Our family strives to live frugally and reduce our environmental impact and waste as well as the toxins in our home. For this week’s edition of Frugal Friday, I’m thrilled to share with you a line of products that are helping us meet those goals. I was introduced to
Norwex a few months ago by a friend who hosted a home party demonstration of the products. I’ll be the first one to tell you I’m not really a home party direct sales kind of girl, and Norwex is a direct sales company. However, Jed and I had recently discussed how much paper waste we created as a family, specifically paper towels, and how we could reduce that waste and cost. The party came along and I was intrigued. My friend has 3 kids and talked about many messes she cleaned with her Norwex cloths and how much she had reduced her paper waste, and I decided to try them for myself.
I bought the
Household package at the party, consisting of one
Enviro Cloth, one
dusting mitt, and one
window cloth. With those three items alone I brought our paper towel usage down by about 90%. Seriously. The other fabulous thing about Norwex products is that you clean with just the cloths and water. No chemicals. And they work. For real. Jed thought there was no possible way the Enviro Cloth and window cloth would clean Bear’s dirty finger prints off our glass door with just water, but they did leaving no streaks. He was shocked. My reply was, “Did you think I would buy something that didn’t work?”. The Enviro Cloth is also naturally antibacterial because it is made with silver woven throughout the cloth. I’ve used the dusting mitt all over my house with no Pledge, and it really picks up the dust instead of spreading it around like a feather duster. The Enviro Cloth is my favorite product, because it really works. A few of the messes I’ve cleaned with just the Enviro Cloth and water include: chocolate, bbq sauce, and crayon off my white couch; coffee and crayon off the carpet, countless counter spills, olive oil grime off the stove, and many others.
Because I’ve become such a believer in Norwex products, I’m doing something I never thought I’d do. I’m hosting a Norwex party at my house and right here on the blog. You, fair reader, get to join in the party just as if you were hanging out at the Norwex Play Date I’m hosting for my mom friends here in Dallas.
They have everything from household cleaning cloths to mops, towels, skin care, and so much more. I can’t wait to try more, which is one of the reasons I’m hosting this party. I felt weird at first asking my friends both in real life and online to shop through my party, but then I realized how many home parties I’ve gone to for other folks and how many great products I’ve discovered through other bloggers’ reviews and I knew I had to do it.
Norwex Enviro Cloth Review Summary:
Positives – reduces paper towel waste, reduces household chemical usage, reusable, 2 year warranty, 60 day satisfaction guarantee, naturally antibacterial (from silver woven into each cloth)
Negatives – start up cost, availability (you can’t get it at Target)
So, if start up cost is one of only two negatives I found, why include this on a Frugal Friday post?
Much like cloth diapers, the initial cost of family cloth products can seem daunting. The Enviro Cloth retails for $16.49. Your average pack of paper towels retails for around $12. I was using about 3 rolls per week at $1.50 a roll or $4.50 per week. At that rate my Enviro Cloth paid for itself in a little over a month. Now if you add in the dust mitt and window cloth, the cost goes up to $48.99 for the Household package. With less than 3 months of usage your cloths have already paid for themselves and you still have 1 3/4 years left on your warranty. You can read testimonials of customers who’ve used the same cloths for over 10 years. When you add in the money you save from not buying cleaning products like Clorox wipes, Pledge, Windex, All Purpose Spray, etc, the Norwex products become an even better deal.
Check out my Norwex consultant Emily’s video explaining the ins and outs of Norwex microfiber cloths.
My Norwex party will run from May 24-June 20. If you are interested in hosting a party yourself,
contact Emily and she will help you out. From
May 30-June 13 I will be hosting a Norwex giveaway here on the blog as a part of the Green Your Summer Giveaway Hop. Be sure to come back and enter to win. I’ll also post a few more Norwex reviews during the event here on the blog. If you are in the DFW area and interested in coming to my Norwex Play Date to see the products in person, send me an email at barefeetonthedashboard@gmail.com.
What steps does your family take to reduce waste and environmental impact?
Why did I spend money on essential oils? If you follow me on Facebook you’ll know that I’ve been asking lots of questions about essential oils, and after months of research finally decided to buy in a few weeks ago. Quality essential oils aren’t cheap, and we are on a tight budget. It took quite a while for me to decide to take the plunge, so today I’m sharing why I decided to spend money on essential oils. I’m joining with my fellow Oil Explorers as part of the Skeptic’s Guide to Essential Oils series. Each of us is tackling a different topic that we’ve wrestled with in a very real, raw series perfect for those of us who are intrigued but still a little skeptical about this whole oil craze.
