How do Cleaners Clean?

We’re about to nerd out here. I’m guessing you’re here because you want to have a basic understanding of how cleaners work without having to do all the research yourself. Don’t worry, friend, that’s why you have me! I’ll do my best to explain things accurately. Just please don’t make me site my sources, ok? You can work the Google machine as well as I can.

So, how do cleaners clean? First let’s back it up and think about messes. How are messes made? Step 1: have a child. That’s it. There’s no step 2. In all seriousness, I divide messes into two categories: physical and chemical. Physical messes are things like, your kid sits in the sandbox and gets sand on his pants. Chemical messes are things like, your kid pees his pants. Sand can be brushed off: you can do physical things to clean the physical mess. There is no amount of wiping down that can fix peed in pants. You need to look for a chemical solution, like the enzymes in your laundry detergent to get rid of the ammonia and stinky pee in the pants.  

Basic physical messes, like the crumbs on your counter, can just be wiped up with a damp cloth. No cleaners necessary. A damp cloth and some elbow grease can get you pretty far in cleaning, and I’d encourage you to swap out the litany of products that we tend to use to clean up physical messes. Not everything needs to be bleached and sanitized at every turn. Chemicals and cleaning products definitely have their place, but over using them isn’t healthiest for our homes or the environment. Over use can even prematurely erode the finish on bathroom and kitchen fixtures, especially if you’re using something chemically or physically abrasive. Products like Bar Keepers Friend is a fantastic (mostly physical) cleaner. It can be used gently to clean those gray utensil marks off china, or used with a little more “oomph” to get the iron deposits off your tub. But use caution! It is abrasive so you don’t want to over do it. 

Now, technically, you can use physical cleaning to disinfect. Did you know that you don’t need to wash your hands with antibacterial soap to get germs off your hands? Yup. Good ol’ regular soap, warm water, and singing the happy birthday song twice really does work! Regular soap loosens the bonds that dirt - and germs - has on our hands and washes them away. You don’t need to use the stronger, and potentially dangerous, chemicals in antibacterial soaps to have clean hands. Lots of sprays and disinfectant wipes use chemical methods to kill the germs. It’s like the difference between brushing ants off a shoe vs using bug spray to kill the ants. Either way, they won’t bite your feet. There’s a time to brush the ants off, and a time to kill those suckers!

Chemical messes require chemical solutions. That raw meat mess that got slopped onto the counter and the egg dribble from when you cracked the egg, that needs chemical cleaning. You can create homemade products strong enough to kill the germs. However, for the sake of time and certainty I’d suggest buying a product that can kick those germs to the curb. I don’t want to take a risk with salmonella or eColi. You can buy some great products that use natural ingredients to disinfect and have been tested by scientists that know way more than you or I do. So many companies are even using eco-friendly packaging and cutting down single use plastics in favor of metal and/or glass packaging. For messes that are a little more serious than crumbs on the counter but not quite as dangerous as salmonella, a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water should get the job done! 

Happy cleaning, y’all!