Spring Cleaning, Part Three: Products

The annual rites of spring cleaning are underway. Last year at this time, we utilized a printable checklist to help with this vital task, while in the previous column we considered the history and effects of household chemicals on our homes and their inhabitants. I've been thinking along these lines since last summer, when a health scare caused me to evaluate, among other things, the safety of my home environment. I’m fine now, but I am glad I have given this matter some thought. In researching this issue online and through the tomes in my homekeeper’s library, I’ve come to realize that, as homekeepers, it is beneficial to periodically evaluate how we keep house, and to be prepared to make changes if any are indicated. Homekeeping is about maintaining the home environment and spring cleaning is about reinvigorating it, and both benefit when we refresh our thinking.

In the last column I wrote that we have been trained to equate cleanliness with harsh chemicals. This is not meant to be a treatise for or against chemicals, for cleaning is itself a chemical process. Some green housekeepers would argue with me about it, but I believe that, to be done effectively, some tasks should be tackled by compounds that contain some very strong chemicals. For example, I cannot fathom cleaning without using disinfectants, especially in the kitchen and bathroom. If one chooses to use these compounds, one respects them by using them smartly and storing them safely. Click here to bookmark the United States government's database of health and safety information on household products.

Here is a round-up of some favorite cleaning products currently in service in our urban home. Some are tried and true and some may be new to you. This is not meant to be a comprehensive checklist, and none of these is a compensated endorsement. This is simply a list of my recommendations, based on my research and experience as a lifestyle writer and a homekeeper.

The first household chemical I examined was the ubiquitous bottle of dishwashing liquid. That bottle of dish soap that we are all used to often contains such compounds as chlorine, phosphates, and sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate. Aside from the fact that it is contacting your skin and your food vessels, any chemical you wash your dishes with is going to wind up in the water table, which can contribute to everything from effects on local marine life to backed up septic tanks. The challenge was to find a dish soap that utilized minimal (ideally no) harmful chemicals but did its job.

I found that "natural" or "green" labeled dish soaps typically relied on coconut oil as the surfactant (the compound in a cleanser that removes dirt from a soiled surface). There are dish soaps comprised primarily of coconut oil and purified water, and these worked well enough on simple dishes like plates and glasses, but I found them ineffective beyond that – and useless on cookware. A chat at the grocery store with an employee who was restocking the cleaning shelves led me to Clorox Greenworks. Since then, in our urban home, this gently scented dish soap has effectively cleaned everything from simple breakfast dishes to the serious detritus of Thanksgiving dinner. While it does contain SLS, it is formulated primarily from natural ingredients (98% according to the label and the website). Because it does its job while relying as minimally as is probably realistic on worrisome chemicals, this is a compromise I can live with.

For the counters, my two favorite products are Martha Stewart All-Purpose Cleaner and Williams-Sonoma Countertop Spray. The odorless Stewart cleanser cleans everything from the backsplash to the stovetop. I alternate between this cleanser and the Williams-Sonoma product, which has a seasonal kitchen-themed scent made from essential oils. I especially like the vivid basil and sultry orange fragrances, so much so that I sometimes treat myself to one of the corresponding kitchen candles. Remember, though, that neither of these cleansers is a disinfectant and that food prep should be done on dedicated cutting boards that are religiously cleaned and maintained and routinely replaced.

No part of the house gets dirtier than the floors and that makes mopping an especially tricky chore to complete without harsh chemicals. Our urban home has linoleum and hardwood floors, and on both I use Earth Friendly Products Laminate and Hardwood Floor Cleaner. Its solvents can handle our minimal amount of traffic. For rugs, as well as upholstery, curtains, and cobwebs, we use the Riccar 1500S.

Cleaning electronics can be tricky, for one of the culprits is static electricity, which you can't really wipe away with a spritz and a cloth and which you want to be careful about trying to. This is because the surface tension of an electronic screen or speaker is very delicate. For screens, Staples Screen Cleaning Spray is formulated to clean both television and computer screens and does so without compromising the screen surface. For speakers, depending upon their covering the best cleaning agent is the vacuum cleaner fitted with an appropriate brush attachment. For keyboards, the gas dusters or “canned air” that you will see vended at the home office store contain fluorocarbons. A more effective tool is a computer keyboard brush, whose labors you can augment by fitting the vacuum cleaner with the small brush attachment and running that across the keyboard, mouse and mousepad as warranted.

After any event at which they've been put to use, it is important to clean and store china, stemware and flatware with an eye towards long-term care. Hagerty china separators and china storage sets are inexpensive, one-time investments to care for china. Wine Enthusiast's Stem Shine leaves a diamond bright, spot-free shine on stemware. I use it with one of their bottle brushes specifically designed to clean stemware, and dry the glasses on Crate and Barrel's ridged silicon drying mat.

In years of keeping house and lifestyle writing I have encountered every purported shortcut to caring for silver from rubbing it with toothpaste to storing it with strips of aluminum foil. I have never found any of these to work satisfactorily. Clean silver after each usage by hand, using Hagerty Silversmith wash and polish and corresponding Silversmith gloves. Store the pieces in specially treated flannel storage vessels -- a storage case with tarnish-detracting interior for place settings and storage pouches for serving pieces. If, as in our urban home, some of those serving pieces have wooden handles, coat the handles with a thin layer of food safe mineral oil after each cleaning and before storage; I like Lamson & Goodnow.

Anyone who knows me knows I take coffee seriously. Remembering my grandmother's method to care for her workhorse steel percolator, I tried the home remedy of cleaning the coffee maker with water and white vinegar. I didn't find this a satisfactory technique, for aside from the overpowering odor of hot vinegar, neither the coffeemaker nor the carafe seemed noticeably cleaner, and the coffee that resulted didn't seem to taste better. To care for the coffee maker, once a month I run a cycle of Dip It. This product removes built-up oils and mineral residues from the water chamber and circulation plumbing as well as from the interior of the carafe. The result is that the coffee maker performs better and lasts longer -- and, yes the coffee tastes better.

If you've been cooking along with Urban Home Blog, by now you've noticed that we cook with the freshest ingredients available to us.  We try to use organic produce, home grown or from the Farmer's Market.  Wherever it came from, when we prepare this beautiful produce, we use a commercial produce cleaner. As evidenced by all of the hyperlinks to it I’ve included in recipes, the produce cleaner I like is Environne. If you're wondering how it works, you can read their FAQs here, but I do believe that it does work.  Everything from the delicate skins of tomatoes to the thick skins of lemons and limes emerges from the cleanser absent produce waxes and other residues.  And if having a kitchen that's so healthy that the fruits and vegetables themselves are squeaky clean isn't the very symbol of good homekeeping, I don't know what is.