Cleaning Green

I think it's safe to say that we as a species (well most of us at least) have finally come to term with the fact that we have been slowly killing our planet over the years and that the time has come to really step up and do what we can to save the planet we have left.

I have always seen myself as someone who was conscious about the environment and how I went about my day-to-day life. I turn of lights when I need to, use a thermostat in my home, limit my water usage, embrace my local recycling/composting program and really just try not to waste anything. The one area where my attempts at being greener lacked has been in the cleaning department.

To be completely honest, I've never been an advocate for "green" products. I'm not sure if it's the mentality that was enforced on us growing up, but I really never believed that a green product could actually clean like the normal fail-safe brands out there. Due to this thinking that I admit to having, I decided to jump at the opportunity to sign up to test a new line of natural laundry detergent from Clorox® Green Works™.

I was only hoping for a coupon to give it a shot, but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that I was one of 50 Canadian bloggers chosen by matchstick.ca to participate in a word of mouth campaign to promote this new product!

Last Friday, a box showed up at my office with some wonderful goodies inside! Along with these goodies, I received some instructions. The first being to try these Green Works™ products myself and share my opinion on this blog. And the second being to SHARE Green Works™ with some friends and get their input. Sounds easy enough, right?

So let's get down to business. :)

Since my box of goodies showed up at my office, and due to the fact that I couldn't contain my excitement, my co-workers got curious. So.. I started off this little project my sharing samples and FPCs (FPC = free product coupon) for Green Works™ natural laundry detergent with my co-workers. I gave them their own little project to test out the detergent over the next few days and report back on this blog post on their thoughts on the product. Can't wait to hear from you all!

I wanted to share more! So I then decided to hold a little contest on one of my favourite message boards, Smart Canucks! I made a post calling out to all Smart Canucks readers saying that I would send out an FPC for Green Works™ to the first 8 people who posted a picture of their dirty laundry! It made for a super fun afternoon and 8 people did actually post pictures of their laundry pile! I mailed the 8 participants their FPC yesterday in hopes that they test out the product and report back here with their thoughts! Click HERE to check out all the fun we had!!

Now that I had completed one of my tasks by sharing the majority of the coupons and samples I was given, I figured I better try this stuff out for myself! And that's what I did on the weekend! Here's what I thought of it:

Clorox® Green Works™ Natural Laundry Detergent

Again, I can't say again how excited I was to have been picked to do this. I have contemplated trying out green laundry detergent, but when I really thought about it, I came to the conclusion of - how is something green going to clean something so grimy as my horse's dirty saddle pads? So... this past weekend, I put it to the test on all of my laundry, including a load of dirty horse items. And you know what? IT ACTUALLY WORKED!!! Seriously, I was shocked! A laundry product that is 95% natural actually cleaned horse laundry! To those of you who might be reading this and thinking - well what's so special about horse laundry? Well do I have an eye opener for you! You see, miss Chelsea, my lovely horse, despite having "Lady" in her registered name, believes that it is most comfortable sleeping in her poop! Poop mixed in with dirt from rolling outside, mixed with sweat from our workouts = some pretty dirty saddle pads. And Green Works™ Natural Laundry detergent actually cleaned them! This is a big plus in my books.

Putting horse laundry aside, all of my clothes and towels now have an AMAZING lemony fresh scent that can almost be compared with the likes of Gain! Gain's scent is pretty special, but I think that since Green Works™ is 95% natural, I think it has managed to inch just above Gain for my overall new favourite detergent. I have actually found a green detergent that does the job, smells great, AND is good for our environment! A+ in my books!

Clorox® Green Works™ Natural All-Purpose Cleaner

I was also lucky enough to receive a bottle of Clorox® Green Works™ natural all-purpose cleaner to try. It couldn't have come at a better time because I was in need of a new bottle of all-purpose cleaner and I had a *big* cleaning job to do. I'm almost embarrassed to say, but before this weekend, my fridge was pretty nasty. Like beyond gross. It was full of rotting food, had stains all over, and stank. I contemplated taking a picture to post on here, but it's embarrassing enough telling you all about that situation now! Needless to say, I was eager to give this natural cleaner a try.

Well, Clorox® Green Works™ managed to surprise me yet again! After completely emptying my fridge I sprayed this natural cleaner all over. I couldn't believe how easy it was to clean! There was honestly huge brown piles of rotting stuff on the shelves... stuff that had been so long that it sort of dried on the shelves - gross, I know! Well this cleaner took it off in one easy wipe! My fridge now smells great, and looks great too! My boyfriend said it looked like new!

After completing my fridge clean-up, I have come to the conclusion that if this cleaner, that is made of natural ingredients can clean nasty, brown fridge sludge, I don't think there's anything it can't clean! Another A+ in my books!

All in all, I was extremely impressed with the Clorox® Green Works™ products I received. Both the detergent and all-purpose cleaner did their jobs by cleaning how they were supposed to clean, and all why being natural, *and* smelling great!!!

If you've been contemplating going green with your cleaning supplies, I highly recommend that you try out this brand. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

***UPDATE!! To those of you who have sampled this detergent, please take a moment to fill out a small survey conducted by Matchstick by clicking HERE !! For every completed survey they receive, Matchstick will be making a $2 donation to The Redwood, a family support shelter that offers assistance to those less fortunate (http://www.theredwood.com/). Thanks!