Norwex Microfiber Review

I’ve recently had the opportunity to try using microfiber and now I’m kicking myself for not trying it sooner!

A reader sent me some great info and a few Norwex products to try out. I certainly had my doubts that a single cloth could clean everything, especially without water, and I was pleasantly surprised. Since trying microfiber, I’ve noticed some big benefits…

I love that one cloth can literally clean my entire kitchen from ceiling to floor without any chemicals. I found that microfiber cloths clean better than any other cleaning method I’d used before and since no cleaning products are needed, cleaning is much faster. Since I started using microfiber, these are the biggest changes I’ve noticed:

• Every night, my kitchen is completely spotless and it takes less than 10 minutes to do it (dishes aside…). I clean the cabinets, counters, stainless steel appliances, and even mop the floor in that time!
• While the kids are in the bathtub each night, I clean the bathroom in about 5 minutes with the microfiber cloth I have hanging on the inside of the bathroom cabinet. Once or twice a week I still clean the toilet bowl with a regular toilet brush and some vinegar and baking soda, but the mirror, counters, shower walls, tub and floor stay clean each day.
• Most of our house has hardwood floors and the wet and dry mop combination make sweeping and mopping much faster. The mop is pretty wide, so I can use the dry attachment to quickly sweep and the wet one to quickly mop. Since not much water is needed, it dries in a couple of minutes and no chemicals are needed.
• I don’t feel like the house is clean unless the windows are clean, and our backdoor is glass. The Envirocloth and the polishing cloth clean the windows, so even though I have to do this daily to keep the dog nose art and kids handprints off, it doesn’t take any time and I don’t need vinegar anymore. So far, I’ve gotten crayon, coconut oil, apple sauce, mashed banana, hairspray, butter and mud off the windows with this combination!
• Make-up removal is much faster with the body cloth, which even removes my waterproof eye makeup without a problem.
• My kids love dusting now because the dusting mitt is so fun.
• Since the cloths are different colors, I’ve designated one per room, so we won’t be using one that has been used in the bathroom in the kitchen or vice versa. This also makes it really easy to spot clean the entire house.

I also love that microfiber cleaning is completely environmentally friendly and extremely wallet friendly!

Why Norwex?

I looked at several brands before choosing Norwex, and I chose this brand for several reasons:

1. They were the highest quality microfiber I’d seen and once I tried it myself, I was really impressed with how well they cleaned.
2. They have a 2-year warranty! So even though I use them really hard, they’ll replace them if they stop working before that time.
3. The natural antibacterial properties of the silver woven into the fibers put my mind at ease about using the same cloth over and over.
4. Did I mention they clean really well?

I didn’t even realize just how well they cleaned until the first time I washed them. I’d been carefully rinsing them out and drying them after each use but after about 4 days, decided I needed to wash them all. I ran a mini-load of just 6 microfiber cloths that I had already rinsed out in the sink. This is what happened:

First of all…. EWWW that there was that much dirt in my house, but I was in shock that the microfiber had pulled out that much dirt, even after I’d rinsed it out (and only in a few days!)

I’m also convinced that I’ll save a lot of money with microfiber since I won’t even need to use natural cleaning products as much. The one downside to trying microfiber is that they are slightly more expensive up front. Norwex cloths are more expensive than the bulk pack you can get at Sam’s Club, but I’ve found that the difference is well worth it.

Here are the details of some of my favorite microfiber products…

Envirocloth Antibac Microfiber Review

This is probably the most versatile of the cloths I tried and I literally cleaned my entire kitchen with it. I started with the cabinets and cleaned the cabinet doors. This cloth took the grease, stuck on food, and fingerprints off the cabinets (don’t you just want to eat at my house now?).

Then, I used it on my granite countertops, and they left them smooth and shiny. I actually thought they had little streaks at first, and then realized that they were the natural grooves in the stone that had been filled in with gunk until then (again, ewww).

I used the Envirocloth to polish the faucet, and used it with the polishing cloth to clean our patio door windows (not so much a fan  of our dogs’ nose art).

Since I don’t have the mop system, I used the same cloth on the floor and it got off all of our spots including: applesauce, homemade play dough, veggie smoothie, coconut oil, egg, mashed banana, and spaghetti sauce (In my defense, I had purposefully let stuck on stuff stay for a couple of days to see how the microfiber did… normally those things are not stuck on my floor!)

It left the kitchen floor clean and the hardwood floors footprint free.

The Envirocloth also did great cleaning the inside of the fridge.

Scrub Antibac Cloth

This one had a rougher texture, and wouldn’t be as good for polishing or smooth surfaces, but it worked wonders on two things I’d previously given up on: the baked on spots on my oven door and the stains on our tub that were there before we moved in. I was shocked that these actually got clean and I wish I’d taken before pictures to show you the difference!

Polishing Antibacterial Cloth

All of my appliances and fixtures in our kitchen are stainless steel, and it is one of the tougher things to clean naturally. The polishing cloth worked great on the windows and it did wonders for all the stainless. I just wiped them down with the regular cloth and then dried them with the polishing cloth.

I also used the polishing cloth with one side damp and one side dry to clean all the mirrors in the house and it left them streak free.

Dust Mit

For some reason, our house always ends up with a lot of dust. I also don’t like dusting (perhaps this has something to do with it…) as it always seems like just spreading the dust around. I liked dusting with the microfiber mit because it actually picked up the dust.

What surprised me was that even a dry mitt on a smooth surface seemed like it was sticking a little as I wiped it across the surface, and I realized that this was because the microfibers have such thin fibers and were probably collecting on all of the dust and previous cleaning products that had been used.

The other thing I loved about this one is that the kids enjoyed dusting with it and it was a great job to assign them since there weren’t any chemicals involved and they could take turns running around the house seeing who could find more flat surfaces to dust.

Microfiber Body Cloths

I must admit, when I first talked to Erin about trying microfiber, I wasn’t as interested in the body cloths because I figured they would just be glorified wash cloths. She mentioned that she used them for her kids cloth napkins and now I can see the brilliance of this.

I kept slightly damp microfiber cloths on the table at meal times and it makes it much faster to wipe down the kids, the table, the highchairs, boosters, etc after meals.

For me, I tried a 4-day experiment with just the microfiber and no soap, and they work extremely well (even on garden dirt and sweat… not that I would know on either of those :)). They worked great and I can definitely see the advantage of these, especially for my chemically sensitive clients who have trouble with almost all kinds of soaps.

My favorite though was the smoother body cloth which I used to remove make-up. I usually use olive oil to remove my mascara, but if I”m tired I just leave it on and touch up in the morning (I know, I know… bad for the skin!). I also then wake up with major raccoon eyes and circles from the mascara. The microfiber removed all of my make-up, including the mascara and then just washed clean. It was less messy than my olive oil solution and much faster (plus, it didn’t waste a cotton ball!).

I also got to try the polishing paste, which worked great for polishing smooth surfaces, and the Norwex detergent, which I used to wash the microfiber. I also tried the odor eliminating spray. They were all free of harmful chemicals and the odor spray was especially great for the kids shoes, which often get muddy or wet and carry home the residual odor. Since it targets protein-based odors, I would guess that it is also good for when a person accidentally leaves clothes in the  washing machine overnight and they get that musty-almost-mildewed smell (Please tell me I am not the only one who has ever done that?).

Over-all I was extremely impressed with all of the Norwex products, and I’m definitely a microfiber convert! I also love that Norwex uses silver for the antibacterial properties. We’ve successfully treated quite a few illnesses with colloidal silver, and it is such a great idea to include the same benefits in cleaning! (not to mention that silver will eliminate bacteria that even bleach won’t kill).

Microfiber greatly reduces the amount of time I spend cleaning, which is a huge plus. With an obsessively neat husband who doesn’t even handle small messes well, and six little ones who seem to be gifted at making messes, microfiber saves us all some stress! (And, there is a kid-sized mop, which would be really fun for my kids, and would help them clean in the process…)

Ever used Norwex microfiber? How did you like it? Share below!