Getting excited about writing a post about my favorite cleaning products could not make me feel more old! However, I love a clean house. Having a dog who sheds causes me to vacuum and clean multiple times a week. I never mind vacuuming and having a house that feels put together just makes me feel so much better about life. I LOVE a clean home. I think everyone does. It’s no wonder that Go Clean Co has grown so much on instagram! She’s a great follow and has some amazing tips on how to clean too. While I definitely use a lot of her tips, I’ve also found some great products on my own.
Speaking of products….I want products that are good for my house, my family, and my dog. But I don’t just want non toxic products that do nothing but are non toxic. Sometimes you really do need bleach, yet sometimes there’s a better option too! Another side to non toxic products though is price. I’m not going to pay a ton more for something (and neither will my husband let me). So while switching certain products for clean versions I went through and calculated per ounce, or per load the cost of each cleaning product and which is more worth it in my opinion. So keep reading for all of that below! Also, when wanting to make sure how toxic a product is I use EWG to see the rating.
Floors
Dyson Vacuum
Starting with the thing that I clean the most…our floors. We have the fake vinyl floors in our rental and while they are super easy to clean I can see the dust, marks, and dog hair on them always! This totally plays into why I vacuum frequently, and mop every weekend. After we got married we bought the Dyson V8 Animal and it is by far one of the best purchase we’ve ever made! I love that it’s cordless and so easy to bring around the house as needed. It’s so convenient and easy to use. With how much dog hair is every where always having a cordless vacuum keeps our house so much more clean! I also haven’t had any problem with run time! I keep it on the extended run setting on our “wood floors” and use the max setting on the rugs. The max setting drains the battery faster, but our house is fairly compact so I can do the whole thing without running out of juice.
Mopping
This is a love/hate relationship I have with mopping. I love the way the floors look after I’ve mopped. No paw prints, no marks, just beautiful. Then two seconds later the dog gets up and boom I see a mark. I hold in the aggression of not going back to clean up after her walking around until the next weekend.
Trying to find a mopping system that didn’t leave streaks on our floors was kind of difficult. I love a steam mop, but it just didn’t work on our type of floors. Then I tried the Swiffer with the wet pads and hated those, but the Swiffer Wet Jet spray worked great! However, the replacement pads are not cheap! A friend of mine suggested the reusable mop pads and I love them! Highly highly suggest the reusable route if you’re using a Swiffer. I just throw them in the wash after each use and good as new!
My next goal was to find a solution that was nontoxic. Being that Gracie licks the floor sometimes I didn’t want to clean it with something bad for her. Enter Aunt Fannie’s. It’s a vinegar wash, and does have a slight vinegar smell, but that goes away quickly. I choose to mix the solution in the Swiffer spray bottle so I can just click that in and still use the Swiffer Wet Jet. Apparently Aunt Fannie’s has a lot of other great non toxic cleaning supplies, but I haven’t gotten around to trying them yet.
Go Clean Co who I mentioned above loves to clean with powdered Tide, Bleach, and a spin mop. I haven’t tried the spin mop yet, but it’s on my list! While powdered Tide is probably the best cleaning agent around it’s not non toxic. According to EWG though it doesn’t have major cancer or endocrine affects. To me , I think it’s worth it for how good a clean you get. Another option is to use the branch basics cleaner and mix the correct ratio for your floors.
Kitchen
All Purpose Spray
Everyone has this in their house, and everyone needs it. I use this for everything, just like the name states. It’s all purpose. From the counters, to the stove, to the bathroom sink, the kitchen table, to even the floors some times I spray this on everything! Finding one that worked incredibly well, but wasn’t toxic was important to me. Also, the price. I calculated the price per ounce. In some ways you look at how much Branch Basics costs and think its more than what you’d go buy at Target, but when you calculate down to per fluid ounce it’s actually not that much more!
I love the Branch Basic’s concentrate. When first trying it out I bought their trial size which is just the all purpose bottle. If you want the whole kit then you get a bunch of bottles, but I am totally fine repurchasing the concentrate just for the all purpose bottle.
Dish Soap
This is another one that I find difficult to choose the non toxic option that works pretty well or just go with Dawn. We all know Dawn is the best, but it’s not the cleanest as far as toxicity goes. The best and most affordable option for dish soap is ECOS. It’s .09 cents per fluid ounce where as Dawn is .12 cents. You can get it at Walmart and it works really good.