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WELCOME TO OUR BLOG, WHERE WE TEAM WITH LIFE.
How to Clean Solar Panels With a Greywater System
In South Africa, many of us have solar panels and greywater systems. Normal solar panel cleaners don’t cut it. You need a greywater safe solar panel cleaner! Buying a solar
Chlorine Bleach Is Out; BRIGHT Oxy Bleach Is In!
Are you looking for pure oxygen bleach powder in South Africa? You are at the right place. Do we actually know how harmful and toxic chlorine bleach is? The active
Bad Odour? More Like Oh-Dear!
How do you get rid of the bad smell in your fridge after the milk spilled? An odour is that distinct, often unpleasant smell that takes over the welcomeness of
Best Loofah in South Africa
Looking for the best loofah in South Africa? Look no further! In our ever-changing world, we’re constantly discovering new materials, plants, and products that shake up the way we do
A Clean Home Is a Happy Home
Celebrating The Women Who Make It Shine A clean home is a happy home if the woman who cleans it, is happy. Do you agree? In the hustle and bustle
Three Tips For Tackling Eczema and Sensitive Skin
Eczema, Sensitive Skin & The Enzymes That Make it Worse We’ve all heard horror stories of people who are dealing with eczema and sensitive skin. Eczema is a pesky, itchy
The Best South African Version of Neat. and Grove Co
Looking for the best concentrated cleaners in South Africa? Have you heard about companies like Grove Co. or Neat.? If you have stayed overseas, you may have even bought from
The best temperatures to keep our friendly microbes happy
Most of our products contain spores of indigenous bacilli microbes What are the best temperatures to keep them happy? Adding synthetic enzymes to soap is so yesterday. Enzymes are harsh
You Need These Septic Tank Blocks In South Africa
How to clean a toilet that is connected to a septic tank So you have a septic tank. In a previous post I explained how septic tanks work. Now you
Your septic tank should not stink. Try this now!
How does a septic tank work? We get this question more and more often as people in South Africa move over to septic tanks, either because they are far from
Washing a floor is a skill. Grab the mop and do it!
How does one wash a floor? I was over eighteen the first time I washed a floor. Can you believe it? I remember early in my first year at TUKS
How to get rid of that terrible pet urine smell
Pet urine smell? HELP! If you own pets, you have been there. Cats and dogs pee on your carpets, no matter how well you train them. Puppies can make a
Antibiotics save lives… and destroy your microbiome.
Antibiotics destroy your microbiome because they cannot discriminate between good and bad bacteria. They just kill them all. When Alexander Fleming discovered antibiotics in 1928, the number of deaths from
How to give your persian carpet a surface clean
How to clean your persian carpet at home? Don’t get it too wet, and use the correct soap. Your persian carpet is a investment and you don’t want to ruin
How to use our wish list
Mrs Martin’s wish list makes it easy to keep track of your favourite products. Recently one of our clients mentioned that she would love the option to make a wish
Five fantastic things about FLOOR you probably didn’t know.
The best floor cleaner in South Africa is strong, yet allergy friendly and pet friendly. It is Mrs Martin’s FLOOR! In South Africa we wash a lot of floors. We
Your Laundry Detergent Makes You Itch
Sensitive skin? Your laundry detergent might be the culprit. Are you desperate to find a laundry detergent for sensitive skin? You are at the right place! Did you know that
Three Ways to Save Money on Couriers
How can you get hold of your favourite Mrs Martin’s products AND save on couriers? At Mrs Martin’s we have kept our delivery fee the same since 2022. As a
Why Must I Pay to Return Empty Containers?
Did you know you can return empty containers to us? If you are anything like me, you hate throwing out a strong, lightweight, durable container after only one use. When
How to choose the best soap for camping
What is the best soap for camping in South Africa? You want to explore one of the fantastic campsites or hiking trails in South Africa, and you are looking for
Plastic free cleaning products? Yes, please!
At Mrs Martin’s the whole life cycle of the product matters. We formulate simply and say no to most chemicals. The chemicals we do use, are the best green chemicals
“I Certainly Don’t Want To Use Rotten Soap, Thank You!”
We call our products biological because they contain spores of beneficial microbes. These guys hatch when they get water and the right temperatures. They then analyse what is going on
“Hey! Don’t You Dare Throw Out That Strong, Light Container!”
Do you feel that horrible niggle when you throw ‘away’ your fourth yoghurt tub and another empty milk bottle in just one week? I do! I’m not an activist and
Why we think aluminium packaging is fantastic
This week I received an email asking why we package our healthy, allergy friendly soap in aluminium. This is how I answered: Firstly, I want to assure you that none
How to Clean Silverware the Intelligent Way
Most of us have a silver heirloom somewhere in the kitchen. I inherited silver teaspoons from my maternal grandmother. Although I am not terribly faithul in keeping it shiny ALL
Multitasking, Chores and Peace in The Home
On multitasking, chores and peace in the home I have long known that either it were not true that women are multitasking queens, or it were not true that I
We All Adore Bright Whites! But is Bleach Great?
Even before I found out that chlorine bleach is not safe, I did not use it regularly. You see, I am not a cleaning diva. I belong to that middle
How To Green Your Cleaning Routine
In some form or another, we all clean every day. For most of us, that involves products. We touch the soaps, we inhale the fumes. And who knows how long
What Does it Mean To Sanitise?
What does it mean to sanitise? This week has been the WEEK OF THE SANITISER. We have sold more Hand and Surface SANITISER in this week than ever before. Not
Why Our Sanitiser Does Not Contain Alcohol
Why our sanitiser does not contain alcohol Mrs. Martin’s Microbes and More teams with life. You will find no biocidal ingredients in our products. Indeed, we include spores of beneficial,
Why Use Concentrates?
Many people ask me why we have 50ml concentrates and 5l concentrates for FLOOR, SURFACE and MIGHTY. The short answer is: it is more economical! It also reduces the carbon
Ses Nommer-Nipper Aanlyn Geskenkidees
Hoekom ek ‘n lysie van nommer nipper geskenkidees moes maak Ek is altyd laat. Ek besef dis erg. Dis verskriklik. Dit wys vir ander jy respekteer nie hulle tyd nie.
Ons Maak Self Huis Skoon, En Dis Nie Vir Sissies Nie
Martin en ek en ons drie kinders maak self ons huis skoon. Ons het nie hulp nie. ‘n Dekade gelede sou dit baie vreemd gewees het vir ‘n middelklas wit
Hoe Werk Mikrobes vir Skoonmaak?
So onlangs as 150 jaar gelede het Joseph Lister eendag voorgestel dat dokters hulle hande moet was en instrumente moet steriliseer voor operasies. Die skoner teatertoestande het daartoe gelei dat
Ek Is Afrikaans. I Am African.
Ek is Afrikaans. I am African. Very few people realize that the word ‘afrikaans’ literally means african. I love South Africa. I was born here and I feel my roots
Foam Does Not Clean; Soap Does
My dad used to say that hardworking people leave the dishes for later. “We lazy ones,” he would say to us four siblings every Sunday, “do them straight away because
What Is The Difference Between MIGHTY And SURFACE?
I have been asked this question several times. I do understand: SURFACE sounds like it cleans all surfaces…. so what is left for MIGHTY to clean? The short answer is:
Washing a Floor Is a Skill
I was over eighteen the first time I washed a floor. Can you believe it? I remember early in my first year at TUKS telling my friend Kholofelo I had
‘My Father’s Hands’ Are Still Beautiful Twenty Years Later
‘My Father’s Hands’ Are Still Beautiful Twenty Years Later A young teacher and a short story Twenty years ago I taught English to a small Grade 11 class in a
All The Stuff We Gather
On Saturday we will celebrate one year in our new home. I chatted in this post about how we arrived in Pretoria with precious few possessions. And how rapidly we managed
Of smells and scents and sightlessness
My mother-in-law is blind. She was born blind, inherited from her grandmother. She keeps her home: irons, washes, cooks and cleans magnificently. But in her own way. Martin grew up in
Spring Cleaning is Positively the Best Kind of Cleaning
I am not a cleaning diva Confession: I am not a cleaning diva. If ever you visited my home, you would see that we live here. And, mind you, we work here
A Super Simple Greywater in the Suburbs Plan
A Super Simple Greywater In The Suburbs Plan Pretty watering cans? After researching greywater do’s and don’ts (as summarised in this post) I discovered I could possibly heat our house
So How Does One Do Greywater In The Suburbs?
So How Does One Do Greywater In The Suburbs? No easy answers Do you remember how we first got interested in grey water? Fear of the municipal account. Do you
House vs Rondawel – What We Love About Our Move
The house is bigger… Which pros transpired from our recent move from midlands meandering to sectional title suburbanism? Well, shops are closer. And our house is bigger. The house we
And Here We Thought Greywater Was Easy!
The move we never want to repeat In December 2016 we moved. We left the rolling green hills of Kwazulu Natal behind for a sectional title house in Pretoria. ‘There
About the author
Hello, I’m Lize. A lovely part of our rainbow nation calls me Mrs Martin. I am a South African wife and mother of three. I am by nature (and exercise!) frugal. I LOVE saving because it makes me feel efficient. When I spend less than I should and can do more than I planned, I am thrilled. This is also the way I approach matters of the environment. I love feeling I send as little waste as possible into nature. But it cannot cost me a lot. It has to save. Because I am not living on a homestead filling my day with tasks of survival (oh, the lure of it!). I am the manager of a normal suburban household with ordinary responsibilities such as keeping the rubbish bin from rotting before rubbish removal day, squashing the pile of dishes… and laundry… and filing… again and again, all the while teaching, training, cleaning and delivering our darling children, producing three meals a day, cordially managing the stream of visitors and delivery men and reps, trying to keep a respectable garden, getting the broken water meter reported, and such. My quest is to live in a way that saves time and money and reduces our footprint, simultaneously.