The first swap I’d make when trying to detox my house

Branch Basics is the clean cleaner that actually cleans. Years in, I still buy it on repeat.

Heads up: some links below are affiliate or referral links. I only ever link things I actually use.

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LIVE WELL

The clean cleaner that actually cleans

The story

For many years, I didn’t think about my cleaning products at all – I just bought whatever my mom used to buy when I was a kid. Windex, 409, Clorox, Scrubbing Bubbles, etc. When I started working with Beautycounter back in 2018, I started to learn how many chemicals are in the products we use every day. It wasn’t just about the ones that go on your skin like deodorant, lotion or shampoo, but what about the things you touch constantly? Realizing everything you touch goes into your body too, I knew that cleaning supplies and laundry detergent would be the obvious next things to swap.

The problem was I didn’t know what to actually buy. So many brands out there today are greenwashing. They use all the right words, convincing you it’s “clean” and don’t back it up with the right ingredients. The tool I leaned on was the EWG (Environmental Working Group) database, where you can search a cleaning product and see its score. More than once I’d find something I was sure was clean, look it up, and unfortunately it wasn’t. Mrs. Meyer’s is one a lot of people grab because they think it’s “clean” based on the label, but if you look it up in the database, it’s actually rated a D.

Mrs. Meyer’s Multi-Surface cleaners in the EWG database. All three rated D.

So at first we just used Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap. Unfortunately, for cleaning, it just didn’t do it for me. It felt like I was smearing soap around my counters instead of actually cleaning. It felt nothing like a real countertop cleaner, like the 409 I used to reach for. Then I heard about Branch Basics, saw how clean the ingredients were, and tried it. I’ve been using it almost exclusively for years now.

It was a little intimidating at first because it’s a concentrate you mix yourself. It seemed complicated. I was wrong. It takes about three seconds now. You get multiple bottles out of each concentrate, so it lasts a long time, and I use it on basically everything: bathrooms, kitchen, glass, mirrors. The bottles even tell you exactly how much concentrate to add for each job. We also use the concentrate for foaming hand soap, just a splash into a foaming pump with water. When on the go I keep a travel-size bottle in my bag – I’ve used it as hand soap when the airport bathroom fragrance is overwhelming, as laundry detergent in an Airbnb, or even for a quick hotel room sink wash. There are so many uses!

The thing people really want to know: does it actually clean when something is genuinely gross? My experience? Yes. Honestly, for day to day I mostly use a wet Norwex cloth (if you don’t have one, find someone who sells them, it’s worth it!). But when my 8 year old has been baking with honey and I’ve got a big mess to clean up, Branch Basics works perfectly. Since you can adjust how much soap goes in each bottle, you can make it as strong or as mild as you’d like. When we get the house deep cleaned, we ask the cleaners to use our Branch Basics only, and the house is sparkling after. The one honest caveat: if you’ve got heavy buildup in your shower, this might not strip all of it. I’m still figuring that one out myself lol. For everyday cleaning, including big kitchen messes and dirty kids, it pulls its weight as well as anything I’ve ever used. Big bonus points from me for the fact that there are no toxic “fragrances”!! (ALWAYS avoid Fragrances – it’s by far the worst possible ingredient to find on a label.)

When you buy from the Branch Basics website, they have an awesome subscription program so you don’t have to think about reordering (I love a subscription for products I use regularly). But you can buy one-off as well. They also sell bottles in both plastic and glass with lines so you know how much concentrate to use (but you can also use your own bottles if you break theirs!) If you are in a time crunch though and need it NOW, they recently started carrying Branch Basics at Target, which is awesome! The Target concentrate bottles are smaller than the ones you buy direct, and I assumed they’d be more expensive, but me being me, I did the math per ounce. It’s not more expensive! So I recommend the direct site if you want the $10 off your first order (and to have the subscription option, so there’s no thought when it’s time to reorder) and grab it from Target if you want the ease of picking it up ASAP!

I’ve got a couple other concentrate brands I’m starting to test and I’ll report back. But if you want one simple swap toward a lower toxin burden for you and your family, this is the one I’d start with.

The short hit

If you want one easy swap to lower the toxin load in your house, start under the kitchen sink or wherever you keep your cleaning products. Branch Basics is a multi-purpose concentrate you mix with water, and it’s one of the only cleaners I’ve bought for years. One bottle of concentrate makes multiple bottles of cleaner, so it lasts a lot longer than the other stuff you’re used to buying. Buy it one of two ways: direct from BranchBasics.com (for $10 off your first order), or if you need it ASAP, at Target!

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Before you go

What’s the one product under your sink you keep meaning to swap? Hit reply and let me know and I’ll tell you if you can use Branch Basics for it instead!

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️