Ten Things Tuesday--Cleaning

I have two preschool children. My kids love to make messes. I hate to clean but I have to. This is my list of 10 must have products for making cleaning up messes.

1.) Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap.  This is better than Oxyclean, in my opinion. It's 97 cents at my local Wal-Mart. I use it to make my own laundry soap (recipe here) and to pre-treat stains. You get stained spot wet, rub with Fels-Naptha, lets sit for 1-5 minutes, launder as normal.  You cannot use this on Soda Pop stains. But, it takes everything else out. Even set in baby spit up and poop. And dry erase marker. This is my laundry hero.

2.) Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. My kids like to draw on the walls. I try to stop them, but Lily is stubborn and 2 years old. This takes everything off the wall, including permanent marker. I also use it to clean my kitchen cabinet doors; it takes off all those weird black smudgy finger prints left where the door is touched everything it's opened.

3.) Disinfecting Wipes. I go back and forth between Lysol and Clorox. I buy whatever is cheapest when I need to restock. I love that after I wipes down my counters I can just wipe to disinfect rather than spraying  and rinsing. I also use these to wipe down all light switches, door handles, sink handles, toilet flushers, and TV remotes in the house. Especially during flu season. I've also wiped down my cell phone with them.

4.) Swiffer Wet Jet. I'll be honest I'm just lazy and this is easy. But I really really love that I don't have to fill a bucket, wring a mop, or clean a bucket. Sometimes I still have to get on my hands and knees to scrub if I've got a really tough spot, but if I mop once a week, I don't normally run into that problem.

5.) Scrubbing Bubbles toilet gel. I really hate cleaning the toilet. I still have to on occasion, but these little gel things make the time between scrubbings longer.

6.) Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator. I have cats, I have kids who are potty training. This gets all of the bad smells out of my laundry. It is a little spendy though. It's almost $9 a bottle. The linked page has a link for coupons for this product.

7.) Viva paper towels. I never thought I would be picky about paper towels. Viva seems to be the most expensive brand in the store. I splurge because I think they are the softest, strongest, most absorbent paper towels I've ever used. And I used them a lot. I know it's not ideal for the environment, but I'm lazy.

8.) Windex. Watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  I don't use it on zits, but I do use it on almost every surface in my house outside the kitchen.

9.) SHAM-WOW  they really are miracle workers. I use them for spills and drying dishes after I've washed them. It's like a supersoaker in reverse.

10.) Cascade Action Pacs.  Again, I am lazy, but these awesome little square are so much less messy than powder or gel and now that it's nearly impossible to find dishwasher detergent that is not phosphate-free I find they leave the least amount of spots and residue.

This is just my opinion, I was not paid or compensated in anyway by the makers or sellers of any of these products. These are the products I really do use in my home. I have used all of these products for at least 3 months, most of them longer than that.