people against dirty

january clean-o-gram

A bit belated, but we’d like to wish you a happy new year. Chuffed is our new favorite British word, as you’ll see by some of our news.

In this month’s clean-o-gram, we have the requisite bit of New Year’s resolutions and detoxing, a dirty little secret, a fancy shmancy award, and the newest home for method.

detoxapalooza

‘Tis the season to make resolutions. Ours is to keep the office a bit tidier and eat lunch away from our desks more. Oh, and we’re moving all of our bottles to 100% recycled plastic.

Detoxing is a pretty popular resolution. So, while you’re out detoxing everything from your liver to your skin, give a little thought to home sweet home. It could use a good old detox as well. In fact, if your walls could talk, you'd probably want to wash their mouths out with soap (but good, clean, non-toxic soap like method we hope).

Unlike some of the dodgy detox treatments out there, detoxing your home doesn’t have to be a sacrifice. It can even, dare we suggest it, smell like Eucalyptus Mint or Ylang Ylang and come in shiny, happy bottles like these. Our cheeky range of home detox remedies may be found online and (we’re chuffed to say) in more and more shops across the UK.

dirty little secret of the month

We like to share dirty little secrets each month. We want everyone to rethink what makes a healthy home. We’re rabble-rousers that way.

This month’s secret relates to why it’s a good idea to detox your home. The air inside your home is more polluted that the air outside. It’s true. It’s 2-5 times more polluted than what’s outside. Plus, you’ve got a bunch of pesticides soaking in all that bad air. That’s a potentially dangerous mix. You country dwellers aren’t off the hook – this applies to you, too. Here’s the full story.

fancy shmancy award

It’s hard to tell from this photo, but we’re all blushing (all eight of us). The nice people at the Grocer just named method Household Launch of the Year in the UK, and entered us as a finalist for overall launch of the year. We are quite chuffed. We were by far the smallest brand at the event (and certainly the only one with 100% of the UK team there). We'd like to thank the Academy, but of course we owe it to all of you. We're just sad we couldn’t have fit all of you in the room and there wouldn't have been enough canapés to go around.

dish, dish, got my wish

You might remember that just before Christmas, we gave away some limited-edition washing-up liquid bottles signed by the whole team in return for your quirkiest Christmas tradition. Here are a few of our favorites.

"When the children were growing up instead of putting out cookies and milk for Santa … they would leave him salami, crackers and beer and carrots for the reindeer”

"My mum bought a Christmas decoration that consisted of a straw circle with strings coming of it and ducks/geese suspended on them … every year that this decoration comes out we sing the Dambusters title music"

newest home of method

We were chuffed (as, you can see, was Louise’s daughter Frida) that Whole Foods recently introduced a nice full range of method to its flagship London store, as well as the smaller Fresh & Wild shops. We like Whole Foods (particularly their cheese room) and have been in a number of their US stores for a while now, so are glad to cross the pond with them.

We hope this New Year’s clean-o-gram left you feeling chuffed and squeaky clean. We would love your comments.

dirty little secret: indoor air quality

The air inside your home is more polluted than the air outside.

It’s true. It’s 2-5 times more polluted than what’s outside. Plus, you’ve got a bunch of pesticides soaking in all that bad air. That’s a potentially dangerous mix. You country dwellers aren’t off the hook – this applies to you, too.

How did this happen? A brief history lesson:

We used to live in drafty homes where the air could more freely circulate, keeping homes breezier and healthier. But after World War II, we started sealing our homes up nice and airtight – air conditioning had become more popular and energy efficiency became an issue (it’s the whole “you can’t run the air with the windows open” thing).

At the same time, a whole bunch of chemicals came onto the market – chemicals that were used to make many products for our homes and our bodies.

Some of these chemicals are used in many common cleaning products and are so toxic you can't even put it in your garbage or down the toilet.  You have to dispose of them the way you dispose of paint and used motor oil.

Plastics were the new hot thing and soon they were everywhere. There was a boom in manufacturing and a boom in buying. Hey, the war was over, people felt optimistic, and they had money to spend again. And spend they did. Unfortunately all the stuff they bought led to overly cluttered homes, a trend that holds true to this day.

We’re sealed up – spending 90% of our time indoors – and practically suffocating under stuff. Home sweet home is certainly not the breezy, healthy place it used to be. Instead it’s a vacuum-sealed hotbed of toxins, causing all sorts of health issues. Asthma rates, for example, have soared – more than 20 million people are affected. The same goes for allergies, chemical sensitivities, and even cancer rates. As we sealed up, we became unhealthy.

The line where your home ends and you begin is more blurry than ever. We believe a home is more than just a box: it’s sort of a second skin. It could be a third skin if you’re counting clothes. So why would you clean your tub with harsh chemicals and then soak in it?

The Solution:

Call us lazy, but we’re all about having the most impact with the least amount of effort. Start by getting those toxic cleaning products out of your home. It’s a small change that can make a big difference.

But, while you may think it’s green to throw away all our toxic cleaning supplies into the trash and start fresh, think first about how you dispose of them. By tossing them into the trash, you’re actually improperly disposing of household hazardous waste, which could end up leaking into our waterways. Instead, use up what you have and buy green the next time you stock up on cleaning supplies.  Or contact your council to learn how to best dispose of household hazardous waste in your area.

launch of the year

Boy, were we chuffed to be named "Launch of the Year" by the Grocer for the household category.  So, we literally trooped out the entire UK team (all 8 of us) to central London to cage a few free drinks and samosas.  And, given that the venue was Scottish and we're close to Burns Day, a little Haggis, which we discovered was "a Scottish dish consisting of a mixture of the minced heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep or calf boiled in the stomach of the slaughtered animal".  Yum.

We got to shmooze with the movers and shakers of every aisle of the supermarket, including the king of cakes and the queen of rice (reminds us of the sausage king of Chicago from Ferris Bueller's Day Off).

The editor of the Grocer sought us out to say that method handwash was in the toilets at the venue.  And we replied, we know, we snuck in a bunch and put them there.  We need every bit of free marketing we can find.

To that aim, we took to the streets to paint the town method, spreading method love with free samples all over London.  Here is Andy proving his supply chain prowess a restaurant with a sink next to the hostess stand.

And, here we are trying to reach one advocate at a time.

 

big shoes to fill

When Philthy Phil (our illustrious "brain of the supply chain") left the UK recently to open the method Hong Kong office, he left some big shoes to fill.  Literally.  He left behind his filthy trainers as a welcome present for Andy who will be carrying the cleaning torch where Phil left off. 

Welcome to Andy as our newest person against dirty and our new chief "mover and maker".  His grin in this photo (even while holding those shoes -- impressive) comes from his New Year's when he proposed at the top of the Empire State Building (good thing he wasn't wearing these shoes at the time).