Happy Monday everyone!
It's time for another Melaleuca Monday. If you are knew to the blog and have never heard of Melaleuca before, you can click HERE to read more about it.
Remember, through each Melaleuca post, my intention is to EDUCATE on how to keep a healthy non-toxic home, not to scare. (although the facts that are out there on household chemicals are just plain scary!)
Today I'm going to show you how to hack into your Swiffer Wet Jet and refill it with a healthier alternative! I like to mop our floors with the Swiffer Wet Jet because it's so much easier than having to deal with a bucket of water and ringing out a mop. We use Melamagic by Melaleuca as a mopping solution because it is a highly concentrated degreaser that does not contain any toxins or carcinogens that are harmful to our health. Plus it works great on tile!
Before I found out about Melaleuca, I was using PineSol to mop our tile floors. PineSol contains an ingredient called "toluene" which has been linked to pregnancy complications, birth defects, and developmental delays in children. You can read about it and more products that contain this ingredient HERE.
Then, I found the Swiffer Wet Jet. If you have never seen this mop before, it has a solution bottle attached to it that dispenses the cleaning solution via a button on the top/front of the handle. All you have to do to mop your floors is attach a cleaning pad to the head of the mop, push the button to release the cleaning solution, and mop! No bucket of water, no mess, throw the replaceable cleaning pads away when you are done! The only negative is, the solution bottles come in 2 scents, Gain and Febreeze.
Febreeze contains an ingredient called "galaxolide" which is a known hormone disrupter and has also been known to decrease a cell's defense mechanism against another toxic chemical. Read more about it here.
Knowing this made me VERY uncomfortable, especially being of child bearing age. So I figured out a way to hack into the Swiffer Wet Jet solution bottle and refill it with a much safer alternative!!!
**sidenote, some variations/formulas of these products may not list these harmful ingredients on their labels because they are not required to by law. (crazy but true!) According to the WVE (Women's Voices for the Earth) who commissioned an independent laboratory test, these toxic chemicals I mentioned above were detected in these products!! This is just one of the MANY studies out there on the internet that prove the same to be true. Get to googling, it will blow your mind!
Here's how I hacked into the Swiffer Wet Jet and filled it with a healthier cleaning solution...
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Original tutorial was found here. Make sure your water is at a full boil before submerging the cap.
Also, before you pour in your new solution, thoroughly clean out the bottle's old solution first!!! |
A very close friend of mine use to use Pine Sol to mop her floors until one day she realized that every time she mopped, her cat would have to be rushed to the vet for intestinal problems! She switched to Melamagic by Melaleuca and her cat hasn't had any intestinal issues since!
Melamagic is a heavy duty cleaner that has multiple uses. It's great for mopping linoleum or tile floor, cleaning greasy oven tops or hoods, garage messes, mechanical parts, barbecues, concrete, outdoor furniture, and more! It comes in a concentrated formula so you can decide how strong you want it by diluting with water. The suggested amount is 1/2 oz of solution to 1 gallon of water. I usually poor a cap full into the wet jet bottle and fill the rest with warm water.
I love that it comes in a concentrated bottle so I can mix it with water and create whatever strength I feel necessary for each job. It smells great but is not too overwhelming and gets the job done every time! I've also used it to clean food stains and grime off of our kitchen cabinets before painting and I use it to clean my paint brushes every time I have a painting project!
Another healthy alternative for wood floors is Tough & Tender by Melaleuca. Tough & Tender is strong enough to clean and deodorize but gentle enough to preserve wood and porous surfaces. (I also use it for my granite in a spray bottle but I will talk about this in a future post) Another friend of mine, Chesha, mops her wood floors with Tough & Tender and her husband noticed a difference the first day! She said its the only solution she's been able to find that doesn't leave streaks in the floor or make their feet squeak when they walk across it.
Try Melamagic and/or Tough & Tender the next time you mop and rest assured you will not be using anything that is hazardous to your family's health!
If you would like additional information on Melaleuca, email me at lemonstolovelys@gmail.com
Happy Cleaning!
Remember, when life hands you lemons, turn them into something lovely!
-Marci
Labels: carcinogens, clean, melaleuca monday, Melamagic, mopping, non-toxic, tough & tender
