Natural Cleaning Subscriptions Review: Honest, Grove, Blueland, CleanCult, Thrive Rosey, Dropps
Are you sitting at home trying to find a better way to have natural cleaning products delivered regularly outside of using Amazon, and exploring natural cleaning subscriptions like The Honest Company, Grove Collaborative, Blueland, CleanCult, Thrive Market Rosey, or Dropps? I’ve used all five of these natural cleaning subscription services, and I’ll go over the benefits of each and why you may prefer one over another natural cleaning subscription, and which has the best natural cleaning products for the price.
Blueland vs CleanCult
We’re all spending more time at home and getting things delivered. No one wants to sit and marinate in those chemicals at home. There was a period in 2020 where natural cleaning products were out and if it didn’t burn your fingertips off, we didn’t want it. Luckily, that phase came and went in a matter of a couple months. I soon realized that I wanted to go back to my old life of natural cleaning products.
The Honest Company vs Grove Collaborative
To be transparent, I’m not a complete natural cleaning product person myself. I would say that ¾ of our household chemicals have been exchanged for natural versions. After trying a few natural products that were subpar, we have gone back to the less-than-natural versions. I’ll elaborate more throughout the post but the basics would be dish soap and bleach for laundry. Nothing gets whites whiter than bleach. No way around that.
Grove Collaborative vs Blueland
I’ve used Thrive Market for over two years for all kinds of grocery delivery, all on the dry good side, even though Thrive Market does provide frozen foods as well. We live in Berkeley, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area where we have access to a lot of grocers and local food delivery services that we prefer more for food, like Imperfect Foods (which is from Berkeley, but is now almost national)!
Dropps vs Cleancult
The very first natural cleaning subscription service I’ll be reviewing for you is Honest (or The Honest Company). I tried Honest for the first time all the way back in… let’s say… 2013. It’s been so long since I first tried Honest. My favorite thing about Honest is actually the lotion. It may be the best lotion for $10 you can but for quality, feel, and smell. In the words of Amy Schumer “ Jessica Alba not only gets to be ridiculously beautiful and wildly wealthy, but she gets to make the best lotion… not fair.” Also, way to go Jessica Alba for becoming one of the wealthiest women for starting her eco conscious company, The Honest Company.
Grove Collaborative vs CleanCult
The next natural cleaning subscription service I tried was Blueland. I’m an avid watcher of The SharkTank and I sometimes catch myself buying the products… I know, I know… I’m totally their target audience and a complete sucker for the process. I actually did a podcast interview with a SharkTank contestant if you want to check it out! I tried Blueland in early 2020.
CleanCult vs Blueland
Then I tried the natural cleaning subscription service CleanCult. I immediately noticed some subtle differences between Honest, CleanCult and Blueland which I’ll go over in my comparison below. I ordered some of the same products as Blueland, and some different ones. I haven’t tried every Blueland and every CleanCult product so I can only review and compare the ones I’ve tried, but I have tried a good amount of each natural cleaning subscription.
Thrive Market vs The Honest Company
The last natural cleaning subscription that I tried was Grove Collaborative. I tried Grove Collaborative in February, 2021. There was a long time between my usage of Blueland, and Cleancult before using Grove Collaborative. Now let’s delve into the review and comparison between these three natural cleaning subscriptions, The Honest Company, Grove Collaborative, Blueland, CleanCult, and Thrive.
Rosey vs Blueland
CleanCult
Overview:
The distinguishing difference with the natural cleaning subscription CleanCult offers vs their competitors is that CleanCult’s focus is purely on soap and soap dispensers. Dish soap, dish detergent, laundry detergent, hand soap, bar soap and all the appropriate soap dispensers. CleanCult does offer a Refillable AllPurpose Cleaner Spray Bottle, but I think that’s just so customers can have matching sets in their kitchens and bathrooms. What I like is that CleanCult delivers their soap in milk-cartons so as to not use plastic. Every one of their soaps is liquid, except the bar soap and the dishwasher detergent. The box was quite heavy when it arrived, which did throw me off a little. We initially ordered a couple of the dish-soaps and we were disappointed with the grease cleaning ability. Even simple things like washing a few drips of olive oil from my hands was a chore. The smells were fantastic though. We loved the lemongrass smell!
Natural Cleaning Products I Like from CleanCult:
The Dishwasher Tablets - These worked fantastically! I was really impressed that a natural dishwasher tab could actually do the job well. Although Blueland offers a better deal on a comparable product when buying in bulk, CleanCult offers a better deal on dishwasher tabs when only purchasing one box at a time.
The Bar Soap - My Husband is still a bar soap user and he always will be. I’m more of a shower gel gal, but he’s bar soap all the way. The Cleancult bar soaps were fantastic, and the variety pack provided a different scent every couple weeks.
Purchasing & Promos:
For an exclusive 30% OFF your CleanCult natural cleaning subscription and FREE Shipping, click HERE and use the promo code CLEANCULT30.
Dropps vs Blueland
Blueland
Overview:
Blueland is a female founded company with a mission to help eliminate the use of single use plastics, and to help provide non-toxic cleaning products delivered to your home in lightweight packaging under a natural cleaning subscription model. Blueland was also featured on The Shark Tank where they nabbed a deal with Kevin O’Leary. I tried some of the natural cleaning subscription products in early 2020 where I tried Blueland’s The Clean Suite Kit (which included the signature spray bottles) and Blueland Dishwasher Starter Set. Both worked fantastically and I quickly went back to purchase more products, including refills of what I already tried. What I loved about these products is that the quality of the spray bottles was fantastic and the plastic used was high end. I also loved that Blueland used tablets where we mixed in our own water. This saved on shipping weight which is very costly to emissions and the environment. Although, ordering directly to my door isn’t environmentally friendly if we’re being honest. None the less, Blueland is helping eliminate plastic. I will absolutely use their bottles for a long time.
Natural Cleaning Products I Like from Blueland:
The Spray Bottles - (pictured above) They’re very high quality and there are TONS of options for starter kits to match your needs where you can select the spray bottles. The quality is high end, and I love the highlight of color in the plastic bottoms which helps me tell the difference between glass cleaner, multi-surface cleaner and bathroom cleaner. My only complaint is that the bottle design is very strategically designed to give the illusion that there’s more cleaner in there than there is, and the spray nozzle sprays a lot with each pump without the option to do a half pump, so you run through the product quicker. That said, this is a very minor complaint. I’m just sayin’.... I see you Kevin O’Leary. This design didn’t get past me!
The Glass Cleaner - For a natural cleaning glass cleaner, it cleans really well! No streaks, no horrible windex smell that lingers. Usually even generic dollar store glass cleaners don't do well, so the fact that Blueland made a natural glass cleaner so well is impressive.
The Dishwasher Starter Set & Dishwasher Tabs - Again, when we’re trading chemical cleaners for natural cleaners, that statement of biases that “this better work” goes through our heads. The dishwasher tabs from Blueland do work! Our dishwasher is only 3 years old, so that’s worth noting, but no problems here. For a year's worth of green dishwasher tabs that actually work, it only cost us $32 (120 tabs). Goodbye Cascade!
The Multi-Surface Cleaner - I use Blueland Multi-Surface Cleaner for all our household items, except my granite kitchen counters. Nothing wrong with it for those. I just prefer another product for granite which I’ll go over in the Thrive section below.
Purchasing & Promos:
For exclusive FREE Shipping on any Blueland natural cleaning subscription order over $35, click HERE.
The Honest Company
Overview:
I think we sometimes neglect the ones that pave the way for others. They’re initially sexy and new, and they lose their luster when other products and brands become available. The Honest Company was a brilliant concept at the time. When Honest came about, we had Method Cleaning Products we could purchase in Target and Whole Foods, but The Honest Company did the first successful natural cleaning subscription service successfully where these natural cleaning products could be delivered to your door, along with diapering items for parents. I think for new parents, the Diaper Cake from Honest is still one of the cutest items to gift. The Honest Company lotion is also one of the best for price, quality and smell. I will note, I’ve used WAY more of Honest’s other products over their cleaning products like the lotion, body shower/shampoo, and the conditioner (best for under $10), the baby wipes to freshen up… ya know… and I’ve also tried some of the Honest Beauty products. I still use the All Purpose Balm and the Honest Detangler. Honest has some great products, but I lean in other directions mostly for cleaning supplies.
Natural Cleaning Products I Like from Honest:
Hypoallergenic Baby Laundry Detergent - I don’t have children, but I use this for my delicates and have for years. It cleans well and treats my delicates delicately. For a household that used to use Tide detergent, I need a good cleaning detergent. This Honest Baby Detergent does the job. We use Nellie’s Laundry Soda for our regulars.
Honest Disinfecting Spray - I’ve used this spray a few times, and it does feel good being able to kill germs without killing the humans and pets in the house. Not sure how germs can be killed at 99.9% without anything harmful though? That’s my only qualm… but we need germ killers right now, so I’ll forgive a tad of mild chemical adding if that’s what’s going on here.
Honest Hand Sanitizer - I believe this is now an essential next to our hand wash. I love the spray hand sanitizer. However, I don’t like the feel of the Honest Gel Hand Sanitizer. It leaves a film with a slight tackiness on my hands. A small price considering the reason is that it has stuff in there to help my hands from drying out though.
Purchasing & Promos:
You can sign up for a natural cleaning subscription through The Honest Company and take advantage of exclusive diapering, beauty, and home promos HERE.
Dropps
Overview:
When I originally wrote this article in 2020, I hadn’t tried Dropps yet. When I visited their website then, it was full of color, and a fantastic mission. I knew it would only be a matter of time until I tried the product line. Back then, the product like was dish detergent and laundry detergent. It’s so exciting to see that Dropps has expended the product line to now include dish sprays, sponges, hand soaps, Swedish dish cloths (which if you haven’t used yet, you should) and air fresheners.
I will candidly note that I’ve only tried three products, and I’m excited to try more of the wonderful line soon. The boxes on the detergents are so cleverly designed. Mad props to the Dropps design team (that rhymed!) that put them together for both making them user friendly, inviting with beautiful designed images and directions upon opening, and for storage and use throughout the month.
Natural Cleaning Products I Like from Dropps:
Dropps Dish Detergent in Fresh Rain - These smell amazing! I love that the ingredients are mineral and oxygen cleaner based. My dishes came out clean, and actually sparkling! I usually have to add some kind of JetDry-ish stuff to get the actual sparkle with natural dish detergents, but these did great!
Dropps Stain & Odor Detergent in Clean & Crisp - The Dropps pods looked so much smaller than I thought they would be. I think that’s because Tide pods are about 3x the size. They look like little gushers candies I wanna pop in my mouth… don’t worry… I didn’t. They smelled great too! Perfume-ie but not in a way that will make your laundry all smell for days. Just enough to make your load smell faintly when it comes out with a ‘clean’ scent. If you’re not into scents, not to worry. There are scentless options. To be completely honest, I’ve found a lot of natural laundry detergents that can clean well in the last 5 years. there have been major strides made here in recent years. I think Dropps are great too. So, what’s the competitive advantage? Storage and a busy lifestyle. If you live in an apartment or condo in a city, having a monthly subscription is super handy and you don’t need to store big heavy Tide jugs or carry them from the corner store when you run out.
Dropps Swedish Dishcloths - I’ve actually tried these from a few places and Swedish dish cloths are kinda bomb! Again, the ones from Dropps aren’t necessarily better than other places as they’re pretty standard across the board…except…the price I can hook you up with below with my discount code makes the deal better than other places. They’re reusable washcloths. Think…sponge meets dish-rag meets paper-towel, but still better.
Purchasing & Promos:
For an exclusive 25% OFF your first order, click the button below and enter the promo code THEBOSSYSAUCE
For 15% OFF ANY order, click the button below and enter the promo code BOSSYDROPPS - You can reuse this code so made sure to save it!
Grove Collaborative
Overview:
Grove Collaborative is the closest competitor to The Honest Company IMO when it comes to natural cleaning subscriptions. Grove Collaborative’s focus is on natural cleaning products, natural home goods, natural personal care, natural diapering and even natural pet care. I do love that Grove Collaborative has a focus on pets, since there are so many of us pet parents out there that care about quality. Grove Collaborative does make their own products, but unlike The Honest Company, they don’t exclusively make their own products and they sell some of my favorite brands in addition to their own products.
Natural Cleaning Products I Like from Grove Collaborative:
The Glass Cleaner Bottles with Silicon Protector - (pictured above) Grove’s cleaner bottles are classic, glass and sleek, and the silicon protector around the bottom rim helps protect the glass and helps distinguish the difference between bottles and cleaners inside. The pumps work well, and it would be easy to replace a nozzle if there was a problem.
Glass Cleaner Concentrate - Grove’s Glass Cleaner works surprisingly well too! My whole life I thought Windex was the only glass cleaner there ever was, and I admit that I was wrong.
Aunt Fannie’s Products - I really love Aunt Fannie’s Pest Remedy and it kills our ants on the spot here in California. I also use the fruit punch fly trap in the Summer months. Both are sold at Grove Collaborative.
Meyer’s Clean Day Products - I’ve just always loved the turquoise bottle, whichever one that is. I always grab it for a multi-surface because it works and it smells so lovely!
Mrs Meyer’s Soy Candle - These are wonderful candles for $10 and the jam jar shape mixes well in my kitchen glasses after it burns down. ;)
Oxyfresh Pet Water Additive - I get this for my pup to help with dental care, and Grove so happens to sell it!
Grove Hydrating Hand Sanitizer - I feel like Grove’s Hand Sanitizer is what The Honest Company was going for with moisturizing, but didn’t achieve. Grove’s is great!
The Tub Handler & Replacement Heads - You know that tub scrubber brush? Well, grove put a wood handle on it and made the heads replaceable when they fray. Not to shabby Grove… Kinda into it.
Clean the Air Toilet Spray - You know what this is… The relationship saver during quarantine. Two preemptive squirts into the toilet and it changes the whole mood in the bathroom.
Purchasing & Promos:
For an exclusive FREE GIFT SET click HERE. Mine was fantastic when I received it and included 2 of their glass cleaning spray bottles, 2 refill cleaning solutions, a sponge, towels, and other goodies that easily retailed over $50.
Click on the picture to receive the FREE Welcome Gift on your first cart order OR natural cleaning subscription service via my personal referral link. :)
Thrive Market / Rosey
Overview:
The business model for Thrive Market is very much like an online Whole Foods, but without the produce, and a subscription based service where you can get those natural and organic foods, home goods, and cleaning supplies delivered to your door. Thrive Market is not exclusively a natural cleaning subscription service, but I use them so often for delivery of household goods and natural cleaning products that I had to include them on this list. Thrive Market has tons of natural cleaning products by brands you know and love, and as of March 2022, they’ve branded the cleaning line as Rosey by Thrive Market. Another reason to include Thrive Market on this list is that the Thrive Market branded natural cleaning products are priced cheaper than any of the other natural cleaning products and brands listed on this post, they’re comparable in quality, and they’re well reviewed. Considering you can order groceries, beauty supplies, dog treats and even wine in the same order, well, yeah… Can’t really beat that.
Lastly, Thrive Market always has freebies they throw in my inbox to remind me to come back and shop. When I see something I like for a value of $15 or more, I do bite. Freebies I’ve gotten in my orders that are super noteworthy: I’ve gotten the Prima R+R Cream, Four Sigmatic Protein and Coffee (2 different orders), and CBD Oil valued at $70 once! Most times, I’ll get some fancy chocolate bars, non-dairy milks, vegan and gluten free snacks that are quite good etc.
Natural Cleaning Products I Like from Thrive Market:
Nellie’s All Natural Laundry Soda - I love love love Nellie’s! In fact, you may have noticed that I didn’t review laundry detergent from Blueland, CleanCult or Grove Collaborative. It’s because I use Nellie’s. I usually buy it in the large 200 or 250 load amount of Nellie’s on Amazon or Costco though and Thrive Market only sells Nellie’s All Natural Laundry Soda in the 50 loads size.
Meyer’s Clean Day Products - As stated before, I love the turquoise bottle, whichever one that is. I always grab it for a multi-surface because it works and it smells so lovely!
Aunt Fannie’s Products - I really love Aunt Fannie’s Pest Remedy and it kills our ants on the spot here in Berkeley, CA. I also use the fruit punch fly trap in the Summer months.
Schmidt’s Multi Surface Vinegar Cleaner - This natural cleaning spray works great! Just don’t use on granite or stone countertops as the acid will eat away at them.
Thrive Market All Purpose Cleaner - You can safely use it on everything, and it’s only $3.29 for a 22oz bottle!
Seventh generation Disinfecting Wipes - These are hands down my favorite disinfecting wipes!
Thrive Market Rosey Dish Soap - I’m admittedly having a hard time making the switch away from Dawn when it comes to my dish soap…. But… as far as natural dish soaps go, Thrive Market’s Dish Soap is the best. It’s only $3.49 for 24oz too!
Purchasing & Promos:
For an exclusive $40 OFF your first Thrive Market order plus receive a free gift of up to $59, click HERE. Thrive Market has their own exclusive line of cleaning products called Rosey.
In March, 2022, Thrive Market rebranded their exclusive cleaning product line as Rosey.
Force of Nature - For 20% OFF your cart OR natural cleaning subscription with Force of Nature, click HERE and use the promo code WELCOME20
Final Thoughts… Blueland vs Grove… Cleancult vs Blueland… What’s the best cleaning delivery service?
If you made it to this point in the post, you’re obviously committed to a better, healthier lifestyle. Go you! Do I think there’s one standout? Honestly, no. I can see myself ordering from every one of these again, which probably infuriates each company because they’re each vying for customer loyalty. I see value in each natural cleaning subscription service though. Honest has amazing gentle laundry detergent, and even though it’s not cleaning product based, I’m loyal to The Honest Company Detangler and Lotion. I also rotate Honest’s Conditioner into my routine every now and then.
With Blueland, I value their spray bottles and the cleaning tabs. Blueland has my loyalty for dishwasher tabs. CleanCult has beautiful smelling bars of soap. Grove Collaborative also has fantastic spray bottles, and I can order more than just natural cleaning products like beauty supplies and candles. Thrive Market makes me feel like I’m breaking the bank, but I’m not. The same experience in-store at Whole Foods would cost me 2x to 3x. I also throw in my favorite salad dressings, muffin batters, and canned pumpkin every time I order from Thrive Market.
Every natural cleaning subscription service listed here provides a different value to me. If I had to pick my two favorites though, I would be pressed to say Blueland and Thrive Market. I shop at those two more than the others, and I’m new to Grove Collaborative, so maybe they’ll jump the list very soon. Happy healthy Shopping!
