Say goodbye to cleaning products

I went to a Norwex party recently.  Now, I mean no offense to anyone who loves their products.  They seem like a good company.  But those prices!  I seriously couldn't believe it.  Obviously, I walked away from the party without buying any products.  I did, however, walk away with a few ideas.

They talked about cleaning windows without glass cleaner by simply using this special microfiber cloth and water.  The salesperson said it would save me money on Windex and paper towels.  Silly lady!  Everyone knows that I don't use paper towels!  For window cleaning, I use old newspaper (that I get for free) and diluted ammonia in a spray bottle.  I thought this was a pretty cheap way to clean windows, but the salesperson got me thinking about a cloth that would eliminate the need (and cost) for ammonia.  Same story about dusting - just a cloth, no dusting spray.  Maybe she was on to something....

I jokingly told my friend that I was headed to the dollar store after the party.  So, the next day I went to see what they had.  I found a similar (I know it's not the same as Norwex and I am not going down the silver/antibacterial road) product for almost everything the salesperson demoed at the show.  I decided to buy a few and try them out.  

I decided to try out the glass cleaner first.  I have a sliding glass door.  And a dog.  And four kids.  Get the picture?  I figured if this cloth and some water could clean my glass door, it could clean anything.  It was super easy, cleaned perfectly, left no streaks and no lint.  Did I mention it only cost $1?  I'm sold.

Next, I tried dusting with the basic microfiber towel.  I did not use any chemicals, just the dry microfiber towel.  It worked even better than dusting spray and a cloth rag.  The dust really stuck in the groves of the microfiber towel.  These were two for a dollar, so even better!

Just to really give it a test, I washed my van (which I seriously cannot remember the last time it was washed, and did I mention the four kids?) with nothing but water and the scrubbing microfiber towel.  I dried it immediately with the polishing towel.  It was really easy to wash and much faster than a bucket of soapy water and a hose.  I used the glass towel on the windows.  It did get my new towels very dirty.  But my van was clean and not streaked or spotted.

I hand washed the towels in warm water as directed.  There was a lot of dirt in the water after several rinses and they didn't really look clean.  So I washed them in a mesh bag with the laundry and hung them up to dry.  Much better.

So, my final thoughts are that microfiber towels are pretty amazing even without using chemicals to clean.  I definitely think that this could save some money in terms of cleaning supplies in the long run, but I would stick with the cheap knock-off versions.