Product Tips
Watch out for misleading marketing:
When shopping for products keep in mind that many are built around 99% marketing/distribution and 1% research (at best). Like the supplement industry cleaning products are usually just repackaging the same old chemicals.
Your best bet is to research reviews on Google / Consumer Reports and to make sure that you aren’t buying a product because it claims it’s natural and uses apple dust and worm hair to clean vs a safe but synthetic chemical to clean. Big mistake.
Don’t let trends manipulated by marketing companies drive your decisions:
Recycled tired old myths won’t die and usually can make companies a lot of money that know how to exploit them. The reality is that there is nothing new and innovative in cleaning products so don’t jump on the “power of vinegar” or “citrus champ”… or ” minty disinfectant” just because your friends on Facebook read an adverisement disguised as an article.
General Cleaning Tips
Top down cleaning is the most effective:
Gravity is that invisible force always at work even when cleaning. Don’t clean your ceiling fan last or you’ll have to re-clean floors/beds/etc later because the dust blogs will settle below…. So… Clean high areas first in each room.
It doesn’t take as much as you think to clean your oven:
Instead of an overpowering oven cleaner that will fume up your kitchen in seconds consider the fact that, in most cases, all you need is a strong de-greaser and scrubby pads. Be careful with the scrubbing – avoid metal based scrubbies and if you need to make sure your scraper is a strong plastic – not metal.
Ovens have a protective coating inside them which can easily be removed with the wrong chemicals or equipment.
Use distilled water, not hard water:
Using hard water to clean surfaces that are dirty partially due to the rust/lime in hard water is like a Mr. Bean episode… Senseless and silly. Distilled water also reduces the amount of cleaning product by about 50% as well since it improves it’s effectiveness.
Dwell Time is Important:
While most chemicals will “self-neutralize” after sitting too long it’s important to allow de-greasers and other chemicals that will be used for rough challenges to sit at least 3-5 minutes. This will save you time and effort when scrubbing/wiping/etc.
Order and Process Is Important
Remember that the order in how you clean affects how hard/easy it is to clean and the ultimate results. For example clean from top down or dust mop before actually wet mopping… etc …
