It’s probably cold outside and your house is sealed up tight. You’re cozy and warm, the fire is glowing, and you’ll soon be welcoming friends and relatives into your home for the holidays. You’ve probably also been doing some cleaning to get ready. If you have, you may have some unwanted visitors – VOCs (and we don’t mean Very Obnoxious Children!). We are talking about Volatile Organic Compounds. These are the nasty chemicals things that are found inside conventional cleaning products that most people are using to clean their home for the holidays.

VOCs are a major source of respiratory problems and trigger neurological reactions (headaches, nausea, dizziness), to name just a few. In fact, the EPA has found that the quality of the air inside your home can be 2 1/2 times as bad as the air outside! When you spray a conventional cleaner in your home, your release a fine mist of chemicals that is spread through the air. Worse yet, these chemicals settle onto household surfaces where they can remain for months waiting to be ingested by your kids and pets. It is hard to believe but your home may be worse after the cleaning than before. If you have not seen our video which illustrates what other conventional and “natural” floor cleaners do to a gerbera daisy, watch the video below (it’s such a vivid illustration of the safety of BETTER LIFE that we have been accused of cheating — which we did not!)

At BETTER LIFE, our products contain no VOCs. In fact, our products are completely plant based and contain no chemical ingredients at all. Safe for you and your family and friends.

Think BETTER LIFE doesn’t work as well as conventional cleaners? Not so. If you haven’t seen this, please watch how BETTER LIFE actually removes more bacteria than conventional chemical disinfectants.

Give your family and your guests the gift of clean. Get the BETTER LIFE Starter Kit. Everything you need to make your home clean and safe – now and forever.

If you are looking for a unique and thoughtful gift for a loved one or yourself, order now and we’ll have our starter kit on the doorstep by 12/25 (free delivery)!

BUY NOW!

Please remind your friends and family to sign up for our newsletter and be registered monthly iPod giveaway. We’ll be posting a video from our latest winner soon.

Happy Holidays from the BETTER LIFE famiy!

If you’re already tired of the same-old, same-old when it comes to holiday music, we wanted to share some of our favorite alternative takes on the format as well as some lesser heard interpretations on the classics:

  1. 1. Gift X-Change — Calexico
  2. How to Make Gravy — James Reyne
  3. Christmas Must be Tonight – The Band
  4. Three Angels — Bob Dylan
  5. Christmas Celebration — B.B. King
  6. O Tannenbaum — Vince Guaraldi
  7. All I Want — The Weepies
  8. The Christmas Song — Diana Krall
  9. Calling on Mary — Aimee Mann
  10. Winter Storm — Joshua James
  11. River — Travis
  12. Merry Christmas Baby — Otis Redding
  13. That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! — Sufjan Stevens

Hope you enjoy we’d love to hear some of your favorites as well!

With the recent concern about Swine Flu, we are continually asked this question:
Does BETTER LIFE disinfect?
Well, technically we are not a disinfectant and can’t call ourselves that. However, we did a scientific test to see just how well BETTER LIFE performs against chemical disinfectants. The results will amaze you!. You can view the video below, but before you watch, you might want to read the background info under the video window

There are a wide variety of commonly used disinfectants that range from alcohols, peroxides, and bleach, to all kinds of stuff that even we can hardly pronounce. One thing that they all have in common is that they contain chemicals that are designed to kill the germs that they come in contact with.

There are two problems with most chemical disinfectants:

1. Disinfectants contain chemicals that can actually spread vapors in the air and leave residues on the surfaces they are used on. The labels tell you to not use the products around food, children, pets, etc. Hard to believe that you have to actually introduce potentially toxic materials into your home to ‘clean’ it, but that is what you are doing.

2. Disinfectants take time. Depending on the disinfectant, it is required to remain on the surface anywhere from 15 seconds and up to several MINUTES! Check out the label, next time you pick up a bottle. You’ll be surprised, we know we were. Is that the way you really clean? We don’t. Most of us clean by spraying and wiping. When using this method with a conventional disinfectant, the germs are not being killed and a nasty and harmful chemical residue is being left behind.

We believe in getting rid of these germs, we just believe there is a better way to do it. We decided to do some testing. Our founder Kevin Tibbs is a scientist. He picked up a piece of equipment that is designed to test bacterial levels. It is the kind of equipment that is used to instantly test surfaces in hospital operating rooms and other areas where testing for really clean is really critical.

You can watch the video below to see what happened, but let’s just say BETTER LIFE can make your home safer than you ever imagined. Not only did we eliminate more bacterial contamination than the conventional disinfectant, but we did it without leaving behind the toxic chemical residues.

How do we do that, you ask?

BETTER LIFE uses powerful natural surfactants. We don’t have to kill bacteria. We simply REMOVE it – and as you are about to see, we remove it better and faster than chemical disinfectants can kill it.

The bottom line for you is a truly clean surface that without the toxic vapors and chemical residues.

Safer for your home, your kids, your pets and the environment.

If your family and friends are concerned with disinfecting, please share this with them.

Also remember to check out the ultimate in green cleaning the BETTER LIFE starter kit

Below is a link to an interview with our co-founder Tim Barklage that aired on the local evening news in St. Louis.  This is a great piece, nice work Tim!

http://www.kmov.com/video/lateststories-index.html?nvid=411657&shu=1

Last night, BETTER LIFE was named the WINNER of the St. Louis Business Journal’s Heroes of the Planet awards.  We took the award in the sustainable products category!

WOW!  What an incredible honor.  Seriously…..WOW!  Needless to say we are humbled.  For those of you who took the time to write in your heart-felt nominations, we cannot thank you enough!

You can find the full story in this weeks STL Business Journal and online if you are a subscriber to American City Business Journals.  If not the link will take you to a preview of the story.  Hopefully the full version will be available in the coming weeks.

BETTER LIFE was informed that it is a finalist for the St. Louis Business Journal’s Heroes of the Planet award.  BETTER LIFE’s green and safe household cleaning products are nominated for the Products award category.

Winners will be announced Thursday 10/29.  Thanks to all who nominated us.

Below is a link to a news segment that was shot on the 10/18, with a great local program. I thought it turned out really nice. If you have a chance to give it a rating, by clicking on the star icon in the video window, we would certainly appreciate it!

Click here to be redirected to the story and video.

We placed gerbera daisies in our Simply Floored! green floor cleaner and then did the same with another “green” competitor and a conventional counterpart.

We then did some time lapse photography.  Check out the results in this video.  Let us know what you think.

We are looking forward to participating in both the Taste of St. Louis and the Best of Missouri Market this Fall weekend.  Both events are top notch and a ton of fun.

BETTER LIFE is a sponsor of the Taste and will be faithfully serving as the clean-up crew after the Top Chef competition, including the headlining event with Hubert Keller!    We’ll also be selling our products, so come by and see us.  Mike Kociela, one of the Taste’s organizers, is a true green visionary — he is well on his way to making Taste St. Louis the greenest large scale event in the country (no kidding).  We appreciate the support Mike has shown for BETTER LIFE and hope everyone can come join in the fun at the event.

While on the topic of green visionaries, the Missouri Botanical Gardens has been at the forefront of the green movement for 150 years.   Best of Missouri Market is an annual favorite put on by an amazing organization.   The name says it all, and of course BETTER LIFE fits the bill perfectly, along with some other great artisans, winemakers, and one of our favorites Gooey Louie. We’ll be selling special starter kits at the event.

If you make it to one of these great events, be sure to stop by and say hello!