Today’s Friday Five is a list of my favorite cleaning products (or at least where I get the products I like). I am moderately picky about cleaning products. I have some sensory issues and some allergies, so I need to be a little choosy.
Any product I bring into my house (cleaning or otherwise) has to pass the smell test. If the aroma is too strong (looking at you, Method), I won’t use it because I don’t want it stinking up the whole apartment. And while I try to remember to wear gloves (and by “remember to wear” I do mean “remember to buy”), sometimes it doesn’t happen, so I also need products that don’t irritate my skin.
Here are my top five go-to companies/products for keeping my home clean:
- Three basic ingredients – white vinegar, baking soda, and salt. I buy these in bulk. I use them in cooking/baking, but as you can see from the links in the previous sentence, they are useful in other ways, too. A sprinkle of salt or baking soda added to the dishcloth gives it a little extra scrubbing power. Baking soda also works as a deodorizer. I buy vinegar by the gallon. I soak my stainless steel utensils in it to help deodorize them before washing. I pour some (half a cup? Cup?) in my rinse cycle when I’m doing laundry. In a pinch, I can combine it in a spray bottle with water and dish soap and make a pretty decent cleaner. These are particularly great to use if you have pets or children, because if they eat them (or, you know, lick the floor after you mop), it’s fine.
- Magic Eraser – If there is a big job to do, I stock up on Magic Erasers. They can clean just about everything. When I moved into my apartment, the first thing I did after filling out the inventory to report the state of the place was to wipe down all the major surfaces with a Magic Eraser. If you’ve ever lived in an apartment, you know their deep clean isn’t that deep. This little beauty found all the grime it left behind.
- Norwex – If you haven’t heard of Norwex, I encourage you to look them up (or use the link I gave you to support my friend Brenda). Yes, it’s an MLM company, but the products are solid. I think the first things I tried were the face and body cloths. While I still bathe my body with soap, I haven’t put face wash or anything like it on my face in years, and my skin is so grateful. No face wash (even the allegedly gentle kind) means no irritants. Just a gently exfoliating cloth and water. I use Norwex laundry detergent (and you know I’m picky about that) to clean both my clothes and the washer itself. The product I love almost as much as the laundry detergent, though, is the EnviroCloth. The other day, I scrubbed and scrubbed the stopper in my guest bathroom. Then I remembered I had an EnviroCloth. A couple of swipes (again, with just water) worked wonders. I use one almost every day to wipe down random surfaces.
- Grove – I like this company for its environmental commitment, but I love it for its soap. Almost all my actual cleaners (dish soap, hand soap, multipurpose cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, glass cleaner, etc.) are the Grove brand. They offer a scent-free option for some of them, but even when a Grove product is scented, it’s not obnoxiously so. Also, I buy potting soil and sometimes even seeds from Grove (aside from those I pilfer from friends). I also get my toilet paper and the one box of paper towels I buy a year at Grove, too. The pandemic ruined me forever on actually going to a store to buy household supplies, and with as many choices as they offer, I don’t have to. Thanks, Grove!
- HydroJet – OMG I LOVE MY HYDROJET SO MUCH. I impulse-bought this during a spendy phase, so I was skeptical. After all, not many things that I buy on a whim work out as well as I hope they will. But this is worth the money. Turns out, you can steam-clean most things. I haven’t tried it on my oven yet, but that’s one of the next things in the rotation.
As you can probably tell, I’m not a big fan of harsh chemicals. If something irritates my skin or makes me sneeze, that’s just one more excuse I have for not cleaning. Finding products that are gentle but still work well (bonus points if it takes less effort on my part) helps me keep house more consistently.
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