Cleanliness

The Army would say, "Yes"

Sorry in advance, but this is going to start off as more of a rant than a blog post.

I recently acquired the additional duty of being a barracks manager and had the undertaking of signing over an entire building. Part of signing over a building was ensuring the interior was clean. My goodness! I'm not perfect, but I cannot believe the level of filth that people can live in.

I can be lazy with taking out the trash, but if it starts to smell, then my laziness goes away immediately. Rarely, do I let it get to that point, but I certainly wouldn't tolerate it. Worse still, I definitely would not proceed to put trash on my counter top because my trash is overflowing. I can forgive people not knowing how to clean stains, but not taking out the trash is just bad.

Now with that out of my system, I thought I'd share my favorite cleaning products that have made my living areas nice and clean. With just these four products, I've been able to clean just about everything and removed all stains. Note: this blog has received zero endorsements from any companies. These are simply my personal recommendations based upon my experiences.

The first cleaning product on my list would have to be Clorox wipes simply because they are the easiest and most widely used cleaning product that I own. As the labeling suggests, these are great for counter tops, appliances, little stains on the floor, certain furniture, and even bathroom fixtures. It can't do everything, but they are very easy to use and convenient. Clorox wipes are my first line of defense against most stains. Usually, I can clean most stains on my counter top and clean dust off of surfaces using just this product. The color and smell make no difference to me. I usually buy a multi-pack in order to save money and trips to the store.

For reflective surfaces such as mirrors, windows, and stove tops; nothing beats the power of Windex made of vinegar. I don't know exactly why, but I found the vinegar based formula to be much more useful than the original blue formula. Obviously, you'll need paper towels for most surfaces and possibly a scrub pad for harder stains. Normally, if a Clorox wipe cannot easily clean up a stain, I'll use Windex with paper towels or a scrub pad instead of wasting multiple Clorox wipes. The advantage of Windex over Clorox is simply that Windex won' leave any streaks. Streaks aren't noticeable on counter tops and most surfaces, but on reflective surfaces such as mirrors, it'll be apparent that you'll prefer Windex.

In the unlikely and rare event that Windex cannot remove a stain, I move to my next level of defense which is CLR - calcium, lime, and rust. This is my heavy artillery, and I primarily use it to clean my toilet bowl and bath tub. A lot of my initial cleanings from when I first move into a room will primarily use CLR too. I rarely use paper towels with this product. I typically will use a scrub pad or a sponge. Main reason is because if I am having to use this for a stain, paper towels may not be strong enough. Plus I like to save paper and not waste huge amounts when it's not too hard to clean a sponge.

Last and not least. Easy-Off off oven cleaner is my nuclear bomb of cleaning products. Almost used exclusively for the inside of my oven, in very rare instances I will use this on tough stains. I think the only times I've used it for stains has been on a stove top and because I was lazy with some metal. The stains I used it on were before I discovered CLR. 

A word of warning: I once had a plastic bowl that I was frustratingly trying to remove a stain out of and this product actually ate through the plastic (should've read the warning label). Also, I do find the yellow can to be better than the blue one, but the fumes produced by this cleaning product are no joke (the blue one produces no fumes). This can easily make you gag and burn your eyes. With that said, despite all of these negative things, the positives easily outweigh them which is why I still highly recommend this product.