Beauty and Babbling at Home - Honest Dishwasher Pods

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. This post contains my affiliate link, which earns me a $20 credit if someone uses it and makes a purchase. All opinions are honest and completely my own. 

I haven't done a Beauty and Babbling at Home post since my initial one. I think it's about time for another one, don't you?

I don't mention my journey to go cruelty-free very often, so if you are new to my blog, you might not know about this goal. Most of my makeup was already cruelty-free, so I'm doing pretty well there. Most of what isn't is currently in my regular rotation to be used up, listed in my blog sale, or in a bin waiting to be listed on my blog sale.

I've had a harder time with home products and some toiletries, but I'm making progress.

One company that has been really helpful though is The Honest Company (referral link). The company was co-founded by Jessica Alba and Christopher Gavigan, an author and a collaborator with WebMD. Their goal was to create products that were eco-friendly, non-toxic, and affordable. The more I read about this company, the more I like it. For example, while searching their site for information about them to add to this post, they have earned Gold status as a Green America Certified Business. I had no idea what this was, but you can check out everything that the company has to do in order to receive this certification here. I'm impressed!

One of my favorite Honest products so far is their dishwasher pods.

Price: $10.95 for a pack of 32. If you choose to subscribe to their bundle service, it is cheaper (more on that later).

Ingredients: Sodium Carbonate (Natural Soda Ash), Sodium Citrate (Citrus Derived), Sodium Metasilicate, Sodium Percarbonate (Solid Form Of Hydrogen Peroxide Bonded With Natural Soda Ash), Sodium Sulfate (Mineral), Crystalline Silica (Mineral), Non-Ionic Ethoxylate (Biodegradable Cleaner), Sodium Polyaspartate (Mineral), Sodium Iminodisuccinate (Biodegradable Water Softener), Alpha-Amylase & Protease Enzymes (Organic Enzyme Blend), Polyvinyl Alcohol (Biodegradable, Water-Soluble Film)

Performance: These are fantastic! I love the the convenience of the pods compared with a loose powder or gel, and they work as well, if not better, than the brands I used to buy. I'm pretty lazy about rinsing dishes before sticking them in the dishwasher. I'll usually make sure there aren't chunks of food left on dishes and do a quick rinse, but I don't scrub everything off before they go in the dishwasher. The vast majority of the time, all of my dishes come out completely clean. The items that don't are ones that really did need a good scrubbing before going in, but I was too lazy to bother. :-) I also have a couple of cookie sheets that I use regularly, and these pods have gotten rid of all the build-up and discoloration that tends to happen with cookie sheets. 

My only minor issue that I've had with these occurred recently. I just got a new bundle shipment in, and it included two bags of these pods. I haven't actually opened the bags yet, but there was a lot of loose powder in the bag, so I could tell that several pods had broken (I've never had that happen before, and I've been getting these since the summer). I shot the company a message on Facebook and included pictures. In less than a week, I had a new bag shipped to me to make up for the broken pods. No hassle. No fuss. The company also made a point of asking for the batch number of the bags I received so they could investigate the problem. 

Bundle Subscription Information

When I was first introduced to The Honest Company (referral link) and became interested in the brand, I signed up to get their I signed up to get their Essentials Bundle trial kit, which includes trial sizes of their shampoo + body wash, face + body lotion, laundry detergent, healing balm, and hand soap. I only had to pay $5.95 shipping and handling. 

This signed up up for their Essential Bundle service. The standard setup for this service is receiving 5 full-size products every month for $35.95 plus $5.95 shipping and handling. Each individual can choose which products they receive, and it can be changed with each shipment. 

These bundles can be customized even further. The Honest Company allows up to 3 add-on products in each bundle at a 25% discount. If the bundle total after add-on items is over $50, the bundle ships for free. Also, even though the initial setup has bundles shipping ever 4 weeks, the shipping frequency can be changed to every 8 weeks. If even that is too often, there is a calendar that allows for personal ship date selection. For example, I just received a bundle, and I have enough product to last me a while, so I adjusted my next ship date to the end of May. If it gets close to that time, and I still have product to get through, I can adjust the date again to push it back. 

When constructing my bundles, I usually end up doing a lot of mental math, and even sometimes scribbling some figures on paper. The bundle is a really good deal, but only if I pick up some of their more expensive products. A lot of them are around the $6 mark, which isn't really a deal if a bundle is only made up of those items. They, unfortunately, don't have anything to indicate whether your bundle has reached the $50 threshold for free shipping, so I end up doing some figuring to make sure I've reached that amount. 

One of the other downsides to the bundling program is that there is no way to cancel a bundle except for calling the company directly. I would prefer having the option to cancel online, but since I plan on continuing with the service for the foreseeable future, this isn't really a big deal for me. 

Final Thoughts

These dishwasher pods work really well for me. With my current bundle and the extra bag sent to make up for the broken pods, I have 5-6 bags of these stashed in my kitchen, and I'm happy to have them. I love the fact that I'm supporting an eco-friendly, cruelty-free company that does its best to provide products without a lot of nasty chemicals. I haven't loved all of their products that I've tried, but I have liked the majority of them. 

Do you have any favorite eco-friendly, cruelty-free household products? Have you tried anything from The Honest Company? 

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. This post contains my affiliate link, which earns me a $20 credit if someone uses it and makes a purchase. All opinions are honest and completely my own. 

New Series! Beautybabbling at Home

Disclaimer: The product mentioned in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

I'm hoping to start a series of posts on my blog about getting organized, in part to actually help me get more organized. I'm not going to make any promises about how often I'm going to do these kinds of posts because I will inevitably break that promise.

I'm no expert at being organized. I try, but things always end up going a little bit crazy around my house. Over the past few months though, I've made some discoveries that have really seemed to help.

Tip #1: Declutter before you buy organizing items. If your house is full of stuff, organizing that stuff isn't going to help all that much.

Tip #2: Don't rush into buying a bunch of items to help you get organized. Use cardboard boxes or other items that you already have lying around the house to see if your new organizing system is going to work. Also give yourself time to find the right item for the job. Settling for an item that will work for the time being can just be a waste of money and can just add more stuff to your house that you have to deal with.

That leads me to my example.

This bar area in my kitchen had been driving me nuts for months! It had become too much of a catch-all for cereal and snacks. My kitchen doesn't have a lot of counter space, so I like using that area for food prep, and all the stuff was starting to make that impossible.

I wanted to find a shelving unit to go on the wall to the right of this counter, but I wasn't finding anything I really liked and wanted to buy. I almost bought one of those cheap particleboard units like this:

Picture from closetmaid.com

The thing that made me hesitate was that this would have been a temporary solution, and at somewhere around $30-$40, it wasn't a cheap one either.

Instead, I kept my eye out for something I really liked. I scoured the internet. Then one day, while out shopping with a friend, the heavens opened up when I saw this:

We were walking through Hobby Lobby when I saw this baker's rack. It is an antique bronze finish (even though it looks black in the picture), and it was around $100. It can fold up (the shelves fold up and the sides fold in), which made it possible for me to get it home in my 2-door Cavalier. The only thing I would change is making the shelves a bit thicker because they have a little bit of bend in them when I push down on them. I stashed a few of my cookbooks elsewhere because I was worried about the shelf permanently bending from the weight. Other than that, this has solved my cluttered counter problem, and gave me the added bonus of being able to store my cookbooks closer to where I actually use them (they were previously in a different room).

Now, if I had caved and gotten the particle board shelving unit, I would have had to deal with finding a new place for it in my home or get rid of it. The first option isn't ideal since I have no idea where I would have put it, and the second is just plain wasteful.

What is your best home organizing tip? Is there a solution that you've come up with that is working really well for you? I'd love to know!

Disclaimer: The product mentioned in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Deal Alert! The Honest Company is on Groupon!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. I have included referral links for both The Honest Company and Groupon. 

I stumbled on a great deal this morning that I thought I would share with all of you. There is a Groupon (referral link) deal for $20 that gets you a $40 coupon code for The Honest Company (referral link).

Image taken from TheHonestCompany.com

I learned about The Honest Company when I received a couple of their products in a box I got from totalbeauty.com. I fell in love with the idea of a cruelty-free company that makes home and body care products without nasty chemicals.

From their website:

Our list of toxic offenders is always growing.

While each product has a unique guarantee, as a company we keep a master list of toxic offenders we'll never consider for use in anything. Period. We confirm, to the best of our knowledge, based on information from our raw material & packaging suppliers and manufacturing partners, that our products are

Honestly FREE of: phthalates (DEHP, BBP, DBP, DMP, DEP); PVC; formaldehyde; alkylphenols; benzene; TEA (Triethanolamine); MEA (Monoethanolamine); parabens; phosphates; chlorine; chlorinated or brominated solvents; ceteareth 20; polyethylene glycol (PEG); resorcinol; bronopol; quaternium 15; nanoparticles; triclosan; sulfur oxides; organohalides; hexavalent chromium; DMDM hydantoin; organophosphate pesticides; 1,4 - dioxane; SLS/SLES (sodium lauryl/laureth sulfates); optical brighteners; mineral oil; petrolatum; BPA (bisphenol-A); a-chlorotoluene

After trying the products I got from Total Beauty, I ordered their Essentials Bundle free trial for $5.95 shipping, which included mini sizes of their shampoo + body wash, face + body lotion, laundry detergent, healing balm, and hand soap. This automatically signed me up for their bundle deal, which is 5 full-size products for $35.95 plus shipping. Their bundle program sets me up to receive a shipment every 4 weeks (but can be adjusted to ship every 5, 6, or 8 weeks). I have mine set to ship every 8 weeks because I don't need a shipment every month. I can change the contents of my bundle every month, so I'm not stuck getting products I don't need or don't like.

On top of the 5 products in the bundle, I have the option of adding 3 more products to each shipment for 25% off. If my bundle total is $50 or more, I get free shipping. If I decide to cancel my bundle subscription, I can call them and cancel at any time (I wish they would make it possible to cancel through their website, but it isn't a huge deal).

Since I learned about The Honest Company I have switched over to using their laundry detergent (in both liquid and pod forms), their dishwasher pods, and their toothpaste. I have several other products that I've added to my bundles that I plan on switching to when I finish off the products I already had.

While I'm far from perfect about it, I really love that I have found products that are cruelty-free and more natural than what I can get in my town.

Do you use any natural or cruelty-free cleaning products? Are there any I should try or avoid?

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. I have included referral links for both The Honest Company and Groupon.