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.
On average, each person in the U.S. uses 1.6 plastic straws every day!!! Between the ages of 5-65, this means that about 38,000 straws are used per person. And that’s not counting the paper wrappers!! By now you may be tempted to order your next drink without a straw. But lets face it, those suckers are handy.
The environmental impact is disturbing. Plastic straws are one of the top 10 debris ingested by sea life.
Although many disposable drinking straws are produced with the intention of being recycled (#2 and #5 plastics), they are not. As they are not biodegradable , but photo-degradable, it can take these flimsy straws centuries to break down. In other words, “disposable straws” are not really “disposable”. The majority of them join other plastic products that saturate landfills, or are strewn along roads and beaches, harming wildlife, and ultimately harming us. Many of these straws contain BPA, a known endocrine disruptor. As animals ingest bits of plastic, the BPA accumulates through the food chain ending up on OUR dinner plates and ultimately in our bodies.
Thankfully, Norwex has come up with a solution. The Stainless Steel Drinking Straws are people- and wildlife-friendly, a long-lasting alternative to plastic straws. Their sleek and curved design fits most cups and bottles for easy drinking at home or on the go. The pack of 4 will allow you to keep some at home, work and in your car for those impulsive drive-thru days! This is an easy way to keep your family healthier our beaches/ landfills cleaner.
Straws were originally made from hollow stalks of rye grass.
The first straws used commercially were made from paper (which are still available).
Most plastic straws are also individually wrapped in paper, which equals more trash.
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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.
During my first pregnancy, after three years of marriage, my husband offered to clean the shower for the first time. He didn’t want me inhaling the strong fumes in the enclosed space of our shower stall. I realized then, if it wasn’t safe for me to use these products while I was pregnant, how could they be safe for me to use when I wasn’t? I had been cleaning regularly with the typical, department store products. I had an arsenal of cleaning products I become accustomed to cleaning with. I was using the same products my mom used to clean my childhood home.
Picture from: www.theallergymom.com
It is often when children enter our homes that chemical awareness really kicks in. However, without knowing the alternatives we have, we continue to wash, wipe, and spray chemically laden products onto the surfaces that our children touch, lick, smell, and inhale everyday.
To this day, I have yet to hear a parent claim they would like to expose their children to a greater number of chemicals. However, we smile and take pictures of our babies kissing the bathroom mirror, licking our windows, and blowing bubbles in the bathwater. Have you ever watched your child eat food off of the counter and stopped to think; how did I clean that surface?
Health Canada reports that, “Household chemical products are among the top products responsible for injuries and deaths in children under the age of five years”.
“Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded the umbilical cord blood… researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood.” Read more… at Environmental Working Group.
It was to my great relief that Norwex offered products that would diminish our exposure to these cleaning products for our family’s future. I no longer have to worry about what I last sprayed on a surface, or what kind of chemicals my family will inhale when cleaning.
It delights me to be raising a generation that knows how to clean, without depending on harmful chemicals to get the job done. When our daughters join me for a weekend at a local Trade Show, they’ll tell the skeptical, potential customers that they do not recall anything being used in our home other than Norwex. They will often grab the mop and say, “our family has been using the same one since 2004!”.
Information is powerful. As long as there are stores full of cleaning chemicals, I have a job to do! I will educate others, one home at a time!
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.
When I was pregnant with my eldest daughter, my awareness of the dangerous chemicals that could be in our home and environment was heightened. My desire was to give my young daughters a healthy environment to grow and play in. Not only was I unaware of the magnitude of dangers typical cleaning products held, but I liked how they had made my home smell and feel. The scent had made it feel CLEAN, and eventually, I began to realize that I had affiliated the smell of chemicals with cleanliness. I suppose this makes perfect sense, as the only way I had been taught to clean was with chemicals. As well as our smell being our strongest of our senses gave me the false sense of, “If it smells clean, then it must beclean!”
Like many, I assumed if these common household products were sold in stores they must have been approved safe to use. However, the skull and crossbones plastered across thousands of cleaning products indicate something different.After doing extensive research on the effects of chemicals in household cleaners, I decided I NEEDED an alternative. That’s when I discovered Norwex! The CHEMICAL-FREE way to clean. I was thrilled and to further my delight, I discovered hospitals were using them too! I instantly fell in love with the products and what they were all about. I could not wait to share the fantastic news of a chemical-free-future with others. Read more about my story: “Why Norwex?”.
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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.
I have always loved the outdoors. I was raised on a farm a couple of hours from Alaska, in Smithers, B.C., Canada. Being raised on a farm was an amazing way to grow up. I was a member of the local 4H Club, participating in beef and sheep raising, as well as showmanship, but mostly I loved the public speaking opportunities and demonstrations the club presented me with.
My first job was at the local fish hatchery as a tour guide. The job encouraged me to stay active and healthy. These are two traits I have instilled in my family. As a family we enjoy camping, biking, geo caching, hiking and playing games outdoors. In order for our families to continue enjoying our earth, I strongly believe that ALL of us are called to take care of it. Everyday we have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of creation and everyday we have the responsibility to protect it.
It wasn’t that long ago when hikers didn’t hesitate to drink out of the lakes, rivers or streams. Now we all think twice. What has happened? Our society has made everything disposable. The lakes, streams and oceans are polluted. We need to clean up our act to protect our earth. David Suzuki was right when he said that “What we do to nature, we do to ourselves.”
We cannot solely blame commercial industry without pointing the finger at residential homes that are carelessly dumping anything and everything down the drain and into our landfills. Studies have shown that the largest contributors to pollution are actually residential homes not industries.
A particular verse in the Bible that rings true to me is: I completely believe that we must “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:26). We are such a small part of this universe with the ability to make a huge impact. Many of us believe that one person cannot change the world, but the truth is, WE CAN. One person at a time, one step at a time. That one persons is you and your first step in in your home.
Gandhi’s call to action is a phrase to live by, “we must strive to be the change that [we] wish to see in the world”.
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.
