Norwex is a company that mainly sells microfiber products that allow you to clean with just water. In February last year, Norwex ran a special where you could sign up to be a consultant and get a package of product for free– no risk, no requirement to sell a certain amount, just pay the shipping. I had heard friends talking about how they loved their Norwex cloths so I decided to do it without ever having attended a party or anything.

I started using the Norwex envirocloths and loved them– they cleaned the kitchen counters faster than ordinary rags, and instead of going through piles of rags every few days, I could just keep using and using this microfiber cloth. It didn’t get smelly! Since smelly rags are one of my utmost pet peeves, I was happy.

Daughter got the stomach flu on the week that I was going to meet with the consultant I signed up with, so I ended up not having a party or learning more about how to use the cloths. I went for a week or two without the envirocloth getting smelly before I decided to go ahead and wash it. Already I had saved myself from a load of sour-rag laundry thanks to the little silver ions in the cloth.

A few more weeks and a few washes later, something was wrong. My norwex cloths stunk, and bad. Really bad. Worse than normal rags smell. So I kept throwing them in the wash. I washed them with almost every batch that went through the washer, and it just kept getting worse. I tried boiling them. That helped for a few days but soon we were back to stinky. I tried laying them out in the sun. They almost blew away and I almost didn’t care. They kept stinking. I knew there had to be something special about these cloths because I had never smelled anything quite like it– it was something special.

Later that spring I participated in a local baby expo here in Sioux Falls. My booth just so happened to be next to that of a Norwex consultant. She gave me the education I was missing.

It turns out that you’re not just supposed to throw Norwex cloths in with any old laundry. Instead of getting clean, the tiny, tiny microfibers will get completely clogged with the lint of clothes and towels and the silver ions won’t be able to do their work. I needed to wash my Norwex products either by themselves or with other lint-free laundry such as jeans or performance fleece.

I started doing so and the cloths gradually cleared up and then stayed stink-free. I still use the envirocloths all the time and if they’re both in the wash I remember how much I like them– other rags just cannot do what they do.

That summer we moved to an old home with hardwood almost everywhere and I worked up the courage to use my consultant discount to buy the Norwex double-sided mop along with a kit of other Norwex cleaning stuff I wanted to try.

I had never imagined I would pay almost eighty bucks for a mop, but I also never imagined that I would mop my kitchen every day. But I do. That’s because with said eighty-dollar mop, it takes me about two minutes and it looks fabulous when I’m done. Okay, it doesn’t actually look fabulous because our kitchen floor is fifty-year-old brown tiles that really, really need to be done away with, but it looks so much more fabulous-er than it otherwise would– believe me! Before the Norwex mop came, I had mopped the floor several times with a regular mop and had assumed that everything left was permanent stains, but when I used the Norwex mop, most of those “permanent” stains disappeared.

This past month, I finally tagged along to a Norwex party and learned the technical reasons why Norwex products work so well. I also heard from other moms about how they use different products to tackle various cleaning challenges. Now I understand why there are parties for these products– there’s kind of a lot to talk about. It’s such an important part of our lives, especially for moms, but since it’s not glamorous we rarely take the time to talk about how to do it best. And most importantly– how to do it fastest so we can get on to other things! I’m pretty excited to be finally doing my first Norwex party in a couple weeks, now that I know enough to teach others.

This year, they didn’t do the same fast, fun, free starter package in February– but they ARE doing it in March! http://media.norwexcs.com/Communications_Links/11659_MAR_JFF_Flyer_US_lores.pdf You just have to pay shipping and handling and there’s no obligation to sell– but if you do sell Norwex, you can earn commission plus a lot more free Norwex stuff. I’d do it just for the Norwex stuff 🙂

RebeccaMcKeever.norwex.biz is my Norwex site if you want to check out the products or sign up during their March promo.

If you have any questions, let me know! If you buy anything, I promise to educate you on how to use it so you don’t make the same mistakes I did! I’ll probably be writing some more detailed reviews about individual products in a bit.