Laundry Detergent for Workout Clothes Review: HEX, Molly’s and Biokleen

Best Green Workout Clothes Detergent

I firmly believe that wicking exercise fabric is one of the greatest inventions of our time. I’m old enough to remember what wet, sweaty and cold cotton feels like against the skin and I hope to never, ever have to experience that again! But at the same time a lot of folks are understandably confused by how these kinds of athletic garments should be laundered. The labels say to wash workout clothes in cold water on the delicate cycle, yet that often leads to the garments taking on a funky odor that seems impossible to get rid of.

Continue reading

My New Bosch 800 Series Dishwasher

Bosch 800 Series Dishwasher

I just recently posted about Ecover dishwasher tabs and mentioned our cheap old Maytag dishwasher. Well… it had a good life, but recently started acting up and we chose to replace it with a brand new Bosch 800 Series dishwasher. I never really loved the Maytag, but with all the negative reviews you find online it was a little terrifying to pick out a replacement. Nonetheless I decided to go with the Bosch since as you might know I tend to prefer European appliances, and here are my first impressions.

Continue reading

Ecover Dishwasher Tablets: A Fantastic and Safe Dishwashing Option

Ecover automatic dishwasher tablets

This is not my first time writing about Ecover Dishwasher tablets – they were actually listed as one of my top 10 green and natural cleaners for the kitchen in a post that I wrote a couple of years ago. In fact, they were the very first item on that list – that’s how much I like them! But since not everyone who has recently started following my blog has gone that far back and read that entry, I thought they could use their own dedicated blog post. Have I mentioned that I really, really like these little guys?

Now, let me start off by saying that the kitchen is one area of the house where I choose to only use “green” cleaners. We do a lot of cooking and eating at home, so it’s imperative for me that everything that comes into contact with food be safe: dishes, counters, the sink and pretty much every other surface in the kitchen. Whether we like it or not, cleaning supplies will leave some amount of residue behind, and if you cook your own food (or eat out of your own dishes), that residue is eventually going to come into contact with food and get ingested. So I would encourage everyone to “go green” in the kitchen, especially when there are so many great options available that aren’t much more expensive than conventional cleaning supplies and are equally effective.

Continue reading

Shout Color Catchers Review: Can You REALLY Get Away Without Sorting your Laundry by Color?

Shout Color CatcherHave you heard of Shout Color Catchers? They are single-use sheets that go in with your non-sorted laundry that claim to “absorb and trap loose dyes in your wash water, protecting clothes against color bleeds and helping preserve original colors” (a quote from the Shout Color Catchers website). I had seen products like this show up over the years, but had never actually tried them. So it was fun to try out something new for this Shout Color Catchers review!

Now, let me just put a major disclaimer here: I in no way endorse mixing colors and whites in one load. In fact, I sort my laundry almost religiously and will never, ever wash white and colored clothes together. Or even light and dark clothes together. I firmly believe that if you want to keep your clothes looking good, the best (and easiest) thing you can do is spend a couple of minutes sorting. The reward? Non-dingy whites and colors that look good longer.

But sometimes, just sometimes I find myself wishing I could combine whites and colors. Specifically when I wash microfiber cloths. I use a ton of microfiber for cleaning – it’s probably the most used cleaning tool in our household (and you can read about how I use it and some of my other green cleaning choices in this post). We use microfiber cloths to clean everything from dog paws to bathroom counters to our ceramic stovetop, along with microfiber pads for the mop. And I have the cloths color coded so they don’t get mixed up: the bathroom cloths are white, the dog towels are orange and green and the kitchen towels are mostly pink and purple.

Continue reading

Persil ProClean 2in1 Review and Giveaway!

Persil ProClean 2in1 narrowBack in March when Persil ProClean and Persil ProClean 2in1 first launched in the US I was lucky enough to be among the first to try it out and review on my old blog (you can still find the entry here). I can’t believe it has been almost a year since I wrote that!

That review was for the Original liquid and Pearls, but this time I was given a chance to try out the extra powerful Persil ProClean 2in1 liquid to see how I would like it. I obviously jumped at the opportunity, since the ProClean 2in1 liquid recently beat Tide in Consumer Reports testing.

*GIVEAWAY ALERT* Enter to win one of three coupons for a free bottle of Persil ProClean! Scroll to the end of this post to enter the giveaway. Last day to enter is February 19, 2016!

Continue reading

Vitacost vs iHerb 2016: My Updated Review

Vitacost vs iHerb 2016 review

March 2017 update: Please note that both Vitacost and iHerb have changed their first order discount to $5. There have also been a lot of additional changes at iHerb to their discount and shipping structure.

Way back in 2013 I wrote the original Vitacost vs iHerb post on my old blog, and it’s been pretty amazing just how much traffic that post has gotten over the years! I initially put the comparison together mostly for myself – I ordered (and continue to order) from both Vitacost and iHerb on a regular basis, and was curious to see which site was better for what needs. What an awesome feeling to see that post helping thousands of other people!

Over the years a lot has changed on both sites, and I thought it would be a good idea to completely redo the review and take a look at Vitacost vs iHerb in 2016: who is the leader three years later? Continue reading to find out!

If you are ordering for the first time, follow this Vitacost link to register and get $5 off your Vitacost order of $30 or more and follow this iHerb link and use code WELCOME5 to get $5 off your iHerb order!

Continue reading