Tag: surfactant

Cleaning Hack – Laundry Detergent

UPPNorwex Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent (UPP) is awesome! But you probably already know that. And don’t forget it is 100% biodegradable, not tested on animals, free of dyes and fragrances, free of fillers, no phosphates or sulfates. In short – it just cleans without harm.

BUT – there are soooo many more things you can do with UPP than just the laundry!! Here are some of the things I do with UPP at my house:

  • Put 1 tsp. in an 8 oz. spray bottle and fill. Make sure it’s dissolved and use it for:
    • laundry spot pre-treat
    • all-purpose cleaner around the house
    • clean creosote from your fireplace doors
    • spot treat carpet stains
  • Carpet cleaning solution (be sure to check manufacturer’s recommendations)
  • add to hot water and clean your stove fan filters
  • deep clean your Norwex cloths

Do you have any hacks for using Norwex UPP? Reply below…

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Wetter Water

Did you know that water is really quite a good cleaner all by itself? One article indicates water alone gets hands 4 times cleaner than not washing – WOW! If that’s the case, then why do we need soap? It turns out soap makes water ‘wetter’ – or gives water the ability to dissolve dirt to get rinsed away.

The ingredients in soap that helps water work better are called surfactants; SURFace ACTive AgeNTS. There are complicated chemical processes that happen when soap is added to water. The water molecules have their surface tension reduced allowing water to work better, and the soap binds to the dirt. Then we rinse and the dirt goes away with the soap!

References for this post:
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/detergents.html
http://www.cleaninginstitute.org/clean_living/soaps__detergents_chemistry.aspx