First Week of April - Greener Kitchen Cleaning

My last post was all about cleaning chemistry and mostly bad news, let's look to a brighter future, shall we?

So then, let's look at the greener cleaners...
   decylglucoside - plant derived surfactant, biodegradable and gentle to skin, hair.  Martha Stewart uses this in her brand and also combines it with tetra sodium and minerals salts to act as an emulsifier. 
   oxalic acid - gloves not generally necessary, it is a weak acid so don't swallow or get in eyes, does have a whiteneng and good scrubbing effect found in Bar Keepers Friend.
   alkyl polyglucoside  - non toxic surfactant, plant based, biodegradable used in Clorox brand.
   polyethylene glycol - has many medical uses (colonnoscopy prep) and used as surfactant  in Simple green.

so, what I did was go to the Home Depot and write down all the chemistry on the bottles of cleaning products and looked em up in Wikipedia's chemistry section.  I suggest  you educate yourself and find the trade offs you want.  Really do not undersetimate the influence advertising and previous generations' usage has had on your decisions.  Since the beginning of currency, it has been "buyer beware!".  As each century goes by the stakes go up.  Since we all can't do our own research we have to find information from sources we trust.  I trust Consumer Reports for cleaning tools etc and Learning Disabilities Association of Maine  http://www.mainehealthychildrensproject.org/  for reliable information on cleaning chemistry.

The rules I go by are,
   Minimize the use of harsh chemicals and know that you really need very little chemistry of any kind if it is diffused really well in water and allowed to sit for 5 minutes,
   Clean up often, just a quick but well placed swipe is a time saver and usually enough.
   Forget the word "trashcan".  A small "landfill can" and a large recycle bin is the way of the future.
   Keep fresh air flowing, use door mats at entrances and on both sides of the door
   Take shoes and coats off at the door.

Now we're cleaning the kitchen

Cabinet doors are especially time consuming because the layers of fingerprints have built up over time and the longer it sits the drier and more attached to the wood it is.  The paint or finish is somewhat less porus than the wood itself but not that much.  I suggest  you take the smudges off slowly too.  It's real easy to mar the cabinet doors with enough water and scrubbing to get them clean if it's really built up.  Any soap will do, making a slightly richer mix of soap and water may help, but it's the water molecules not soap molecules you want in there.  I use a tooth brush on the knobs, but use a delicate hand, you need the pointy ends of the bristles to go into the grooves and narrow places so don't grind it, go gently and work the bristles in little movements in all directions. 

Cook tops vary alot and the newer ones come with specialty cleaners.  They do a good job alright but don't breathe it.  I have found magic eraser works well on most cooktops.  I don't have any clients with the glass ones these days so I don't actually know how magic erasers do on those, anybody know?  If your cooktop is rugged enough, use just a touch of Bar Keepers' Friend on a damp cloth or sponge and scrub.  Really, most of what's really crispy stuck just stays there, choose your battles, you know? 

Stainless steel varies alot too, some clean fine with glass cleaner, some need the barest suggestion of BKF and rinse.  Soap and water are good for most since it is oily hand prints that is what we're wiping off, the specialty cleaners are some of the roughest toxins around, right up there with dishwasher cleaner and unnaturally scented air fresheners.  Wipe with the grain.

Inside the fridge and microwave, I was taught to use ammonia glass cleaner, but found plain old water and dish soap did just as well. 

The magic eraser is magic, I havent looked into its' manufacture yet, so I may be in for a toxic shock but so far I love them and have cast about $50 worth of dollar votes in their direction, most to the knock off brand.  The knock offs and the "Mr Clean" brand are made by the same manufacturer.  I now use a peroxide based cleaner on all surfaces except for handprints on the woodwork and around the cooktop because of the oil, soap just works better.  If I was to "sanitize" for a household with a sick person I'd spray everything with the peroxide mix, but used to give everything a bleachy wipe.

The sink is the one place I do use my clients' bleach based cleaner in my clients' homes.  The peroxide does the job but I've been asked to use bleach based by one client so I still do it for most. The thing about the sink, besides the fact that all nasty stuff you wash off your hands and dishes goes into the sink, is that the drain pipe is an incubator for mold, bacteria etc.  It's dark and wet in there so I can imagine it wanting to spread up and out.  While you're standing there cleaning the kitchen, wipe the 3 most used cabinet door knobs and the cabinet in front of the sink.

Counter tops, they vary too.  Granite is expecially fragile, not a great choice for a counter top if you ask me but most new kitchens have them.  They chip and can crack and the finish can etch with vinegar, lemon juice and many harsh cleaners. The sponge is good for dishes and a mess on the fly so the speak, but at the end of the day or whenever you "clean up the kitchen " use a clean wash cloth and this technique. ( This is how I dust and do windows, also)  I use a wash cloth folded in quarters so that the cleaning surface is about the size of your palm.  This is all you can control and flapping edges can splash something on you.  After a few swipes, peel back the dirty surface and wipe with a new clean quarter.  You must always keep a clean surface to what you are cleaning otherwise you'll just smear it around.   The edges are seamed and don't catch on corners etc, they are a great size, the good quality ones last a long time with lots of washing.

Dishwashers tend to be really nasty along the sides of the door.  I personally don't use one, no dish washer, and definately no microwave for this prim primitive.  We have used a laundry soap recipe from the Simple Dollar for several years and it's great.  I expect the homemade dishwasher detergent is just as effective.  http://www.thesimpledollar.com/

Kitchen floors I covered in my 4TH week of December, Cleaning Kitchen Floor post .http://mainetaine.blogspot.com/2011_12_25_archive.html

Once everything is clean you gotta squeeze the sponge out with all your might every time.  It has to be as dry as you can make it and lean it against the faucet so air can circulate around it.

I'm not going to say, "you really gotta" do this or that too much, because there are some things you gotta do and I don't want you think I'm crying wolf.  You gotta recycle and you gotta squeeze the wash cloth, sponge, etc till it's as dry as you can get it.  Now that it's understood about the landfill can and we are taking the trash out more often, be looking for Biobags, bags that decompose.  They are on the West Coast, maybe a few other places in the last year, but not in Maine as yet that I know of.

Happy Spring, be well!