Natural House Cleaning Products REVIEW and GIVEAWAY

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Natural House to review three of their new natural household cleaning products: Trashy, Sinky, and Flushy.

Natural House was founded by the Powers family in an effort to develop products that are ecofriendly, phosphate/APE-free, non-toxic, and biodegradable: something that plays nice with kids! While I don't have any children, I certainly do appreciate using products that aren't laden with harsh chemicals. Natural House products use "carefully selected non-pathogenic and non-toxic probiotic bacteria combined with natural, plant-based, biodegradable synergistic ingredients".

According to Natural House, their products are superior to those currently on the market for the following reasons:

• Their products use an eco-friendly cleaning method of probiotics that create a beneficial, odor eating ecosystem to naturally drive out and digest odors at their source.
  
• Natural House's plant-based ingredients are eco-friendly, non-toxic and biodegradable to naturally fight the toughest problems you face in your house.
  
• Sinky and Flushy even break down and digest fats, oil, grease, and solid waste to ensure your disposal, pipes, drain lines or septic tank run smoothly.
  
• Their cleaners contain good probiotics which continue to scour, clean, consume odors, grime, grease, and germs, and they continue to do so until your next weekly treatment!
  
• They earned the coveted Retailers' Choice Award at the 2011 National Hardware Show!

Check out this cute video of how Natural House's products work:

Review

As soon as I received my box of Natural House cleaning products in the mail, I knew I wanted to test out Flushy.

We have very hard water with a high iron content, so our toilet tends to get some rusty discoloration in the bowl. Since we live in an apartment, there's no telling what has made its way through the pipes over time -- with every flush, the toilet makes a gross gurgling sound. I had used Seventh Generation's toilet bowl cleaner, to little success. It left me having to scrub the bowl several times a week to keep it clean, and I really didn't want to have to do that. The Works was super effective, but it contains 20% hydrochloric acid, and every time I use it I'm afraid I'll miss some droplets and end up burning my butt. Natural House's Flushy was awesome: I dropped one citrus-scented tablet into the bowl and waited about 15 seconds for the foaming action to start, and was rewarded with a bubbling blue bowl of fizzy probiotic cleanser. I scrubbed the bowl with the toilet brush, flushed, and voila: the toilet was cleaner than I've ever seen! Plus, the gross gurgling sound went away.

Next, I tried Sinky. Again, since we live in an apartment, our garbage disposal is not in the greatest condition and doesn't seem to do its job very well. I can run the thing for 5 minutes and still find bits and pieces of produce just inside the drain. We don't tend to put anything big in the disposal (though my husband did recently stuff 4 entire celery stalks in it because they were withered and buggy, and he enjoyed watching the celery spin around before it went down the drain). It just doesn't work very well. My first experience with Sinky was disappointing, since I couldn't tell if it had started foaming before I turned on the disposal. I tried again a week later with a slightly different tactic -- instead of dropping the tablet into the drain, I set it on the flaps that partially obscure the drain and drizzled hot water over it. The tablet began foaming, so I turned the water up and the disposal on, and Sinky did its thing. The sink doesn't stink any more!

Finally, I tried Trashy. Since there are only two of us, it takes us a while to fill up the kitchen trash. Instead of putting organic items directly into the trash, where they will rot and stink, we put them in empty waxed milk cartons. So, our trash rarely has too much of an odor. I tried spraying Trashy in one of the milk cartons, but it couldn't handle the smell of chicken wings. However, Trashy does have a really nice wintergreen scent, so I could see how it would work well as masking and destroying other odors.

Giveaway

Want to try these products out for yourself? You can buy them directly from the Natural House website or via Amazon. Or, you can try your luck here! One winner will receive a 30-day supply of Natural House natural household cleaning products! Sorry, U.S. residents only. The giveaway items will be shipped directly to the winner from Natural House.

Enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Mandatory entry: tell me what your least favorite cleaning task is!

Is that all I'm good for?

When I was at the orthodontist's office getting my teeth tortured the other day, the woman who was changing my ligatures asked if my husband and I had any kids. The week before that, my husband and I were in a locally-owned music store that he had frequented for years, when the owner's daughter asked if we "had any bambinos yet". At a party, a friend's sister-in-law, who I had just met that evening, asked if we had any babies. One time, at the hair salon where my husband and I both get our hairs cut, the stylist remarked, "Wow, you both have such thick hair. I can't wait to see what your kids will have!" Hell, even Target thinks I'm preggo, with all the "Stock up on baby clothes. You're gonna need 'em!" emails I've been getting from them.

We've been married for a year and a half, yet everyone assumes that I should have been squeezing out babies left and right all this time. Why? Should it my only goal in life to bear children? Is that all I'm good for?

Ironically enough, my husband and I regularly talk about how much we DON'T want to have kids. Neither of us sees any point in bringing more children into the world. Yes, it may be our biological prerogative to spawn (if there's one thing I learned while getting a biology degree, it's that the meaning of life is to reproduce), but the only way that's going to happen is by accident. As difficult as it may be for people to accept, not all women want to bear children.

Now, that doesn't mean I won't congratulate my friends when they are expecting. It doesn't mean I won't share in your jubilation, nor does it mean I won't come to your baby shower and help you cut the cake. It simply means that I have no interest in getting knocked up. So, please stop asking.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last month, I decided to participate in the Valentine's Day blog swap hosted by Fabulous But Evil. I got paired up with Christine from Little Me as Mrs. B. We corresponded via email a few times before sending each other our respective surprises.

I got a box in the mail last week:



Inside it was a bunch of neat stuff:

• A wreath that's repinnable to hold decorations for any holiday
• Hot pink nail polish
• A bag of SweeTarts
• Red, pink, and black argyle socks
• Valentine's Day tissues
• A reusable tote with a cute retro theme

Looking at some of the posts from other people participating in the blog swap, I guess I didn't do a very good job picking out items to send to Christine. I got her a pretzel tower from Dylan's Candy Bar, as well as two pairs of earrings and a small bottle of Bath and Body Works' Sea Island Cotton hand lotion. It's not really Valentine's-themed, but I tried. :( I really enjoyed participating in this swap and hope to do so again in the future.

If you truncate these words, I will abbreviate your face

FYI: If you say any of the following "words" in my presence, you will not be allowed to speak to me again. I understand that with text messaging, one might need to abbreviate words to economize space. Also, I realize language is an ever-changing entity. However, truncating words is not ironic, funny, or cute: it makes you sound lazy and stupid.

Without further ado:

• "totes" (unless you are actually referring to totes)
  
• "adorbs" (no, no, no, no, NO. Please, for the love of all that is holy and sacred, please do not say this around me or anyone, ever.)
  
• "suey" (as a truncation of "suicide"; hog-calls are ok)
  
• "unfortch"
  
• "whatevs"
  
• "deets"
  
• "haps" or "the haps" (sounds like a disease... "dude, I got the haps from that girl I met at your party!")
  
• "awk"
  
• "bestie" (not me, if I catch you talking like that)
  
• "vacay"
  
• "cray" (because it's too hard to add the "z")
  
• "fab" (hey, why not throw an "oo" on the end and pretend you're Wakko from "The Animaniacs"?)
  
• "natch" (I know this is an old one, but it still sounds dumb)
  
• "presh" (Gollum wasn't looking for his "presh", was he? NO.)
  
• "offish" (it's a truncation of "official")
  
• "cazh" (an abbreviation of "casual")
  
• "ridic"
  
• "jelly" (unless you're talking about the stuff you smear on toast)
  
• "gorge" (a bastardization of "gorgeous")
  
• "uzh" (because "usual" is just too long)
  
• "vag" (come on, there are tons of slang words for the female genitalia, and this is the best you can do?)
  
• "obvi"
  

Words that are marginally more acceptable and will not cause me to fly into a blind rage:

• "legit" (only if you're MC Hammer)
  
• "yum" (it's an onomatopoeia, and I like onomatopoeia)
  
• "hubby" (I have never referred to my husband as such, but "hubby" isn't the worst thing I could call him)
  
• "cami" (most people who use this word probably can't even spell "camisole", though)
  
• "prolly"
  
• "comfy"
  
• "convo"
  
• "noob"
  
• "peeps"

REVIEW: BrytonPick - FLOSS in Seconds

Yes, those are my teeth!

Last month, I was contacted by the makers of the BrytonPick to do a review of their product. Having spent a considerable amount of time on my oral hygiene since I got braced in November 2011, I was excited to try a new dental product. Yes, that's what gets me excited these days.

According to the insert that came with my BrytonPick samples, "only 12% of the population flosses regularly" because "there is rarely time or a proper place to floss after meals." This doesn't hold true for me, since I am fastidious about keeping my teeth clean at all times, but I would imagine those of us not sporting the tin grin would be stymied by the lack of available flossing areas.

To remedy this problem, the BrytonPick was developed. It's a novel interdental cleaning tool made in the US from recyclable materials: the handle is plastic and the cleaning strips are stainless steel. They come in an assortment of snazzy colors and fit into a small carrying case that slips easily into your wallet, purse, belly bag, or other carrying device. The stainless steel cleaning strips are germ-resistant, allowing the BrytonPick to be reused for up to 30 days.

I first tried using the BrytonPick after eating a salad. I still eat salads, even though it makes me look like I did a faceplant into an herb garden. Although the video below makes it look easy to slip the stainless steel end of the BrytonPick between the teeth, I struggled with it every time. The power chain on my upper teeth has made the contacts extremely tight, and the only thing that fits between some of them is dental tape. I was able to slide the BrytonPick between the tightest contacts, but it took a lot of effort. Slipping the BrytonPick between my molars was almost impossible.


How to use the BrytonPick with braces

It was interesting to see how much food debris the BrytonPick removed from between my teeth, even after I brushed. Because of the braces, I brush my teeth after every meal or non-water beverage, and save the flossing for evening. Since the BrytonPick still scraped out some food debris, I wonder how this product would work for someone who doesn't brush or floss regularly (*cough*mybrother*cough*).

Overall, I would recommend the BrytonPick with some reservations. While it does work with braces, I found it to be just as time-consuming as using regular floss -- at least until my teeth are a little straighter. If you're a tinsel-mouth in the later stages of treatment, the BrytonPick would probably work well for you. For those of you lucky enough to have "normal" teeth, you'll have better success with this product.

If you want to check them out for yourself, visit http://www.BrytonPick.com or check them out on Facebook. For a limited time, you can get a sample pack of BrytonPicks for the cost of shipping and handling.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.