Knock-Off Norwex

What's this have to do with modern quilting, you ask? By my figuring, the more time and money I save, the more quilting I can do! If you feel likewise, consider the savings I present.

One of my dear friends sells Norwex. It's one of those companies that relies on customers to sell their products to friends, and to recruit more salespeople who are interested in free products. It's like Pampered Chef and Scentsy, but the target audience is folks who have nightmares about the mysterious, difficult-to-read ingredients in regular household products.

If you are interested in a close-to-actual generic product, I have some ideas for you.

Let's start with the handy micro-fiber cloths. 
Norwex offers an Enviro Cloth for $16.49. Their cloth contains silver, which has antibacterial properties.
They also have a Kitchen Cloth for $9.99, Window Cloth for $18.49 and Envirotowel for $26.99. The grand total for these products is $71.96.

Target offers a four-pack of 14" x 16" cloths including a green heavy duty (Enviro Cloth), blue scrub (Kitchen), yellow glass/mirror (Window Cloth), and pink furniture cloth (Envirotowel) for $4.99. That's a savings of $66.97.

Unless you want the silver in your Norwex cloths to become deactivated, you will need the laundry detergent Norwex produces for $21.99. This will get you through 40 loads. Tide Free & Gentle will get you through 64 loads for $11.97. Sticking with Tide will save you $10.02 if you overlook whatever the poor Norwex customer is going to do about the last 24 loads of laundry.

You will need a spray bottle to accompany your cloths, which you can get from Norwex for $6.99 or Dollar Tree for, well, a dollar. Add $5.99 to the total savings. 

Norwex also offeres dryer balls to speed up the drying of clothing. Two of theirs cost $18.99. Target's run $4.59 for the pair. $14.40 more stays in the bank. Besides, these babies can also be pawned off as children's toys or tactile stimulation massage balls ($7.90 plus shipping). Given this, you might want a couple of packs.

Everybody needs a mop. Norwex offers one with a telescoping handle for $92.99. I found this look-alike for $19.99 at Target, and it came with an extra cleaning cloth, but no telescoping action. I suppose $73 in savings will help me get over it.

I think it's a great idea to have your kids get in on the cleaning excitement--before they are old enough to discover less-objectionable ways to while away their time. This means they need their own gear. Therefore, I got my son this mop from Dollar Tree. I do have to offer props to Norwex, as their kids'  version looks much more identical, at the $69.99 price mark.

Dishwashing liquid is $7.49 for 12 oz. at Norwex. I'm not quite sure how it's superior to the bottles at Dollar Tree, so I'm sticking with those for $6.49 in savings.

I would recommend pairing it with the Spirinett, which is a cute little name for a stainless steel scrubber. Norwex sells two for $5.49. Dollar Tree carries a three-pack, so they have the win in my book. Cu-ching! $4.49 more for me.

Don't forget to include your shipping cost for Norwex, which is $5.95.

Our grand total has hit $257.30, but you get to pay sales tax on that. For me, that's an additional $18.01.

What am I going to do with the $275.31 I saved?

I think I'll get 8 1/2 yards of Tula Pink's Acacia ($66.47) on sale for $7.82 per yard at 

and half a yard of each and every print in Carolyn Freelander's Botanics ($110.25) and Sarah Jane's Wee Wander ($96.60) collections. After all that, I'll still have $1.99 to spare! 

Or perhaps, I just lock myself in my sewing room and swear off the cleaning altogether. Umm...my husband might prefer I reconsider this cost-saving option.