The Norwex EnviroCloth is made up of microfibers 1/200th the size of a human hair which makes it incredibly effective at trapping grease, dirt and other messes. When we first moved into our house it was SO dirty, greasy and gross. I honestly don’t know if the previous tenants had ever cleaned it, it was BAD. I tried everything to clean up the front of the oven and the stovetop but I couldn’t cut the layers of grease. After posting something about it on Facebook my friend let me borrow one of her EnviroCloths and I was amazed at what it could do. It turned my white oven, that was black with greasy fingerprints, back to white again, and it cut through, who knows how many layers of grease, that were caked on the stovetop.

Obviously I’ve never let my kitchen get that grody again, so I couldn’t use it for this post, but I’ve had my eye on a stovetop range hood at my friend’s house for some time. I finally mustered the courage to ask her if I could use it for my post, and she graciously said yes.

When I talked to her husband about the hood he said, “We’ve tried everything!” He said they’d used all kinds of de-greasing products and tried scrubbing it with a sponge but nothing touched the grease.

Of course I didn’t let that intimidate me, I just took it as more of a challenge for me and my EnviroCloth. And it’s a good thing I didn’t give up because look at the difference!

It’s pretty amazing what the EnviroCloth can do! All you have to do is get it wet, wring it out, and then scrub away.

I use it to clean tons of stuff in my house, but especially the kitchen! It’s the easiest way to get smudges off of stainless steel, it’s the best way to clean up cooked on grease, or grease splatters from tonight’s dinner, it cleans countertops and cook tops without chemicals and it even cleans water spots off  the window! I’m telling you, EVERY kitchen needs one!

So that’s my secret. I never ever spend hours scrubbing and cleaning my kitchen because after cooking a greasy meal I use my EnviroCloth to wipe up the grease, and everything else in the kitchen, and it’s back to sparkly clean in no time!

The EnviroCloth makes a great gift, get one for you, a friend, and even your mother-in-law! I’ve given them to friends before and they love them and rave about how amazing they are!

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Well I have a very simple solution for how to get rid of it in between bathroom cleanings, or just in general if it doesn’t want to come off when you clean the sink.

Here’s what you need –

• Denture cleaner tablets
• Hot water
• Sponge or microfiber cloth (these are the ones I use)

Step 1

Run the water in the sink until it gets hot. Once the water turns hot, close the drain.

Step 2

Fill the sink with about 1 inch of hot water.

Step 3

Open the denture cleaning tablet and drop it in the sink. It will start to fizzle and turn blue or green, depending on the brand. Walk away and let it do it’s thing.

Step 4

After about 15 minutes check back to see if the fizzing has stopped and the water is more of a clear color. If it’s still bright blue or green that means it’s still working so check back in about 10 more minutes.

Once the fizzing stops and the water color fades, drain the sink. Rinse it with cool water and wipe the sink clean with either a sponge or a microfiber cloth.

That’s all you do! Who knew that cleaning the gunk around the drain could be as easy as just dropping a tablet in some hot water? This is also a great trick to use when you have guests coming over and you want to quickly clean your bathroom sinks! Do you have any fun cleaning hacks to share? I’d love to hear them!

To see what else I clean with denture cleaning tablets, click HERE.

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Here’s what you need:

• Lint roller
• Microfiber cloth (this is the one I use)
• Water

Step #1

The first thing you need to do is get all the dust and dust webs off. Use a lint roller to roll the entire outside surface of the lampshade.

You never know what you might get!

Step #2

Next get a microfiber cloth wet and wring it out so it’s slightly damp. If there are dust webs on the inside of the shade use the microfiber cloth to grab those.

Next use it to spot clean any areas that need it on the outside of the shade.

Then refold the cloth so you’re working with a clean surface and wipe down the entire inside of the lampshade (this is the part people always forget).

Step #3

While you’ve got the microfiber cloth out go ahead and wipe off the light bulb and the rest of the lamp as well. You don’t want to have a sparkly clean lampshade and a dirty lamp so might as well dust it all while you’re there. Often times dust will be burnt to the top of the light bulb but there’s an easy solution for getting it off. Lay the damp microfiber cloth over the light bulb and leave it there for about 3-5 minutes. After it’s sat there for awhile come back and the dust will wipe right off. The damp cloth loosens the dirt without you having to scrub and risk breaking the bulb.

Cleaning the lampshades might not be the most fun thing to do but at least now you have an easy peasy way to do it!

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This February I’m back with the “Love to Clean” series. I’ve got lots of good tips for you this month but first I’m going to start by sharing my favorite cleaning products. It’s been a long time since we talked cleaning supplies. Throughout the year my cleaning toolbox changes, as I learn about new products, discover new cleaning tricks, etc. My current cleaning toolbox has been pretty much the same, for awhile now, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to share what I’m using to clean our house.

Sinks and Hard Surfaces

This is a fairly new product to my toolbox but one I fell in love with right away. I’m the biggest skeptic when it comes to new, all-natural cleaning products but the Ava Anderson Bathroom & Hard Surface Cleaner has not disappointed (unfortunately it’s no longer available).

In fact I was more than impressed with how well it cleans my sinks, faucets, countertops, showers and every other surface in our bathrooms! The best part is, it smells amazing and leaves the bathrooms smelling fresh and clean without a chemical smell.

Faucets

I clean our faucets with the Ava Anderson Bathroom & Hard Surface Cleaner but then I go back over them with Rain-X Glass Treatment to keep them clean and spot-free, longer. You can see how I do that trick over on this post.

Windows and Mirrors

I’ve been using the Norwex Window Cloth for over a year now,  I’ve written about it before, and it’s still one of my favorites. I still can’t get over how well it cleans windows and mirrors with only water, which saves me tons of money by not having to buy window cleaner! And I love that it’s chemical-free, which makes my house even that much cleaner!

Toilets

I’ve been using the same product to clean my toilet for years.

I’ve tried other products but always come back to this one because it’s my favorite. I’m all about green cleaning but not when it comes to the toilet. I want to know that my toilet has been bleached, sanitized and scrubbed clean. The Lysol Power & Free Toilet Bowl Cleaner works great, smells good and leaves my toilets looking sparkly clean!

Floors

To clean the floors in our house I’m currently using (and have been for the last 6 months+) the HomeRight SteamMachine Plus. It’s light weight, easy to maneuver, gets into hard to reach places because of it’s triangle-shaped head and it cleans and sanitizes the floors without having to use any chemicals! I’ve used lots of steam mops but I can’t explain how much I love this one. We have wood floors in our house but you can see how well it cleans tile on this post.

Sponges

I’ve been using the Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty sponges (the yellow and green ones) for as long as I can remember.

They always do a great job and they clean up everything I’ve ever tried to clean with them. I like to buy them in bulk so I’m never without one when I need it!

Dusting and Stainless Steel Appliances

My all-time favorite thing for dusting is the Norwex EnviroCloth. You get it wet, wring it out and then you can wipe down every surface of your home with it. It’s all-natural, chemical-free so you can use it to dust everything from your wood furniture to your TV! I also use it to clean all our stainless steel appliances.

It’s does a better job than everything else I’ve tried, and it cleans everything from sticky fingerprints to grease splatters, all with only water! I have 2 of them and I use them constantly to wipe things down in our home.

That’s what I’m carrying around in my cleaning toolbox, how about you? What are some of your favorite cleaning products? If you haven’t tried some of the ones I’ve listed, I highly recommend you do, I promise, you will not be disappointed!

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Luckily, as I mentioned last week, my husband is also sometimes good for random cleaning tips. He keeps joking that he’s going to start a competing website called “Ask Matt”. After testing his method on two of the lanterns I decided he had a good idea and I grabbed my camera.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A stock pot for boiling water
• Water
• Paper towels (these are the ones I use)
• Norwex EnviroCloth

Step 1

Set the lantern in the large pot and fill it with water. The reason you put the lantern in first is so that you know exactly how much water you’ll need, if you add the lantern later the water might overflow.

Step 2

Put the pot, with the lantern in it, on the stove and light the burner. Allow the water to get hot.

Step 3

As the water heats up the wax that’s in the water will start to melt off. You can see in the picture there’s a clear line where the wax was in the water.

Step 4

Remove the lantern and place it in the sink.

Use the remaining boiling water to pour over the wax that’s still on the glass. As you pour the water the wax will melt right off.

Step 5

The glass will be waxy from the water with the melted wax in it, so use a paper towel to wipe any excess little pieces off the glass.

After you’ve gone over the glass with a paper towel, use an EnviroCloth to get the rest of the “greasiness” off the glass and the metal portions of the lantern.

After these quick easy steps for how to get wax off glass, your lanterns will look like new again! It only took me about 15 minutes to clean all three lanterns, and that includes the time it took to get the water boiling. And the best part is that I can return them to my friend, even cleaner than they were before!

Here are some other posts I’ve written on how to get wax off of…

• Wood floors
• Fabric (works on carpet too)

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