Mop, Mop, Mop. All Day Long

I spent most of the day today cleaning house. Not something I consider to be a "good time." I love having a clean house, but I don't love using a lot of chemicals to get it  that way. I had seen a lot of commercials advertising steam mops to clean and sanitize a natural way. I decided to ask Santa to get me one for Christmas. I know what you are saying, "Cleaning supplies for Christmas?!?" I say "If it makes my life easier, it's a gift."  Santa and I did a little research to decide which one would be the best and decided to get the H2O Mop Ultra. I am very happy with our choice.

Picture from http://www.thane.com

The H20 Mop Ultra has a lot of great features. You can use it as a mop, carpet steamer, and handheld steamer. A lot of the other steam mops came with a handheld steamer that was battery operated. The handheld on the H2O is part of the mop itself. You unhook the tank from the mop frame and it becomes a corded handheld. This makes it more powerful than the battery operated ones. Plus, you don't have to worry about replacing batteries all the time. The handheld is perfect for cleaning my showers and grout as well as sanitizing the carpet, toys, and furniture. There are also attachments you can purchase for these uses. I no longer have to spray everything down with bleach water. Everything is clean and safe and my house doesn't smell like chemicals or end up with bleach spots.

Mopping takes about half the time it used to. I don't have to fill a bucket with floor cleaning solution, dip, wring, mop, repeat.. anymore. You put the water in the tank with the included measuring cup and plug it in. It is ready in about 10 seconds. You pull the trigger once to start the steam and it continues to run until you pull it again. The steam breaks down any build-up in seconds and the washable cover wipes it away. I actually enjoy mopping now. It's just so easy! I even used it on the wall around the trash can today. It cleaned up all the little "misses" with ease and didn't hurt the paint.

GroVia Hybrid Diaper Covers

My favorite Hybrid diaper covers are GroVia's. I currently have 4 One-Size covers. I have owls, airplanes, and trees. They are adorable! The legs and back are gusseted for fit, and the inside is lined so you can't see the PUL (Polyurethane laminate.) I find that these covers tend to stay dryer and do not smell like urine as quickly. This is especially nice since you can't just take a wet wipe to them like the PUL covers. They recommend that you change the cover every two changes, but I find that I can use one for most of the day if no BM waste gets on them. On days where he wets more than usual, I will change them more often.

I already had a large enough stash of other inserts, so I did not feel the need to buy any GroVia cloth inserts for these covers. I typically use the covers over my Flip inserts or use them with the GroVia disposable inserts. These disposable inserts are my favorite of all the brands. The legs of the disposable inserts are gusseted in order to hold in waste. The front and back has an adhesive so they STAY IN PLACE!!! They are also extremely absorbent. I have even used them overnight. I usually put a Flip insert under the GroVia disposable just in case he sleeps longer than usual. Note that you do not want to use the adhesive on a PUL cover as it will not be easy to remove. I still use them in the other covers, I just leave the tabs on the adhesive ends so they don't stick down. When we went out of town for 5 days, I took 50 GroVia disposable inserts and 7 covers (GroVia and Flip.) We made it through all 5 days and nights with covers and inserts to spare.

GroVia bioliners are also a product I love. You get a lot for your money and they are a must if you don't want to spend a ton of time removing BM waste from your cloth liners.

I like this brand so much that I have added their button to my blog page. You can see it to the right. They have some great sales and bundle deals coming up, so you should check them out and check often.

Check out my earlier post if you need definitions for the terms used here.http://treehuggintipster.blogspot.com/2011/06/cloth-diaper-terminology.html

Ebates

I had been seeing a lot of adds for a site called Ebates. It is a shopping website that allows you to purchase from many stores and receive cash back. The stores include Target, Barnes and Noble, Home Depot, Staples, Sears, JCpenney, GAP, etc... I was skeptical to say the least. I finally decided to try it out when I was looking for ink for my printer. I signed up and looked through all the stores on their site to figure out which store had the best deal. Just to be safe I also researched the sites without going through Ebates to make sure it didn't automatically change the price. They were all exactly the same.  I found 123injets had the best prices and Ebates had codes for coupons for an additional amount off and free shipping on orders over $50. My total came to around $55. A few weeks later I received a check for $8.94 from Ebates. How easy is that?! Almost all the stores I order from are on Ebates. I love this site now and will continue to shop through them. I always check out the coupon section before I start to order too. Just to make sure I get the best deal possible.
If you order online I would highly recommend you begin using Ebates, in order to start getting your checks in the mail.
*This post is my own opinion based on my experience with this site. Ebates did not commission this review.