I love my house cleaners! I know that all i really need is vinegar and water, and baking soda...but i can't resist buying all kinds of special cleansers and scrubbie tools.

What do you buy and what can't you live without?

I make my own cleaning spray cleaner. 1/3 ammonia, 1/3 rubbing alcohol, 1/3 water. It is great for anything you want to clean. The only thing is I can't use it in the keets area.

I also love simple green.

That sounds nice, BLR! It never occurred to me to add Rubbing Alcohol to a mixture. I will have to experiment with that. Does that add a degreasing element?

Baking soda works great as a gentle scrubbing element.

What do you use around your keets?

Simple green is my degreaser. The Alcohol makes it dry quickly.

for their cage, etc. I just use hot water and a scrub brush. The most used solvent in the world.

At work I use Greased Lightning and Clorox cleanup and Mr, Clean, mostly, and VERY hot water. They are really heavy duty and clean fast. I rinse with a LOT of water. Really, rinsing with a LOT of water is the key to getting something really clean. The less scrubbing, the better in my job. But I also use dishwashing liquid any time I can, so I won't be breathing fumes so much. Dishwashing liquid works the best on refigerators. IMHO. Greased Lightning works better and faster than any "oven cleaner". Clorox cleanup cleans the bathrooms fast and disinfects with a minimum amount of scrubbing. If all else fails, I use Comet or Ajax for the tub. I use a steam cleaner for the floors. It sanitises with the heat and cleans really fast.

For my home I use the steam cleaner on the floors, without cleaner, because my animals walk on the floors and lick their feet. I close the door and use the Clorox Cleanup in the bathroom tub, toilet and sink. That way, no fumes get to the birdies. I open the window and let it air out a long time, and again, the steam cleaner on the floor with no cleaner.

For the cages, I use a green scrubber and ACV, in the bathtub.
Alcohol is good to use on the food dishes and toys, with a good rinse after.

I recently read that they have a "Steam Cleaner" for things besides floors. Tubs, sinks, anything really. I'm going to check into this when I have time. I think that would be worth using. You do not use cleaners, because the hot steam cleans and disinfects!

I really like the new Multi-surface Pledge. I have the lavender one in the for the bathroom and bedroom, and the Rainshower scented one for my kitchen and office. Works on metal, wood, glass and electronics.

I know I could just use my vinegar mix, but i really do love this cleanser. I like how the bottle feels, how they smell, and how they clean things off with so little effort. Just a little luxury for me.

I want to second the idea of steam cleaners on carpets. It is just amazing how much dirt they suck out of the carpet that vacuum cleaners don't bring up. We take off our shoes at the door, so we're walking around in bare feet (or socked feet) all day. Even so, the carpets somehow get very grimy. It's just amazing. So it's important to me to steam clean them fairly regularly.

All our floors are carpeted except our kitchen and bathrooms.

I don't use aerosols ~ bad for my allergies & generally unhealthy I'm guessing.

I do use a steam cleaner on my carpet.

I also have a 'animal' vacuuum cleaner with allergy control.

I hate carpet. Hate it. I am always ripping it up. When I am stuck with carpet I always get steam cleaners - love getting all that filthy water sucked out!

Lisa, I also love the steam cleaners for carpet. But I was talking about a steam cleaner for FLOORS. They are amazing. My boss paid around $90 for it, but the way it cleans is great. You do not use any cleansers because the HOT steam cleans and sanitizes by itself. The only time I have to use a cleanser is if there is grease marks on there. Like, one time somebody kept their motorcycle in the dining room! And scuff marks of course.
For those I use the trusty green scrubber and Mr. Clean.

We have a lot of apartments with the stained concrete and they are hard to clean. Plus a lot of people don't do any cleaning from lease to lease ending! The steam cleaner s wonders on them. Then I slap a coat of Mop and Glow on there and it looks brand new.

Right now there is a bit of a carpet in the livingroom. It's the last carpet in this house - we found good old reliable linoleum under all the other rooms. But under the livingroom there is just plywood.

So I am pricing some wood-looking and stone-looking linoleum to see if the landlord would be willing to work with me on some kind of upgrade.

Anyway, yeah, steam cleaners rock. I like uprights for large work and the Little Bissel Green Machine for small jobs and upholstery. I will need to keep a lookout for a used upright steamer for my floors once I have this wretched carpet out.

I also have a wonderful little shop vac with a TON of tiny attachments, for when i want to get all detaily.

I have lots of microfiber towels for cleaning things, and use a Murphy's Oil Soap for cleaning wood. YUM!

BLR, very good point about using water and elbow grease. I think we tend to overlook just plain water as an excellent, environmentally friendly cleaning agent!

Hmmm the only non-carpet floors we have are in the kitchen and bathrooms (we have the cheap rolled linoleum stuff) and it never occurred to me to try steam cleaning them. You think it would bring up dirt? I suppose I could try and see!

Yes, you can get all sorts of things up from floors with a steamer. Linoleum can get nasty after a few years, no matter how much it is mopped.

You know I've really wanted to try this and still haven't gotten around to it! OK I will try it today - it's on my list!

I have to admit I use those little disposable wipes. I love them. I was using washable microfiber cloths for a long time, but no longer have a clothes washer. So i go through the cloths too fast to keep up with now.

Too bad I can't make some kind of wipes out of junk mail paper fibers.

I think you helped to hook me on the microfibers and I do adore them - but I agree you need to have an in-home washer for it to work out well. I do occasionally use paper towels but not at the rate we used to.

I tried the steam cleaner on the bathroom upstairs after we used our regular floor washing thing. It did bring up a little dirt but not much - not like when you use it on a carpet you think is clean. So it was fun to try, but at least in our house it didn't seem to be a bit impact. Maybe that bathroom - with only two of us in the house - just doesn't get that dirty. We take off our shoes at the main house door so the only things touching the floor in there are our bare feet or our socks.

True, you two are not tracking in much. Not small kids, no muddy dogs, and you take off your shoes. So congrats on a super clean floor environment.

I actually really am thinking about trying to make some kind of cleansing cloth out of junk mail paper. After all, newspapers are used to clean windows.

I just have to play around with soaking the fibers and felting them together somehow.

I suppose it's all relative, I am always surprised at how much dirt comes out of the downstairs carpet but I'm sure it could be far, far worse. I need to count my blessings.

I would work on reducing junk mail as much as possible - contact them all and tell them to stop sending. We do that. But some still gets through, I concur, and for those - how about origami?

I'm not sure how well they'd work for cleaning things.

I actually am going to invent something here, lisa. I am excited. I will invent this cool felt cleaning wipe out of junk mail I pick up off the streets.

I am sure your ebook full of ideas will be fantastic!

Thanks. Dan and I were actually talking about my invention ideas today, and how I will have to come up with something that allows my junk mail fibers to have some kind of 'give' to make them flexible and not just absorbent.

Dan then talked about how he wants to create some kind of construction matrix using used coffee grounds, for making things like furniture. The grounds would make attractive patterns swirling in some kind of matrix. Maybe we will both invent something cool out of garbage.

One thing i have seen lately that impressed me was that some major companies are starting to sell concentrated cleaning products. You save the mister or bottle you have already, and then you just buy the small packets to refill your containers.

This is a GREAT idea. Reducing waste in the first place is much more green than recycling. So this way, less containers to recycle in the first place.

It's a positive step and nice to see.

Yes that's very true! It's like how we buy packets of drink mix and add our own water. It saves a ton of money in shipping.