50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Make your home sparkle!, May 18, 2006
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cleaning (Mass Market Paperback)
I was looking forward to reading Mary Findley and Linda Formichelli's "Complete Idiot's Guide to Cleaning" in the hopes that it might provide some cleaning solutions that didn't require either serious scrubbing or harsh, toxic chemicals--things that don't go well with my tendonitis and allergies.
That, of course, is a tall order, and one that I didn't really expect the book to fulfill. However, it succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. Mary Findley is a huge proponent of safe, non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning solutions using, when possible, everyday easy-to-find supplies. Of course, I figured there'd be a price for this. After all, why would people make and buy expensive, harsh, dangerous chemicals if things you could make out of vinegar, water, and a couple of other everyday ingredients could do as good a job?
That's where the real shock came in. There's one all-purpose solution Mary recommends that involves water with a bit of vinegar and all-natural dish soap that knocks my socks off. Our stovetop was in pretty sad shape and I was sure it was going to take a ton of scrubbing to get it clean. I sprayed this stuff on, let it sit, then wiped it off with a terrycloth towel. And the gunk came right off with it.
Other solutions have been equally effective. The product she recommends to clean pet messes out of carpets left me unable to tell where my cat had thrown up on our *white* carpet, and again, it's all-natural, safe, and doesn't involve scrubbing. My kitchen sink has never gleamed so well, and now that the water deposits have been cleaned out of our showerhead the water pressure is noticeably better and more even. I don't have to obsess over whether or not any tiny bits of cleanser might have sprayed or dripped somewhere that the cats could get to.
My only issue with the products she recommends is that I had trouble finding a few of them. While many are everyday things such as baking soda, white vinegar, all-natural dish soap, and so on, some are more specialized--such as a 20% hydrogen peroxide solution. Unfortunately that one product is involved in her one recommendation for mildew, which (living in a humid region) I have a particular interest in.
While many of the products she recommends can be purchased all at once from her own online store, she's good about recommending other sources and I never once felt as though I was being advertised to (and I can be fairly picky about such things). It does cost a bit at first (you are, after all, replacing nearly every cleaning supply in your house, most likely), but most of these materials are much cheaper to replace or last much longer than store-bought chemicals, making them cheaper in the long run.
The scope of this book is formidable. Whether you need to clean blinds or curtains, siding or gutters, your bathtub, carpets, hardwood, wood furniture, kitchen counters, or whatever, you'll probably find it in here. There are a few corner-case exceptions (she covers nearly every type of house siding other than our old asbestos siding, for instance), but not many. She deals with scheduling cleaning tasks and emergency quick-cleaning techniques for when company suddenly decides to show up. Even she can't make the huge list of tasks that comes with house ownership seem anything but daunting, however.
This is an extremely handy little book. I've been so pleased with the results, and our house is cleaner than ever. I had high hopes (one might say unrealistic hopes) for what I might find inside, and it exceeded even those. The text is witty and humorous, clear and easy-to-understand. In short, I give this book an unreserved thumbs-up.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the magic wand I was hoping for, July 22, 2009
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cleaning (Mass Market Paperback)
My biggest frustration with this book is that it extols the virtues of a product called Erase It for Bathrooms which is all but impossible to find in the stores. Alas, I was able to order it through the author's website (how convenient). At first, I was encouraged that the book advises the reader to forgo toxic cleaners in favor of green agents like white vinegar and baking soda. But I couldn't get my toilet bowl clean using their recommendations. So I went over to CVS for some of the toxic blue Clorox toilet cleaner and it was clean in a matter of seconds.
In future revisions, I would recommend that they name name brands for the types of cleaning agents they discuss. Many times it makes mention of an "orange based cleaner" or "liquid detergent" or "general purpose cleaner." While they may have given examples of them earlier in the book, I'm not reading it linearly and often am not sure which product to use.
I was looking for a book that would instill the feeling that I was cleaning competently and efficiently. But I still feel like I'm doing it wrong.
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