“What cleaning products do you use?” is a question we are often asked. Everyone from prospective clients to other company owners and managers, to those in an IICRC House Cleaning Technician class by the Residential Cleaning Academy all want to know. Some are hoping to find out if we are using the safest cleaning products available. Others are looking for a secret weapon to add to their cleaning arsenal. It is important to always have the right tool for a job. At the same time, there is no magic bullet. There is no substitute for the eye of a skilled cleaner. Now that we’ve cleared the air a bit, let’s dig in.
Town & Country pledges to use the safest cleaning products that will get the job done. As more innovation happens in the cleaning industry, we may change products. We also pledge to care for your home and possessions. Therefore, as new home surfaces emerge, we will always seek out the best and safe cleaning product for the job.
How We Choose Products
Our criteria for determining what are the safest cleaning products is defined by this pledge. We want to use products that are safe for our cleaning teams to use, day in and day out. Our employees’ health and safety are of critical importance. People are our best asset. T&C also want to protect our clients’ health and safety. This is why we avoid using disinfectants, save for a few special cases. Finally, we want to make sure that our products do not cause damage to the surfaces they are used on. Modern home surfaces require increasingly specialized care. This is why our arsenal of cleaning products is a good bit larger than the average cleaning franchise. Our teams understand when and where to use our specialized cleaners.
What About “Green Cleaners”
Simply reaching for “green cleaning” products isn’t always the answer. According to NPR, “green”, “environmentally friendly” and sometimes even “organic” are essentially meaningless in many contexts. There are some 3rd party certifications like Green Seal or EcoLogo which do help to find the real winners. But, “greenwashing” is big bucks for corporations around the world. Town & Country does use some Green Seal and Safer Choice products. However, all the products we choose are based on our criteria above. We are more interested in the actual safety and performance of the products. Green cleaners are not always the safest cleaning products. Some of them are neither safe nor “green”.
Can A Client Provide Cleaning Products For Us?
The short answer for this question is no. However, this needs qualification. Town & Country Cleaning is required by OSHA to provide safety data sheets to our employees for every product we use to clean. This is absolutely non negotiable. Additionally, we want to make sure that our employees know how to properly use a product before we deploy it. There are many common cleaning products out there that can actually cause damage to surfaces in your home.
In specialized cases, we may need to use a specific product for certain surfaces in your home. If you need us to use a special product in your home please contact us directly so that we can pull safety data sheets and vet it. We cannot accept a product on a day of service without researching it first. We want to make sure the product is safest cleaning product for your home and our team.
The Town & Country Cleaning Products List
General Purpose
Deionized water is our general purpose cleaner around the home. Deionized water is water that has been treated to remove all ions – typically, that means all of the dissolved mineral salts. Compared to distilled water, deionized water has virtually no impurities, while distillation will still allow some impurities to linger in the water.
As a cleaner, deionized water is a rock star. Once you have removed the ions from water, it is eager to attract others. It grabs on to many soils like a magnet. Using the other half of the equation, microfiber cloths, we are then able to remove those soils (dirt, bacteria, and other things you don’t want) from the surface. Deionized water can remove enough organic matter from a surface that it rivals many EPA certified disinfectants.
Degreasing
One area where deionized water does not perform as well is degreasing. The problem with most greasy messes is that they are hydrophobic (water resisting). For jobs like cleaning a greasy stove, we need something with a little more horsepower. Enter Betco Citrus Chisel. Betco is a company that provides cleaning supplies for many commercial applications, from professional home cleaners, to janitorial outfits, and specialty cleaners. Their products are designed to be safe for professional use, meaning repeated exposure. Citrus Chisel uses citrus-based solvents to cut through food, grease and more. It is even used in many commercial kitchens for cleaning food equipment.
Marble, Granite, and Other Stone Cleaning
Stone is an increasingly popular home surface. You find it anywhere from marble showers to granite countertops and many places in between. Stone is a unique home surface in that it is not made in a factory. This presents a unique challenge for cleaners. Some stone surfaces are very sensitive to pH extremes (or sometimes not so extremes when looking at some marbles). To make this more challenging, you cannot easily identify a stone surface that may be problematic. To stay safe, our policy at Town & Country is to always treat any stone surface as if it is the most delicate stone. To deliver great results without damage, we use Aqua Mix Stone & Tile Cleaner. We have tried other products in the past, but Aqua Mix seems to deliver the best results in a wider variety of scenarios.
Wood Floors
Wood floors are more popular than ever. It’s really hard to argue with the warmth they can add to the appearance in a room. Wood floors are durable and can last a long time if cared for properly. Whether laminate or solid plank, the most common finish is polyurethane. For polyurethane finishes, we use Betco GT Cleaner.
GT Cleaner is versatile in that it is mild enough for daily use, but can be used at a stronger dilution for tougher cleaning jobs. Outside of residential cleaning, GT Cleaner is rather popular for maintaining basketball courts and other athletic wood floors, which usually require special care to maintain.
If your home has oiled wood floors, we will need to discuss your particular finish to choose the best product for the job. In most cases, this would be to use the finish manufacturers’ recommended product.
Bathroom Cleaners
Bathrooms often present the largest variety of surfaces in a home, as well as some of the biggest cleaning challenges. Bathrooms offer everything from rust and mineral build-up in toilets, to soap scum in tubs and showers. To amplify this further, stone is becoming increasingly popular in newer homes or recent remodels. In bathrooms, stone is often used as a flooring material, countertops and for shower walls and floors. As we have said, stone requires special care.
Toilets
Barkeepers Friend is still one of the best products for the inside of toilets. This old favorite does an excellent job of removing rust stains and mineral deposits in the bowl. Barkeepers Friend also works well for removing hard water spots on shower glass, or on metal fixtures.
Tubs and Showers
Nyco OM1 Restroom Cleaner is our preferred product for tubs and (non-stone) showers. This new product does great at removing soap scum and is milder than many similar products. As a bonus, it smells great and is a Safer Choice product.
Soft Scrub All Purpose Cleaner is our go-to for sinks or fixtures that require a little bit of scrubbing. Soft Scrub is a milder abrasive than Barkeepers Friend and is safe on a variety of surfaces. While touted as a good shower and tub cleaner, we have found that it requires a lot of extra rinsing when used over larger areas.
Shower Mold
Finally, for mold in the shower, we have yet to find anything that works as well as Clorox Clean Up. This is a product that is the most controversial here at Town & Country. We dislike the harshness of chlorine based products. Yet we have also found that Clorox Clean Up is formulated for less fumes. Given that this is an area with high humidity for much of the year, we need something very effective on mold. The only non-chlorine products we have found are hydrogen peroxide based. The downside is that these products are harsher than the chlorine products, and require special protective equipment.
Glass Surfaces
We use another Betco product called Green Earth Glass Cleaner for all glass surfaces. Green Earth Glass Cleaner is a Green Seal certified product. It cleans well without streaking, is ammonia free, and offers no lingering smells or fumes.