{Live} Spring Cleaning With Green Works

March 7, 2012 in All Posts, Parenting, Sponsored Posts

So, no one told me that one day I would have to do housework. Kind of like Cher in Clueless, who sees learning to parallel park as pointless since “everywhere has valet” (and who I’ve drawn my own parallels with here and here), I thought, why learn - or even do it - when there’s always someone else who will. Apparently, I am not living Cher’s life. Talk about a wake up call.

We get a deep clean twice a month, but there’s this other thing called daily cleaning that I am so unfamiliar with. And so allergic to.

When Green Works offered to send me some of their cleaning products to try out, I thought, what the heck. Their products are compostable and/or 99% naturally derived, so it literally “wouldn’t hurt” to try them out. Plus, as you know, I am trying to win in the Best Wife Category this year.

For instance, I made this winner of a Chicken Dinner that blew Hubby’s socks off. And last week, I successfully nailed this Indonesian Ginger Chicken recipe, this AMAZING Potato Leek Pancetta Soup

and this as-good-as-the-real-deal Shepherd’s Pie.

But, again, no one ever told me that there was more to this wifely duty thing besides cooking (oh yeah, and the bearing descendants part). There’s this other thing called cleaning. Laundry, dishes, toilets supposedly all need to be cleaned. I’m not quite sure why they haven’t invented any self-cleaning mechanisms for these - although I could have sworn they already had (under the aliases Mom and Hubby).

Green Works’ All Purpose Cleaner

Let’s talk about all the cooking gunk I’ve had to clean up last week. I’m talking seriously caked on gunk here. Green Works All Purpose Cleaner to the rescue!

It took a little elbow grease to scrub everything off and to get my stove top looking brand spanking new, but I had a heavy layer of soup, meat, potatoes, honey, and oil permanently molded onto the stove top. After getting that caked on gunk off, it was pretty easy to clean up my subsequent messes.

Green Works’ Compostable Cleaning Wipes

And you’d think I was joking if I told you that even before I cleaned up the stove top mess, this happened to me, as if totally scripted for the blog:

The Compostable Cleaning Wipes saved me before the kids could smudge the paint all over the kitchen. What I love best about these wipes - besides the incredibly awesome fact that these wipes are compostable - is that they can really tackle all kinds of grime. The paint came off easily and I just needed to do a final dry wipe down with a paper towel.

Now, I use it all over our counter tops, Sam’s high chair table, the kids’ mattresses (they were so kind as to both leak through their pajamas and diapers so I could experiment with more cleaning), Jane’s bed and Sam’s crib, the floor, the desks, tables, you name it. I like knowing that I can use my bare hands with these wipes instead of fearing some strange chemical seeping into my pores.

The only catch with the wipes: it is pretty tough to get them out of the container. Or maybe I am just not used to this cleaning thing.

I’ve started leaving a wipe almost all the way out of the container and smashing the bursting lid shut so that I don’t have to struggle each time.

Green Works’ Toilet Bowl Cleaner

My dislike of housework obviously extends to the bathroom. But Green Works sent me their Toilet Bowl Cleaner, so a toilet bowl cleanin’ I went. Now, as background, yes, I have cleaned a toilet before. I’m familiar with those foaming action products you just squirt in and let set. Green Works’ gel seemed to hold pretty well even though it wasn’t a foam. I noticed it sort of globbed at the bottom of the bowl, which seemed a little ineffective, or wasteful. But ultimately, it proved to be okay that the gel stuck around through about four flushes - each time giving off that great Green Works scent.

The scent. That’s probably my favorite thing about these products. (Well, it’s also the green factor, the safety factor, and the effectiveness factor). When I’m cleaning with Green Works products instead of my other products, it doesn’t smell all chemical-y and bleach-y. Instead, I swear these products smell like a combination of an exotic summer cocktail and a fresh citrus dessert. Kind of makes cleaning feel like a party. (Or maybe I was just dizzy from the fragrance - be warned, the products are pretty heavily fragranced).

My verdict: I’ve been going through the All Purpose Cleaner and Compostable Cleaning Wipes like mad for a little over a week and they have made life easier, better smelling, cleaner - of course, and I’m happy to report I’m earning A+ marks in the housekeeping department. Thanks Green Works! On the con side, all the products are a little too fragranced, the Compostable Cleaning Wipes are difficult to get out of the canister, and the Wipes are a little soapy, so you have to make sure you get it all cleaned up or use an extra paper towel, which seems wasteful. If I need to continue doing housework beyond the testing I did for this Green Works review - which seems to be the inevitable situation - I would definitely buy more of these three products when I run out.

If you decide to try Green Works’ products for yourself, be sure to check out their Facebook page first and get a coupon.

And please do tell: what’s your favorite green cleaning product? A store bought cleaner or something you make yourself? We’re trying to be greener around here and would love to hear how your family does it!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I received (1) Toilet Bowl Cleaner, (1) Compostable Cleaning Wipes and (1) All-Purpose cleaner product from Green Works and was asked to try out the product. I was not required to write a blog post review. I was not told what to write by the sponsor nor did the sponsor write this post. The content of this post was created entirely by me and consists solely of my own unbiased opinions and/or thoughts, but I’m sure you could tell!

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Chrissy – who has written 414 posts on The Outlaw Mom® Blog - Tips for Raising Thinking Kids + Creative Living.