Biokleen Review: Soy Blends Cleaners

Two more products that I love to clean with. Have I mentioned how great these cleaners smell? I actually don't mind cleaning because they aren't bothersome, or over powering bleach type smells that burn your nose and make your eyes water. Just simple clean and fresh smelling citrus. The Toilet cleaner has really grainy bits of volcanic perlite (basically ground up dried lava) in it. This helps with the scrubbing power. Minimal elbow grease needed! Lets face it, toilets get funky and no one likes to clean them. But this stuff makes the job much more bearable, and as easy as it can possibly be. With no harsh bleach smell either.

From their site:
• Free of Acids and Caustics
• No harsh fumes – gentle to skin
• 99% VOC Free
• Effectively cleans and deodorizes

The Kitchen and Bath Soy Cream Cleaner is also a scrubbing action type of cream with volcanic perlite. But the perlite in this cleaner is much more finely ground. The texture is very similar to other bleach cream cleaners. This stuff cleans and shines without scratching surfaces. I use it at least twice a week on my kitchen sink. I have one of those stainless steel sinks that always has ugly water spots left behind. This is the perfect cleaner for my sink. It makes it so nice and shiny after a good scrub down! One of my favorite kitchen cleaners for sure. I use it on bathroom fixtures some times too, when they look like they need a polish.

Here's info from their website about it:
• Natural Volcanic Perlite and Lime Peel Extracts
• 99% VOC Free & Ozone Safe
• Cleans, shines and protects without scratching
• Gentle to skin

Biokleen Review: Bac-Out Drain Care

This is an awesome cleaner for all the drains in your house. Every now and then, especially in the kitchen where the garbage disposal is, drains get stinky. This is the perfect solution. It's a thick liquid that you swirl down the drain. It has live enzymes that eat away at food and other organic junk in the drain.

Details from their site:

• Clears slow drains and keeps them flowing freely
• Cleans and deodorizes
• No artificial fragrance, colors or preservatives
• Superior to enzyme-only based products

I use this about every other week to keep my kitchen sink from getting stinky. My drains weren't slow at the time, but they did have a bit of an order. Yuck! Not anymore! This stuff also smells great, more like lime than anything else. Nothing harsh and nose singing. Just a fresh clean scent. I put it down the drain before I go to bed at night, and when I wake up, rinse the drain for a minute or two. That's it!

This is not meant for a drain that's clogged by hair I found out. I tried it. I have long hair and, thanks to bizarre hormonal changes during pregnancy, I loose a lot of it. My bathroom drain is clogged fairly often. So I tried this cleaner, just to see. It didn't really do anything, BUT it did make it easier for me to get the hair out by hand. And, my bathroom drain smelled great too!

Biokleen Review: Citrus Soy Solvent

I love this stuff! This is a fresh smelling cleaner, and I use it all over my house. I got one full sized bottle to review, which is 32 oz. But, this one bottle actually makes 1,024 oz. of cleaner! The solvent is concentrated. All you do is add one ounce of Citrus Solvent Cleaner concentrate to 32 oz of water, and get to cleaning. This means, you aren't paying for your own water! Running about 12.40 a bottle on amazon, you are actually getting a lot for your money. If you were to buy 32 bottles of another similar cleaner, you would spend much more in the long run.

Here's some info from their site:

• Super Concentrated
• Multi-Purpose: All Purpose, Heavy-Duty Degreasing, Light Cleaning, and Dissolving
• Dissolves gum, wax, paint, adhesives, tar and more
• Gentle to skin

But, hey. That means nothing if it doesn't work, right? Well, no worries there! This stuff works great! I use it in my kitchen, specifically on my stove at least every other day. Bacon grease? No problem. Spilled spaghetti sauce all over the stove? Piece of cake. Stuck on something or other that no one knows how it got there? Done. I host Thanksgiving dinner in my house every year, and I'm sure you can imagine what a mess that makes. Between stuck on gravy drippings and crusted over mashed potatoes, it usually takes a while to get the kitchen back to normal. And the smell? You know, it smells great that night, but I don't want to smell it in the morning the next day!

Citrus Soy Solvent really works to get the greasy caked on yucky stuff off, but it also smells great! It's not an over powering smell like other cleaners. It's just a light and fresh, slightly citrusy scent. Just clean. And because of that, it takes away the funky dinner smell so there's nothing left but clean to smell in the morning! Love it.

I wish I had a picture of what my kitchen stove looked like after Thanksgiving dinner, but a friend jumped in and helped me out by cleaning. Before I knew it, the kitchen was clean, and I had no pic of the mess! But, she had the soy solvent in her hand and asked me what it was. I told her, and she said it was the easiest clean up she had ever done after a massive meal like that. She had even cleaned the floor around the stove with it!

And the best part is, I didn't have to worry about what my baby was going to touch afterward. It's non-toxic, which means I don't need to worry about tiny amounts of residue that may get left behind after cleaning!

Biokleen Your house! ***Giveaway CLOSED***

The awesome folks at Biokleen sent me some products to review. I couldn't have been more excited to work with this company! I had already tried a couple of their products before. We use Bac-Out in our house regularly, and I think EVERYONE should keep this stuff around! I had also used their dish washer detergent and laundry powder before. So I knew that they made quality products. Biokleen has won several "best of green" awards in the past, and for good reason. I have tried several other national brand "green" cleaners, and have been mostly disappointed for a number of reasons. But Biokleen has always exceeded my expectations! Check Out their website. You will be surprised to see how much they have to offer now.

Here's what Biokleen sent me to test out:



Pretty cool right? I've been using all of this stuff for several months now. I'm really impressed! It's safe to say that I am a total Biokleen convert now. I even gave away my other cleaners to friends because I simply won't be using that stuff any more!

Some things you should know about Biokleen:

*No animal testing!
*No animal products in their cleaners!
*Started in 1989, they have been at this for a while!
*All of their products are NON TOXIC!
*No known carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens, or pollutants.
*Readily Biodegradable-Does not Biodegrade to More Harmful Compounds

That's just a short list of why Biokleen holds up to their motto of "Tough on Dirt, Gentle on the earth" Read more about their history and commitment not just to the earth, but you.

I decided to review each product individually, here are the links:

Citrus Soy Solvent
Bac-Out Drain Care
Soy Blends Cleaners
Soy Lube
Bac-Out


Now for the fun stuff. Biokleen has very generously offered a nice package to one of my readers. Here what you will receive directly from Biokleen:

1 Citrus Soy Solvent 32 oz.
1 All Temp Laundry Liquid 32 oz.
1 Bac-Out Fresh Lavender
1 Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator 32 oz.
4 Coupons

That's one heck of a prize!

Rules:
This contest is open to US residents. Please leave your email in the comments with your entry so I can contact you if you have won. Contest will run From today Feb. 18th, until March 4th at 11:59 midnight PST. I will draw a winner the next day.

Mandatory entry:
1.) Visit Biokleen's website, and tell me how you think they could help in your home!
2.) Like Biokleen on Facebook.

Extra Entries:
1.) Like Tidee Bums on Facebook
2.) Follow this blog via GFC
3.) Tweet about the giveaway using @BiokleenInc and @tideebums and #giveaway in the same tweet. (can do this twice per day for the duration of the giveaway if desired. at least one hour apart) For Example: "@tideebums has a @BiokleenInc #giveaway on her blog!http://tinyurl.com/4gjwbu8"
4.) Read and comment on my other Biokleen reviews (worth one entry each!)

Super entries (worth 3 entries each!)
1.) Post about this giveaway on another site, linking back to this blog. (leave the link in the comments so I can see it, please) You can do this as many times as you would like, up to twice per day!


Please note, because of Facebook's rules, I will not ask you to write on Biokleen's Facebook wall. Thanking them for the giveaway is completely up to you (always appreciated), and will not count for entry.

Ergo Winner Announcement:

I figured since not everyone who entered is a facebook fan or follower, I should announce the winner in a blog post.

The winning number was:



The winner said:

"lisad33611 said... 135
Daily tweet 1
http://twitter.com/#!/My2CentsFL/status/25598613417631744
duncan.lisa at gmail.com
January 13, 2011 9:03 AM"

Congrats to our winner! She has been emailed (and already responded) to claim her prize! I hope you will stick around for more fun on the blog!

ErgoBaby Carrier Giveaway *CLOSED*

If you haven't read my review of the ErgoBaby Carrier yet, you probably should (click here)! What an amazing carrier! The generous people at Ergo have offered to give a carrier to one of my lucky readers!

This is my way of ringing in the new year, so I am going to have this contest run from today 1/03/11 to 1/17/11 at 12 midnight PST. I will draw a winner on Tuesday the 18th. I will draw a winner and notify them via email. You will have 48 hours to claim your prize, or else a new winner will be drawn. The prize is being shipped directly from Ergo, and the style is at their discretion. I will put the word in for you on which one you would like most, but ultimately, it's up to them and what's available :)


Want to skip the wait and buy one?
Click the banner bellow:

The Prize:
One ErgoBaby Carrier

Rules:
This contest is open to anyone. Please leave your email in the comments with your entry so I can contact you if you have won.

Mandatory entry:
1.) Visit Ergo's website (here) and tell me which carrier you would most like!
2.) Like ErgoBaby on Facebook.

Extra Entry
3.) Tweet about the giveaway using @ERGOBaby and @tideebums and #giveaway in the same tweet. (can do this twice per day for the duration of the giveaway if desired. at least one hour apart) For Example: "@tideebums has an @ERGOBaby #giveaway on her blog! http://tinyurl.com/34luh7h"


That's it! Please note, because of Facebook's rules, I will not ask you to write on Ergo's Facebook wall. Thanking them for the giveaway is completely up to you, and will not count for entry.

Ergo Baby Carrier *Review*

Ergo baby was kind enough to have me review their baby carrier! I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this package in the mail. I had been day dreaming about trying one of these for quite some time. I already have a hot-sling type carrier and a Moby Wrap. I liked them both, the Moby more than the sling. But, I was looking for something that went on even faster and was less likely to get dirty when taking on and off. We go camping A LOT and because of how the Moby kind of drapes on the ground a bit while you are tying it up, it is always filthy about 15 minutes after arrival. Not a huge deal, but not much fun either.

Ergo is based in Hawaii, and they sent me a really nice organic carrier to review. If you have ever been to Hawaii, you'll know it's an amazing place. If you haven't, let me tell you, it's like paradise. When I got my package from Ergo, I felt like I got a little piece of paradise sent to me! They follow through with Hawaii's sense of Aloha in their customer service, and the obvious care in which their product is made. I think that's one of the reasons I was so drawn to this carrier over other similar carriers in the first place. The sense of care and concern Ergo projects to it's audience. And I love that they spend a lot of time talking about safe babywearing on their website. Really good info for folks who are new to the idea, or new parents in general.

OK, back to the carrier. I got a black one with embroidered flowery detail on it, and like I mentioned it's organic. LOVE that aspect! The shoulder straps are very padded to provide maximum comfort. So is the waist strap. It has elastic bands that will catch the clips in case they break so the baby doesn't fall......but it looks like it would take A LOT to break those suckers! Not worried about it at all.

It's probably obvious that this is a carrier that holds the baby facing you and in the front. But you may not notice right away how versatile this carrier actually is. Besides being a front carrier, it can also be a hip carrier. AND it can also be a back carrier! That's three safe positions in one convenient package. The first two positions were quick and easy for me to learn. I used them right away when heading out for an evening walk with the little one. I have yet to master the back carry.......I am just too afraid I am going to drop the little one :( The good news is, there's a TON of videos on youtube that demonstrate how to use the Ergo in various ways. It appears it just takes practice.

The Ergo also has an optional infant insert, but because my little one is passed the age of needing that I can't attest for that piece.

One of the other advantages of this carrier is that it is designed to offer the best and most natural support for both the parent and the baby. This makes it more comfortable for longer periods of time. I have yet to experience neck and shoulder pain, or any real back and foot pain after our evening walks. I haven't worn it for hours on end yet, but I can't forsee it being uncomfortable. And I can tell my little one is comfortable because she settles right into it. She LOVES to be in it!! A carrier isn't any good if baby hates it and it never gets used! Little miss generally falls asleep in it before long, so I know it's nice a comfy and comforting.

The best thing about the Ergo, which probably goes without saying is how quickly it goes on so I can be hands free in under a minute, with no fussing with tying straps or goofing with comfy positioning. Once it;s on, it's on. It doesn't get loose after wearing it for a bit, it's secure and safe, comfy. Perfect. The hip carry is awesome for when the little one gets bigger and it's harder to maneuver around them when they are on the front of you. Like, say doing dishes for example. It's hard to get to the sink and do a proper cleaning job when your 8 month old is right in front of ya! I imagine it must be what being 17 months pregnant would feel like!? YIKES!! So yeah, I usually go with the hip carry for chores. I even had someone help me get her into a back carry so I could cook Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people while wearing her! BEST THING EVER!! To have your baby peacefully playing or napping on your back while you prepare a feast is the best ever. No worrying about what she was getting into or who was watching her!

All in all, this is my favorite carrier. I LOVE it and can't believe I got along without it before! I recommend this to any new mom, or mom interested in trying out baby wearing. It's safe, comfortable, durable, and more affordable than other similar carriers. Worth every penny if you ask me! Get yourself one HERE.

I am adding some pics of the two positions I am good at. These were taken right before our evening walk. I might just keep on adding pictures of how she fits and how we use it as time goes on. It's just such an awesome carrier!