Safe & Easy Cleaning: Or “Cleaning For Germophobe Lazy People”: Part Two

The first thing I noticed about the E-cloths is that I hate the way the microfiber feels when they are dry. Thankfully, you use them wet for the most part so it isn’t an issue for me. 

Here’s how you use all of the cloths that are to be used wet…

Just get it wet in hot water, ring it out and use. Because it is really thick, you can really scrub if you need to. I found I didn’t need to scrub much at all. When it gets dirty or after you’ve wiped a few things, rinse it well in hot water, ring it out and start again. Give it one final rinse and ring before hanging it to dry.

General Purpose Cloth: walls, doors, door handles, windowsills, tables, light switches, outlets, dining rooms chairs…

It worked great! I was especially impressed how it cleaned the smudges and smears on the walls and doors and windowsills. The only thing it didn’t take off was the crayon (but that’s why they make Magic Erasers).

Kitchen Cloth:  counters, fridge, cabinets, inside drawers, dishwasher, fridge, microwave,small appliances…

I like this one because one corner has a rough scrubby thing on it. This is good for things like when you drip pancake batter on the counter and then just ignore it for a while until it’s good and dry and stuck on there.

After weeks of being used and not cleaned, it looked amazing when I was done!

Bathroom Cloth: sink, counters, cabinets, shower/tub, toilets (I know)…

My sinks were sparkling and the shower and tub cleaned up nicely, too.

Stainless Steel Cloth: any stainless sinks or appliances or fixtures.

This one is two-sided. The striped side has rough scrubbies and the other side is just microfiber.

My kitchen sink looked so clean and shiny with no greasy residue left behind.  Wow!

Range/Stovetop Cloth:  range, stovetop, drip pans…

Like the stainless cloth, this one also has scrubbing stripes on one side and microfiber on the other.

I use the microfiber side first to clean the front of the oven door and then the handles. Then I used lots of hot rinses and the scrubby side for the greasy stovetop. It even cleaned out the burned on bits from my drip pans.

before/after

Windows/Glass Cloth: windows, mirrors, glass tabletops, glass doors…

This isn’t microfiber but is a sort of heavy waffled cloth. Use it the same way as the microfiber ones. You only need to use this if the surface is really dirty.

I couldn’t wait to try this one! The windows weren’t awful but the sliding glass door was awful: smudgy  handprints and wants-to-go –out-or-come-in dog nose prints. Because I was doing both the inside and outside windows, I filled a bucket with hot water to use for rinsing and re-wetting the cloth while outside.  Just don’t ring it out over the bucket.

The true magic of the window/glass cloth is in the polishing cloth…

Glass/Polishing Cloth: glass, stainless, chrome, tv or computer screens…

This is a lightweight cloth that is used dry for polishing any glossy surface to a gorgeous shine.  You can use it on its own if the surface isn’t truly dirty: like all those disgusting splatters on the bathroom mirror from flossing will probably come off just fine with this one. Just kidding… who flosses???

Without a doubt, this one is my favorite! My chrome cookie jar and canisters have a mirror-like finish! The kitchen sink, any glass surface and the stove shop are positively sparkling!

Dust Cloth: any surface that needs dusting…

This one is also a dry use cloth. 

Either this is the least dusty house we’ve ever lived in (and we’ve lived in 16 houses in 5 states, so I doubt it) or what they say is true about most dust cloths just swirling it around so it can resettle right back where it came from. Even after two weeks, most surfaces in the house still looked pretty darn good, which is great because I hate dusting! This is probably because I don’t live in Marie Kondo’s house. I’m more kitschy than minimalist.

Deep Clean Mop (Wet & Dry): any hard floor surface…

The mop heads easily attach with Velcro to the handle system.. First use the dry one followed by the wet one to clean. Prep the wet one just as you would any other microfiber cloth.

I almost didn’t get this one. I’m not really into mopping floors but we have a dog. These floors hide everything! They really never look dirty at all. Max does a pretty good job of taking care of any food that might make it down there. Until the dog hair really starts to pile up in little tumbleweeds all over the place, I can completely ignore the floors.

Long black dog hair is the bane of my existence and why I was so excited that our new house doesn’t have much carpet or stairs. In case you don’t know what “bane of my existence” means, it means that I’d rather have Bane the super-strong, mask-wearing Batman villain all over my house than dog hair. At least he could possibly prove to be useful around the house, like when I wanted to clean behind the stove or under the fridge. LOL  I’m so silly. I don’t clean there until I paint or we have to move.

Ok, sorry. I got sidetracked…

Unlike my old Swiffer mop thing, this is much larger and just glides easily everywhere that stupid hair hides. Sorry. It picks up dry like a champ. What I’m not wild about is what to do with the giant pile of grossness that it collects.  Right now, I use the hose on my vacuum to suck up the pile and to clean off whatever sticks to the dry mop head. It works.

Auto Care: the outside of your car or truck or van or motorcycle or scooter or boat…

This comes with a double-side cleaning mitt (use wet), a dry & shine cloth and a glass & chrome cloth (use these dry).

While they had proved to work great in the house, I was way more skeptical about how it would clean my car and truck with no soap. Side note: I’m also a bit fanatical about having clean vehicles…

I used the hot water bucket method I used when washing the windows of the house outside. Once again, don’t ring out the washing mitt over the bucket. Depending on the size of the bucket and how dirty your car or truck is, you may have to fill the bucket more than once. If the water on the surface is still dirty, rinse, ring and wipe again.

Then dry it with the dry & shine cloth. I found on the initial pass over it left quite a bit of lint. But when the surface was dryer, it got better. Then polish up any shiny bits, including the windows and side mirros with the glass & chrome cloth.

I also would recommend using the general purpose cloth, dusting cloth, and window/polishing cloth from the house on the interior.

White cars are forgiving but our midnight blue one is not. Both the truck and the car were sparkling clean inside and out when I was done!

I am so impressed that I am buying one for my kids who live in apartments, where it’s impossible to wash your car with a bucket of soapy water and a hose. I know my oldest son and his wife will use it. My younger two… I’m going to pretend I’m optimistic and do it anyway. It makes a good gift for the young adult child who doesn’t really need anything and only has expensive electronics on their Amazon wish list.

Laundering the Cloths:

I had to do a bit more research on how often to launder these things. Regularly just wasn’t precise enough. I determined that after my week of housecleaning (see my post on my house cleaning schedule PART 1 & PART 2) they should get thrown in the washer.

Just follow the washing instructions that come with them. Despite what they say, my research said to let them drip dry for best performance. They dry really fast, so it’s not a big deal.

Sorry this got so long.  If you made it this far, thanks for bearing with me.  All this is to say, if you’re curious,  give it a try.  It’s easy and better for you, your family and our planet.