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In the study they dropped baby carrots onto a variety of surfaces including a counter top, tile floor, carpeted floor and a table. In each case, germs attached to the clean carrot in 5 seconds. The most germs were found on the carrots dropped on the counter, then the carpet and third was the tile floor. How often do you eat off of your counter? Ewwww. Next they tested a wet sippy cup by dropping it on a highchair tray, counter, tile floor and carpeted floor. Again germs attached from all surfaces within 5 seconds but this time the one on the highchair tray had the most germs! That is what young children eat off the most.

I had the privilege to sit in on a call with actress/comedienne Samantha Bee from the Daily Show. Samantha is a busy mom of two young children and she, like most of us used the 5 second rule with her kids. She said when she learned that it was a myth she turned to SimpleandSurprising.com to learn what simple steps she can take to make her home healthier. Here is one tip she learned: To disinfect countertops, highchairs, sinks, refrigerator handles and faucets:Mix ¾ cup of Clorox® Regular-Bleach in 1 gallon of water. Wipe pre-washed item and let stand 5 minutes; rinse and air dry. How easy is that?

None of us have time to be sick or for our kids to be sick so we need to keep our homes clean and disinfected. There are several simple things you can do to get started at SimpleandSurprising.com. I also want to help you keep your home healthier so I am giving away a Clorox gift pack valued at $20!
Mandatory 1st Entry
Share a 5 second rule story from your family-Clorox may just use it on their Facebook page. IF you don’t have a funny story tell me what is the most common item eaten while invoking the 5 second rule in your house.

Bonus Entries: Please leave a separate comment for each.

• Follow @clorox on Twitter and tweet this- The 5 second rule is a myth. Clean up with $20 in @clorox products from @MomMaven http://bit.ly/d25Ljk (you may do this once a day-leave the tweet’s URL in your comment)
• Become a fan of TheMomMaven on Facebook (current fans also get 1 entry just leave a comment letting me know you are a fan)
• Subscribe to The Mom Maven-click on the orange heart in the sidebar (current subscribers also get one entry)

This giveaway will end Tuesday 2/9/10 at 10:00pm. Good Luck!

The post The 5 Second Rule appeared first on The Mom Maven.

In the last week or so you may have noticed the Soft Scrub Club Captain badge in my side bar. I am excited to announce that I was chosen as a brand ambassador for Soft Scrub. We use a lot of Soft Scrub in my house, especially to clean the vinyl floors, so it is a great company for me to partner with.

I want to introduce you to Soft Scrub’s newest product-Soft Scrub Total Bath & Bowl Cleaner, it cleans and deodorizes your entire bathroom…even inside toilets! It is the only cleaner you will need for sinks, faucets, countertops, bathtubs, shower doors and walls, inside and outside the toilet bowl, tile and grout! Soft Scrub Total’s unique spray nozzle lets you choose if you want a fine mist spray or a thick foam. The patented trigger even allows you to spray when the bottle is upside down! Take a look at this video I shot while cleaning my bathroom.

Soft Scrub Total isn’t available in stores yet, but it will be soon so keep checking my blog for more information. Leave me a comment and let me know your thought about Soft Scrub Total Bath & Bowl Cleaner. You can get involved with Soft Scrub by becoming a fan on Facebook and following them on Twitter.

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When we returned from our long weekend away my son and I opened the 2 boxes the Vroom came in and looked at the instructions. The mounting instruction were a little daunting so I decided that would be a good project for son and hubby that evening. In the mean time I checked out the measurements of the Vroom and tried to decide where to mount it. I have a very small galley kitchen. I only have 2 regular sized base cabinets in the kitchen and 1 in the dining room. Those cabinets are chock-a-block full of stuff already. I had originally planned on installing the Vroom Solo in the cabinet in the dining room, but upon measuring I found out it wouldn’t fit due to the built in shelf. We finally decided it would fit on the floor in the corner between the cabinet and the microwave stand. Since we weren’t installing it in a cabinet the only assembly was connecting the two parts of the unit together and plugging it in.

We have been using the Vroom Solo for 2 weeks now and it is awesome! There is no need to pull out the broom or the upright vacuum to clean up dry messes in the kitchen, dining room or laundry room. The 24 foot hoses reaches all of those areas. We have used it to clean up messes on the floor, counter, kitchen table and even the dryer lint trap. It has super suction and works in just seconds.
Here we are cleaning up cereal from the kitchen floor.

I love my Vroom Solo. The only things that would make it better is 1) if it also cleaned up wet messes and 2) if it were quieter.

You can purchase the Vroom Solo from your local dealer. The Vroom Solo retails for $299.00. You can also register to win a Vroom Solo on the VroomYourRoom.com website, just click on the “Win a Vroom” button.

The post Vroom Solo Review appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Ingredients

• Palm and coconut based non-ionic surfactants
• Silicates and carbonates including sodium meta silicate (simple mineral salts)
• Citrates and natural citrus oil
• Cellulose (plant based)
• Fatty acid derivative”

We have done 3 loads of dishes using the Auto Dishwash Powder and it works great! We are not a family who is great a scraping all the food off of our plates and rinsing them well before we put them in the dishwasher. As a result, we often end up with a few plates and silverware piece that are still dirty after washing. Since using the Auto Dishwash Powder, our dishes and silverware are much cleaner. I must admit it also feels good to know that I’m not subjecting my family to the chemicals found in our other dishwashing detergent. The Auto Dishwash Powder is cost effective too. You only use 1 TBS for a load of dishes so you can get approximately 83 loads from one container and this would put the cost at less than 15 cents a load. My usual detergent costs 25 cents a load! For my family, that would save almost $55 a year plus no chemicals on our dishes and silverware.

The Rosemary Orange Shampoo
From the Ecostore website: “This shampoo gets excellent results on fine and oily hair.

Combining nature’s best products and aromatherapy Ecostore USA has created a wonderful shampoo that will bring volume and life back to your hair. (6.8 fluid ounces)

Ingredients

• Water
• Lauryl-glucoside (from glucose)
• Derivatives from coconut and palm oil – olefin sulphonate
• Laureth-2
• Polyol Coconut Fatty Acid Ester
• Sodium Hydroxymethyl Glycinate (from natural amino acid)
• Citric Acid
• Certified Organic Cider Vinegar
• Essential oils of Rosemary Cineol, Orange Sweet Organic, Pine Scotch, Sage and Cypress.”

I wanted to try this product for my 16 yr old son. Like many teens, he has excessively oily hair. We have tried many different shampoos but none have allowed him to go more than 24 hours without shampooing. It seems to be a vicious cycle. I gave him the shampoo and asked him to try it. He was afraid it would smell to “girly” -but it doesn’t. He says you don’t need to use much shampoo and it does work best when you lather it up and let it sit there for a minute or two before rinsing. Since using the Rosemary Orange Shampoo, his hair has been cleaner and softer. He has actually been able to go 2-3 days between shampoos and he hasn’t been able to do that in a long time. He is very happy with his hair and says the shampoo, “Works great!” The shampoo is not as cost saving as the dishwash detergent. Since there is no exact measurement for how much shampoo to use, I had to figure out the price per ounce. For the Rosemary Orange Shampoo it is $1.61 per ounce where his regular shampoo is 33 cents an ounce. To me, the cost difference is worth it because my son feels better about himself and if he is only using it every 2-3 days versus daily the bottle will last for a while.

I bet you want to know what you need to do to win a $25 gift certificate to Ecostore.
How to Enter:
For your first entry: Go to Ecostore and look around. Then come back here and leave me a comment letting me know what you would get with the gift certificate. You must also follow or subscribe to this blog and leave a comment here telling me that you have done this Please leave a valid e-mail address or twitter name so that I can notify if you win. **You must do all of this to be entered.

If you would like extra entries you can earn them for doing any or all of the following:

* tweet this contest and post the url of the tweet as a separate comment (you can do this 1x per day each day of the contest-just post each tweet url in a separate comment)
*Fave this blog on MomFaves-just click this link
* blog about this contest and link to this post (not just a link to the contest) then leave me a link to your post in a separate comment
* stumble this post with a review and link it here in separate comment

The winner will be chosen on Thursday, March 26th at 10:00pm. Good Luck!!

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