Shack Attack with Shaklee

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Dr. Dolly Garnecki

I am glad that green living and green products are in popular demand by today’s consumers, because that means products are abundant and prices are competitive. In other words, it is now cost effective for the average consumer to be green–compared to trying to reduce a carbon footprint 10 years ago when it was cheaper to produce more waste.

Options are nice for the consumer, but it also means the consumer has to stay on point and make sure items marketed as “green and biodegradable” are also “safe and non-toxic”. Surprisingly, many cleaning products don’t meet both criteria. And of the few that do, not all of them actually, well, CLEAN.

When I first heard about Shaklee’s Get CLEAN products, they sounded too good to be true. Also, I was a little wary about purchasing a product through an MLM company based on previous experiences I’d had with other companies. But, working with independent distributor Barrie J. Barratt was wonderful. She’s been extremely kind and helpful without being pushy or bombarding me with phone calls and e-mails. In fact, why can’t all MLM independent distributors be so pleasant to work with?

Barrie generously let me try the Get Clean Starter Kit for two months. Overall I liked several of the products so much, that I signed up for the 15% discount and purchased more of the cleaning products that I really enjoyed.

Straight from the manufacturer’s website:

YOU’D HAVE TO SPEND MORE THAN $3,400 TO GET THE EQUIVALENT CLEANING POWER IN THE GET CLEAN STARTER KIT!

Also, when you purchase the Get Clean Starter Kit you also make a positive impact on the planet:

Eliminate 108 pounds of packaging waste from landfills.
Eliminate 248 pounds of greenhouse gas.

Now, that’s a range of cleaning products I can LIVE with.

Is it SAFE?

Well, it’s their number one claim on their marketing and packaging. Safe, non-toxic, and biodegradable. You can read their product ingredients directly on their site library in PDF. But, most products’ ingredients were not disclosed. In fact, it was easier to find what they don’t include than to find out what they do include (that’s the beauty of selling a product through an MLM company). Shaklee’s products do not contain the following:

No napthalene
No kerosene
No formaldehyde
No phenol
No cresol
No lye
No hydrochloric acid
No sulfuric acid
No petroleum distillates
No benzene
No ammonia
No paradichlorobenzene
No sodium hydroxide
No butyl cellosolve
No phosphoric acid

I believe Shaklee’s products were safer and equally (if not more) effective than typical commercial cleaners like Pine-Sol, 409, chlorine bleach, and Lysol. Also, most of the Shaklee products were unscented, unlike the commercial counterparts which are heavy fume-laden, headache-inducing agents.

However, I wouldn’t recommend the non-organic Get Clean Handwash Concentrate due to ingredients like ammonium laureth sulfate, PEG-150 Pentaerythrityl Terterastearate, PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides, fragrance and phenoxyethanol.

How well does it clean?

It makes the most stubborn grunginess flee with minimal rubbing, scrubbing, scraping, and wringing. Mildew, dirt, grease, spit up, baby poop–I tried the Basic H2 cleaning concentrate, super brite laundry booster, and scour off on everything–and they rocked! Perhaps you may recall the unfortunate diaper-off incident–Shaklee’s Basic H2 took care of it. If it can clean that mess (and THAT was a doozie!) it can clean ANY-THING.

The basmati rice that cooked too long in the stainless steel pot and became a charcoal mess–scour off! cleaned it right up so that it is once again stainless and steel instead of charry and black.

Scour Off™ Heavy Duty Paste

Here’s an exclusive scouring cleanser that sets a new standard. It even cleans burnt-on food in your oven. And doesn’t burn off your nose hairs in the process.

What I love about this paste is that it takes minimal elbow grease and it works very quickly–and it’s not harmful to come into contact with my skin. Stove tops, grills, ovens, and caked on pans: beware! With the Scour Off Paste in town, you’re gonna clean up your act! This little beauty retails for $8.50. I just wish it wasn’t on backorder for the past 5 weeks. Yikes!

Basic H2® Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate (16 oz.bottle)

Instead of buying multiple cleaning products for all of your house cleaning needs, you can buy just one–reduce storage for bottles, have lest biochemical hazard in your home, and save a ton of money. Sounds good to me!

Based on its dilution, the organic super cleaning H2 concentrate can clean numerous surfaces.

Basic H2 can clean all those things and more: cast iron, cooking tops, toilets, bathtubs, clay & ceramic tile floors, chrome, copper, vinyl, upholstery, wood, walls, toys, fine fabrics, gold, jewelry, and sinks. Next to all-purpose cleaner in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of the H2–it’s THAT good. I will use this product to clean my home and my clinic. Two thumbs up. 4 stars. This is worth all the hype–seriously!

For all of those benefits, it’s the best $12.15 you’ll ever spend on cleaning products.

Fresh Laundry Concentrate (Powder) – 5.5 lbs – Cleans 88 loads
The naturalenzyme formula leaves clothes extra clean while being gentle on the planet. This stuff actually got my son’s ammonia-stinky cloth diapers stripped and cleaned. I had to use twice the recommended amount of detergent, but it did do the trick. I originally tried the liquid concentrate, but I don’t prefer using that in an HE front-loading washer…plus, it gets sticky and messy if it does happen to leak. The powder is also great dissolved in water to clean carpet stains.

Laundry powder that does the dirty work, even with cloth diapers. You get ~88 loads for $21.30.

100% Shaklee Guarantee.

Shaklee stands behind each and every product. The ingredients, purity, safety, and performance of all our Shaklee products are 100% guaranteed. And of course, Shaklee does not test its products on animals.

Get Your CLEAN On

That’s a whole lotta clean for retail value of $170.40 or, if you think you’ll be a repeat customer, you can opt to pay $20 for membership, and get 15% off each and every order for 12 months–with the member price, the Get Clean Start Kit is $149.60. That may sound like a lot to shell out all at once, but because these products are super concentrated, you’re not paying for water or other fillers like you would in other products in most retail stores. You can order your very own Get Clean Starter Kit, or individual items, directly from Distributor Barrie J. Barrett.

GLAD: The organic cleaning products reduce waste, provide mean clean, and the Basic H2 Concentrate covers most of your home cleaning needs…all in one bottle.

SAD: The manufacturer doesn’t disclose ingredients on the majority of the products where the consumer can cross-check for safety. The wait on a backordered product is 5 weeks and counting…