Melaleuca

I've been dying to do this post for a few months.  Remember my announcement that we were switching our house over to a more economical, green clean?  Well I was so giddy with excitement (still am actually) that I didn't want my sheerly praiseful ramblings to overshadow the fact that this stuff is AMAZING.

I was reticent to sign up because Melaleuca is kind of a unique program.  You have to be signed up by someone who works for them, who then gets a commission for anything you buy.  I was a bit weary of both of these aspects, it seemed a bit pyramid-schemy to me.  It's odd these days to find a company who relies solely on word of mouth for advertising and passes the money on to it's customers.  Kind of neat once I figured it out.

The other catch is when you sign up you agree to spend a certain amount (point value) each month.  I'm still not quite sure why this is, perhaps to make sure it's worth the while to sign up, but let me tell you, if anything I have to hold back each month to only spend the minimum because I love the stuff (and really use it) that much!

But this means I have to plan.  I can't load up on everything one month, because the next month I won't need much and would have to just buy my 35 points (about $50-$60) worth of products anyways. I actually love this because I LOVE planning.  So the first month I got all the basic cleaning stuff.  Stain removers, all purpose cleaners, dishwasher soap, disinfectant, bathroom cleaner.  The next month I got toothpastes, more dishwasher soap, lotion, shampoo, bath bars, and vitamins.  Last month I loaded up on mineral suncreens, aloe, ibuprofen and children's acetaminophen.  This month I'm excited to try out the laundry soap, kids shampoo and of course more dishwasher soap.

I kid you not, every single product we've tried is amazing.  I know it may be silly to get so excited about cleaning supplies and other household products but I can't help it.  They've been the bane of my existence for quite some time.  One I learned that there are traces of formaldehyde and LOTS of weird animal fats in most baby lotions and soaps I was horrified and started buying the girls' stuff at whole foods, scouring labels to find the gentlest most natural products.  The catch? this stuff is expensive.  I understand why people buy the bulk target brand baby stuff because it's so much cheaper.  I felt kind of defeated and frustrated.  And don't even get me started on the household cleaners.  The chemical smells from my old standbys really bothered me once I had little ones underfoot and the greener cleaners just never seemed to clean all that well.  I've been amazed that not only is the melaleuca stuff green and smells amazing but it works as well if not better than any bleachy chemically stuff I've tried.  The ONE product I find I miss is my softscrub and I've remedied that by sprinkling some baking soda in the sink or tub, then spraying the tough and tender cleaner (far and away my new favorite) and scrubbing away.  I haven't missed bleach since.

One more perk?  See those teeny bottles in the first photo above?  Melaleuca has figured out how to make their stuff 4-6x concentrated so you get the pure product, no water added like most other cleaners, and mix your own spray bottles.  ONE of the bottle above will easily make 4-6 spray bottles worth.  And the cost? $5.69 for my favorite cleaner, this means each spray bottles worth costs about a dollar.  Talk about economical.


So slowly we're converting our whole house, no chore seeing as this company makes just about everything you'd need for your home.  They even have their own pharmaceutical company so you can buy your medicene cabinet staples through them (and guess what? they're cheaper!).  With a little planning and LOTS of self restraint (no more imprmotu target or costo runs for this mama!) this move has been more than worth it for our little family.  Getting that pacakge every month is like a little mini Christmas and I feel so good knowing that our home is free of chemicals that could harm ourselves or our girls AND it's really clean too!

And to end, a few of my favorite products...

Laundry Stain Remover...works every time.

Glass Cleaner...works and smells better than windex, in my humble opinion

Tough and Tender all purpose cleaner...I use this for everything, it works well and smells SO good

Wood polish...I've even sprayed some on scratched on our wood floors, it works SO well

 Sun Shades Sunscreen...the spf 45 spray was our favorite in Florida...so easy to put on the girls and worked really well...and of course SMELLED SO GOOD!!!

Diamond Brite Dishwasher Soap...this is probably the main reason I finally switched over, i COULD NOT find a green dishwasher soap that worked and really hated the other harsh cleaners...that fake lemon smell was just too much, this stuff works better than any other product I've found, green or not, I am a convert for life thanks to this stuff.

Lemon Brite hand washing soap...works and smells SO good (am I beginning to sound like a broken record?)

Body Lotion...amazing!

 Vitamins...I've gotten back on the vitamin track with these and haven't had so much energy in I can't tell you hoe long

Shampoo...did I mention for the first 6 months you get to try products for free?  Last month I opted for the shampoo and love it...it smells amazing and works really well on my crazy curly hair.

Sensitive Whitening Polish...we get the girls' toothpastes from here too, all really good!

Ah, so you see.  They have just about everything and we love just about everything.  Thanks for listening to me gush.  I just can't help myself.