Our Story
As real people with real families and real cleaning challenges (as anyone with kids or pets will tell you), we started arbOUR because we wanted high-quality, natural products that were safe for people, pets, and our planet, but actually killed germs. Too much to ask? We didn’t think so. Since we couldn’t find what we were looking for on grocery or superstore shelves, we decided to make it ourselves.
We started with the germ of an idea:
To make cleaning more cheerful and less choreful.
Cleaning is a fact of life, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a chore. When your cleaning products are naturally safe and strong, you can spend less time scrubbing and more time doing what you love (even if you’re like us, and what you love is cleaning).
Cleaning house shouldn’t require a hazmat suit.
Once we set to work, it was time for the gloves to come off. We believe natural products can — and should — be strong enough to dissolve dirt without irritating skin or harming the environment.
Our family’s safety is top of mind when formulating every product, so they’re always safe to use around kids, pets, and even plants (because we all know how sensitive succulents can be).
Clean living is kind of our thing.
We’re obsessed with making products you’ll be proud to use and share.
Our fragrances are 100% natural and our active ingredients are sustainable. For anyone who’s ever worried if eating off a just-cleaned surface was okay or if a plant-based stain remover could actually work: arbOUR is for you.
You shouldn’t have to choose between strong and safe.
Hospitals, schools, hotels, and restaurants use professional-grade cleaners for a reason: they work. So why can’t we?
arbOUR’s unique formulas are the best of both worlds: stronger than standard eco-friendly cleaners and naturally safe for everyone and everything we hold dear — children, grandparents, pets, plants, and the environment. We’ve adapted the latest professional innovations for household use, for cleaning products that are eco-effective (not just eco-friendly) because cleaners that don’t work just make more work and more waste for everyone.
Our Team
Cleaning’s dynamic duo, redefining OUR kind of clean
Carol Mehas is a mom of three (more if you count the dogs, horses and a fish named Potatoe!). A former senior product development and marketing executive at L’Oreal, Sephora, and Estée Lauder. She's a lifelong seeker of “a better way” and a true believer that connecting good ideas and good people creates amazing innovations. An accidental introduction to lifelong entrepreneur, Lisa LaBanc, who was working to provide sanitizing solutions for school systems across the U.S. and had begun making commercial-grade products safe for home use, sparked an idea for the next big thing in cleaning.
Now, this powerful duo is bringing commercial-grade cleaning products to every American household, animal and equine facilities and commercial cleaning spaces. All formulated, filled, and finished in the state of Ohio
(The rest is cleaning history.)
Our Ingredients
What makes arbOUR different than standard cleaners? Just about everything. Instead of harsh chemicals, we use commercial-grade nature-inspired ingredients that are completely non-toxic and sourced sustainably. Our fragrances are plant-derived — and we always offer unscented alternatives (perfect for homes with babies and pets or looking to be allergen-free).
Barking up the right (Soapbark) tree
While investigating safe but powerful cleaning solutions, we discovered that for centuries, Andeans have used the inner bark of the Quillaja Saponaria (or Soapbark) tree as a substitute for soap. Andreans scraped off the bark and boiled it down or reduced it to a powder to create a lather. This foaming action naturally pulls apart dirt, grease, and grime, and leaves surfaces clean. Even better, they discovered that the tree would regenerate its bark, so it could be harvested without having to kill the tree.
In 14 years of independent testing, our naturally gentle, yet strong Soapbark technology has been proven to neutralize a broad spectrum of bacteria like Staphylococcus, E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and more - leaving surfaces clean and bacteria-free.
View our ingredient glossaryOur Creed
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We value safety first for people, pets, and the planet. Our products are so safe, even kids can use them. (We can’t make your teens do the laundry, but now you can.)
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We’re working to create a higher standard of efficacy and sustainability for household and professional cleaning products at an affordable price.
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Clean house, full hearts, can’t lose. (Disinfecting is our favorite excuse for a dance party.)
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Everyone deserves the freedom to choose safe, effective products for their families, pets and businesses (and we believe our solutions are part of the solution).
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That’s why everything we make is greener in the U.S.A.
