Miracle cleaner

About a month ago, JJ did an "end-o" off a small table in our family room and cut open his chin in addition to cutting his lip and gum tissue inside his mouth. (You can read all about the details in the post "JJ goes to the ER.")

As you can imagine, there was a LOT of blood. Fortunately, I managed to get JJ to the sink before it really started gushing and got as much as I could under control before putting him in the suburban to go to the doctor's office (and later hospital).

Before JJ fell, we were about 10 minutes away from piling into the burb to go to Cooper's Tae Kwon Do class in downtown Hillsboro. Cooper was already in his uniform...his glaringly white uniform. This was only the second time he'd worn it.

Cooper came with me to get help for JJ. He sat next to JJ and tried to comfort him. I also gave Coop some paper towels to wipe up any dripping blood on JJ's face. Cooper was very helpful, but in the process, blood got on his uniform in a few different places.

Unfortunately, that was a small priority and operation "stain removal" would have to wait.

Before he left the ER with Jared later that night, I had advised Cooper to put his uniform in the laundry room as a reminder for me to work on getting the blood out before his class on Thursday evening. It wasn't until Thursday morning though, a day and a half later, that I finally remembered to address the issue.

Three months ago, I had purchased a non-toxic cleaning soap from Branch Basics that I had stumbled across through a food blog that I follow. It's free of ammonia, chlorine, endocrine disruptors, phosphates, SLS and solvents. It's human-safe, perfect for everyone including babies, children, the elderly and even pets.

I was mostly curious to see if this could do all it said it could do. Truth be told, I'm more concerned about how effective a soap is as a cleaner and not it's level of toxicity. Hopefully that makes me one who really appreciates a clean home and not a bad mom. (Although we were just discussing JJ falling off of a table while I was standing nearby...)

I remembered this new soap and thought "Hmmm, this bloody uniform would be a good test subject."  So I sprayed the soiled spots on the leg of his uniform and his belt. And I got distracted.

When I came back a little later, the blood had already started to fade...it looked watered down.

I tossed it in the washer and held my breath when I pulled it out. Not one trace of evidence that blood had been anywhere on that uniform or belt. I couldn't believe it. Sometimes, there's a pale yellow spot where stains had been...where they almost came out. But I looked the uniform over several times. Nothing. SWEET!

A couple of days later, Cooper had left his breakfast plate on the dining room table. We had pancakes with black raspberry and huckleberry jam on them. JJ had managed to not only climb on top of the table (yeah, he obviously didn't learn his lesson) but he crawled right through that plate with jam on it. His jeans were covered. And I smiled :)

I took his pants off, sprayed them with the Branch Basics soap and left them because I didn't have any laundry to do at the time. A day or two later, when I walked through the laundry room, the jeans caught my eye. They were free of all jam stains. They weren't watered down, they were nowhere to be found. It was like they evaporated into thin air. Like magic. I couldn't believe it.

Since then, we've had blood on sheets and again, I sprayed it with Branch Basics and used a paper towel and wiped it away in one swipe. I dropped a blue permanent marker on my kitchen tile that landed tip down and left a dot. I grabbed the Branch Basics and a paper towel. It took a few more scrub strokes, but it came  right out.

I've used it on windows & mirrors (finally a streak-free cleaner), the tub, the fridge. I've mopped with it in my kitchen. I knew it made the tiles look SUPER clean...but just this last week, I discovered with a little bit of scrubbing and it actually took a significant amount of dirt out of the grout in between the tiles. On another occasion, while mopping my kitchen floor, I was noticing how dirty my lower white kitchen cabinets were, so I started wiping those down. This stuff works better than Magic Erasers and doesn't leave that white residue behind!

Apparently you can use it to treat insect bites, sunburn, cold sores and heaven forbid *l.i.c.e* You can clean your cars, grills and use it as a flea treatment for your pets. You can wash your produce, your own body and babies with it. You can use it to clean bikes, diaper pails, stinky disposals, dry erase boards, engines, exercise equipment, garage floors, highchairs, jewelry, patio furniture, retainers, tires, toys, yoga mats and the list goes on.

I'm really excited about this stuff...just for the "blood factor," especially with my four boys and a hubby who could potentially get it on his clothes in his line of work. We went to Jared's office first when JJ cut his chin open and JJ wanted Jared to hold him. JJ laid his head on Jared's shoulder and of course got blood all over Jared's shirt. It was about a week before we remembered his soiled shirt in the laundry basket and "treated" it with Branch Basics. The blood came right out. However, not so much on his white lab coat, but it had been laundered at the office first. So it stands to reason that  Branch Basics works its magic on NEW stains in fabrics that haven't been washed and dried yet.

The news is spreading about this stuff because ANOTHER blog I follow from time to time, did a post on it just this week as well. Plus there's a special offer if you want to try it. I would highly recommend it (even though I'm not being paid to say so :) and would suggest you jump at the offer because it IS pricey--at first. However, it's a concentrated solution that you dilute so the price per ounce will save you money in the long run when you eliminate the other cleaners you would spend money on.

Here's the link to the site. Though if it doesn't work, just go to 100daysofrealfood.com.

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/02/26/branch-basics-non-toxic-all-purpose-cleaner-special-deal/

There's a deal that's good only through Monday, March 4th. You can get a 32 oz. bottle of the concentrate and 1 empty spray bottle for dilution for $18.89 (not including shipping). You can make 6 All-purpose bottles for $2.85 each. That's a great price!

Love this stuff! Hope you do too. If not, and you buy some, I'll buy it from you.