Mrs. Meyer's founder shares startup story behind Clean Day brand

Monica Nassif built Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day around a family story that became far bigger than the kitchen table it started from. In a sit-down with CBS Saturday Morning, the founder revisits the entrepreneurship journey behind her new book, I Bottled My Mother, which Simon & Schuster describes as both a memoir and a startup manual.

The book centers on Thelma Meyer, Nassif’s mother, a Midwestern homemaker who raised nine children and became the inspiration for the cleaning line. Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day says Thelma A. Meyer was an Iowa homemaker and mother of nine, and that the brand’s products were designed to work hard while smelling like a garden. Lavender, Lemon Verbena and Basil became part of the company’s identity, tying household cleaning to a softer, more aspirational version of domestic life.

That transformation is also a case study in how personal authenticity becomes a commercial asset. Nassif launched Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day in 1999, and the brand grew from a niche idea into a mainstream retail presence at stores including Target and True Value. Simon & Schuster says Nassif scaled the company to more than 20,000 stores nationwide before SC Johnson acquired the brand in 2008. The family narrative that once anchored the product line eventually became part of its market value.

Today, SC Johnson places Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day within its Lifestyle Brands portfolio, alongside Method, Babyganics and Ecover. The company’s own branding emphasizes that the products are made with essential oils, are cruelty-free and Leaping Bunny certified, and are formulated without ammonia, chlorine, parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde, artificial colorants, phosphates or petroleum distillates. That positioning reflects a broader consumer shift toward products marketed as cleaner, safer and more environmentally considered, even as such claims are increasingly packaged as lifestyle identity.

Nassif’s story shows how the language of family, care and home can be turned into mass-market branding. The appeal is not just the scent or the packaging, but the promise that a mother’s practical labor from Granger, Iowa can be bottled, sold and scaled nationwide.