Hate cleaning. Like, a lot. Love the discussions that spring up here when I post about green cleaning products, so here's another interesting thing I came across, via The Consumerist (which has been fertile ground for me this week, due props to them). Writer Barbara Flanagan, from ID magazine, did an interesting piece on microfiber cleaning textiles.
The cloths have been incredibly popular in Europe since their introduction about 15 years ago. They clean by scraping surfaces with their microscopic fibers. No chemicals are needed, just water. Better still, you don’t throw them out when you're done, you just toss them in the wash.
I know I have seen these somewhere, but they are hard to find. Flanagan notes that there's a huge issue of disbelief, that simply a damp cloth can clean very well. And since microfiber is unregulated, crappy products take down the reputation of good ones.
She bought several from Newell Rubbermaid, which introduced a line of household microfiber cleaning cloths last year, and put them to the test her self and by asking several cleaning people to use them. The cloths worked, very well in fact. But many cleaners still didn't like them.
"My fellow cleaners were not happy; robbed of the sensory excitement of cleaning solutions—bright colors, heady fumes, sudsing, foaming, and definitive rinsing—everyone felt ineffective and disarmed. The rituals didn’t feel right."
True. I am a sucker for that nice clean smell after you've scrubbed down, say, the bathroom. But I would use microfiber if I could find them. Added bonus, no terrifying poison warnings on things I keep (inaccessibly, but still) in the same house with my kids.
