One of my favorite parts of my job as a green lifestyle writer is to introduce my readers - that's YOU! - to products and companies that help you live the green and healthy lives you want to live. As you know, it can be hard to tease out the greenwashing from the truly green. My goal is to dig into the details (so you don't have to) and share the products that are best for you, your family and the environment.
Partnering with Better Life
Given that, I'm thrilled to announce that I am partnering with a fantastic company called Better Life. In my estimation, they are doing a great job of selling safe, effective and sustainable cleaning products for your home. The company was started by two friends - Tim (the biz guy) and Kevin Tibbs (the chemist) who were driven to create cleaning products that were truly safe for their young kids, their pets and the planet. They worked hard to develop safe formulas that kicked butt; created witty names for their products (Oak-Y-Dokey!); and sha-bam Better Life was born!
Why I Like Them
Ingredients you can trust. Full disclosure of ingredients with an easy to read Ingredient Summary on the back of each bottle. Free of toxic chemicals like parabens, sulphates, SLS/SLES and artificial fragrances.
Natural scents that make me smile. As much as I hate an artificial "perfumey" scent in cleaning products, I do love a good, natural fragrance over something completely unscented. It helps make the chore of cleaning a little more bearable.
Prices I can afford. With a couple of messy boys in the house we go through cleaning products quickly. I appreciate that this small company makes affordable products without compromising on ingredients.
Kid-safe formulas. When my kids spill something, I hand them a bottle of all-purpose spray and a reusable rag. I don't want to worry about whether or not they are inhaling something that will hurt them. In this video, Better Life Co-Founder Nancy (wife of Tim) talks about getting her kids in on the house cleaning routine:
Favorite Products
The Better Life line includes over a dozen products (with a few new ones on the way). Here are a few of my favs:
The What-EVER all-purpose cleaner has been in my cleaning product rotation for a long time. It works and it smells good. That's all I need to say about it.
The Oak-Y-Dokey wood cleaner leaves my wood furniture and windowsills shining but not greasy. Love the scent too!
Even the Kitchen Sink is a fabulous gentle scrubber that is perfect for bathroom tile, stovetops and yes, even the kitchen sink.
As a Better Life blogger I will be keeping you posted on new products and special deals throughout the year. Stay tuned!
Have you tried Better Life cleaning products? What are your favorites?
(Disclosure: I was sent free samples of Better Life products in exchange for my honest opinion.)
Awesome! I'm always interested in good, safe cleaning products. I run a green cleaning service and am always looking for the best products for the job. Will be checking out Better Life
Posted by: Maria | October 26, 2012 at 06:41 PM
Someone had posted this site (http://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners) on a "natural" cleaning company's fb page, well it's making me a little crazy. Something seems off with their rating system, more "natural" products are scoring the same or less than products I know to be harmful. I know the products I use for dish soap and laundry are not 100% pure but I thought they were better than this site claims. Are the products I thought were safer scams or is something not right... I wanted to know your thoughts?
Posted by: Danyelle | October 30, 2012 at 11:30 AM
Danyelle - Yes, you are right - something is not quite right with the EWG's cleaning product ratings. I have heard a lot of people complaining about it. Hopefully they are working on tweeking their system to better represent natural cleaning products. Here's a good blog post my friend Kathy at Safe Mama wrote: http://safemama.com/2012/09/19/my-opinion-on-the-ewgs-new-guide-to-cleaning-products-report/
Posted by: Micaela | October 30, 2012 at 11:36 AM
Thank you for your response and the link. I feel better knowing I am not alone in feeling discouraged by some of the EWG's ratings.
Posted by: Danyelle | October 30, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Don't feel so bad - I often have trouble duplicating recipes from Pinterest and other bloggers. The hardest are gluten-free recipes as they take a special amount of tweaking to perfect usually. Hope the party was a success!
I'll check out Better Life. First time I've heard of them. I'm always looking for products safe for eczema and allergies.
Jennifer
Posted by: Jennifer | November 01, 2012 at 11:01 AM
Thanks Jennifer! It's hard to spend tons of time on anything when you have little kids! I've seen Better Life around a local grocery stores - I think you will like it!
Posted by: Micaela | November 01, 2012 at 02:20 PM
Thanks for pointing these out. I am always on the look out for safe cleaners, although I have to be careful with scents, even natural ones at times because of allergies.
Posted by: Jean | March 13, 2013 at 02:16 PM