After years of trial and error, I’ve settled on a few key products that help me keep my house clean with less effort, and go longer between deep cleanings. I frequently recommend these things to people I know, so I figured I’d post about them too. I have not been compensated in any way for these recommendations. :)
My most indispensable cleaning product is Multisurface Antibacterial Windex. Like the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I use it daily and EVERYWHERE. My dining table is wood with granite insets, and this takes care of the whole shebang. (I know that’s not the best for the table, so I do apply wood cleaner and granite cleaner once in a while.) Right now I’m using the lemon-scented Target version, and it works just as well.
I have two cats. This Arm and Hammer baking soda carpet stuff REALLY helps lift out fur and leaves a fresh scent – I use it almost every time I vacuum. However, my carpet is looking a lot worse for wear lately, so I might need to switch to something more intense. Has anyone tried the Resolve stuff that supposedly lifts out stains when you vacuum it up?
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is TRULY MAGIC. I haven’t used it for anything hardcore, but it’s satisfying to walk around the house with one and scrub smudges off of walls, doors, and cabinets. If you have kids, I bet they’d have fun using it too. (That is, if they’re little Monica Gellers like I was.)
I recently started dusting furniture with these Pledge wipes instead of Windex. They’re better for the wood, and eliminate the spray-and-paper-towel step entirely. :)
Clorox drop-ins are my favorite cleaning product. Put one in your toilet tank every couple of months, and enjoy picking up the scrub brush less often. The only downside is trying to open the plastic package without getting bleach dust all over yourself.
These Clorox wipes are all-purpose, but I only use them for touch-up bathroom cleaning. Again, it’s so much easier than taking out the Scrubbing Bubbles constantly, and you know the germs are taken care of between times.
Thoughts?
This is a great post. I just thought of something–since you like organization and cleaning so much, you should offer up tips and reviews like this regularly! I’m sure we could all learn from you on how you maintain such a pristine house and then you’d possibly get some clients looking for your services. :)
I have the Magic Eraser but never remember to use it. I guess I didn’t quite understand what to use it for. I’m trying to think if I have any scuffs anywhere that need some erasing.
I would love to use those toilet drop things, but I remember once using one and it caused problems with the toilet. I guess some of the tablet messed up the flushing mechanism, so now I’m afraid. But you haven’t had any problems with that? Maybe I had a poor brand.
I love the Windex multi-surface! You can use it on everything :)
I love Magic Erasers. A must-have with kids in the house, for sure. They’ve cleaned up everything from fingerprints to crayon marks to phlegm off our walls. They aren’t great on color-painted walls though, so do test color-fastness if your walls aren’t white.
I definitely go through those Clorox wipes like crazy, too. Each kid has a container with his/her name on it to use for their chores and to personally keep track of because we had a couple kids just leaving them open and letting them dry out … they don’t work so well like that. Now kids who let theirs dry out have to buy their next container out of their money (or do extra chores to earn it). Win-win.
I used to use and love those bleach tabs, too, but in our new home, our plumbing warranty will be void if we use them — so I had to change my thinking on them. I don’t know what harm they might do, but we were excessively warned not to use them when we moved here. So???
Though I’m at home with our kids all the time, I still loathe housekeeping. However, a friend of mine who loves cleaning (I wish I did), loves FlyLady.com. Not sure if you’ve checked it out, but I hear the organizational and cleaning tips are just awesome.
All: I was talking to a friend about the Clorox tabs last week, and she said the same thing about them harming the toilet. :\ I’ve had a couple of small problems, but I thought it was because the parts were old and needed replacing. Maybe it was, but this is still bad news. I don’t want to go back to scrubbing the toilet on a weekly basis. :|
Jessica, thanks. Maybe I will do more posts like this if that’s what the public wants. :D
R, I did Flylady for about a year, and then I basically took the concepts that worked for me and unsubscribed from everything. It’s a very intense system geared toward a specific kind of person, and I’m not really that person. :|
I’m not that type of person in the least! :) Maybe I should make a website for un-flyladies. :\ Ha!