Deep Cleaning Your Home in the New Year?

Anyone else getting the urge to deep clean your abode in the first few days of the new year, or am I just getting nervous for New Year’s Resolutions?

We thought we would create a post on some of our favorite home cleaning products, and are planning another post rounding up our favorite home cleaning “tools”. Recently, we decided to join a home product subscription service, Grove Collaborative, which carries a ton of our favorite products. We thought we would share the how and why with you, as well as some info on the products themselves. This post is not sponsored - we’re just excited about how easy it is.

So, let’s get down to it. For a long time, I’ve been a big fan of brands that are all-natural. I have a strong reaction to chemical-laden cleaning products in the form of intense headaches and even a queasy stomach when it comes to bleach. I also have to use all natural beauty products because my skin breaks out in painful rashes if I use most drug store makeup brands. On top of all of this, why not use products that are healthier for you and your home and which are safer for kids, pets and our air and water?

Some brands we’ve been big fans of over the years for home care are Method, Mrs. Meyer’s and Seventh Generation. For personal care, Kayle has been a big fan of Acure and Burt’s Bees. We also use Burt’s Bees for Wyatt and Hanley’s dog shampoo. All of these brands are available through Grove Collaborative and their sister beauty brand, Roven.

Products we love

We’ve done a roundup of our favorite home cleaning products by room, and you may have also seen Grove Collaborative’s home cleaning accessories (dish and scrub brushes, tea towels, etc.) on our gift guide.

Kitchen Products

First up are our kitchen products. Pennsylvania seems to have predominately gas cooktops, so we often need Method’s Heavy Duty Degreaser. Our cooktop gets a good wipe down with this at least once a week, more often if we’re cooking messier items like burgers or pasta (Nick would eat pasta every day if I conceded to it). If we’re cooking lightly, we usually just wipe down the stovetop with Mrs. Meyer’s multi-surface cleaner. We like this lemon verbena scent for the kitchen - it smells so fresh.

If our counters or shelves just need a quick wipe down from spilling something on them, we will use this multi-surface cleaner. If we’re doing a more thorough wipe down of all our counters, we typically go to the Method daily granite cleaner. If your countertops are granite, marble, natural stone or quartz, this cleaner will work for you. I shouldn’t forget to mention that the scent of this product is apple orchard, which makes me want to use it more often, especially during the fall.

Bathroom Products

We love Mrs. Meyers because their products are made with essential oils. If you have dogs, lavender essential oil is safe for them to be around. We like using this scent for our bathrooms because it’s a relaxing scent. The room freshener is great to use between cleaning cycles in any room of the house.

We have a few mirrors around the house, and this glass cleaner works well for them, as well as our windows. Anyone else have dogs that leave their little nose prints all over your windows? Hi, you’re not alone - we’re in that boat, too!

We like this tub and tile cleaner, and use it on our sinks as well. We’ve found that the brush you use is really important and depends on what type of tile you have. If you have a natural stone that is sealed, it can probably take a harder scrub brush every once in a while. We’ve found that our bamboo dry mop actually works really well for cleaning the face of our porcelain tile (I just slip it onto my hand), and then we use an old toothbrush for the grout.

No matter what type of tile you have, it’s good to use cleaners that aren’t harsh. Tile is durable, but the more harsh cleaners and hard scrubbings you do, the faster your sealer or other factory applied protective layers (clear coats, top layers of glaze, etc.) will wear away. It’s also really important to re-seal your stone or tile if you notice the grout is staying wet, or water is no longer beading up on the surface like it used to - that can mean moisture is getting down into your grout.

This is the first time we’ve had a separate tub and shower, and it is so nice. We aren’t dealing with having to scrub the whole tub as often since it gets much lighter use than the shower. My knees are much happier without the constant scrubbing of the tub. In our old apartment, I had seriously considered getting one of those kneeling pads that are used in the garden just for indoor use.

General Use Products

Finally, the general products we use throughout the rest of the house. We had never used two of these products before moving into our house, and I am obsessed with them.

The Seventh Generation squirt and mop formula works really great to clean and lightly condition our wood floors. You just open the nozzle, squirt it on the floor, and use a dry mop of your choice to work it around. Our dry mop is made from bamboo fiber, and is washable. So easy! You can get a refill jug of the squirt and mop formula as well, which helps cut down on plastic production and lessens the amount that needs to be recycled.

The next product is the Seventh Generation wood polish. They also have a wonderful daily wood cleaner, which we use on our wood tables. This wood polish has been great to have with all the woodwork throughout our house. It is a great conditioner for our mantels, our paneling in the dining room, our window sills, and I would like to tell you the baseboards as well… But, if I’m being honest I’ve only used it on them twice at best - once when we moved in and after we’ve painted. I’ll get to them again when we take update photos to post.

I forgot to mention one of the best things about the squirt and mop formula, daily wood cleaner and wood polish - they all have an almond scent! It makes everything smell wonderful and cozy.

The other workhorse in our rotation is the Method all purpose cleaner. We like this grapefruit scent, but there are many other scents available as well. There is also a refill jug available for this cleaner, which I need to add to a future order because we just ran out.

Interested in Grove Collaborative?

Well, here’s how it works.

You can sign up for a free account and pay flat shipping for each order, which is $2.99. Alternatively, you can pay $19.99 for a year of their VIP program, which gives you free shipping and an opportunity for a free gift with purchase each season (four per year).

It’s a monthly service, which unlike some subscription services, won’t automatically send you products every month. If you have nothing in your cart, they won’t send you anything or charge you. The monthly subscription has worked well for us because we can add things to the cart that we’re running low on throughout the month. We’re notorious for going to the store (with a list, even!), and forgetting trash bags or shampoo or a cleaning product and end up making another trip a few days later. With Grove Collaborative, you just add items as you need them to your cart.

Grove gives you a free gift with purchases at tiered levels. It’s like a rewards program without the hassle. You just choose your gift at checkout.

Any other Grove Collaborative users out there? Do you love it, too?

Am I the only one who gets excited about new home and personal products, or do you guys nerd out over this too? Do you want more posts like this one, featuring our every day products?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. All suggestions welcome!