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Favorite household cleaning products


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I need some new cleaning products and I think I'll go out today in search of new things to help make my life easier and my house cleaner. What are your 3 favorite cleaning products?

 

ETA-

 

Sorry! I should have said tools not products. I do use vinegar, water, baking soda, tto, etc as my cleaning solution but I needed a quicker better way to actually do the cleaning. I ended up going out and buying a dirt devil stick vac for my hardwoods, and a clorox ready mop system and I plan on using my own homemade hemp fleece cleaning pads with a vinegar/water solution once the disposable clorox stuff wears out.

 

Anyway, my problem is not the cleaning solution, it's that I need time saving products or techniques to get the job done quicker so that we have more time for fun around here.

Edited by springmama
clarification
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My number 1 favorite cleaning supply is the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. I love these. I keep these in stock. They are totally amazing.

 

Two other products that I like (but only use sparingly because they are expensive) are the swifter sweeper and the swifter dust brush.

 

I have beautiful hard wood floors in my house. I can give the floors a good dust mopping or vacuuming and than take the swifter sweeper and oh my goodness those things get up more dust than the vacuum or dust mop.

 

That's the same way with the swifter dust brushes. I can use a regular duster to dust my venetian blinds or baseboards and they don't really get clean. If I use the swifter duster on my venetian blinds and baseboards they pick up more dust and dirt than a regular duster.

 

I wish the refills were not so expensive on the swifter refills. If they were not expensive I would use these two items to clean my house with daily. But I have to use them sparingly.

 

Blessings

 

Zoraida

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I use a steamer to clean my kitchen and bathroom floors--last time, I put a couple of tablespoons of Mr. Clean in a spray bottle and filled it with water, and spritzed a few "extra dirty" spots, then steamed. Nice and clean, dries quick.

 

I like Comet for the tub, and I like the way Method products smell, but they are too expensive.

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I need some new cleaning products and I think I'll go out today in search of new things to help make my life easier and my house cleaner. What are your 3 favorite cleaning products?

 

Ever tried making your own? We use 91% alcohol + distilled water + a few squirts of liquid dish det for our general spray cleaner for the kitchen and bath counters. We have to use the distilled water because the iron in our water will clog up the spray mechanism.

 

We also use baking soda (no toothpaste) to brush teeth - something I remembered my grandfather doing when I was a child. Our water is so full of iron that it will actually build up on our teeth unless we use the baking soda (and yes we have a water softener). Our dentist once asked me if I drank coffee and tea. I don't touch coffee and drink ice tea once in a blue moon. It was the iron! yuk

 

Anyway, there are books with many more recipes for making your own. It's kinda fun. :)

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Thanks! I should have said tools and not products, because I do make my own cleaning solutions or if i get a good deal on something safe and green, I'll buy it. Currently we have a small stockpile of seventh generation kitchen and bathroom spray cleaners because they were on clearance. I actually meant tools, like do you use a swiffer, special kind of mop, special dusting system, awesome vac, etc????

 

I need new stuff to get it done quickly and correctly and I'm sick of doing everything by hand.

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For those of you that have maids, you may notice this. My dh got me a weekly cleaning lady after baby 3. I had her for 3 weeks, she was awesome... I felt guilty and we let her go.

BUT, her methods were great and she completely cleaned my 2200 sq ft. home in 3 hours. If she had time left over, she did the windows. She brought her own rags and cleaners.

 

THis is what she would do

 

Bathrooms. She would spray something in the tubs, showers and sinks, using a non scratching scrubby she washed everything with lots of water. Wipe all surfaces down with towel. Scrub toilet and around toilet. Sweep floor dust into carpet. MOp floors.

 

She would change sheets on beds if I left out linens, and make beds. WIpe down all surfaces (except walls) with damp rag. She dabbed lamps with damp rage and beat curtains, then dusted with a damp rag. She would fold laundry and leave on bed. If it was clothing on the floor she would assume it was laundry. Toys, books and papers were stacked neatly on bed or dresser. She swept the baseboards and the crown molding.

 

She did this for all bedrooms, then den, living room, and formal dining.

 

Finally, in the kitchen: wash dishes, scrub counters, wipe down cabinets. Sweep dirt into carpeted area. Mop floors.

 

And in the end.......vacuum from room to room. All the stuff she swept into the carpet got vacuumed. She also emptied the garbage into one bag and threw it in the dumpster on her way out.

 

So her methods, her procedures allowed her to quickly and efficiently clean my house........ in only 3 hours. She only had maybe 2 or 3 cleaning products for the entire house. She used lots of water and 4 or 5 hand towels for wiping down.

 

 

I learned a lot about efficiency from just watching her (sweeping the baseboards? Genius!)

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I keep a spray bottle of citrasolve and water in each bathroom and in the kitchen for most surface cleaning, bon ami for the kitchen sink, vinegar for moldy/mildowy areas as well as windows, Murphy's oil soap for my hardwood floors, citrasolve for my tile and resilient flooring, citrawood for furniture, Earth Friendly Products toilet bowl cleaner, magic erasers for handprints on walls.

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Thanks! I should have said tools and not products, because I do make my own cleaning solutions or if i get a good deal on something safe and green, I'll buy it. Currently we have a small stockpile of seventh generation kitchen and bathroom spray cleaners because they were on clearance. I actually meant tools, like do you use a swiffer, special kind of mop, special dusting system, awesome vac, etc????

 

I need new stuff to get it done quickly and correctly and I'm sick of doing everything by hand.

 

Have you ever read any of the Speed Cleaning books, or the Confessions of an Organized Homemaker book? They might have some good ideas for you, along the lines of what Texascamps said. The problem I always have with those methods, though, is that they require me to have no children around. If the kids are there, I have to plug them into the TV the whole time, stop constantly for all sorts of things, or else they're following me around undoing what I'm doing! But that's a whole other post... :lol:

 

Oh, and ETA that I really do highly recommend a Roomba for saving time, especially on hardwood. I LOVE mine, and often wish my whole house were hardwood so I could use it everywhere, LOL! If you can swing the cost, you might want to look into it.

Edited by melissel
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