 3-cycle routine, the diapers appeared to be holding some residue. The next time, I tore a strip in half and the everything came out perfectly clean and neutral-smelling. This means a 72-load box could go even further for CDing families; perhaps about 90-100 loads total. Awesome! (All this said, I should note that our son is exclusively breastfed right now so we're not dealing with "real" poo just yet. I'm certainly interested to see how well Dizolve handles things when we get to that point, especially since I've wrestled with major funk in the past with my daughter's diapers.)

Finally, a comment on the convenience factor. I love how clean and simple it is to rip off a strip and toss it in the drum! The instructions say to put in the strip before your clothing, but order doesn't seem to matter in practice as (true to its name) the strip dissolves as soon as it comes into contact with water. On this note, however, my husband pointed out that we shouldn't store our Dizolve under the laundry tub like we do our other detergents. One significant splash and the whole box could dissolve away! As such, it's found a new, safer home on top of the dryer.

Overall (in case it's not clear) I'm a huge fan of Dizolve. It's safe, convenient, performs well and leaves a significantly reduced ecological footprint. I honestly can't come up with any criticism, and that's rare for me. :) The strip format just makes sense, and I can see it becoming the new gold standard for laundry in the not-so-distant future. Kudos to the Dizolve Group Corporation for creating a truly stellar product - I'll certainly be ordering more when my current box is finished!



Buy It:

Purchase Dizolve Ultra Laundry Detergent Strips directly from the Dizolve website. Shipping is free to any address in Canada. Make sure to select the fundraising campaign you wish to support! (Read up on the Dizolve Fundraising Cleanup Program for more information on this.)

Dizolve is also sold in some grocery stores in Atlantic Canada and several other countries.


Win It:

One super-lucky Manager to Mom reader will win a one-year supply (6 boxes) of Dizolve! Open to CANADA ONLY.

To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Please follow all instructions within each entry option to ensure your entries are valid.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  The prize is being provided and shipped to the winner by Dizolve Group Corporation.  I received no financial compensation for writing my review or offering this giveaway, although I did receive the sample items free of charge.  This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours.

Tropical Traditions Powdered Dishwasher Detergent: #Review and #Giveaway (Closed)

It's been a couple months since my last Tropical Traditions review/giveaway, so we're definitely overdue for another one! ;)

The first two TT products I reviewed were food-related, so for this next feature I decided to try a product from their Household Traditions line of non-toxic cleaning products. As you've probably noticed from previous M2M blog posts and reviews, my husband and I are working toward running a chemical-free and eco-friendly household - especially important now that we have a little one who eats things off the floor and all that good stuff! As such, I'm continuously on the lookout for products which won't put our family's health in jeopardy, and are kind to our planet to boot!

The product I chose to review was their Powdered Dishwasher Detergent with Enzymes.

I was eager to try this detergent for a few reasons:

1. It is free of chlorine and phosphates. The former poses numerous health risks and the latter can have harmful effects on water systems, so both are bad news. (I did some online research here and encourage you to do the same if, like me, you're interested in the hows and whys.)
2. It is a powdered detergent that you measure yourself. We'd previously been using those dishwasher gel packs which are convenient & all, but likely wasteful for those households with "favourable" water conditions that require less detergent. In our case, we have a water softener and have also started using a magnet ball, so we should be able to get away with 1/4 to 1/2 the amount of detergent as recommended on the package. Doing some quick math here - at 1/4 cup per load, we can run the dishwasher 160 times using a single jar of this detergent. That's some serious bang for the buck!
3. People have had great things to say about this product! I've checked out several blog reviews and other comments, and the general consensus is that it works wonderfully.

So all that is great in theory, but did the product meet our expectations in practice? The answer is a resounding YES! We have now run our dishwasher 5 times using our Household Traditions powdered dish detergent, and our dishes are definitely coming out as clean (if not more so) as they did with the previous product we were using. The first four times we used a full scoop as directed, and the fifth time we used half a scoop (as we were using our magnet ball at that point) and we weren't disappointed any of these times. Next time we will try a quarter scoop and I'm confident things will still be hunky dory; if not, I'll add a li'l footnote to the review in the interest of full disclosure! :)

We did conduct somewhat of a "stress test" by sneaking a few particularly crusty plates into one of the loads. Our detergent did an admirable job here, as there was just a small amount of food residue remaining on one of the plates when the cycle finished. In reality, we always rinse and/or soak the major gunk off everything that goes in our dishwasher, so we should never have to contend with this scenario anyway.

Let's see....what else?

Initially, I was a bit concerned that the detergent might clump, but we haven't noticed this yet - so that's another good thing.

Some reviewers have mentioned the lack of chlorine smell when running the dishwasher with Household Traditions detergent. We always run our dishwasher in the middle of the night (to take advantage of Ontario's new time-of-use pricing model and to minimize disruption) so I can't comment on this myself, however the fact that chlorine-based detergents evidently emit this smell is disconcerting, as this certainly can't be very healthy to breathe in! As such, I'm thankful that our HT detergent doesn't contain this harsh stuff!

Finally, we like that the detergent is contained in a fully-recyclable jar. Always a good thing. *thumbs up*

All in all, we really like our Household Traditions powdered dish detergent so far! We feel good that we're using a safe and eco-friendly product, it's performing very well, we're getting a lot of mileage out this single jar (so it's very cost-effective), and we're quite confident it will continue to work well for us into the future (given the product's incorporation of an enzyme package and hard water treatment additives, its lack of clumping, and our own strides toward promoting "friendly" water conditions). Two thumbs way up!

Buy It:

You can purchase Household Traditions Powdered Dishwasher Detergent (and other great products) directly from the Household Traditions website. They often have terrific promos & discounts going which you can keep track of by signing up for the Tropical Traditions newsletter. 

Win It:

Tropical Traditions has generously offered to give away a 5 lb jar of Powdered Dish Detergent to one lucky Manager to Mom reader!

To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Comments do not count as entries, however feel free to add a comment to remind yourself that you entered!

Norwex: Your Tips & Ideas!

In my recent Norwex Fall Cleaning Pack giveaway, I asked you to submit a tip and/or idea for cleaning with Norwex products. Here are some of the great comments that were submitted. Thanks for sharing, and looking forward to trying some of these!

Tips:

• The norwex and polishing cloth work amazingly well for that nasty road grime that coats the inside of your car windsheild.  I've never been able to get it off until I borrowed a friends Norwex.  Now I need a set of my own!
• I'd love to try out the Envirocloth on my nasty long overdue for a good scrub shower.  I love my dusting mitt and window buffer and know that the multipurpose cloth removes crayon (I borrowed my neighbours to try to remove crayon from a boardbook - I had scraped at it with various cloths and a fingernail with little luck, the norwex cloth wiped it off with littler effort.)
• My cleaning tip:  Norwex is great at chemical-free cleaning, but don't forget how effective it is at picking stuff up! (Due to it's tight microfiber).  My story is this: Our dog vomited on the light coloured carpet, and after wiping it up there was still a stain.  We tried our Norwex cloth with nothing but water and the stain was gone!  Miraculous!
• I have used one on my patio doors to rid it of my 4 children's little finger prints and tongue licks! works great !
• I am a professional cleaner and I love the shine towels. Sometimes I have to clean stainless steel I wipe them down with a wet Norwex rag and dry witha  shine towel. Works like a charm!

Ideas:

• ...clean my glasses!
• I would love to use the mitt to clean my wood banister.  I could never get all the dust on the first try!
• I like the car care kit - my suv gets really dirty from our monthty visits to see my parents 5 hours aways.  This kit would be perfect for cleaning up
• Eager for the dusting mitt.  I need to clean my shelves and photo frames
• Oh, I would love to clean our computers with a Norwex cloth!  Awesome!
• I'd like to try the dusting mitt.  It would be helpful in dusting electronics and large areas like tabletops
• The dusting mitt - I'd love to have a clean computer screen, a clean tv screen, dust my fans and shelves. :)
• My TV. It was expensive and I am scared to use any cleaner on it so it is VERY dirty, similar to your pic. That would be the first thing.
• I'd love to use the dust mitt for all my knicknacks.
• The ceiling fan in our bedroom...honestly, I am a little scared
• LOL - Can I say our WHOLE house we are way behind on cleaning everything. Our mirrored closet doors and kitchen backsplash might be first  

Looking to nab some of these great products for yourself? You can place an order with my giveaway sponsor Tasha Baldock, or with another consultant you may know. I just ordered some more products myself - can't wait to try the veggie & fruit scrub cloth in particular as I've heard great things about it!

Rockin' Green: Your Tips & Ideas!

In my recent Rockin' Green laundry detergent giveaway, I asked you to comment on helpful/interesting ways you have used RnG in the past and/or or how you'd like try using it in the future! You guys shared some great suggestions and ideas, so I thought I would list 'em all here. I'm definitely eager to try a few of these! I actually just rocked a grungy stuffed animal soak myself and it worked like a charm! :)

• Want to try this on my cloth diapers and hubby's socks!
• I've soaked our pack'n'play in the tub with Rockin Green... you can check out pics of it on my blog Facebook page, Baby and the Chi's 
• Love that it takes all the stinkies out and cleans really well. I do the RnG soak overnight about once a week, and it's great!
• I would love to try this on the bibs of the children I care for
• I'd like to try cleaning my carpet with it... but def. successfully rocked a few soaks already!
• read RNG will clean tubberware stains!
• I wash them once to get out the gross stuff before using any soap and use as little soap as possible
• I'd love to try cleaning all the stains my daughters get down the fronts of their shirts...they are messy eaters!!  and I end up throwing out a lot of clothes
• i'd like to try it to wash the floor
• I have heard that Rockin Green Soap is great for doggie beds...well, this is a bit different but my dog will be giving birth in just one week and I will be using Rockin Green to clean the towels and blankets that get messy during the birth. Really hoping for the best for my blankets! :)
• I haven't tried it yet but would use it on hard to clean dish clothes
• I've rocked a soak on my diapers and got them extra clean! We ahve a few pet spots on the carpet we want to try to use it for and would love to try the funk rock to get rid of stinkies on a couple diapers I have.
• We use rockin' green on our diapers but I would love to see if it got the gunk out of my husbands shirt collars!
• I use it on my dipes, but I never thought about my kitchen cloths.  I usually bleach to get rid of the mildewy smell, but RnG would be much gentler on the cloths and on the environment.  Thanks!
• I used it in my dishwasher-it was great!
• I rocked a soak on my cloth diapers when I first tried Rockin Green - the water was so nasty, and I thought my diapers were clean!
• Used it to rock a soak on some stinky microfiber inserts. My results were about the same as yours, MUCH better, but still could smell a little something funky....
• ...would like to try it on some outdoor canvas chair cushions.
• I would use it on sneakers!
• I use Rockin' green on our regular diaper laundry, but also on cloth diapers I find at resale shops and garage sales.  It gets them as clean as new!
• I would like to wash my kids sheets.  After a summer of bare feet I would love them to get really deep cleaned without using bleach.
• I'd love to clean my dd's floor rugs! The bath mats was a wonderful idea!
• Rockin Green was the only thing to get rid of the stinkies from the washcloths we use on our toddler after meals!
• I love RnG and have rocked a tub soak for my cloth diapers- it worked like a charm after trying some detergent that did not work! 
• I haven't used Rock'n Green yet, but I really want to try rocking a soak of our one size diapers. Especially in Funk Rock!
• I haven't ever used Rockin' Green but would love to use it on my grungy kitchen cloths!
• I have never used this product but would love to try it on stains -- especially on sheets and sleepers 
• I WOULD LOVE TO WASH SNEAKERS IN THIS DETERGENT 
• I rock a soak once a month letting them sit in the washer over night. It really helps keep them fresh.
• Carpet Stains! I added a little bit of water to make a paste and scrubbed it right into the carpet. Worked wonders!
• Haven't used RG yet, but would love to try it in the dishwasher (I'm having some problems right now with cloudiness).
• I'd love to use it on my old stuffed animals. :)
• I'd love to try cleaning my musty towels with this!  never tried it before!
• Have never tried Rockin Green but have heard so much good about it -- would love to try it out on my baby laundry and also bedding!
• I'd love to try rockin' a soak on my towels...I hear it really works to soften them up!
• I was so impressed with your bathmat!  That is probably what I would use it for also.

Does anyone have any other tips or ideas to add to the list?

Norwex Fall Cleaning Pack from Tasha Baldock: #Review and #Giveaway! (Closed)

I think I'm obsessed. :)

Yes I know, that's not exactly a news headline as I'm known for a few slightly neurotic obsessions (such as reading and re-reading my blog posts for grammar and flow prior to publishing. ;)

But to be obsessed with cleaning products? Surely I could find something less...mundane with which to preoccupy myself? Or perhaps not! I'll let you decide once I tell you a li'l more about Norwex, one of my latest & greatest brand discoveries!

Rewind a few weeks. If you were following me back then, you may remember a post I wrote about the Momstown KW Birthday Bash. Prior to this event, I'd heard of Norwex offhand but didn't really know what it was all about. Well, that certainly changed thanks to Tasha Baldock - a knowledgeable and enthusiastic Norwex consultant who presented at the bash. She convincingly demonstrated using raw chicken and a protein detection kit that you can clean AND sterilize, well, pretty much everything with a single cloth and a li'l water. That's it. How awesome is that?

So what is this little cloth and how the heck is it able to accomplish such a feat? Well, it's called an Enviro Cloth and it consists of a patented antibacterial microfiber which is 1/100th the size of a strand of human hair and knitted just right so that the cloth can hold up to seven times its weight in matter. In total, there are over 2.9 million meters of fiber in one of these bad boys! The antibacterial property comes from a silver-based agent that is actually embedded within the tiny microfiber. All in all, the cloth is able to pick up 99.9% of germs and bacteria (from washable surfaces) and inactivate them within a 24 hour period. In addition to the multipurpose Enviro Cloth, Norwex has a number of other microfiber products designed for specific purposes (e.g. kitchen cloths, face cloths, floor mops), however at the heart of each of these is the same "antibac" technology which smothers and deactivates germs and bacteria.

As a new mama who strives to run a chemical-free home, save money, simplify, de-clutter and gain efficiencies in my day-to-day tasks, these products appeared to be so up my alley it HURT. :D And the Norwex mission statement ("To improve quality of life by radically reducing the use of chemicals in personal care and cleaning") really resonated with me in the same light. (You can read more about the company's history and values here.) That said, I'm also blessed/cursed (your pick) with a healthy dose of skepticism, so I calmed down and did a li'l research. As I hoped for, every one of the independent reviews I checked out proclaimed that Norwex is, indeed, The Real Deal and their chemical-free cleaning products do work as advertised. Sweet!

At that point, I knew that I not only had to try some of these products for myself, but I also wanted to share my experiences here at Manager to Mom! And since Norwex is a direct selling company (similar to Avon and Thirty-One Gifts, which I featured in a review/giveaway this past Spring), I thought there could be a wonderful opportunity to team up directly with Tasha on a blog review/giveaway feature. I contacted her through her Norwex business page and was super-excited to hear that she was game! She generously offered a "Fall cleaning pack" consisting of the following three "antibac" items for me to review:

1) Enviro Cloth - The "everything" cloth that I raved about above! This cloth can theoretically be used to clean your toilets and then your kitchen shortly thereafter with no cross-contamination, though most people would prefer to have separate cloths for these purposes in practice. :)

2) Polish/Window Cloth - A cloth with a smoother weave that is meant to be used dry (or slightly damp). It is ideal for polishing windows, mirrors and other surfaces to a streak-free shine and is especially effective when used following the Enviro Cloth.  Tasha mentioned that she keeps one in her bathroom to wipe down her mirror after a shower, allowing her to get to her hair & makeup right away!

3) Dusting Mitt - A "wearable" cloth with fibres woven into a higher pile for an increased static charge and greater surface area. This allows it to collect and hold even more dust and water than the Enviro Cloth.  According to Tasha, the dusting mitt is excellent for dusting chandeliers, fans, vents, plants and vehicle dashboards, is great for difficult areas such as blinds and is amazing for washing screens right in their frame!  When using the mitt for dusting you keep it dry, however to wash screens you'd want to wet it first.

I was impressed by the amount of detail and number of personal experience tips that Tasha provided to help me effectively use these products. This further demonstrated her passion and expertise with Norwex, and I felt like I definitely teamed up with the right consultant!

When my products arrived, I had to restrain myself from grabbing the Enviro Cloth and immediately wiping down all my counters. Pics first, I told myself!  So here are all my products, untarnished. :) Dusting mitt (top left), polish cloth (top right) and Enviro Cloth (bottom).

Check out how the fibres compare. Notice that the polish cloth (left) has the finest weave, the Enviro Cloth is thicker and the dusting mitt is super-fluffy!

 

All three products have an extremely high-quality feel to them as well.

Pics taken, I got to my kitchen wipe-down and was immediately very impressed! My previous routine involved using damp dish cloths and towels for a basic wipe, with the occasional vinegar & paper towel de-streak treatment. I'm happy to report that the Enviro Cloth alone performed much better than all of my previous cleaning tools, and was much quicker to boot! It truly does grab and hold in everything it glides over, from pools of water to crumbs to grease spots. I was able to wipe down my whole kitchen without even rinsing my cloth; it's large enough that I simply refolded to get a clean section when I moved to a new area. And then when I did rinse it out following the wipe-down, the gunk flushed away nicely. AWESOME.

For our glass stove top, I busted out the polish cloth, gave'r a few wipes and indeed - it was left gleaming and perfectly streak-free.

Actual cleaning accomplished, I felt the urge to really put my two cloths to the test. So I conducted my own Norwex "butter demo" on our bathroom mirror. How'd it go? Well, you be the judge!

As for storing the cloths between uses, I started out just wringing them out and keeping them folded on the counter, but this was far from ideal. They took up space and got funky pretty quickly.  I asked Tasha for tips here, and she mentioned that she hangs her cloths by their labels on her kitchen cupboard knobs. Great idea, though our cupboards don't have knob handles so this didn't work for us. Soooo my husband was sweet enough to install a rack above the sink for my Norwex! How awesome and convenient is this?

(Note - the green cloth on the left is my daughter's "gently used" face cloth, renting a li'l space on there as well. ;)

All in all, I love these two cloths. They have managed to meet, if not exceed, my expectations, which were lofty from the start!

Next up - the dusting mitt. I've never used a mitt-shaped duster before but it's a great concept. It allows you to "shape" the duster in order to best fit the surface you are cleaning. For example, you can keep it straight if you are dusting a flat surface like a shelf or blinds, and cup your hand to efficiently dust furniture edges, table legs, knobs, etc.  I did find that the mitt fit my skinny li'l wrist pretty loosely, so I secured it with a hair elastic which worked well.

The first thing I dusted off was my laptop screen. Man, that thing needed a cleaning something fierce. Y'know when the sunlight comes in just so and every little speck of dust on your surfaces becomes visible? Well, get a load of this.

I know - disgusting. I was surprised not to see "CLEAN ME!!!" etched across the surface.

But after a few wipes with the dusting mitt:

 

Dust gonzo! Just a few remaining sticky bits which required a wet wipe.

Next, I tackled a bunch of areas (door and window edges, blinds, lights and other hiding spots) which hadn't been dusted in, well, I'm embarrassed to say. I'm happy to report that the holding power of the mitt was quite good! I only had to bang it out 2-3 times during the duration of my cleaning, and I dusted for close to an hour. Most of the dust got firmly trapped within the fibers, but after awhile it started to cake on the surface. At this point, it needed to be removed in order for the mitt to continue working effectively. I took this pic just before banging it out; quite a few nasties trapped in there!

I also just noticed that it was the "back" of the mitt I took the picture of! (I'm right handed so I usually wear it the other way, but since both sides are covered in the microfiber I'd flip it around after awhile and use the other side.) The front was probably even crustier, hehe.

All in all, I'm happy to give the dusting mitt two thumbs up as well. Altogether, these three products make up quite the powerful eco-friendly cleaning package!

Finally, a few words about care and maintenance. Slightly soiled cloths can be handwashed in warm water with a little dish or laundry soap and then rinsed well. Similarly, the dusting mitt can be vacuumed between uses. When it's time for a more thorough cleaning, all of these items can be machine washed at any temperature and machine dried at up to 90 degrees with lint-free laundry (or aired out). No fabric softener, bleach or dryer sheets should be use as these can damage the products. I have washed my cloths a few times now and my mitt once, and found it worked well to throw 'em in with my cloth diaper laundry. Zero lint, eco-friendly detergent and an extra rinse cycle to really get 'em clean and residue-free!

So how would you like to "improve your quality of life" and get your hands on some of these wonderful products? :)

Buy It!

You can purchase the Enviro Cloth, polish cloth, dusting mitt and many other great cleaning and personal care products directly from Tasha's Norwex site! Orders can be shipped to anywhere in Canada and the United States for the same flat rate of $4.95. To place an order, you will first need to fill out this quick & easy form to create an account. This also allows you to sign up for Tasha's personalized monthly newsletter which contains the latest Norwex specials and updates.

Feeling super-passionate? :)

Then why not host a party and spread the love! Norwex has a pretty sweet host/hostess reward program. Plus, if you live in the Waterloo, Halton, Peel, York or Durham regions of Ontario, Tasha is happy to travel and present at your party! I just might be hosting one myself over the next couple months; anyone interested in attending? ;) Norwex also offers flexible career opportunities, and Tasha mentioned that she would personally train and provide support for anyone who would like to join her team.

Win It!

One lucky Manager to Mom reader will receive the same "Fall cleaning pack" that I reviewed here - an Enviro Cloth, a polish cloth and a dusting mitt. (Total value: $54!) Open to Canada and the United States.

To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Comments do not count as entries, however feel free to add a comment to remind yourself that you entered or to share your product feedback with others!

Rockin' Green Laundry Detergent: Review and Giveaway! (Closed)

Rockin' Green Laundry Detergent: It's not just for cloth diapers!!

There. Did that get your attention?

See, here's the thing. If you currently cloth diaper, you've almost certainly at least heard of Rockin' Green. And there's a good chance you've used it or it's even your regular diaper detergent. But if you don't, it's likely you aren't familiar with this rockin' brand, since it is marketed so heavily based on its ability to clean and de-funk little ones' skivvies. So let me share a secret with y'all: not only is RnG a great cloth diaper laundry detergent, but it does a darn good job at other types of cleaning as well! I'm hoping to demonstrate this to you in my review, by sharing my experiences and tips for both cloth diaper laundry and general cleaning.

But first things first - a few key facts about Rockin' Green:

• The company was founded in 2009 by Kim Webb, an avid cloth diapering "mompreneur"!
• Their main product line is their laundry detergent, however they also offer dryer balls, diaper sprayers, pail fresheners and "Funk Rock", an ammonia bouncer.
• Their laundry detergents are made of safe, eco-friendly, phosphate-free ingredients.
• Detergents come in three formulas depending on water type - Soft Rock, Classic Rock and Hard Rock. RnG has a helpful page on their website dedicated to determining which formula is right for you.
• Seven unique and tantalizing scents are available. Scents are derived from natural oils and have groovy names such as Smashing Watermelons and Lavender Mint Revival. They also offer a scent-free option called Bare Naked Babies, because babies smell so good on their own, darn it! :) Their list of scent offerings changes periodically.
• The company offers Rockin' Rewards for buying products on their website. Reward points can be redeemed for detergent and other products.

It is also worth mentioning that Rockin' Green's customer service is top-notch, and that they continuously strive to improve their products. For example, a few months back they announced that they had remixed all of their formulas to have better cleaning power but also be gentler for longevity and safer for sensitive skin.

I have had the opportunity to try a few Rockin' Green eco-friendly cleaning products: their old formula, remixed formula and Funk Rock. I've sampled several scents and I've stuck to Classic Rock as our water is moderately hard. For the purposes of this review, Rockin' Green was kind enough to send me three different samples of their remixed formula, in Rage Against the Raspberry, Earth Wind & Orchids and Lavender Mint Revival.

First of all, let me just say that all of these scents are wonderful! If I had to pick a favourite from these, it would probably be Lavender Mint Revival. It just smells so crisp and fresh!

So here are some ways we've used these products, and our resulting experiences.

Cloth Diapers

We've been using Classic Rock (in the older formula) to wash our cloth diapers for about four months now. We have a front loader and the following washing steps are working quite well for us:

1. Cold/cold light wash cycle with no detergent
2. Hot/cold normal cycle (extra rinse turned on) with about 1 tbsp of RnG
3. Additional warm/cold light wash cycle

Our diapers come out very soft (especially the prefolds) and pretty much neutral-smelling. And S's bum has been (for the most part) rash-free, so we haven't noticed any sensitivity issues. Finally, those natural scents which smell so great in powder form truly do vanish down the drain along with the suds, so there is no concern about fragrances kicking around in her clean diapers.

We do, however, contend with chronic stinky diaper bag issues. S's daytime dipes aren't too bad at all, but her night time dipes often come off smelling ammonia-riffic. And then they all sit together in the diaper bag, creating an increasingly pungent smell over the 3-4 days that transpire until the next laundry cycle. I suspect this may happen because our front loader simply can't do as good of a job as a top loader at getting our dipes completely clean and residue-free, even with that additional rinse cycle.

This is where "Rocking a Soak" becomes helpful! This process (coined by the company) involves soaking diapers in hot water and a generous helping of RnG laundry detergent. The recommendation is 3 tbsp detergent and a 30-60 minute soak, however the amount can be adjusted to accommodate a smaller or larger load, and the time can be lengthened (even as long as overnight) for really stinky dipes. The general rule of thumb, though, is to reserve the really long soaks for synthetic material such as microfiber (which is what tends to get the stinkiest over time!)

From my experience, rocking a soak has resulted in SUPER clean, soft and absolutely neutral-smelling prefolds, however I haven't been able to get my microfiber inserts completely ammonia-free - even after a full night of soaking. Less smelly, to be sure - but not 100% stink-free. I'd find that they smelled neutral when they came out of the laundry so I'd get all hopeful, but then that all too familiar ammonia smell would be back after 11-12 hours of overnight pee-age. I tried Funk Rock as well, and while this did seem to help further, it still didn't completely eliminate the ammonia. I'm not sure why as I've read other reviews raving about how rocking a soak and/or using Funk Rock completely eradicated any ammonia issues. I guess that since so many factors are involved (water type, top vs. front load washer, days between laundry cycles, age and other characteristics of child, etc.) this is just a hard one to pin down.

On a related note, it's a little more complicated and time consuming to rock a soak or perform a Funk Rock treatment using a front loader. With a top loader, you can soak your dipes right in the machine and then simply run your first cycle. With a front loader, diapers need to be soaked separately, rinsed and then moved to the washer at which point you follow your regular wash routine (like the one I outlined above.) Our laundry tub comes in handy for this as it's right beside the wash machine.

Before rocking a soak, I also generally run a cold/cold wash cycle with no detergent on the dipes to remove the surface nasties. This way, you don't end up with a tub full of yellow pee water.

All in all, we're quite happy with Rockin' Green's ability to clean our cloth diapers, using a combination of regular laundering and soak rockin'. It does take some time and dedication to keep the nasties at bay, but such is the nature of the beast; I mean c'mon - you're cleaning cloth that gets peed and pooed on all day. There is no instant, magical solution to this! :) If you're lucky, you may find that Rockin' Green is literally ALL you need to keep your diapers in tip-top form, as many others out there have found. However if you're like me and still wrestle with a bit of pesky ammonia, you may need to look at supplementing with an alternative approach. I think as a next step I'll take a page from Grandma's book and fire those stubborn microfiber inserts into some boiling water and vinegar; let's hope that does the trick!

As for the old formula vs. the remixed formula? Aside from the new scent (Earth, Wind and Orchids) I haven't noticed an immediate difference between the two formulas. That said, S's skin isn't sensitive to the old formula so this wasn't an issue for us anyway, and one of the noted benefits of the new formula (gentler for longevity) can only be appreciated in the long run. Regarding the improved cleaning power - well, I'll have to take the company's word for it that there's a difference here. :) 

General Cleaning

I've been especially pleased by how well Rockin' Green works to clean our regular laundry and other items. I've used RnG to launder all of our clothing a few times now, with both the older formula and the new "remixed" formula. In some cases I machine dried and in others I hung to dry. In all of these cases, our clean & dry clothing was soft and neutral-smelling.

I also conducted two "Rocking a Soak" de-funk experiments. First, I soaked some stanky dish cloths and towels. (As a side note, as much as I heart my kitchen wetbag, I suspect it may promote funk as the wet, dirty cloths sit in there for days at a time. I've started leaving the bag open a tad and ensuring I wring things out really well prior to storage.) The result? Everything came out *almost* neutral smelling! There was just a slight hint of....something still in the funkiest wash cloths. So perhaps I'll soak 'em again before the next laundry cycle. But all in all, I'm impressed!

Second, I soaked our shaggy bath mat. Now, I'll admit something here. I hadn't washed our mat in a looong time. How long, you ask? Well, perhaps this image will give you some idea:

I'm not sure if I was more disgusted or impressed when I discovered this. Especially since it followed an (obviously ineffective) attempt to clean the mat using an eco-friendly all-purpose cleaner and scrub brush earlier the same day. Gross! That said, following a good rinse, the rug smelled pretty good and I actually felt OK about putting it back out once it had finished drying.

Now I'm all eager to soak other things too! The front hallway mat comes to mind (though I'm a bit frightened to envision what'll come out of that!), perhaps S's bucket seat cover and I'm sure I'll think of many more.


Buy It:

So do you want to have fun soaking icky things too? :) Head on over to Rockin' Green and browse their laundry soaps and other great eco-friendly products! You can buy directly from their site or find a retailer online or in your area!


Win It:

One lucky Manager to Mom reader will receive a 45/90 load bag of Rockin' Green (Remix) laundry detergent! Winner chooses formula (Soft Rock, Classic Rock or Hard Rock) and scent. Open to Canada and the United States.

To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Comments do not count as entries, however feel free to add a comment to remind yourself that you entered!