Question for people.

What kind of household cleaners do you all use? What works for you? What do you like, what doesnt work so well? Have you tried any of the green cleaners?

What is good to use in areas that do not have much ventilation i.e. the basement?.

What is good for stains? What is good for mold? What works for you to get smells work (musty smells, mold smells, whatever)?

Just curious.

I'm going to have to ask my wife...

Generally, I believe we use middle of the range products. I'm not sure of their green credentials, though. They seem to work.

Right now I'm using Green works for my bathroom counter tops, however I want to find a good one for bathroom tiles, doesn't think it works well with the tiles.

I prefer a silenced .45. Nothing drops 'em like a big heavy round. .40 is OK too. .44 is too big, too loud- won't silence enough

9mm is OK but it depends on the piece like a Baretta, HK or an FN. Too many cheap 9mm out there that'll jam on you when the heat is on.

For long guns the king these days in the light 50 but its a cannon.

I'm old fashioned: 7.62mm is just fine. Just be patient and take the head shot.

Where does one locate the head of mold?

I stuck knowing which one to use.

I just windex everything. lol


The soaps here in Quebec are often green by itself because they have no phosphates. Phosphates causes blue algae problems in the lakes, so it's banned in the province of Quebec and soon in Canada. Now my laundry soaps are often biogradable. I didn't do that because it's green, but because it's cheaper than many other soaps.

OH! You mean THAT kind of cleaner. Sorry Kurt. I was thinking... pest control.

Mold is a pain because it's one of those microorganisms that has survived comet strikes, hyper-eruptions and all manner of events that usually end species. It's probably going to outlast cockroaches.

Whatever you use has to be a fungicide- a compound that is deadly to fungus and molds. Here in Mississippi we have lots of fungi and mildew and fight the same battle.

Indoors you have to fight the cause of the mold first and then attack the fungus. Mold and mildew thrive where there are damp conditions, humidity and a substrate on which they can live. This can be nearly anything- plastic, stone, concrete, brick, etc. Mildew like to live in things with micro pores like wood and stone where it can hide. First of all get rid of the moisture. Look for leaking pipes. Clean the area where the mold lives/kill the mildew. Paint the area where the fungi lives with an anti-fungal paint like Kilz.

Some stuff you'll need:

Krud Kutter is a pre-painting treatment for household surfaces. It Kills and cleans mildew and prepares the surface for painting.

Kilz is a brand of mildew proof paint and primers. If you've got mildew problems, kill the mildew and clean the surface and then paint it with Kilz primer.

Zinsser makes an excellent waterproofing paint which work well in basements.



Another way to clean mildew is anti-mildew compound in a pressure washer. Good for taking mildew off of siding, concrete.

Ajax we use for the tub, basic sink surfaces and the toilet, can be used for other surfaces of sinks unless it's granite or some others.

flame thrower can be use for big spiders

When I do bother to clean my preferences are:

Ajax or Commet for sinks and bathroom counter.
Scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner for tub
Formula 409 for greasy cloth or surfaces
Oxiclean for fruit/plant stains
Meat tenderizer for blood stains. Why would I have blood stains? See commets by jamesslavic. (Actualy it has more to do with having lots of pets over the years.)
Palmolive dish soap for removing any greasy of food stain
Palmolive also makes a great bath soap
Hydrogen peroxide for bleaching food stains, can also bleach color from plastics cloth and teeth
Horse soap/shampoo for human hair, it seems to work better than regular shampoo.
That's about all I can think of for now.

OK, this is my observation: it just doesn't matter!

Let me be honest, I use plain ol' water for almost every type of surface cleaning. A damp cloth is usually all you need on a plastic, wooden, or metallic surface.

That said, I am a mild germaphobe so I spray everything down with Lysol after I get the stain off, but yeah water is really all you need to do the job the majority of the time.

Now that's just for regular floors and surfaces though. For windows, glass, and mirrors I use a generic, knock-off version of Windex. Again there's really no increase in quality with name-brand. All you really need is any sort of liquid that won't streak.

For carpets and upholstery I use knock-off Resolve. I think there actually IS more a variation in quality when it comes to cleaning cloth and fabrics and I do keep around namebrand cleaners for really tough stains, but most of the time a generic will do the trick.

I imagine ovens would be difficult to clean, but I've honestly never bothered so I wouldn't know. I've always had an oven that purported itself to be 'self cleaning' and it always did a good enough job to satisfy me. Apart from which nearly all the cooking I do is stove top (it's just so much more fun and I generally prefer the taste) so I'm not a heavy oven user anyway.

Stove top cleaning is the most difficult to do with plain ol' water, but honestly I wouldn't want to spray chemicals on my stove top (just seems like a bad idea), and I usually can get it clean with a bit of elbow grease.

So yeah, water for like 95% of my cleaning and a few other things for random, specialized cleaning.

If you have a really stubborn surface stain adding a bit of vinegar into the equation is a pretty cheap, non-toxic, eco-friendly and EFFECTIVE alternative too.

-Kevin

I just use whatever I saw my mom use back home.

Or whichever is cheaper.

And it's not like I clean up often. My dorm room was a disaster zone last year.

*ish currently fighting mold she found*
BACK! BACK I SAY! *inches away from mold* I HAVE BLEACH!! BLEACH I TELL YOU!
ACK!

I use bleach mostly, along with some basic cleaners...and mold killer when I can find it.

Washing up liquid and warm water for most things, dilute bleach if I want a bit of kick!

If its something tough like a deep fat fryer theres usually a bespoke solution like bringing water and washing powder to the boil in it. That was very fun. Worked amzingly well, too. .

For mould cleaning you need to use a fungicidal agent like has already been mentioned and tackle the cause of the growth. That might be poor ventilation, dampness or anything else.

Chlorine bleach for mold, household ammonia for grease. Never combine the two.

Baking soda for polishing, biodegradable detergent for washing clothes, vinegar and newspaper for glass.

Detergent works well for cleaning surfaces in the bathroom if you rinse carefully. It also does a bang-up job on dishes although I don't recommend putting it in a dishwasher. I don't have one so that isn't a problem.

Incidentally, even the expensive contractors you would hire to clean up after a flood use diluted bleach to kill mold.

Really? A newspaper? The ink doesn't get all over the glass?


A couple of years ago I'd just moved and my mom was helping me. She wanted to wash a load of dishes while I was unpacking some boxes. So she asked, "how much of this dish detergent should I use?", I responded, "Well, I haven't used that dishwasher before, but I always just fill them up to the top" So she did. A few minutes later soapy water came bubbling out of the dishwasher. And it KEPT coming, even after we turned the stupid thing off! It was like something out of a sit-com!

Finally we got the whole mess cleaned up and and I prodded the dishwasher with my tools for a bit to see if I could figure out what the problem was (yes, contrary to most people's perception I'm actually not incompetent when it comes to home repairs and do-it-yourself-ing). Anyway, it looked fine and I was unable to figure out the problem. So, I put in a service request and went on about my business. A few hours later I was making a shopping list. "Do you need laundry detergent?" my mom inquired as she continued suggesting possible items I might need to get. "No," I replied. "This bottle is almost full," I said as I held up the laundry detergent.

That's when she got a surprised look on her face and started laughing. I'll give you guys three guesses what she'd used in the dishwasher.

No, it doesn't, surprisingly enough. It does an amazing job, too. Just don't use the shiny paper.


Life is never dull for you, is it Kevin?

I can see that mom no longer has dishwasher duty...
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If at first you don't succeed, skydiving isn't for you!