I was looking through this month's issue of Leadership in Action (the monthly magazine from Melaleuca, whose products I am seriously hooked on) and came across the cost comparison table for household cleaners. These are things we all use every day/week, are buying every month, and which for some of us are a pretty big deal. Now, I used to be a Lysol Girl- all the time, that was the best thing since sliced bread, the ultimate product for my home. Then I had a preemie, and by the time Tiff started creeping around and putting everything in her mouth (including the desk chair, the sides of my cabinets, and shoes. What was that about???) I started taking the fine print on my lysol bottle a bit more seriously.

I'm a grownup. I know not to put the stuff in my mouth, not to lick a surface that I've just cleaned, I even know how to wash my hands when I'm through scrubbing the floor. Tiff didn't. Which is why when I talked to a friend of mine who had just been introduced to these products, I jumped at it. Is it a cost every month? Yes. Would I be spending this kind of money anyway? Yes. And I'd be spending more of it to get a house this clean. By comparison, costs are per fluid oz.

laundry detergent
tide: .31
melapower: .16

fabric softener
Downy: .26
Melasoft: .08

Whitener/brightener
ultra clorox 2: .29
melabrite: .16

dishwasher:
cascade: .42
diamond brite: .28

all purpose cleaner
409: .11
tough and tender: .05

bathroom cleaner
limeaway: .22
tub n tile: .05

window cleaner
windex: .15
clear power: .05

After you get done looking at that, look at how much you use per job. Instead of filling the dishwasher cup, I use maybe a third as much detergent to get perfect results. So the cost comes down more and I don't feel stingy with cleaning products. I look at all the stuff they make, the phosphate-free formulas, the non-toxic ingredients, the part about how it's cost-efficient and eco-friendly. I see that I don't have to have every door and window open if I need to deep-clean my bathroom- it's fume-free too. Which gets rid of my excuse for not cleaning the bathroom as much as I should, but that's no reason to trash the product, right?

A completely unexpected benefit of buying through Melaleuca is that they send me a check each month. It's only a small itty percentage of what everyone else who enrolled through my friend makes... Instead of the company going out and spending millions on advertising, they send a percentage of revenue back to the people who use and buy the products. My friend signed up 8 people in her first month; as long as they are customers she sees about 7% of their orders come back to her. Plus there was a bonus for enrolling a total of 8 people that month. About $500 worth. I often wish for the kind of people-skill that would let me talk to the people I know in real life about this. Darn the shyness, the non-outgoing person I am, and most of all the stomach-paralyzing fear of public speaking. It's hard enough to make small talk while hanging out with the other mothers at my daughter's weekly school/therapy session. Unfortunately, I can't seem to do it. Which is why I've got to rely on online surveys, paid blogging on my main blog site, and advertising on my blogs in order to bring in a few extra bucks every month. Right now I get about $15 a month in my Melaleuca check. It pays for the shipping of my order. If only... I could pay the rent on our house. Maybe I'm just not really motivated enough yet to get past the anxieties.

Now if I could just talk to enough people online and do my enrollments over the Net and through the mail? I'd be set.