I did it. At last. Success! I’ve finally found a “green” cleaning product that smells good, works well and is truly all natural.
It’s made by Better Life, a cool young St. Louis based company. The product I’m talking about is their all purpose cleaner called “what-EVER”. For me, this company’s packaging alone almost sells itself. I’m a sucker for whimsy and their line includes products called “Take It For Granite” stone and granite cleaner and “Einshine” stainless steel cleaner. So cheerful and clever.
When I approached Better Life to learn more about their green cleaning products they were kind enough to give me some of their products to test.
Since these cleaners are totally safe and totally natural (no warning labels needed) I decided to turn this into a family affair, recruiting my husband and my two kids as product testers. We had so much fun comparing the different smells and using the cleaners all over my home. I had one moment of panic when Catherine, my five-year-old daughter, started spraying the stainless steel polish on the walls. But no harm came to either the wall or to my child.
My decision to only use green cleaning products began six years ago when I had my first child. I became very sensitive to smells and in the interest of her physical health (I was told that “all natural” products were best for baby) and my mental health, I decided to buy only natural, unscented cleaning products. Since then, I’ve tried different brands and eventually started buying scented products again. I became hooked on Method All Purpose Pink Grapefruit Scented Cleaner.
OK so what exactly does the term “green cleaning” mean? I’ve used the term three times already in this article; it’s bandied about in magazine articles; it’s all over the packaging of cleaning products, in advertisements, etc.
I decided to Google “green cleaning”. I got over 2,500,000 results. The short answer is that the term is meaningless. Seriously. According to Tim Barklage, the CEO and co-founder of Better Life, “there are no standards for green marketing.” Any company can call their product a green cleaner. In fact many of the green cleaning products I have at home, and I have a lot, contain ingredients that aren’t 100% natural.
Mrs. Meyers Lavender All Purpose Cleaner, according to its marketing is at least 98 percent naturally derived (so up to 2 percent synthetic). SC Johnson’s Nature’s Source claims to be 99-plus percent natural. This begged the question: What is the less than 1 percent that’s unnatural? According to the website, “The total amount of non-natural/synthetic ingredients in each product is less than 1 percent and is employed only when effective natural ingredients can not be found. These non-natural ingredients include fragrances, dyes, stabilizers and preservatives.” The key thing is to read the ingredients listed on the labels and if ingredients aren’t listed on the labels go to the product’s website.
So how well did Better Life perform? From my earlier experience, the cleaning products, which call themselves “all natural” didn’t seem to work as well as their chemical counterparts. But what I did notice right away was that Better Life’s products cleaned better than any other brand.
And I also don’t have to settle for fake smells or even worse, unscented. According to Barklage, Better Life’s “scented products outsell unscented at a rate of about 5 to 1”. So I guess I’m not alone. After all, if I’m going to clean, I want my home to smell, um, clean.
Debbie Kramer, formerly with NBC's "Dateline" and an expert in eco-friendly products
