Every once in a while, someone says something so simple that it sticks. And sometimes you don’t realize until years later just how much that little phrase could eventually become part of the language people use to explain something. That’s what happened with my husband, Willie, Norwex… and the words: “Just teach them that it mechanically cleans instead of chemically cleaning.”
I was sharing this story with someone recently, and he stopped me and said: “Wait. I didn’t know Willie came up with that!” And I laughed. Because honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever made a big deal about it. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized that maybe I should tell this story here on my blog, because it’s kinda fun! A little trip down memory lane of a time when we had to pivot in how to describe how Norwex works (for a short period). And after over 17 years with Norwex, I think it’s a pretty fun little piece of our family’s Norwex history.
Let’s Go Back to the Early Days of Norwex in the United States
I started my Norwex business in 2009. Norwex was still relatively new in the United States. We didn’t have anything close to the infrastructure, brand recognition or consultant resources that exist today. In fact, all of our products shipped from the warehouse in Canada and had to pass through customs.
And one of the things my team and I taught about extensively was the incredible science behind Norwex fiber. At that time, one of the claims we had been trained to share was that Norwex microfiber could remove up to 99.9% of bacteria from a surface with water, when used and cared for properly.
Then something happened. My memory is that we ran into a customs issue as products were coming into the United States from Canada, and suddenly the language we had been accustomed to using was no longer language we were supposed to use. (A historical note: I’m deliberately describing this portion as I remember experiencing it as a consultant. I’ve been working to locate the original corporate/regulatory documentation from that period, and I don’t want to attribute the change to a particular government agency or regulation until I can document exactly what occurred.)
What I do remember very clearly was the practical problem it created for me:
How do I explain to my customers what makes Norwex fiber so different if I can’t explain it the way I’ve been explaining it?
So I asked my husband.
Enter My Electrical Engineer Husband 😂
If you know Willie, you know this story makes perfect sense. He’s an electrical engineer. He’s logical. He thinks in systems. And while I can happily spend 20 minutes explaining all the nuances of Norwex, Willie has an uncanny ability to listen to the whole thing and reduce it to one sentence.
So I explained my dilemma. Essentially:
“How do I explain what these cloths are actually doing if I can’t use the claim we’ve always used?”
And Willie’s answer was something along the lines of:
“Just tell them that they mechanically clean rather than chemically.”
That was it. MECHANICALLY rather than CHEMICALLY. It explained the concept perfectly. And more importantly, our customers could easily understand it.
What Does “Mechanical Cleaning vs. Chemical Cleaning” Mean?
Think about the way most of us traditionally learned to clean a kitchen counter. You spray a cleaner onto the surface. The cleaning solution contains ingredients designed to loosen, dissolve, break down or otherwise act upon what’s on the surface. Then you wipe it away.
The chemistry is doing an important part of the work.
With Norwex microfiber, the approach can be very different. The extremely fine, densely woven fibers physically pick up and remove material from the surface.
In other words:
Conventional approach:
Apply chemical cleaner → wipe surface
Norwex microfiber approach:
Wet microfiber with water → physically lift and remove from surface
That’s what we meant when we began saying:
“Mechanically clean instead of chemically.”
It wasn’t about claiming that “chemicals are bad.” Water itself is a chemical compound! It was about explaining the mechanism by which we were accomplishing the cleaning.
So I Started Teaching It
Once Willie gave me that simple explanation, it explained the technology perfectly, and I ran with it. I began teaching my Norwex team, Planet Green Team, to explain Norwex that way. I incorporated the language into my customer education. I used it in trainings. And I started sharing videos online so other consultants could use the explanation too. And just for fun, many of those old videos are still on YouTube. I didn’t own a special microphone yet, so my apologies that the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. 😂
But here’s the part I love: these two videos were published September 18, 2013. In the Butter Demo, at about 1:06, you can actually hear me explain: “…you’re going to mechanically be removing it rather than chemically.” And in another demonstration from that same time, I explain: “With Norwex, you’re mechanically cleaning. You’re no longer relying on chemicals; you’re just removing all the contaminants from the surface.”
A Little Trip Back in Norwex History
These oldies are where I was teaching how microfiber could remove grease and leave a streak-free surface: Norwex Basic Package Butter Demo — Remove Grease Streak-Free
Watch Norwex in a Nutshell on YouTube
I have to smile watching these now. A lot has changed since those early Norwex days—including video and audio quality! 😂 But the fundamental concept I was teaching hasn’t changed very much at all. When I started digging through my own website archives for this article, I found an even earlier little time capsule. In an old article about what I affectionately called my “Bert and Ernie Norwex Cloths,” I wrote: “Mechanically clean so that you no longer need to chemically clean!” Apparently Willie’s explanation had firmly made its way into my vocabulary by then. 😂
And on May 10, 2013, I published an article here on ReplaceChemicals.com celebrating the opening of the new Norwex U.S. Distribution Center and Global Headquarters. Here’s what I wrote:
“…sharing how they can ‘detox’ their homes by mechanically cleaning with Norwex & water…”
Fast-Forward to Norwex Today…
Here’s the part that made me smile when I started researching this article. Mechanical vs. Chemical Cleaning is now part of official Norwex education. Norwex’s current consultant training materials literally include a section called:
“Mechanical vs. Chemical Cleaning”
The training contrasts mechanical cleaning using Norwex microfiber with cleaning that relies upon chemical cleaners. It also teaches that the EnviroCloth’s densely woven microfiber physically removes up to 99% of bacteria from a surface using only water, when following the proper care and use instructions. Norwex’s current Product Quick Guide similarly says the EnviroCloth “physically removes dirt and up to 99% of bacteria” from a surface using water and following the proper instructions.
So today, if a consultant asks: “How do I explain what makes Norwex microfiber different?” One of the explanations Norwex itself teaches is essentially the same one Willie gave me all those years ago:
Mechanical cleaning vs. chemical cleaning.
How cool is that?
Am I Saying Willie Invented This for Norwex?
No. The technical distinction between mechanical and chemical cleaning existed long before Norwex, so I’m certainly not suggesting Willie invented the scientific terminology itself. There could have been other people using similar terminology at the time. What I can say is this: Willie gave me that explanation during those early years of my Norwex business. I began teaching it to my team and customers. I shared my Norwex education and demonstrations more broadly with the field. And today, “Mechanical vs. Chemical Cleaning” is explicitly part of Norwex’s own consultant training. So I don’t know every step that happened between Point A and Point B. But after all these years?
I’m giving Willie a shout-out. ❤️
Because I know what happened in our house. And that one beautifully logical explanation changed the way I taught Norwex.
How Does Norwex Microfiber Actually Work?
Now let’s talk about the science behind the simple explanation.
Norwex’s EnviroCloth is made with densely woven, extremely fine microfibers that are smaller than 1/200th the thickness of a human hair.
That enormous amount of very fine fiber creates physical, mechanical cleaning action and surface area to lift and trap what you’re removing. That’s why one of my favorite Norwex demonstrations has always been ridiculously simple.
Butter.
Yep. Butter. Smear butter on a surface. Then try cleaning it with an ordinary wet cloth. And then watch what happens when properly used Norwex microfiber tackles that greasy surface. That’s what I was demonstrating in that ancient YouTube video above. The microfiber is physically doing the cleaning work—and you can actually see the difference in this simple demonstration.
Does Norwex Kill Bacteria?
This is a super important distinction. When we’re talking about cleaning a surface with Norwex microfiber, we do not describe the cloth as “killing 99% of bacteria.” The way Norwex microfiber cloths clean is DIFFERENT from chemically “killing”… it is actually physical removal.
Norwex currently states that its densely woven EnviroCloth microfiber physically removes up to 99% of bacteria from a surface using only water, when following proper care and use instructions. That’s different from saying you’re killing the bacteria on the surface with a disinfecting chemical. You’re physically removing what’s there. And, that distinction is actually what makes the phrase Willie gave me so useful:
Mechanical cleaning.
Not a chemical kill claim. Not a disinfectant chemical.
What About BacLock®?
This is another distinction worth understanding. Some Norwex microfiber contains BacLock®, Norwex’s antimicrobial technology. But BacLock® isn’t what gives the microfiber its mechanical cleaning action.
Norwex describes BacLock® as an antimicrobial agent intended to protect and self-clean the cloth itself by inhibiting the growth of odor-causing bacteria, mold and mildew within the product. That’s an important difference:
The Norwex FIBER physically cleans the surface. BacLock® technology works within/protects the microfiber product.
Two completely different functions.
Do I Still Ever Need a Disinfectant?
Absolutely. Cleaning and disinfecting aren’t identical. There are situations where disinfecting is appropriate or necessary. The goal of Norwex microfiber isn’t to convince us that disinfectants should never exist. The beauty of mechanical cleaning is that we don’t necessarily need to reach for a chemical cleaner every single time we wipe a counter, clean a bathroom, wipe fingerprints from a refrigerator or mop a floor.
Think about how often we clean surfaces in a normal week. If water and high-quality microfiber can accomplish the job appropriately for routine cleaning, that’s potentially a lot of products we don’t need to spray throughout our homes… and also, the MISUSE of chemical cleaners can cause a lot of unintended damage (in fact, if you read on your chemical wipes container, there is actually a Federal Law against misuse of the product).
And that is where the Norwex mission really captured my heart. Working in the medical field as a physical therapist, I was already very familiar with the concern around antimicrobial resistance and what we often called “superbugs”—microorganisms that had developed resistance to treatments designed to control them.
That was one of the reasons the Norwex approach resonated with me. If I could physically remove what was on a surface with microfiber and water during routine cleaning, why automatically introduce another chemical product when the job didn’t require it? That doesn’t mean disinfectants don’t have an important place—they absolutely do. It simply means I became much more intentional about when I actually needed one.
Why This Still Matters to Me 17 Years Later
When I joined Norwex in 2009, I didn’t set out to build some enormous business. I was a mom of 4, and I had stepped away from my physical therapy career to be home with my boys. I wanted safer, effective and affordable ways to care for our home.
And I found something that genuinely changed the way I cleaned. Eventually, I got the opportunity to teach other people. Then I taught consultants. Then I taught leaders.
And somewhere along the way, something Willie casually said to me became one of the simplest ways I’ve ever found to explain why Norwex makes SO MUCH sense.
So I want to encourage you… don’t automatically reach for another chemical cleaner. Ask whether you can accomplish the job mechanically instead.
That’s a principle that extends far beyond one cloth. It’s part of the way I think about creating a healthier home. After more than 17 years with Norwex, I can look back and see little fingerprints of my journey scattered throughout the company—ideas I’ve shared, trainings I’ve created, leaders I’ve mentored, feedback I’ve given and ways of explaining things that somehow traveled far beyond my own team.
I don’t say that to take credit. I say it with tremendous gratitude. And perhaps that’s why this particular “fingerprint” means so much to me: it wasn’t really mine to begin with. It started with Willie. ❤️
When you’ve invested nearly two decades of your life into something you genuinely believe in, there’s something incredibly meaningful about realizing that perhaps you helped shape it along the way—even in small ways. And this one feels especially sweet.
I can’t trace the path of the words “mechanical vs. chemical cleaning” from our kitchen table to the language Norwex teaches today. But I know where those words entered my Norwex story. I know how enthusiastically I taught them and shared them with others. And seeing that same simple concept now woven into Norwex education all these years later genuinely warms my heart.
Maybe that’s one of the beautiful things about staying somewhere long enough: you don’t just get to watch it grow. You get the privilege of knowing you may have helped shape a little piece of what it became.
So, Willie… This One’s for You, Babe. ❤️ I kinda think you’re brilliant!
You probably had no idea when you gave your enthusiastic wife that beautifully concise engineer answer that she’d still be talking about it more than a decade later. 😂 And I can’t tell you whether Norwex’s current “Mechanical vs. Chemical Cleaning” training exists because that language traveled from our little corner of the field into the broader company.
Maybe it did.
Maybe it didn’t.
But I know you gave me the words. I know I taught them. I know they helped my team explain what we were doing. I know I shared that education beyond my own organization.
And I know that today, all these years later, the concept has become an important part of the way we explain our fabulous Norwex fiber.
So I think you deserve a little credit. Thanks, Willie, for that little “Willie-ism”, as I call them. ❤️ Sometimes the best marketing isn’t marketing at all– it is simply finding the clearest words to explain something that’s true.
“Mechanically clean rather than chemically.”
Want to See How Norwex Works for Yourself?
If you’re brand new to Norwex and landed here because you’re trying to understand what all the fuss is about, I’ve got you. Start with my complete guide:
Norwex Basics: How Does Norwex Work?
Then check out:
and:
How to Wash and Care for Your Norwex Cloths
And if you’re wondering whether there’s a business opportunity behind all of this, I also wrote about my own journey and what it’s like to start a Norwex business:
Is Now a Good Time to Start a Norwex Business?
I’ve been doing this since 2009, and I still love helping people understand not just what Norwex products do, but why they work.
And if you’ve landed here because you’re considering becoming a Norwex Consultant yourself, I’d love to help you with that too. One of my favorite parts of this business has always been mentoring other consultants and helping them build something that works for their life. I’d be truly honored to be your sponsor and mentor.
A note about historical claims
This article includes my personal recollection, as a Norwex Independent Consultant, of events from the early years of my Norwex business. Product claims, terminology and regulatory guidance have changed over time. Historical descriptions are included to tell the story of my experience and should not be interpreted as current Norwex product claims. For current product claims, directions and usage information, please refer to current official Norwex materials.
Leave a Reply