ferrousland.com - diary archives
Thursday, May 08, 2003
enjo, enjo, enjo! - 08:11 PM
a month or two ago, the enjo ads on tv caught my attention. the jingle is so damn catchy: "enjo, enjo, enjo! a cleaning we will goh-oh!"
i'd seen them before on a current affair a long time ago & thought what a good idea it seemed, but wondered how on earth it could work.
no idea what i'm talking about? well, enjo make cleaning cloths or gloves which enable you to clean with only cold water. no chemicals. water. cold. the cleaning gloves. that's it.
if you look at their website, they don't claim that you never have to use chemicals again, rather that you can cut out about 90% of the chemicals which you would normally use. the whole idea is that it saves the environment because you're not flushing chemicals down your sink every time you clean your house. they sell a small range of cleaning chemicals which are about as environmentally friendly as you can get. firstly, they're made from products that are as natural as possible, & secondly, you only have to use the tiniest, tiniest amount of the concentrate mixed in water.
this really interests me. i'm not a full-on greenie at all (for instance, i try to make sure that i recycle, but i don't have nightmares for a week if i accidentally throw something in the wrong bin), but i do try & i have an interest in making sure we don't kill the earth before our children grow up. since i'm going to be bringing one of those children into the world soon, i guess my interest has grown considerably.
i see stories on the news about children who are suffering from health & skin problems, behaviour problems, all sorts of hassles & i truly believe that the majority of these issues could be solved by living in a cleaner, more natural & chemical-free world.
i think that a hundred years from now, they'll look back at how we live now & be totally aghast. for instance, they'll look at the sort of garbage that manufacturers are allowed to put in our foods & they'll exclaim out loud, "they put what in their food??! they actually ate this?!!" they'll be as amazed as we are now when we think about how they gave thalidomide to pregnant women.
they'll also wonder at how not only big companies are allowed to get away with dumping thousands of litres of chemical waste into the ocean, but how people in their own homes are allowed to pour chemicals down the drains when they wash the dishes or the car, all of which eventually ends up in the ocean.
think about it. ever kept a fish tank? one with live fish in it, i mean. after you've washed your dishes, would you consider taking the water out of the sink & pouring it into the tank with the fish? of course not .. but what do you think happens when you pull the plug & let the water drain down the sink hole? sure, it's only one sink-full going into a whole ocean, but how many people in the world do you think are letting their soapy dish water drain away? that's a lot of morning fresh ending up in the ocean.
so anyway, i came across enjo again on the net & thought it might be worth looking at. they don't sell from retail outlets, so i called them to arrange for a demonstration. a local lady called me back & after arranging to meet in a week or so, she arrived right on time.
i'd been thinking up some pretty grotty bits around the kitchen for her to demonstrate on, for instance, the oven knobs. they're the type that are located at the back of the stove top, behind the hot plates, so they get pretty dirty. every time i'd wash the dishes i'd use the soapy water to wipe over them & every time sue came around to clean once a week, she'd use the usual spray & wipe type stuff. even with regular cleaning like that, they were pretty gross on close inspection, as i'll bet many people's oven knobs are. now remember that we're living in a rental house. this oven has been through many people aside from us .. years of fat & oil & food spatter grime had built up on those knobs. if i'd had the oven from new i doubt i would have let them get so yuck.
this lady, jenny, had a go at many things in the kitchen & around the house & i was surprised at how well they came up, but she also tackled the disgusting oven knobs. to move forward a bit, once i'd seen that the gloves could do just as nice a job around the house (including the bathroom) using only cold water, as previous efforts using the usual chemicals, i decided to begin with the kitchen glove & the all-purpose glove. after some thought, i also decided to get the garage glove so that i could do something nice for shroom & wash his car, since it was his money that i was spending.
after using the gloves for a number of weeks now, i'm now even more impressed than i was at first. once i got my gloves, i spent about half an hour in the kitchen finding all sorts of gross things i could clean & getting used to using the gloves. i had a go at one of the oven knobs & was amazed at how all the grossness came off. i did half the griller door which was covered in bacon fat from when i'd cooked some bacon the day before. i did half of the top of the microwave oven, which we tend to pile things on, but which still gets kitchen grease & dust on it & tends to get neglected for quite a while because of the papers & things on it. i did the inside of the microwave which had some stubborn baked on bits from many meals past.
everything came up so well. when i say 'so well', i don't mean that it looked pretty good after a wipe over with the glove, i mean that it was totally clean. spotless .. & all done with only cold water!
i only did half of some things because i wanted to show sue how well it worked, so that she could witness what a genuine before & after scenario. also of course, because i didn't want to do all the cleaning, since that's what we pay sue for. when she came around the next tuesday as usual, i showed her what i'd done & gave her a quick run down on the small differences in the use of the gloves compared to normal cloths & chemicals. there really isn't a lot to get used to. basically, instead of a long wiping action, a circular action works better, & when doing surfaces (especially flat, shiny & metallic surfaces) you carry an old tea-towel (dish cloth, to some of you) in the other hand & follow it up with a quick wipe dry. you don't have to scrub hard at all. in fact, they work better when you don't scrub.
sue was just as impressed as i was. if not for the gloves being a substantial investment, i think she'd have bought one or two by now too. she gets to see how well they work by using them in my house though, so it's almost like a free trial. as it is, i'm ordering a new glove every couple of weeks so that i can space it out & get the whole set. well, some things i don't necessarily want, like some of the stuff for your body, but i am determined that by the time our baby comes along, we'll have reduced the amount of chemicals in our home by that 90%. once you've got the tough jobs out of the way, maintenance cleaning is easy & you rarely have to use even the chemicals which enjo sell.
i've been using the all-purpose cloth to wash the dishes in cold water with no detergent & they come up amazingly well. not just amazingly well considering that i've used no detergent, but amazingly well, full stop! some things have come up cleaner than they've ever been before.
i know that i'm going on & on about these gloves, but i'm just so impressed with how i don't have to use any chemicals & it does a better job at cleaning. every time i go into my kitchen & use the stove, i have to look at the knobs & touch them just to see how clean they are. every time i do the dishes, when i come back to put them away after they're dry, i marvel at how clean & shiny they are.
i'm not a clean freak at all. that's not why i'm raving about these things. if you ever saw the kitchen on the old kitchen cam you would have seen that i let the dishes build up for a long time. i used to clean houses for a living, which is why i had tended to the grottier side lately, but now that it's so easy to keep things clean, i actually enjoy washing the dishes & wiping up after dinner. for me to say that is pretty incredible .. just ask shroom.
enjo is not paying me to say any of this. i'm paying them to buy their products & to become a more responsible human being. if you've ever even considered looking at the enjo products because you want to be more environmentally friendly, take my word for it .. call to get a demo. i'm going to get my sister to arrange a demo so she can see how good they are & buy her a bathroom glove as a gift. she especially hates doing the bathroom when you have to run outside just to take a breath because you feel like you're going to choke if you breathe in those strong shower cleaner fumes.
i really believe in trying to save our world before we totally kill it with our greed, foolishness & stupidity. i think that using these cleaning gloves is a big step in the right direction & that's why i wanted to rave on here for a bit (okay, a lot), about how good i think they are.
i do apologise for going on & on, but i've been so happy about how well it all works that i had to tell more people .. & if it helps the environment in the process, causing others to try harder to be more earth-friendly, then it's a bonus.
okay, end of rave. 
they are good. that's why i can't stop raving about them.
Hi, Just gone to wash my knobs and help the enviroment!
Pity they're not available in NZ...you had me more than sold on their product!
They are fantastic, having been using them for a while now. Good for men because we dont get the toilet duck mixed up with the window cleaner (always wondered why the toilet was never clean). On a serious note though, the mop/broom is great. The tiles in the kitchen and dinning room feel great under bare feet. The mirrors and windows have never been easier to clean. Have nearly the whole range, could not go for the body glove though. I mean really it is pink you know.
Extremely happy.
If anyone is interested in obtaining more information I am an Enjo consultant. Drop me a line ngarcia@optusnet.com.au
this product rocks. I'm soo glad to see a good cleaning product that saves the environment from chemicals, YOU ROCK ENJO
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LOL!! they do sound good though