What cleaning products do you consider a necessity? (floors, dishwasher, window)
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If there's a buck to be made, some company will come up with a product for every little thing. But I'm sure no one really needs separate cleaning products for tile floors, bathtub, toilet, windows, walls, shower doors, car interior, stainless steel fridge, etc etc.
Now obviously I'm not going to clean fine wood furniture with ammonia, or porous tile with vinegar. But I do want to pare down my mountain of cleaning products.
What are your must-haves? How many things have you replaced with vinegar, baking soda, or ammonia, and what things are those best for?
Dawn dish soap; the blue one. I cant stand the smell of store-bought cleaners or the homemade vinegar-based recipes, so dish soap is my go-to. Dilute with water and a little bit of rubbing alcohol, and it t makes an all-purpose cleaner (windows, too). A squirt on a scouring sponge gets the tub and shower clean, which is a miracle with our hard water. Other than that, I just buy a can of Pledge now and then.
I also like Dawn. We also use softscrub with bleach for our white quartz counter tops and for white porcelain fixtures. I also keep some mildew cleaner I get at the boat supply place (works great on washing machine rubber seal and refrigerator door seal) , some CLR, and that blue stuff that goes in the toilets. No ammonia in the house.
Dawn dish soap; the blue one. I cant stand the smell of store-bought cleaners or the homemade vinegar-based recipes, so dish soap is my go-to. Dilute with water and a little bit of rubbing alcohol, and it t makes an all-purpose cleaner (windows, too). A squirt on a scouring sponge gets the tub and shower clean, which is a miracle with our hard water.
This. I use dawn for so much. Probably the best thing is to pretreat laundry stains, especially grease.
Beyond that, vinegar, especially for the fridge and sink.
What are your must-haves? How many things have you replaced with vinegar, baking soda, or ammonia, and what things are those best for?
There's not much you can't clean with vinegar, baking soda, and Dawn. I do keep Bar Keeper's Friend around for tougher stuff, like my copper-bottom pots and pans, and window cleaner. I also buy wood cleaner for the floors, and detergent for the dishwasher.
For everyday cleaning, I fill one squirt bottle with vinegar and water, and another with vinegar, water and dish soap.
Vinegar also is good for the dishwasher rinse cycle, and as a fabric softener in the laundry.
I use bleach for mildew and the toilet (with a scrubber thing), vinegar/Blue Dawn for the shower, Windex for grease and windows, baking soda for scrubbing. Oh, and vinegar for other hard to clean things besides the shower. For other scrubbing, I use steel wool.
We have got so much stuff under the sink it is ridiculous. I really should go through and throw out what isn't being used. The thing is, there are three people who will use different products that are under there, me, Hubby, & the cleaning lady.
What I use:
-Dawn (the blue one)
-Mr. Clean Magic Erasers
-Finish (for dishwasher)
-In the past, I have use Lime-A-Way for heavy duty or bathrooms (Cleaning Lady does the bathrooms now)
For laundry
-I don't care what kind of laundry soap as long as it is liquid & scent free. I HATE when my clothes smell like perfume. Same for dryer sheets.
As I get older, I find that I am more bothered by smells. My cleaning lady has used Mr. Clean or Pine Sol (can't remember which one) to do the floors and I find I can't handle the smell. I tried Bar Keeper's Friend and it just smelled to chemically for me.
Forgot to mention: properly diluted bleach is my disinfectant of choice. I tried to make myself like vinegar for this purpose, but humid bathrooms in the heat summer don't lie: vinegar just didn't cut it.
Sapolio dish washing paste, which is a cleanser made of mild abrasive and grease cutting detergent. I use it to clean everything in the house. This is an old brand that used to be as big as P & G in its day, and now it's not easy finding their products.
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