House Box: February

A couple of weeks ago, A Year of Boxes hosted a giveaway for a 6 month House Box subscription...and I won! This was the same day that I was offered a full-time permanent position with my company AND I got to try a buttertart from the BEST buttertart place (according to my co-workers). It was a pretty great day, 

Allison (House Box founder) had an extra February box and sent it to me. House Box is a newer subscription box and I have not tried a  house/home subscription box before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. 

House Box is a Canadian subscription box that showcases Canadian products. This fact alone made me excited to try this box. There's also an emphasis on natural products, which is fantastic. House Box also has an online store where you can purchase past boxes and select products that were featured in boxes.

House Box ships every other month and subscriptions start at $21.95 plus shipping.

So, what was in the February House Box?

• Blue Wonder Try Me Cloth: Apparently, you just need to add water to this cloth to clean- no need to use additional cleaning products. The cloth can be used for household cleaning, including windows. I'm not one of those people who loves to clean, but I will give this a try,
  Value: $15
• Handmade Soystick by Earth Elements Farm Products: I like that this is all natural. It's basically chapstick made with soy. With the cold winters and humid summers, my lips are always chapped, so I can never have too many products like this. I've already tossed this product into my purse.
  Value: $5
• Kienna Cup by Kienna Coffee Roasters: These cups are Keurig compatible, which is great because I have a Keurig! The cups also came with some coffee packets to try out. I will admit that I love the idea of this product; being able to use my Keurig and cut down on waste. However, it seems that you have to buy Kienna Coffee packets to put in these cups; I don't think it can easily be used with other products. With that being said, I already have reusable Keurig cups that I can put whatever I want in; loose leaf tea, ground coffee, hot chocolate. Again, I like the idea, but likely will end up gifting it to someone.
  Value: $5
• Sugar Bears: This is the item in this box that I am the most excited about!! Sugar Bears keep your brown sugar moist for up to three months and can be used to keep other things moist, like cookies. This is a product that I will actually use, if it works. Can't wait to try this!
  Value: $6
• Elbow Grease by Live for Tomorrow: This is a coconut and citrus based all purpose cleaner. It does smell good! I will definitely be giving this a try. I liked to use as many environmentally friendly cleaning products as possible, so we'll see how this works. It;s $9.95 for 34oz
  Value: $0.30 for 1 oz (which is what I got)
• Soy Tealight by Earth Elements Farm Products: I am not much of a candle person, but this smells really good! This is a natural product (NGI-GMM free soy wax, pesticide and herbicide free, food grade quality, kosher certified) and soy burns 'cleaner' compared to traditional candle wax.
  Value: $3.50

Total Value: $34.80

The value of the box as compared to what you pay are pretty much on par (with shipping, you end up paying about $30 for the box). While this box might not have a high value, you do get an equal value for what you paid. This box reminds me of the now-defunct My Dream Sample Box, which I was a fan of. You get introduced to small business products and/or direct sales consultants, you get a great product to try out and the value of the box is on par with what you paid to get it.

I think there is a market for this type of subscription box, As someone who is a declared undomestic godess, I am not in that target market. With that being said, I think this box has some great products and will appeal to people. This is also a new subscription= the February box was only their third box- they are just starting out and I think they have a lot of potential!! It'll be interesting to see what their next couple of boxes are like.