Once we learn something is important, it is impossible to keep it to ourselves!
Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
Teaching and educating is my passion! My desire is to stir a ‘proactive spirit’ in people regarding their choices and the danger of harmful chemicals. Many people are not aware that what they are currently using is harmful to our environment.
University of Bergen Study
The University of Bergen in Norway recently performed a study of 6000 people over a 20 year period, who had regular exposure to cleaning products. It was found that their lung function had been significantly affected as much as a person who had smoked a pack-a-day for 20 years as well as put them at a 40% higher risk of developing asthma.
The study revealed was that “the small particles from the spray [cleaners] can remain in the air for hours after cleaning. The small particles can travel deep into the lungs and cause infections and ageing of the lungs” Dr. Svanes explains. Dr. Svanes, the main author of the study, recommends “You [do] not need a lot of chemicals after all, when cleaning. Microfiber cloths may be just as effective.”
Norwex performed chamber tests to compare the number of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs or small particles) released by chemical spray cleaners and paper towel vs. Norwex Microfiber cloths and water. The results were AMAZING!!! Traditional chemical cleaners released 800 times the VOCs than Norwex products! There is no need for dusting sprays, room deodorizers, artificial fragrances, floor cleaners, all-purpose cleaning sprays… when you have a Norwex EnviroCloth and water!
Problem: Paper Towel
Let me share some information about the truth about paper towel consumption in North America… and how Norwex provides a solution.
On average, a person uses and disposes of 2,400 – 3,000 paper towels every year.
Paper towels are used in 90% of households.
The average family of 4 uses about 26 rolls of paper towels a year. That’s an annual expense of approximately $91 for a single-use, throwaway item that is clogging our landfills!
Paper towel creates 13 billion pounds of waste every year! That works out to a whopping 3,000 tons of waste daily… comparable to the weight of 1650 economy cars!!!
Most are made from virgin tree fibre and used only once.
One paper towel is often not enough for many jobs, and some brands are even bleached with harmful chlorinated compounds—not good for your family or the environment.
Residential dwellings are the largest contributor to pollution, not industrial.
Long-term exposure to many of the cleaning products you use in your home every day has cancer-causing potential.
What does it take to produce just 1 ton of paper towels? Approximately, 17 trees and 20,000 gallons of water!
In North America, we have a huge paper towel habit. 3,000 tons of paper towel waste is produced every day and accounts for the consumption of approximately 51,000 trees and 60 million gallons of water!
Paper towels, even when made of recycled materials still produce an environmental impact. The recycling process still uses water, energy and chemicals.
If everyone cut back by one sheet of paper towel per day, it would save North America 571,230,000 pounds of paper towel waste, every year. Now imagine, if, one-by-one, households began to eliminate paper towel waste altogether…what kind of impact would we see then?
Solution: 4 Norwex Cloths
Norwex is a company that provides solutions for problems like paper towel. Let me highlight a few different eco-friendly Norwex products you could use to replace your paper towel.
EnviroCloth
The EnviroCloth is Norwex’s flagship product!!! The microfiber cloth has the ability to remove 99% of bacteria from a surface when following the proper care and use instructions. It contains Norwex’s exclusive Baclock™ agent – micro silver antibacterial agent – goes to self-purify and inhibits odours from bacteria, mold and mildew growth within the cloth within 24 hours so that it is ready to use again. The microfibers in the EnviroCloth are 1/200th the size of a human hair and if unravelled, have a maximum length of more than 3 million meters (10 million feet). The splitting process that happens during manufacturing creates open spaces in the fibres and enables the cloth to lift away dust and dirt and absorb serval times its own weight in water. And it only needs water to clean; no cleaner, chemicals or sprays required.
Doesn’t that sound better than a disposable paper towel??
Window Cloths
Window Cloths are designed to be used with the EnviroCloth. Once you have cleaned a surface with an EnviroCloth, use a Window Cloth to polish it to a streak-free shine. No paper towel or window spray required. If you love clean windows, but hate how long it takes, the EnviroCloth and Window Cloth will take 50% less time to clean and leave you with better results. The Window Cloth or ‘polishing cloth’ is constructed of tightly woven Norwex microfiber with the self-purifying Baclock™ agent, is lint-free, traps dust and grime in the cloth so your surface is cleaner, only needs water so there is no “chemical muck” left behind. This cloth will change your cleaning regime.
Counter Cloths
Norwex introduced Counter Cloths as a great alternative to paper towel. They are the same size as a half-sheet paper towel, come in beautiful colours, are made from 50% recycled materials, have a super-absorbent unique new weave for quick spill clean up. These beauties are perfect for your kitchen and bathroom. They even have Norwex’s self-purifying Baclock™ agent in the cloth. Seriously, with these handy little cloths, you won’t ever grab for a paper towel again!
Napkins
For anyone who loves to use a half-sized paper towel as their dinner napkin, Norwex has an alternative for you too. On average, a family of 4 uses more than 3000 paper napkins/paper towels a year. The Napkins are made from 50% recycled materials (5 plastic bottles per set of 4) and are lovely. They come in either charcoal or peacock blue, the microfiber also has Baclock™ agent so you can use them more than once before laundering, they are quick-drying and very absorbent, plus they make your dinner table look pretty. Saving trees and dressing up dinner all at the same time… not bad.
So, what can you do?
Let me give you a challenge! Next time you start a new roll of paper towel, take a pen and write in the date inside of the roll. First, try if you can go 4 months with one roll, then 6… then try if your family can stretch one roll of paper towel to last an entire year! You can do it! Other customers have done it, I know you can do it too. Imagine with me the impact that would be realized by simply changing the way we use paper towel.
Become an Educator
Since I started my Norwex journey in 2006, thousands of Consultants have been working with me to spread the word about these amazing products. I believe Nelson Mandela’s statement about the power of education… which means, we have a lot more educating to do! Every grocery and department store has at least one aisle stocked with toxic cleaning chemicals. Only 2% of North American homes use Norwex products… we have a lot of people to educate! Join my team, become an educator and help Norwex make a difference.
Are you going to take the paper towel challenge? Leave a comment about how it went. Was it easier or harder than you thought?
Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
With Halloween right around the corner, festive activities are fast approaching. Costume-making, decorating and entertaining at our home are all parts of Halloween enjoyed by the whole family. Cleaning in preparation for these festivities, however…is preferred to be done quickly!
Maybe you have a dog that frequents your windows, or it’s been a while since you’ve have the time to clean, so your front windows are streaky. Do you want to give them a quick wipe down before the big night? Try the Norwex Window Cloth and an EnviroCloth for totally cleaning your dirty windows.
Norwex’s Window cloths are a fast and effective way to get your windows streak-free. In fact, because you use only water with the cloths, your little pirate or ballerina can even help out with cleaning them!
When our girls were little, I’d give them a spray bottle of water and a Window Cloth. They could clean all of our glass coffee and end tables and they thought it was fun. Well, now I have teenagers. They still clean, but the fun factor of helping “Mom” has subsided. For me, the great thing is, with age has come height; now they can clean the whole window, top to bottom!
In order to get the real-clean, and see the real-gleam of your windows, Norwex’s Basic Package is sold as a pack of two cloths; giving you a ‘washer’ (the EnviroCloth) and a ‘polisher’ (the Window Cloth)!
Don’t forget to check out Norwex’s Kids Window Cloth, perfect for little hands!
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
Environmentally-friendly Norwex Cleaning Paste is often referred to as “elbow-grease in a jar”. Use it for a variety of stubborn cleaning jobs.
Take a look in your cupboard and see how many of your purchased cleaners have only three active ingredients. The amazing Cleaning Paste contains: marble-flour, natural soap and traces of coconut oil. It took me seven years of regular use to finish my first container and I use it regularly! Norwex Cleaning Paste is perfect to use with the Spirisponge or EnviroCloth regularly to solve many of my toughest cleaning chores.
Polish and Protect Chrome
Stainless Steel
Pot and Pans
Kettles
Faucets and Sinks
Porcelain
Kitchen
Coffee Pots
Glasses
Food-Ware Products
Bathroom
Tubs and Tile
Faucets and Sinks
Counter Tops
Golf Clubs
Shoes
Remove permanent marker from white boards
Flooring
Tile and Grout
Removed scuff marks
Laminate / Linoleum
Vehicles, Boats and Campers:
Vinyl
White Walls
Lawn Furniture
I like to think of it as “super-paste”; it cleans and polishes surfaces around your home. It removes the toughest of grime, without introducing unnecessary and dangerous products to your living environment. It is poison-, phosphate- and acid-free as well as easy on your skin and friendly on the environment. Not only that, it smells GREAT.
At a home presentation I did a while ago the host had a gas stove. Her kettle was tarnished from repeated exposure to natural gas flame. My host was explaining to her guests how she had tried everything to get it clean. So… with the Cleaning Paste and a Spirisponge, I effortlessly demonstrated how this amazing product WORKS!
The main testimonial from my customers is from cleaning their glass top stoves! It works amazing!!
At another presentation my host and her guests laughed that I wouldn’t be able to clean her sink. It was heavily stained from coffee and tea and she mentioned her plan of replacing the old sink at some point in the future. Within minutes, it was shiny and clean!
The pictures below shows the results:
*Note: Test on an inconspicuous spot. Do not use on brushed stainless steel, nickel, pewter, aluminum or wood.
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
What is the best kind of dirt? The kind that stays outside!! I’m Dutch, I was taught to dust… even when I couldn’t even find any. Our homes are our sanctuary and truly the only environment we can control.
There’s nothing I love more than entertaining at our home; we are blessed to have many nephews and nieces that have moved into our city to attend university. They are always welcome to come for a warm meal and family time. With friends coming and going as well, we have a busy home!
Entry mats are a stylish way to keep dirt and allergens from traveling throughout your home. Norwex has launched a new Entry Mat for your home this fall, thirsty microfiber and polypropylene bristles and all. These features will trap the dirt at the door, as 85% of contaminants are brought into our homes in the first four steps. The industrial strength rubber backing will hold it in place!
Here’s a few other ways you can prevent unwanted pollutants from entering your home:
1. First and foremost, your mat is your first line of defense. If you wish, you can even keep one just outside your door to wipe your shoes off on, and one inside your door to soak up the remaining moisture from your shoes. Just make sure you’re vacuuming/laundering your mat about once a week to keep it doing its job efficiently!
2. Create a “no-shoes-past-the-mat” policy, simply remove muddy footwear BEFORE reaching the entryway floor. I know some people who have placed a bench nearby to make this easier, my family has adopted the shoe rack system to keep our shoes organized and minimize unnecessary clean-up!
3. Paw prints making a mess? Keep a Norwex EnviroCloth or hang a Dusting Mitt handy at your back door where you let the dogs (or cats) in to readily wipe their furry paws and prevent any messy situations. Nobody likes trying to get mud out of their carpets.
A couple handy suggestions:
This mat is the perfect size for your RV. With the non-slip rubber backing it will hold in place and absorb unwanted moisture.
Do you have a pool or hot tub in the back yard? Place this mat at the door and you’ll appreciate its absorbancy.
Already loving the new Norwex entry mat? We are too! Try out the Norwex Rubber Brush to keep it clean between laundering, or run over your mat with a hand held vacuum.
Did You Know?
The soles of your shoes are a major source of transferring chemicals and pesticides into your home. In fact, most of the grime in our homes originated elsewhere, the bulk of it coming in unnoticed on shoes that often don’t appear to be either muddy or dirty.
A good quality entry mat is essential, it will remove much of the contaminants that otherwise would find their way inside your home.
The right entry mat can also reduce the time you spend cleaning, it should be about the same width as the door.
With unwanted debris, chemicals and other residue from lawn equipment and automobiles, garages and public restrooms on our footwear, we all track unwanted filth into our homes.
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought I would share a few things I am thankful for. My husband who has been one of the driving forces for me behind this business, and my beautiful girls who inspire me to make this earth cleaner, for their future. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family who is as passionate about changing our world as I am.
That being said, when entertaining in our home this Monday, I hope to spend as much time possible with my family, NOT cleaning up dishes. This, of course, means less time doing the dinner clean-up. Daily we use the Norwex Kitchen Towels for drying our dishes and hands. I have never had a towel dry faster, and absorb spills more easily than this one. The towels are sold individually or in sets with a matching cloth.
At a Customer Appreciation Event in Smithers, B.C. a testimony was shared about these towels: It was Easter and her entire family of thirty guests were joining her family for dinner. The food was prepared, wine was poured and the table was set. But unfortunately the dishwasher was broken. With the recent purchase of two Norwex Kitchen Towels they dried all of the dishes; from the wine glasses and utensils to the once greasy turkey roasting pan. She was delighted with her new towels and told all who were there that they should also try them. Old dish towels that sort of did the job are a thing of the past, Norwex has come out with an absorbent solution!
Safe On:
Stainless Steel
Enamel / Stone / China
Ceramic / Glass / Crystal
Chrome / Wood / Plastic
Granite / Marble / Slate / Quartz / Tile
The unique weave allows the Kitchen Cloth to tackle all your kitchen surfaces; they are super absorbent, quick-drying and non-abrasive. In addition, BacLock™ in the cloth – a micro silver antibacterial agent – goes to work to inhibit odors from bacteria, mold and mildew growth within the cloth. Best news? No more smelly cloths or towels! If that’s not something to be thankful for, I don’t know what is.
This fall the kitchen towels are available in new colors, including orchid, butter-cream, and my favorite, a rich and festive pomegranate red.
The towel and cloths set are available now in eight different color options. Mix and match to hang in your kitchen as dish towels and hand drying towels.
Did You Know?
Many products incorporate silver because of it’s antibacterial properties. There are silver antibacterial socks, silver soap, silver-lined curtains in hospitals, silver-lined bandages for treating burns and even silver toothbrushes.
Key Benefits:
Norwex Microfiber uses a combination of static electricity and capillary action to pull dirt and grease up into the fibers and away from the surface.
Dries kitchen counter and dishes quickly.
Saves time, money and the environment with chemical-free cleaning and no use of paper towel.
BacLock™, the micro silver agent goes to work with self-purification properties.
Exceptionally fast-drying.
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Delores VandenBoogaard is an Independent Norwex Sales Consultant from Edmonton, Alberta Canada with customers and consultants throughout Canada and the United States including; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, North West Territories and Ontario. She also has customers and team members in; Michigan, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Washington, New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine.
Norwex introduced Counter Cloths as a great alternative to paper towel. They are the same size as a half-sheet paper towel, come in beautiful colours, are made from 50% recycled materials, have a super-absorbent unique new weave for quick spill clean up. These beauties are perfect for your kitchen and bathroom. They even have Norwex’s self-purifying Baclock™ agent in the cloth. Seriously, with these handy little cloths, you won’t ever grab for a paper towel again!
For anyone who loves to use a half-sized paper towel as their dinner napkin, Norwex has an alternative for you too. On average, a family of 4 uses more than 3000 paper napkins/paper towels a year. The Napkins are made from 50% recycled materials (5 plastic bottles per set of 4) and are lovely. They come in either charcoal or peacock blue, the microfiber also has Baclock™ agent so you can use them more than once before laundering, they are quick-drying and very absorbent, plus they make your dinner table look pretty. Saving trees and dressing up dinner all at the same time… not bad.
