YOU Home Cleaning Products – Review

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Fiona Martin

YOU home cleaning products are naturally powered using 100% plant based products. With products available for the kitchen, bathroom, windows and all purpose cleaner, there really is something to cover the whole house.

I received the kitchen and bathroom cleaners to put to the test and I’m immediately drawn to the bottle. They come in large clear spray bottles, with the liquid inside being clear too. Each product has as different coloured label making them instantly recognisable. I really like the packaging and have to say it’s very eco friendly too. A unique concept with these products is that they are refillable which you don’t usually see with bottles of household cleaning fluids.

These rather cute refills are simply screwed onto the top of the bottles when empty along with water to create a whole new bottle of cleaning fluid. It’s estimated that the high quality trigger will last for at least 10,000 sprays, meaning you should be able to refill each bottle at least 10-15 times. The small size of the refills are ideal for storing at home and means less big bottles to bring home from the supermarket!

I’m really impressed with the trigger on these bottles, you can see they are sturdy and well made. What I like is the lift up flap which when open allows for a standard spray to come out, and when the flap is closed it produces a foam, great when more product is needed for heavy duty cleaning.

I’ve enjoyed using the YOU cleaning sprays. They are simple to use and I have found both to be effective. The kitchen spray really does work and is more powerful than I expected from a clear looking spray. I loved the foam action which worked well on my hob and the spray was great for round the sink and worktops.

The window spray was also brilliant and comes with claims that it is smear free. I can assure that it most definitely is and one wipe of a cloth and it the window was left immediately shiny, not a hint of a smear. This is great and something that we get used regularly having young children and lots of sticky fingers touching the windows all the time!

Overall I’ve loved using the YOU naturally powered products and they have been a great addition to to my cleaning cupboard. I’d definitely recommend giving them a try and don’t forget about those handy refills!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received some cleaning products in order to write the review.

Trolley bags – Reusable shopping bags – Review

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Fiona Martin

With us all trying to have a greener outlook to reusing shopping bags, Trolley Bags are are a great invention made specifically for use in a large supermarket shopping trolley. I was sent a set to try out and couldn’t wait to give them a go. As I tend to use shop & scan when I do my larger shop, I thought these would be ideal to for packing the shopping as I go around the store.

The set of Trolley Bags consists of four differently coloured bags that are velcroed together and can be rolled up for storage in the car boot. The bags range in size to fit with the slope of the trolley. The smallest bag fits either just before the separate section at the end of the trolley or if you prefer to have the seat down as I do, it will sit in the end section allowing you to use the seat area for your handbag and other items or a small child.

It is best to put bulkier, larger items such as cereal boxes, crisps etc in the larger bags otherwise they will be quite heavy to lift, and keep the smaller two bags for heavier items such as tins, jars and heavier vegetables. I have found these really good for packing my trolley as I go around the shop using self scan leaving me with just four bags to put into the car. The bags hang open making packing simple, it really does result in no hassle shopping.

I do have one concern though, the bars that hang off the sides of the trolley are at a similar height to my four year old’s head. I found when shopping with him in tow, he hovered all around the sides of the trolley eager to help and I found I had to be a little cautious to ensure I didn’t poke him in the face. I therefore now save these trolley bags for when I do child free shopping, or they’d also be ideal if you have a little one that still sits in the trolley seat.

Overall, I think they are a great concept and definitely the way forward in shopping bags. I also like the way they velcro together making carrying them easier rather than a stash of smaller carrier bags. I’d keep your eye out for these, especially with the carrier bag charges due in England later this year!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the shopping bags in order to write the review.

Reducing energy bills with Zenith energy saving kit – Review

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Fiona Martin

I’ve never really been too concerned with my energy bills, they are never pleasant and seem to gradually creep up all the time but I was rather surprised when speaking to my parents the other day, that their bills are considerably cheaper, yet they live in a house double the size of mine. I knew it was time to do something about it and the next day Zenith offered to send my one of their energy saving kits to try – perfect timing!

The kit consists of an energy monitor and three handy gadgets to use around the home to help you reduce your energy consumption.

The first of these is the Energenie automatic standby shutdown lead. This is a handy lead which allows you to cut off the power to one of your appliances rather than having it sitting in standby, ideal for tv’s. You just plug it into the mains, plug the tv into the lead and when you put your tv into standby using the remote control, this gadget will cut the power off completely for you. To renable power you do need to press the green button so this does need to be accessible, although my children loved pressing the green button as they are usually the ones to turn the tv on in the mornings.

We also tried the ECO Showerdrop Shower Meter, a simple little gadget that can be hung or fixed to the wall. It requires calibrating by filling the included bag or a jug with a litre of water so it can judge how fast the water comes out of your shower. You can then use it to prompt you when it is time to come out of the shower. My children have just become fascinated with having showers rather than a bath so this is handy to guide them as they do love to stay under the water for rather a long time. It’s good to get them educated from a young age about water and the environment especially with the costly water bills we have here in the South West. My husband also was quite surprised as to how much water he was using and has reduced his shower time since using this. For me personally, I do enjoy a bath in the evening when the children have gone to bed, one of my little luxuries that I’m not willing to give up but I do try to be conscious as to how much I fill it up each time.

The Radiator Booster was one of the energy saving gadgets that really interested me, although due to the warm weather we are currently having, we haven’t had our radiatiors on in order to try this out. I am very much looking forward to using it in the colder months in a bid to cut down on our heating bill as we live in an Edwardian house with high ceilings and really need the heat to reach around the rooms. By using this you can look at saving around £140 a year. It works by sucking the hot air in and circulating it around the room using an inbuilt fan. It sits nice and slimly on the radiator and needs to be plugged into the mains, and when in use should allow you to turn your thermostat down by up to 3 degrees!

The most interesting part of the Zenith Energy Saving kit is the Owl Micro & Wireless Energy Saving Monitor. I had something similar a few years ago, but it was bulky and had a long wire that took up a plug socket, eventually leading me to giving it away. This Owl Micro however is a very small, slim design and is wireless! A great bonus, I can put it anywhere I like, move it around so I can keep an eye on whats happening etc. It’s simple to use and just requires a few set up steps to get it going, like inputting the date, time, your electricity cost etc.

I found it interesting just keeping an eye on this throughout the day to see what things make the monitor increase. Big things like the oven, washing machine and tumble dryer certainly made a difference, but obviously I need to use those so I have been more conscious about how long the oven is heating up before I actually put food in it and turning the tumble dryer off when things are dry, not overdrying them. Also only leaving lights on in the evening that I really need on.

I think using and trying the Zenith Energy saving kit has been interesting and definitely made us more aware of when we switch something on. What I’m really keen to see now, are my bills when they arrive in a couple of months, hopefully they’ll be noticeably lower than the one I had a few weeks ago. If they are, then I’m hoping we can build on that the following quarter and reduce them even further. If it can save you money and be better for the environment then why not try some energy saving measures today?

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and the Zenith Energy Kit was sent to us in order to write the review.