Giveaway weekend!

This giveaway is now closed!

OK, this is a different kind of giveaway and I’m super stoked about it! A few months ago I decided to host the cleaning party (coming up on the 18th) and then Bonnie from Donahue Wellness – a Shaklee distributor -- contacted me about advertising and a giveaway. It was kismet!

If you haven’t heard of Shaklee (like me before I heard from Bonnie!) – they sell various “green” items, including vitamins, supplements and beauty products. My husband is a vitamin freak and has used their products and loved them.

But my favorite line they sell is the cleaning items! Whoo hoo!

YES. I LOVE TO CLEAN.

OK, love is a strong word. If I had a choice between sitting on my bootay watching the Young and the Restless and cleaning…I would most likely choose my stories. But I certainly don’t mind cleaning. It’s the organizer in me I guess. I find it immensely gratifying to clean a space. Unless that space it the toilet.

I have to tell you – I’m not really what you would call an environmentalist. I mean, we recycle often. And when a new housing development goes up nearby, I want to cry when I see trees being knocked down. Back when our son started crawling, I started thinking real hard about how I was cleaning our floors. I may be a blossoming environmentalist, who knows? :)

Anyway, when Bonnie contacted me about the Shaklee products, I was so excited to try them out. The Get Clean line offers cleaning choices that are safe because they are nontoxic, contain no harmful fumes, are hypoallergenic and contain no volatile organic cleaning compounds (those VOCs you hear about.)

Oh yeah…and they work. If you’re like me, anything with the word “natural” throws up a red flag – I have always wondered if they really work. But then I think about how well baking soda cleans our kitchen sink, and I’m slowly beginning to realize “green” may be the best clean you can get.

The Shaklee Get Clean products are so easy to use, it’s just silly. I’ll show you more about that in a minute, but first, I have to tell you about their selection. They have laundry products (great for those of you with new babies, but perfect for anyone!), water purification items, and cleaning accessories like these bottles:

They are super cute! Ack!

But my favorite non-cleaning item is hands down the dish detergent:

Again, I was skeptical. But OH MY goodness, I am in luuuurve with this stuff!! It is amazing! I was just telling a girlfriend today how much I despise our dishwasher and want a new one, and although I still want a new one – this detergent has really toned down my hatred of our dishwasher. :) It WORKS. Really, really well.

You only have to use a couple teeny tiny scoops:

Every time I’ve used these products on something new, I always end up saying “Wow!” or “Huh!” to myself.

“Huh,” like, OK this really, really does work, “Huh.” That’s what I said the first time I opened the dishwasher after using it. OK, and what better to use something natural on than your dishes? Seriously.

The other basic item that is a must have is the most versatile – and affordable. My second thought when considering natural products is always the price. Why do they usually cost more if they are made with less ingredients that are natural? Doesn’t make sense. Enter the concentrate product:

This baby is 16 ounce of powahhhh! I was in a bit of disbelief when I read the directions:

Do you see that?? I mixed one and a half teaspoons with a bottle full of water to make enough cleaning mixture to clean our house for at least three months. NO I’m not kidding – at least. I’m probably way underestimating how long this is going to last. I have one bottle upstairs and one down and neither is even noticeably gone.

And I did the degreasing option – you can use way less for basics like counters, etc. Did you see the windows and mirrors option? DROPS people. It says to add drops of the cleaning concentrate. The “thrifty” in me could just die.

One 16 ounce bottle of the Basic H2 Super Cleaning Concentrate is only $12.15. That makes me laugh, because I’ve spent half of that on previous products only made for one specific area that don’t last nearly as long.

I’ve used this all over now, but today I figured I would show you how it works. I thought since I showed you our messy areas in my last post, I would just go all out and show you our microwave. It’s nasty:

You’ll notice I didn’t enlarge those pictures. :) I always stress about cleaning the microwave because obviously you don’t want to use anything with major chemicals in there. I’ve tried the whole vinegar and water thing (heating it up and then wiping down) and it did not work. But with a few sprays of this Basic H2 mixture, the gunk wiped right off:

And it was fantastic on stainless steel! It’s SO hard to find the right product for this finish:

Awwww…you can see my lovely lamp in the reflection. :)

I tried it on the fridge doors too – prepare to be grossed out:

Oh my goodness, I hope you will come back to this blog after seeing all this grody in my house!! :)

OK, I have to tell you – if an item didn’t work I would TELL YOU. I’m not gonna lie to you Squeezies. If I didn’t love these products I wouldn’t tell you they work. Girl scouts honor. ALL of these items have a 100 percent money back guarantee!

To get even more of a discount on all Shaklee items, you can become a member here. With this membership you will get a 15 percent discount on anything you purchase through Bonnie’s site. But WAIT. If you shop Bonnie’s site before January 16th – your membership fee is waived. Fareee! Go here for more info.

Bonnie has graciously offered a fantastic $50 of the Get Clean items FREE for one of you!! Here’s the drill – leave a comment here for your first entry. For your second entry, go to Bonnie’s Shaklee page and pick out a cleaning item you would love to try out. Come back here and leave a second comment with your favorite.

If you have any questions about the products, please leave them in one of your two comments, and I will add them to the bottom of this post when I get the answers from Bonnie. (Since this is a giveaway I want to keep the comments down to just the two entries per person.)

The giveaway will go through Monday the 11th at noon. Have fun and have a great weekend!