Cleaning & Organizing
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Good Cleaning Brands?
I am closing on my new home in a few weeks and was wondering if you all could reccomend some good, affordable cleaners? I need to do a complete sweep thru the entire house, and this is my first home, so what will I need? The floors are sealed hardwood, is there a certain cleaner to use on it? I am a germ freak so I want the place sparkling and as clean as can be. Any ideas/thoughts on what works best?
Re: Good Cleaning Brands?
I use vinegar, baking soda, borax, tea tree oil, and Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap to make my own cleaners for just about everything. I use denatured alcohol for glass cleaning. There are lots of recipe sites (example) out there and I have a book called Green Clean with tons of recipes, some better than others. Lots of women on the Green Living board also have recipes. Many of the ingredients are cheap, especially in bulk at Costco. I just mix up what I need for a job in a re-useable spray bottle. The two commercial cleaners I use consistently now are Mr. Clean magic erasers on our glass shower doors and Bona for the wood floors. The best thing you can do for wood floors is to keep them vacuumed/swept up so that the dirt doesn't wear down the finish.
I think more important than commercial cleaner brands are the right tools: a good stiff broom with a dustpan that will snap onto the broom, a squeegee for window cleaing, good brushes in several sizes and sponges for scrubbing, a pumice stone for bathroom scrubbing, good spray bottles, some good washable cloths that won't fall apart when scrubbing, and a bucket or two for toting all your cleaning stuff. I like to keep a lot of my kitchen and bathroom cleaning tools separate, so I have two of a lot of things.
I'm a Method hor... they're natural, leave my house smelling like various fruits and vegetation instead of like chemicals, and DS is safe around them.
I have the glass cleaner, kitchen cleaner, bathroom cleaners (tub scrub and terlet cleaner) and wood polish. I use microfiber cloths for cleaning.
I use vinegar and water to mop my floors. I have a mop with detachable microfiber heads that I use for dry dusting and mopping the floors.
We have no carpet. All bamboo, teak and ceramic tile.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
Everything I've bought from Lysol lately has been really bad. Their Febreeze-like fabric refresher's nozzle is terrible and soaks your furniture and their sponges are cheap.
I like vinegar and baking soda for most cleaning jobs. The performance is as good as most cleaners but a zillion times cheaper. It's ridiculous.
My other must haves: Bona Floor Mop (love this!), Goo Gone (adhesives and sticky stuff), Castrol Super Clean (super tough jobs), Resolve Carpet Spot Cleaner (in the red can), Febreeze and Swiffer Dusters.
Everything METHOD by Target. It's cheap, green friendly and works amazing! I especially like the all purpose cleaner. I think it's like a grapefruit or something. It leaves a very fresh/clean smell. NO CHEMICAL smells... The granite cleaner really sparkles too.
p.s. I use their hand soap too in my guest bathroom...