Learn about my go-to everyday cleaning method that helps contribute to a less-toxic home.
I am so excited to finally write this blog post! I’m so passionate about living a less toxic lifestyle, and I want to share all that I’ve learned over the past year about going as non-toxic as possible. One of the big switches I made about a year ago was swapping out all our cleaning products.
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure.
I did a ton of research about different cleaning products on the market that are non-toxic. When I came across Branch Basics (<– get $10 off with my link!), I knew I wanted to try it. I was drawn to it for many reasons. First, and most importantly, I love that it’s safe for my family to use. I have two little ones and a baby on the way, so it’s more important than ever to have non-toxic products in my home!
HOW IT WORKS
Before I discuss why it’s so safe – it’s important to understand how it works. There’s just one concentrate bottle, which is the actual soap, and it’s used for all types of cleaning. All you have to do is dilute it with water using the ratios they give you, based on what you want to clean.
WHY IT’S SAFE
The concentrate (or soap) is plant and mineral based with no harmful preservatives. According to their website, the concentrate is made with Purified Water, Decyl Glucoside, Organic Chamomile Flower Extract, Coco-Glucoside, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Bicarbonate, and Sodium Phytate. It is also fragrance-free, non-GMO, and it’s EWG verified.
I’m a huge proponent of EWG verified products and I love looking for that symbol when shopping for products in my home. EWG – or Environmental Working Group- is one of my favorite resources when it comes to finding the safest products. When a product has the EWG verified mark, it means that the product does not have any of EWG’s chemicals of concern in it. Learn more about the importance of the EWG verified mark.
IT’S SIMPLE TO USE
Second, I love that there’s just one concentrate bottle, which does it all. You don’t have to buy a ton of different cleaning solutions to tackle all the different cleaning jobs you need to do. Instead, you can grab a set of their bottles, which they call their starter kit.
Each bottle is labeled based on the cleaning task. For example, there are three glass spray bottles that are part of the kit; one bottle is all-purpose (the green label below), one is for bathroom jobs (the red label below) and the last one is for streak-free cleaning (the blue label below), like windows and glass.
Each bottle has a “water fill line” where you’ll add water and then a “concentrate fill line” where you’ll add the concentrate. Then, you top it off with water, shake it and it’s ready to use! Below, you can see where the ‘water’ and ‘soap’ lines are on the bottle.
IT ACTUALLY WORKS
Sometimes non-toxic cleaning products get a bad wrap because “they don’t actually work.” In the case of Branch Basics (<– get $10 off with my link!), I can attest to the fact that it actually does work and it leaves my home feeling very clean. I’ve been using the Branch Basics concentrate for over a year and I’m constantly learning about new ways that it can be used. I follow the Branch Basics instagram account and am also subscribed to their list. I just recently learned from one of their posts that it can be used to wash produce! I will definitely be adding that to my list of uses!
Right now, the main ways I use Branch Basics are for my daily kitchen cleaning, bathroom cleaning, streak-free cleaning and hand-soap cleaning. In my kitchen, I use the all-purpose cleaner for daily counter wipe downs, cabinet wipe downs, and cleaning our kitchen table and chairs. I also use it to clean our dishes. Depending on how dirty they are, I either use the foaming wash bottle or the all-purpose bottle. (See below for more information about the foaming wash bottle, or hand soap). I even use Branch Basics to clean our kitchen sink. Since our sink gets extra grimy, I use the Branch Basics all-purpose cleaner combined with the Branch Basics oxygen boost. Their oxygen boost is great for laundry, stains and grout.
Below you can see what the oxygen boost looks like.
For bathroom cleaning, I use the bathroom bottle, which has a higher percentage of concentrate in it compared to the all-purpose bottle. At first I had a hard time getting up some of the grime on the bathroom tiles until I figured out a better way to use it. Instead of just spraying it on the tile and scrubbing, I spray it on the tile, then let it sit for 20-30 minutes, and then scrub it. Once I started letting the concentrate sit on the surfaces for a longer amount of the time, it worked like a charm!
It also took a little time for me to figure out how to use the streak-free cleaner properly. It notes it on the bottle: it’s important to use distilled water for this bottle. It’s also important to pair it with a microfiber cloth, like the one pictured below.
If you use a paper towel or another type of cloth, it doesn’t work nearly as well. When paired with a microfiber cloth, this solution works exceptionally well on mirrors and windows.
Here’s an example of the ‘before’ of our smudged-window:
Here’s a view of me washing the window with my Branch Basics:
Here’s a view of the ‘after:’
Now, I just need to clean the other side of the window! 😉
HAND SOAP OR FOAMING-WASH
As part of the starter kit bottle set, you get a foaming-wash bottle, which is like hand soap. I have to say that this was the only downfall to their system. I ordered the glass bottle set and the top of the foaming bottle did not work well. It kept getting clogged. I reached out about the issue and they sent me a few free ones, which was nice, however, after a couple uses of the new dispensers, I kept coming back to the same issue where the dispenser got clogged.
I finally decided to order some other foaming bottle/dispensers and pair those with my Branch Basics. I now use a motion-censored foaming dispenser in our kitchen. Below, you can see the original glass dispenser that came with the kit and the motion-censored gold dispenser beside it.
We use the motion-censored foaming dispenser in our kitchen to not only wash our hands but also our dishes. When we have dishes with hard food spots, I’ll spray on some of the all-purpose cleaner, which has a higher amount of concentrate than the foaming bottle concentrate. Sometimes, I’ll even let it sit on the dish for several minutes before scrubbing if there is food that’s really tough to get off.
For our bathrooms, I use manual dispensers. Below, you can see the black manual dispenser beside the glass Branch Basics dispenser. I have several black manual dispensers and a couple white manual dispensers that we use and love.
Each time I have to refill the other dispensers, I have to take the original Branch Basics foaming bottle and fill it using their measurements on the bottle and then transfer it to my other dispensers. It’s a bit more work to do this, but I love the soap so it’s definitely worth the extra couple seconds!
More recently, I’ve seen that Branch Basics came out with gel hand soap. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m very eager to try it. I think this will alleviate the issue I mentioned above.
The starter kit also comes with a bottle to make laundry detergent. I actually haven’t used this bottle or tried Branch Basics for laundry. The reason is because this bottle takes a lot of the concentrate and when I was first starting to go non-toxic, I didn’t want to put all that concentrate toward laundry when I needed it for daily cleaning use. Instead, I found other non-toxic laundry pods to use from AspenClean. I like them so I’ve stuck with them, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll also use Branch Basics for laundry. I do use their oxygen boost in our laundry when needed.
One way I plan to use Branch Basics in the coming months is for my floors. I kept trying to figure out how to get the concentrate in my swiffer mop. The problem I came across is that the swiffer-solution bottles that go into the mop are not made to open or to be refilled – so I kept going back to that toxic stuff for my floors. It’s so interesting because after making the change to non-fragranced items in my home, every time I use something that’s fragranced, it bothers my senses. Fragrances are so potent to me now and they give me a headache.
I saw a video recently on the Branch Basics Instagram account where they showed a certain mop with a refillable bottle. I realized that I just need to get the right mop. So that’s next on my list. I have LVP floors, so I think it will work really well on them.
By the way, if you do get their cleaning products, I highly suggest following their Instagram account because I’m constantly finding new and better ways to use Branch Basics (<– get $10 off with my link!). Their blog is also filled with great content about reducing toxins.
Overall, I absolutely love Branch Basics. I am so thankful we have products like this on the market now.