I Need To Tell You About Something..

WARNING: this post is long and without pictures but if you like to clean faster and easier....I'll tell you my story.

Recently I was helping a friend clean some clutter out of her house...she was going through a pile and throws at me this very slim ziplock bag with a piece of paper in it and a piece of material. I read the paper..."The Ultimate Cloth, streak free PLUS so much more!" she says to me, "try this and tell me if you like it." She knows I'm miss "green-as-much-as-possible" and I tend to like to clean, and she wasn't really interested in trying it out herself.

I took it home and after a few days decided to test it out to see what this magic cloth could do. OMG! I was hooked. I cleaned some oil grime from the dogs off the doorway trim (you know, the dark grey crap that sticks to the trim from your dog or cat rubbing it) Poof! gone. No sprays, no soaps, and very little elbow grease. AHA! let's try this...and this...and this...I was addicted and cleaned a lot of surfaces. Then I looked at the windows. Windows I usually clean with soap, water and a squeegee. Well, my windows are looking a little 'fogged' due to the wood stove dust attaching itself to it so I went at it. HOLY CANNOLI! It took all the black residue right off the first swipe around. I went back with a second swipe to see if it was really gone and yes, the first swipe did it. I was shocked and amazed. You know how hard it is to get crap off your windows without having to do it a couple times and it streaks anyway. (unless you use a squeegee.) I thought for sure it would not only be streak free but also water dot free. It did leave water dots behind after it dried but I just buffed the windows with a cloth and they were gone.

OK, they got me, AND the cloths are made without chemicals. It's a microfiber type of fabric but not typical microfiber. I can't stand microfiber cloths, I don't think they clean well and I mostly hate the way they feel on my fingers when dry. These cloths are smoooooooth feeling. One thing though, I think they falsely advertise using them instead of paper towels. They aren't really absorbent in the 'pick up a spill' kind of way. I still will use my dishcloth, towel or rag for that.

So yesterday I decided it was time to clean. I mean really clean, pick up the many piles of dropped thrifty goods, paints, etc. from the kitchen and living room. The clutter was starting to drive me crazy -- as well as the floor. I'm normally a regular vacuum-aholic but I've let it go longer than usual. The dust bunnies, dirt and wood chips started to get the better of me. I don't even remember the last time I washed the floor except for the spot cleaning up of pee or spills. (yes, pee, if you ever think about being a foster mom or dad, know that you will clean up pee and poop until the little rascals either stop needing to mark their territory or they understand where the door is to go outside and how to tell you that's where they've got to go.) I don't usually go this long without cleaning my floors but I just gave up with the dogs, the snow tracked in, the mud tracked in....until yesterday.

Normally my routine is a bucket of water, some earth friendly spray and me on my hands and knees washing the floor. Yes, hands and knees, I've found it's the only way to get them clean and then, it takes more than 2 scrubs but I limit myself to two. (one reason why I've been looking into buying a steamer to see if that would take care of it right off) and when using a mop or even my hands and knees wet cloth technique -- water always stays behind on the floor. No matter how little, there's always water that needs to dry and dogs feel the need to walk through to inspect what you are doing.

YESTERDAY....I tried "The Ultimate Cloth." Yup, hands and knees style....Oh me oh my! Heaven. Amazing. Addictive. It cleaned everything! and although I did do a second swipe, the first swipe got 90% of the dirt. The floors were left immediately dry and they looked like the day I came home to them freshly varnished -- the nice satin sheen I paid the floor guys for. With a little rubbing, it even got up stuff that was (I'm embarassed to say) dried on. Little spots that you don't realize are there until your face is 10" from the floor, that needed to be cleaned up but you ended up just walking over it all the time.

Today, I'm hittin' the bathroom. This will be hard for me, I like how if I spray Simple Green (which I really wonder about it's 'greenness') eats at the soap scum and you can just do a little scrub and it wipes it away. The test is on, can this little cloth make me happy in the soap scum department? We shall see.

I suggest, if you want easier cleaning, being uplifted and amazed by the results, get one of these for yourself and be amazed.

And, no, I am not being paid for this review, although I think I should because I might just get them a bit of business! ;-)

Happy Sunday!!

PS: if you are having difficulty finding a number on the link for this product, on my card that I have there is a customer care number 800-714-2770. Apparently these are not found in stores and have independent distributors. The one on my card is Joyce Nelson at 239-560-0859. I have no idea the area code. I suppose I could look it up. OK, I will....I did here....She's in Florida. I wonder if this is the woman that is a friend of my friend's mom? anyway, talking to myself now.

Soap scum update: with some muscle, it did take the soap residue off the shower doors. Think 1950's, textured. It didn't take off the watered down paint spots I apparently splattered when cleaning out brushes, needed a scrubby for that. Also tried it on the tile, worked, but a little more muscle and it doesn't clean the grout, of course, I haven't found a perfect cleaner for that anyway without scrubbing with a hard little brush or scrubby. The tub -- it worked on lighter areas of residue so if I had stayed with my regular tub cleaning schedule it would probably have worked fine. But, since I didn't it took more muscle than I really wanted to use, nor did I feel like dedicating that much time to tub scrubbing just to prove to myself that I could. I'm looking for quicker, easier. I got my spray bottle of 'Parsley Plus' by Earth Friendly Products out and squirted...it's doing it's magic as I type. All I will have to do is go quickly with a scrubby and then rinse it all away. Next? Laundry.

Happy Sunday!....again...