My mother-in-law is one of the greenest women I know.
Stay with me here. This is relevant, I promise!
She recycles, she composts, she uses only cloth napkins and real dishes. She never wastes anything (and puts me to utter shame in this regard). While putting seven children through Catholic school on one income, she learned decades ago what most of us are learning right now: that green and frugal go hand-in-hand.
But the woman just doesn't believe me that environment-friendly cleaning solutions can work.
Bleach, ammonia, Ajax, you name it. If it's cheap, corrosive, and hazardous, she believes in it. She's wonderfully old-school that way.
And, honestly, I have always had a hair of skepticism in me about "green" cleaners, too. Vinegar and lavender? You want me to believe that that's an adequate anti-bacterial kitchen cleaner? Maybe for vegans, but raw Andouille touches this Louisiana gal's counter tops three nights a week. Bring on the chemicals, right?
Well, while I've never been able to jump all the way on the 'homemade' cleaning solutions bandwagon, I am happy to announce that I've been very pleased with Charlie's Soap's expertly formulated Indoor/Outdoor Solution as well as the Kitchen & Bath Natural Cleaner.
My mother-in-law has been, too. She just doesn't know it.* When we lived at her house for a month last Fall to take care of her late father while she attended to other family business out-of-state, I brought my own cleaning supplies from home, you see, and she was none the wiser. (Her kitchen sparkled, by the way.)
Want more information about what Charlie's Soap's amazing green cleaning products can do?
Here are a couple truly fascinating testimonials from our North Carolina consultant Carol:
My FIL was a big antique car collector, and his collection included old tractors. He had a tractor with an engine that had so much buildup on it and around the bolts, etc., that nothing he tried would get it off. He remembered that on the Charlie's Soap bottle it says "From dentures to diesel engines," so he thought he'd give it a try. That engine came out clean as a whistle. Looked brand new!
My middle child stepped in tar when they were patching cracks in a parking lot. I didn't notice it until she stepped in my car and climbed into her car seat. Naturally, I assumed both the car seat cover and my car carpet were ruined. THREE months later I decided to try CS on them. Sprayed it on... and it came up in seconds! I barely had to scrub and there was absolutely NO trace of the tar on either. I was thrilled. It was so clean I was able to resell that car seat cover on eBay to replace it with a boyish print!
When I first switched to cloth diapering, I was using Charlie's Soap for diapers and other detergents--whatever I found on sale or whatever the trendy homemade recipe du jour was--for our other laundry. It got to be a hassle, and finally I convinced my husband that it'd be worth the investment to just purchase the largest unit of Charlie's Soap that I could and use it for everything. How did I convince him? I started washing his oil-covered work clothes in it. He was a hydraulics mechanic at this time, and his entire work wardrobe was covered in five years' worth of oil buildup. Once Charlie's Soap and enough hot water cut the grease, they softened up immediately.
Sometimes guys just need a little convincing that something really will have multiple and verifiable uses.
One of Charlie's Soap's strangest reported uses is as a gun cleaner. Right? Who knew! But the laundry detergent can be used to restore and retain the waterproofing of your husband's hunting outerwear, and the Kitchen & Bath cleaner works to clean any hard gear, like weapons, tools, or boots. Here are the instructions for both, straight from Charlie's mouth:
For washing your hunting gear:
- Clean your machine of all residues of other detergents before washing your garments in Charlie’s Soap. Put 2 TBSP of the Powder or 2 fl. oz. of the Liquid into the machine and some old rags and run a full cycle with a double rinse.
- Follow care garment care instructions for water temp, agitation, and drying.
- Always use the full amount of Charlie’s Soap for a load: 1 fl. oz. for the Liquid or 1 TBSP for the Powder. Call for info if you have hard water.
- Garments washed in detergents other than Charlie’s Soap have detergent residues. Please wash garments new to Charlie’s Soap 2 or 3 times before wearing them the first time to remove these performance wrecking residues.
- Charlie’s Soap will remove odor causing chemicals and bacteria from your garments allowing any cover scent or extra scent blocker to be more effective.
- Charlie’s Soap contains no optical brighteners that can be seen by game. Take care to never use detergents with optical brighteners on camouflage.
To clean and maintain your hard gear:
- Use Charlie's Soap Kitchen & Bath Natural Cleaner.
- Spray on, let sit, rinse off.
- Perfect for cleaning heavy soil from weapons, cleaning tools, tents, boots, etc.
- For heavy soil, use Charlie’s Soap Indoor/Outdoor Surface Cleaner Concentrate and rinse thoroughly.
Charlie's Soap has provided instructions like the above for a number of uses, including home exteriors, vehicle care, pet cleaning, and camping and hiking cleanliness--including a way to use Charlie's Soap to handwash your clothes while in the field without putting harmful chemicals into the water supply along your chosen trail!
Do any of these uses for Charlie's Soap intrigue you? Let us know in a comment; we'll be more than happy to give you the details!
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| The Charlie's Soap family of non-toxic, highly effective, biodegradable green cleaning products. |
*No mothers-in-law were harmed in the composition of this piece. The subject in question does not use the Internet. ;)
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