Overrated Cleaning Products? Test them with me!

Well, I guess I'm like you in that I hate spending money on

cleaning

products

. When you buy something you think is going to be really cool and you find out it wasn't worth it. Joshua Becker often says: Do you see those things? That's where your money used to be. And that always crosses my mind, but it's hard because finding the right cleansing

products

is often like finding the right moisturizer. It seems like you have to try a lot of things before you find what really works. And today I wanted to try some of these things for you.

All of these things behind me are things that have been recommended by other people on YouTube and Instagram, so I'm going to throw away the money so you don't have to. We're going to try

them

out, do side-by-side comparisons, see which ones work and which ones are making a comeback. Now I admit that I am a newbie when it comes to

cleaning

. I was in the middle of fixing the oven door and my mom called me during that and said, What are you doing? I'm like cleaning the glass between the oven door. And she said, why would you do that?

When we were little, there was no time for spring cleaning and cleaning routines. That's how it went. That's why I've come to trust the experience of those around me and the products they recommend. So I gathered a bunch of things recommended by others and we're going to try

them

today. And I will say that there are some real winners here and there are few things I could definitely do without. So I know one thing and that is that we must start from the top and work our way down. So here are the tasks we are going to do today.

Let's get dusty. Let's clean the walls and windows. We are going to give the oven a very good deep cleaning, including getting between the glass doors. We will also scrub the sink and shower and make sure the floor is very clean. So Cas from Clutterbug always talks about the Swiffer duster. He said he was surprised when they once hired someone to come clean their house and they were using a Swiffer duster. So the goal is to use this to get everything that is at the top. So, our lamps, the tops of picture frames, the blades of ceiling fans.

We want to

test

it on this. So my only hesitation is that it's just one more thing to store that I could get by using my microfiber cloths like I have in the past. So let's try it and see if it's worth it. Alright, you're supposed to blow them away, but it's so strange. It looks like some kind of fiberglass insulation. Adeline says: Should I touch it? She says we fluffed them. But that's a good thing because she also asked: Will this push the dust out or will it really stick? And this gives me hope that it will stick quite well.

I mean, our spaces are pretty dusty, so it's going to push around a little bit, but I think this could really catch a lot. So we'll start with something easy, like the top of these frames and also our lamps. And then we'll move on to the ceiling fan. This really seems to grab it well and not just push it around. And I can't forget to mention that this video is part of our April Mega Motivation collaboration. So you can find a playlist below with over 20 more Spring Clean With Me videos. So if you need extra motivation, someone to keep you company while you clean, be sure to check out that playlist.

I think we're going to need some... I think it's going to take a little more than just the Swiffer with this guy, so I'm going to grab one of my microfiber cloths. I think because this one is in the kitchen, everything is a little closer together, which is nice. Wow. And I mean, I honestly haven't done it since we put it on two years ago, so it's a little overdue. Alright, so of course if we're doing spring cleaning, we have to do the fan blades, right? This fan hasn't even been around for a year. But we've been doing projects and Tom's been cutting drywall and stuff, so they're pretty gross.

So I had read some advice, so far I am very satisfied with this one for a duster, but I don't know if I trust it as much without at least covering our bed. So I had read a tip where you use a pillowcase to slide most of the dust into the pillowcase. So I think I'll do the pillowcase and then go back and use the Swiffer duster on top. Ah, that works pretty well. Let's see if I can get some more, I mean, I can't see on top of these, so I have no idea, but I feel like it's...

I don't know, it looks a lot cleaner, so... It's definitely easy to put away. inside the pillowcase. I don't know if you can really see the amount of dust that goes in there, I think it's working pretty well. So I'm trying to get the edge and then go back and run my hand across the entire sheet again. Sorry, I can't really see what I'm doing, but how many do we have left to do? I think we only have one left. I think they're pretty good. I think I'm going to go over them again with this guy, and then I think we'll be really good.

I should have used a clean one of these, then I would know if I'm really getting something out or not. Let's see if we can find a clean place. No, that's not clean either. Alright, I think that's it and it really takes too long. Okay, let's talk about microfiber cloths for a few minutes. I have great friends who sell Norwex. They're great, they're antibacterial. They are a bit expensive, right? And I'm very stingy, especially when it comes to things that no one sees and I don't know about. And then I also worry, I feel like I have to protect it if I've spent a lot of money on it.

If the kids are going to grab him or Tom, I say, no, that's my good fabric. So I also wanted to try some less expensive options. These were recommended by Jenn from The Rambling Redhead. Now these look more like the sides of a dish towel or washcloth. I don't know, what are they called? A kitchen towel. And what's misleading is that they actually look like fleece and the edges are nothing fancy, but we'll get to that. I have come to like them a lot. And then we have the E-Cloths. So Jordan Page from Fun, Cheap or Free talks about this quite a bit.

She swears by these and says they are really great because you only need water. And then we have the cheap microfiber cloths. Again, I'll always try to make do with the cheapest possible option that still works well, because I don't want to have to work any harder than necessary. So these are the least expensive. So we're going to put them to work on the closets and on the walls. And well, throughout this entire video, you will see them side by side. Okay, now let's clean the windows. And I wanted to compare the cheap microfiber to the real window cloth from E-Cloth with my little favorite here.

And I'm going to use it, Kathryn from Do It On A Dime always recommends this from the dollar store. It's the Totally Awesome Window Cleaner with Vinegar. I have also been using it for quite some time and I really like it. And it's only a dollar, so you can't go wrong. And luckily we have a lot of dirty windows, so I can give a good assessment of which one works best. It's actually surprisingly difficult to show how dirty the windows are on video, but I think knowing that we have four kids, you can probably take my word for it. [ music].

So I think all three of them really worked well, but if I had to pick a winner, it would be this guy. I think since the windows were so dirty, I didn't feel like I had to scrub much. With this one I felt like I had to scrub a little more and this one pushed the cleanser away and wasn't as absorbent. So I think the least amount of work was this. But I'm going to try it on one more window because this window above the sink gets a lot of water splashed on it, so it's always a little more difficult to clean.

So I'm going to give each one more chance and see if it really makes a difference, because I think if I had any of these on hand, I'd just grab them and it would work fine. Alright, after making this window over the sink and making a couple of mirrors in the bathroom, I'm going to say this guy is the winner. I don't know, maybe because everything is so dirty, this seems to work very well. I think if your windows weren't so dirty this would work well too, but I'm trying to have as few cloths and stuff as possible.

So if I can get by with just having these two at home, I would prefer that to having another one that is specific to certain tasks. So I'm happy this does a good job and like I said I usually take what I have on hand and any of these would have worked well. Okay, so you don't have to look far to see that all of our cabinets, walls, and doors need to be cleaned. And this is where I hope the E-Cloths shine. They say you only need to use water with them. So I'm going to try it with water and compare it to our less expensive microfiber cloths.

But if necessary, I also like the Totally Awesome Cleaner from the dollar store. We'll try it with just water first, but if that doesn't work very well, I don't want to work any harder than necessary. . This works great with just water. You could spray it, just if you want to soak it a little, but otherwise everything totally comes out of the cabinets with this. I don't know if walls are that forgiving, so I'm also going to try the other fabric here with just water. And then we'll move on to some walls and see how that works.

All right, let's try this section of the wall here with this guy, as long as he already has it in his hand. I would say this worked just as well on the cabinets. So let's see how it works on the wall with just water. Okay, this is working really well, but I want to show you that there's a spot here that was kind of dry, sticky, and that's where I think spraying a cleaner first might work a little better. There's some dry food right here. I don't know. And I think I could keep rubbing it with this, but sometimes my experience has been that it takes away the paint.

So I'm going to spray it with Awesome Cleaner and then we'll

test

both cloths with that. Well, when you buy it, it comes in a bottle like this and it's concentrated. So here it gives instructions on how much to dilute it. So I used an old Method spray bottle and mixed it in here. I don't even know what I use, I guessed pretty roughly, but this has never removed paint from the walls or anything like that. This works especially well for car interiors; If you are trying to clean the plastic interior, it works great. But it also works really well on walls, so I'm going to take this and spray it.

And then I'm going to spray here as well. There are some signs of wear, it's the black of our feces. I don't expect this to eliminate it, but we can try. I'm going to spray this side as well, and then let it soak for a second and then we'll use both cloths to see if there's a difference. So far I don't see much difference between the two. Oh, that comes out really easy now, let's try this one too. Yes, it's not the fabric, it's the cleaner. That just wiped off immediately after I sprayed it. Well, this is what I'm not so sure about.

Yes, I don't know. It's kind of like removing it a little bit, but not very well. I have to get this paint color back and I find it easier to paint over them than to try to rub and rub and rub to get it off. I prefer to paint over it, so I'm going to do that. But I see, while I'm down here, this seems a little gross. So we'll do it very quickly. It's amazing to me how I can live with these crazy dirty places in the house and not even notice. Both have worked great on walls where nothing is stuck, so I've been trying to get all the walls.

But for something like this that's pretty dirty, I'm going to give it a quick spray and then use both. Wow, seriously, it just comes out well, this is amazing. I feel like if I had known how easy all of this was, I would do it more. Yes, this one works very well too. I really need kids to do it more, right? So far those are pretty cheap investments. So let's talk about something that's a little more expensive. So Kathryn from Do It on A Dime did a whole video on how to have a steam cleaner and the different ways she used it.

She now bought one that was one level higher and a little more expensive, but it was sold out everywhere, so I had to buy the one that was one level lower. This is a Bissell Steam Shot and I want to try it, especially, well, let's get right to the hardest part, which is our oven. It was noticeable between the glass, there was some grease, the oven door, that is, inside, I don't know if I have cleaned it. We'll be in our house for five years now, I don't know if I've ever cleaned it. Then it's bad.

So I thought I'd put this to the test because when she showed off her oven, she got amazing results. So let's try it. She also said that she could put vinegar on it, she showed it in the shower. Just so you know, in the instructions she says that if you put anything besides water in it, it will void the warranty and could damage the heating element, but I trust Kathryn. So she wanted to put vinegar in it, especially to make the oven. So she put in half water and half vinegar and I wanted to try making just half to see how well the Steam Shot would work.

So I sprayed it on and started scrubbing and scrubbing some more and nothing came off very easily, let's put it that way. And then I felt a little discouraged by that. Now when it comes to cleaning, I try to use baking soda and vinegar whenever possible.I recently saw another video where the girl just used baking soda and vinegar. So, what she did was first make a paste with baking soda and water, and she spread it all over the door and the inside of her oven. However, the key is that she must rest for three hours.

So I put it in the middle of the door, closed it, and let it sit for three hours. Then when you get back you put some vinegar in a spray bottle and then spray it with vinegar. You have to be careful, what I've learned through this is not to spray too much because it gets a little messy, and then when I closed the door it dripped between the glass. So that wasn't good. So don't go overboard with the vinegar, but I let it sit for a while and when I started scrubbing, I couldn't believe how well it worked.

Now, like I said, I like to use vinegar and baking soda whenever possible. My favorite shower cleaner is Dawn Dish Soap and Vinegar. But if it doesn't work very well, I'm just going to go to a traditional cleaner, because I don't want to waste my time. If the healthy option works, great. But if not, I'm going to go to a dry cleaner. I was surprised how well it worked. I actually didn't expect it to work so well, especially since that door was so gross. It worked very well. I barely had to scrub and it came off right away.

So I used a bunch of napkins and paper towels to soak it all up and clean it up. And there was quite a bit of residue left, so I had to spray it a few more times with vinegar and wipe it off, and then I went back one last time with my Method degreaser that I really like and then gave it a final clean. So I was really happy with how clean the door was, but we had those drips between the glass, so I really wanted to clean between the glass because it's spring cleaning, right? We are doing everything we can and I feel like I can now tackle things like this because our house is streamlined.

So again I watched a YouTube video, did my research and decided to start taking the door apart. Okay, I was going to ask Tom to help me take apart the oven door to clean between the glass, but you know, I'm a capable person. So I'm going to try it, it has Phillip head screws. I've heard that some ovens have unique screws, but this should work. I feel like Jill in Home Improvement when she goes out to the garage and she borrows Tim's tools. So this should work. Oh, Tom just came in, shoot. What are you doing?

I'm going to take the oven door off, okay? At least he'll be here if something goes wrong. We had never done this before. I just realized that this screw is actually the one that holds the handle, so... this one is long. Tom can't resist helping me now. Wow, seriously. Well. Do you want to make this screw? How come that half is dirtier than this half? Because the steamer didn't work that well and I didn't want to soak it with baking soda again. Next time. Well. Alright. Can you see that? Well. Oh, the handle came off. Well.

We'll show you how dirty it is here. So this is what it looks like... I know there's this drip, I don't know how... We'll worry about that in a second. We need to take care of these first. In fact, I heated up the steamer, would you like to grab it from the counter behind you? Want to do it? This is the fun part. I thought it doesn't work. It's not like that, I'm giving it another chance... I thought maybe you would know better how to use it. Try our new microfiber cloths. Oh, that's turning out pretty well.

I don't feel like this is crazy like what's inside the door. So I feel like this will work well to make this glass look clean again. Well, that solved the drips that could be seen from the outside on the glass, but Tom wants to go further. You can see this drip. Look, that drip is a new drip that I think I made when he was cleaning the inside door. Because it's actually still leaking. So Tom wants to take it apart further to get to that glass. Oh God. Well. I don't know if we would recommend this at home.

Should we take it out and try to clean it? Or what you think? Yes. Okay, here it is on the counter, so now we can clean it up real good and put it back together. So what's interesting is that there was baking soda on the back, but where the baking soda was, it just wiped away. So the baking soda really worked. Okay, so I steamed it and then sprayed it with vinegar and wiped it down with some paper towels and a microfiber cloth, I think it's done. Then this one, Tom, was inside, looking into the oven.

That makes a difference? And then this one was looking in from there. It shouldn't make a difference. All off limits, because they're just covering up again and that's not my personality type. In fact, I'm surprised you made it this far. That's from Tom, well if you weren't here I wouldn't have taken it this far. If you didn't get things out of the way, what's the point? This isolation is also a nuisance. I just realized the clothes are being washed, I hope it doesn't make too much noise. So when it comes to the little nooks and crannies, like around the base of the toilet, I really like these guys.

I just wet it with a little warm water and it works great. I think these larger microfiber cloths are too big. But like I said before, these seem to capture everything very well. Then you can wipe it all down once or twice, depending on how gross it was and it really catches everything. Like I said, I wasn't too impressed with Steam Shot at this point, but it was a pretty tough job. So the last time I cleaned my shower, I ran out of time and I think the back section was done. So I thought, hey, let's try it there.

I still had the water and vinegar mixture and that's what Kathryn used in her shower. So I thought we'd try it. So I sprayed everything with Steam Shot and then started scrubbing and... Kathryn, am I using it wrong? Because it didn't come out easily. And like I said before, my go-to cleaner is vinegar and Dawn dish soap, and it seemed to work much better. So I don't know if it was user error or because my shower was so gross or what, but, I don't know, it didn't work very well. So I ended up taking my spray bottle with some vinegar in it, gave it a quick spray and finished it, and it seemed to work a little better.

Then I do not know. But I wasn't done yet, so I wanted to try making the kitchen sink. Okay, so I took it to the kitchen sink, which is kind of gross. So I sprayed it and rubbed it. That seemed to work great and rubbed off very easily, so I just rinsed it off quickly and it worked fine there. But then I realized this. I didn't have this mouthpiece. I don't know if I take it, oh, here we go. I was using it like that. It's actually not much different, see the different tips? They're pretty much the same, but Gage was like, hey, what is this?

And I'm like, oh, that's supposed to be there. So I decided to give him another chance inside the oven and still, he didn't really do anything. So unfortunately I don't think this was the problem. So I'll see if I can think of anything else. I know, the inside of the microwave. So I sprayed the entire inside of the microwave with this and it was fine. So I decided to go back to my old trick of heating a cup of water for two or three minutes. That vaporizes the entire inside of the microwave and then it's pretty easy to clean.

That is, unless her daughter heated Crayola crayons in there and there are red flecks of wax everywhere. So I had to try something else, which, as many people recommend, is to always have one of these scrapers. So I used this to scrape off the wax that was there. I don't know how I managed to never have them. So I bought a four pack on Amazon, very affordable, and I can say that it will be a staple in our kitchen now in the future, both when washing dishes and when just cleaning. So I used this to scrape off the wax, removed it, and gave the inside of the microwave one last wipe.

And ultimately, I don't think the Steam Shot was any better than just using the water cup. So really, when it comes down to it, my favorite dollar store cleaners are the Totally Awesome Window Cleaner and the Totally Awesome All-Purpose Cleaner. These, I mean, for a dollar, you can't go wrong. In cleaners that I invest a little more in, I really like this degreaser from Method. I get it at Target and in the kitchen, definitely when I clean the stove top, the inside of the microwave, this works great. And then I usually have one of these all-purpose cleaners from Mrs.

Meyer on hand, which I spray on the counters and wipe them down. I like the peony scent, I have this one, it's geranium. It's not good, it smells like your grandma's cleaner, and I know we have some grandmas here, but think about what your grandma used to clean. I just don't know, the scent lingers, which is what I like about it, but I don't like it when this scent lingers, so I won't buy the geranium again. But I like the peony and lavender ones, so I'll stick with the ones below. Alright, last but not least, we need to scrub the floor well.

Again, Kathryn from Do It On A Dime says this is her favorite mop and bucket. Before this, I've been using a Norwex mop and I have a love-hate relationship with it because it does a great job, but I don't always like having to remove the mop, take it to the sink, and rinse it. , plays it, puts it back on, and then goes on mopping again, and everything has been fine. So this is more of a traditional mop where you put water on it and then he has a little basket so you can keep going. The only thing I don't like is that he is a little bulky to store, we just don't have much space for it.

So he's been on the floor of our laundry room. So our floors are incredibly dirty because we have a remodeling project going on again. So I have the mop bucket filled with hot water and then Melissa from Clean My Space talks about how on hardwood floors you can usually get by with Pine-Sol or one of those cleaners, but on laminate or vinyl floors like we have, You Should Make sure you use a specific cleaner for that, so that haze and streaks don't appear. So this is the number one cleaner for laminate and vinyl floors, the Bona cleaner.

You can get it in different variations, you can get it in Swiffer style. I've never really had good luck with Swiffers. First let's spray the floor with this, it's really disgusting. We've used this a couple of times and I really like it, but we'll see today, because the floors have a lot of dust, if we can lift everything up, make it streak-free and I don't know, it just looks good. I don't have very fancy parameters for my cleaning... So the other nice part about this is that when you're done, the mop head can go straight into the washing machine.

And I really like that the bucket, the pedal and everything, for the price, it seems very sturdy and durable, so I feel like it will last a long time. So I think it was a good investment. I think it will make us wash the floor more often, but the really nice thing is that Tom and the kids think it's really fun to use, so they'll actually wash the floor more often, so that's the best part of all. . Oh, and it's also very easy to get the sockets with this, so I appreciate that too. Alright, let's recap the things I would buy and not buy again.

This guy, the Steam Shot. Again, I may not be using it correctly, but I have to think ahead and know if I would go out of my way to get it out or would be more likely to just use the things I already have on hand in the kitchen. ? And like I said, we don't have a lot of extra storage space, so it's just one more thing to store and manage. So I wouldn't buy this again and will probably just donate it or sell it on the Marketplace. These guys, I love them. I don't know what it is about them, it's just that they're so soft that it feels like when you're cleaning, like you don't even care, and there have been times where there was spaghetti sauce or something red on top. on the stove or on a plate, and I'm like, Oh, I almost don't even want to clean it with this because they're so pretty, but they actually clean up really well.

Then I just clean everything. I will clean the floors, the walls, I use these for everything now, and I would definitely buy them again. And then the battle of the microfiber cloths. So the E-Cloths are a little more expensive. I don't love the colors of them and they are a little smaller. And then we have the cheap microfiber cloths. I would buy them because they are cheaper, I like the colors more and, like I said, I don't like it when I have to feel protective of things, if I have spent a little more money on it, right?

Am I the only one who feels this way? I don't know, let me know. So I think we can get rid of some of our dish towels that are definitely worn out. I would buy them again and I am very happy with them. This type worked well. It worked fine, but again, I'm trying to think: do I want to store something extra? Was it really that much better than just using a microfiber cloth and giving everything a quick wash? clean? I think for our house, since we don't have things that are very tall, if you have vaulted ceilings or anything that is tall, I think this is a game changer.

I think it's amazing, like Cas said, and you won't regret it. But for us, our house is not that big, I don't clean those thingsso often, I don't think I would buy this again. And then the mop bucket, I think I'll keep it because the kids find it so fun to mop the floor with it. And my goal is to make it fun so the kids clean more. So even though it's a little bulkier, taking up some floor space in our laundry room, I think it's worth it so I'll keep it. And of course, the window cleaner and this thing from the dollar store, you can't go wrong with that, so those were good investments too.

So overall, not too many glitches and our house feels pretty clean, we cleaned the oven. I wouldn't recommend taking that extra step with the extra layer of glass. Anyway, it feels good to have this all cleaned up. But let me tell you this, it was fun because our house is tidy, so I didn't have to choose between spending the time I had today between decluttering and deep cleaning my house. I don't know, can this be called deep cleaning? So if your house isn't already tidy, I think it might be a better use of your time because as we declutter and simplify our house, cleaning becomes much easier.

But I would love to know, would you leave a comment below? Do you love any of these things? Do you have your own favorite cleaning products, tools, or products that you swear by? Could you leave it down because it is very useful? And if you have any idea what I was doing wrong with this, would you share that too? I love you, I hope you have a very good day and I will see you soon.