Cleaning green

I have an addiction to a) receiving mail in all forms and b) to trying new things as long as they came in the mail.  As such, I often (as in nearly every day) sign up to receive some sort of free sample.  Most of the time these samples are of products I’m familiar with, but once in a while I get a sample of something new and in exchange I am asked to fill out some sort of survey expressing my opinion of the product.  An example of that is the rice chips I eluded to yesterday.  Yeah.  Those weren’t good.  And I filled out the survey stating as much.  I basically said “This product is disgusting, smelled and tasted like burnt rice, and made my daughter barf on my blind dog’s head.  Real chips should sue these chips for using their name and defaming it.  They are not chips.  They are deviant, ill-tasting vomit.  Send.”

A few weeks ago, I filled out a short questionnaire, the transparent dangling carrot being a full value coupon, what those of us in the bargain hunting business call an FVC, for laundry detergent.  One of the questions was do I have a blog.  Why, yessir, I do have a blog!  Check.  Next thing I know it’s a few hours later and I get an email from a marketing company called matchstick.ca asking me if I’d like be a part of their program.  They are a word-of-mouth marketing firm, meaning they arrange for social media titans, like myself, to sample stuffs and review the products on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter or whatever media they choose to socialize with.  No money involved; I just get something from them and then write about what I thought.

I was a little on the fence about the idea.  On one hand, I love getting stuff and I love telling people what I think about stuff.  On the other, would that kind of be like selling out?  I made the executive decision that I don’t care.  I was going to try the product anyway, I was just filling the questionnaire out to get a coupon, so why not tell all y’all about it at the same time.

So I said sure.

In the mail (yay!) a few days later was a huge box filled with goodies.  And by goodies, I mean laundry detergent, which totally isn’t goodies because it involves doing the laundry which is the worst job on the planet next to vaccuuming.  In the box was a reusable bag and in the reusable bag was a full sized jug of Clorox Green Works All Purpose Cleaner, a jug of Natural Laundry Detergent, a delicates bag, samples of the detergent and FVC’s for the detergent.

Coincidentally, in grade 7, I did a science project on comparing regular laundry detergent with natural detergent.  Every single time the regular detergent won.  But that was in the late 1800’s, and no name brand offered anything even remotely environmentally friendly, so it was kind of to be expected.

I was pretty excited to try this again (the concept of natural detergent; the product is new).  And for me to be excited over laundry detergent?  Had to either be drunk or a pretty unique product I was actually very interested in trying.  According to the packaging and the literature I found on-line, the detergent is “made with at least 95% natural plant and mineral-based biodegradable cleaning ingredients and clean(s) as well as many traditional cleaners on many soils”.  They are HE compatible and not tested on animals, which is a huge deal to me (and should be to you, too….scowl).  These features have been offered in products before, but not by a trusted name like Clorox.

I did a load of towels first.  I hadn’t tried it before, hadn’t spoken to anyone who had tried it before, so I was playing it safe.  I followed the instructions to the letter (because I’m a good sampler and wanted to make sure I did it right) and kept not just an open mind, but also a realistic mind.

The scent was delicious.  A light, but strong smell.  Does that make sense?  I mean the frangrance was light bodied, but bold.  Did that even help?  Gah.  Nevermind.  It smelled good.  There.  Kind of citrusy.  And by kind of I mean exactly citrusy.  Orange, to be precise.

Pleasing scent and outstanding cleaning ability are probably the only two criteria needing to be met by a successful laundry detergent in my house.  It scored big with the smell, so what about the cleaning power?  When the towels hopped out of the dryer and folded themselves had been sitting in the dryer done for many hours, I inspected them for softness, residue, colour, and remaining scent.  I’m no laundry scientist, so I didn’t know what else to do.  Compared to the other neatly self-folded garments at home in our dressers pile of clean clothes on the professionally finished laundry room basement floor, the towels were equally soft, equally residue-free, equally stain-free, and even better smelling.

Which is basically exactly what I said to myself before I did my little experiment.  I says to myself, I says “as long as this stuff is as good as our usual brand, I’m going to switch.”  Because if I can get my clothes as clean as I can with a regular, environmentally toxic brand, I’d rather be cleaning with something I can feel good for using.

So, I guess I’m switching.  And I’m not just saying that because I got the stuff for free.  When this jug runs out, I’ll buy it again, this time with my own, hard-earned money.

And guess what?  I’ve got coupons for 5 lucky readers, too!  Yay!  Because I’m generous like that and also because I don’t think matchstick would be very happy if I just kept all the coupons for myself (even though I was tempted).

***The first 5 people* who leave a comment gets a full value coupon for one regular sized jug of Clorox Green Works Natural Laundry Detergent.***

If you get to try the detergent, and if you have a minute, please fill out this quick survey – SURVEY – and matchstick.ca will donate $2 to The Redwood, a family support shelter that offers assistance to those less fortunate (www.theredwood.com).

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* Unless I’ve already given you a coupon.  In that case, stop being so greedy and let someone else have a turn.

My friend Laura from Mom’s Night Out left this comment: “I already received a coupon from you (thank you)…and i agree 100% I too am changing brands – the smell was amazing!!!!!!”  She was skewing the comment count and it looked like all the coupons were gone, but I wanted everyone to see what she had to say about the product.

***Coupons are all gone!***