Oh my god THANK YOU for the ranting about freaking granite and stainless steel. They are DIVAS and they are EVERYWHERE and Formica and enamel might not be "fashionable" anymore but they were sure a heck of a lot easier to clean and maintain!!!! I am the only tidy person in my 4-person household and whew lord the granite and stainless are NOT helping.
Also the stainless shows every speck of dirt, and the granite shows none, and it just drives me even more nuts.
The WORST is this stupid charcoal gray quartz in my “luxury” (lol) apartment. We must have hard water and there’s just constantly water stains everywhere. And apparently I use a lot of salt because it is always all over the counter! And the black stove top.
Keeping a stock of microfiber cloths in my kitchen saves my sanity. Using them when they are just barely damp is the easiest way to buff out the hand oil prints my husband/son are so good at getting on the fridge door handles/countertop.
The only material I hate more than granite and stainless is marble. WHO thought putting a material that gets stained by WATER in a kitchen was a good idea?!? I cannot wait until we can do a kitchen reno and put in a soapstone counter.
I like the idea of paring down to dish soap for so many things and finding an unscented option that fits. Question though - if I’m using diluted soap as all purpose spray, do I still just wipe it off and done? Or do I need to re-wet the surface? Or does this depend on the type of soap I’m using?
If you have Costco access, I quite like the giant jug of Kirkland Unscented laundry detergent. Is it as good as the Tide? Maybe not. Does it get adult and baby clothes clean? Yup! And it’s like $15 for like 150 loads of detergent.
Dr Bronner’s also makes an unscented liquid that I’ve used on humans, a baby, and a cat.
Did I write this in my sleep? Or maybe during a raging migraine? Seriously I *am* this person. Plus I have “non-allergic rhinitis” which is a fancy way of saying that my nose runs when I go to the cleaning aisles of Target. Here is my stash:
Seventh Gen for dish soap, hand soap, all purpose cleaner. My kitchen sink looks like a Seventh Gen ad. Also stain spray. Weirdly, I cannot find the glass cleaner anywhere! I actually just use the all purpose cleaner on my mirrors and it is fine.
Tide Free & Gentle is my laundry detergent. I’ve been looking for a fragrance free *darks* detergent, would love a recommendation on that because all my clothes as black. Or are dark detergents a scam? Please advise.
Dropps dishwasher pods are great. The only thing is that they don’t come in a container that is anything resembling airtight so I recommend putting them something else because you don’t want your pods to get exposed to moisture.
Lysol Laundry Sanitizer makes a fragrance free version, they don’t always have it at Target for some reason but Amazon carries it.
Affresh fragrance free dishwasher cleaning tablets and Go Green washer cleaning tablets. When I moved into my apartment, the washer stunk of somebody else’s detergent. I ran two loads with Go Green and another with nothing and it took the scent out.
Seventh Gen makes a hydrogen peroxide based disinfecting cleaner. I mean, it smells vaguely of hydrogen peroxide, but it doesn’t bother me.
Not unscented cleaners but for other smell sensitive people - became obsessed with unscented fabreeze after reading the power of habit. It talks about how there’s a molecule in fabreeze that traps certain odorous…compounds? Something like that 😅. Anyway they discussed how despite it working to remove smells no one would use it as a habit because it “smells like nothing” and we go nose blind. Cue me obsessively searching out unscented fabreeze (usually can be found at Walmart.) my BIL recently randomly shouted me out as a person who “knows how to make any house smell good” despite living with my moms elderly pee happy dog, a toddler and a new born.
I’m okay with some cleaner scents so I’m no help there but FUCK 409 that stuff will trigger a migraine for me in -2 minutes
Jolie, I know you have recommended Soak no-rinse hand wash laundry detergent before. My mom told me she heard the fragrance free version doesn’t work as well. Is that true? I just use dish soap for my hand washable but I have a friend who hates hand washing and I thought not having to rinse might convince them to hand wash. (They keep ruining super delicates in the wash…)
Firstly I LOVE THIS POST! I struggled with severe migraines since I was 6 years old. I found a neurologist who gave me medication and they're nearly gone. The 8 day migraine torture...no more! (I use the Emgality monthly injection - CRGP blocker).
I really like Earth Breeze. I use the regular kind but I know they make an unscented version. I think they're a neat invention. No more massive jugs!
I cannot say it is a better laundry soap than any other kind/brand. But it does the job well!!
It's not 'unscented' but the Lysol hydrogren peroxide cleaner has a very minimal scent. I keep it on reserve for extra germy stuff (spraying down my sink after handling poultry, etc.). I bought it when my kid's school had an outbreak of Norovirus, I do NOT mess around with that (or HFM) and hydrogen peroxide will kill anything you need killed.
Yeah I feel like you need a disinfecting cleaner. I haven’t tried the Lysol HP product but I have the Seventh Gen one.
Speaking of Lysol, I would love to find a disinfecting aerosol spray that doesn’t have a scent. I like to use original Lysol to spray down garbage cans and things like that.
We made the switch to Force of Nature when my second kid was born with eczema. Great for cleaning and we can spray it directly on skin! (Same active ingredient that you'd pay $$$$ for in Magic Molecule / Tower28 SOS spray).
Now off to dig through the archives for how to get the standard Tide smell out of clothes, because I love a good hand me down but cannot with the scented detergents.
I’m very late to this party, though grateful to the host! I’d recommend Force of Nature! It’s a concentrate in an ampoule of salt and vinegar solution which you mix with water in an activator vessel, then plug in to electrolyze and voila! It’s a cleaner, sanitizer, and disinfectant for almost all surfaces! It’s also rated by the EPA and kills stuff like certain viruses ahem! and other microbes.
I have been using Better Life all-purpose cleaner and glass cleaner for years now, and they work beautifully! (I order from the company directly online.) They’re unscented AND made with basic, natural ingredients. And they’re both super effective, which I don’t find with, say, Seventh Generation.
For anyone dealing with cat urine AND a fragrance sensitivity, first that is terrible I’m sorry. Second, there are high quality fragrance free enzyme cleaners available in commercial quantities - if you have a large problem and money you can spend on it, find a local carpet/upholstery person who is a chemistry nerd, and put them to work. (I found one indirectly by asking a local custom furniture maker for a referral.) For DIY, the best compromise I’ve found is a well-fitting mask, Bio-Kleen Bac-Out in the Lime variation, and a couple of hours of running my Coway filter on high in the region. The lime scent isn’t so strong it renders the mask un-re-usable, the enzymes actually work when used as directed (do! Not! Over saturate!), and my very asthmatic old cat is not distressed by the smell, and after a couple of hours I can unmask. By day 2-3, I can get up close and personal with the spot without detecting lingering odors. If you have something better, LMK!!!
I use PurrFect because it was designed for cat pee! But you'll definitely need more than 1 bottle (depending on need) because you are really supposed to drench the stain). It doesn't break down fabric and there's no toxic ingredients. My dog loves licking. So it's okay if he decides he likes that spot. Patch test ofc for fabric compatibility
Oh my god THANK YOU for the ranting about freaking granite and stainless steel. They are DIVAS and they are EVERYWHERE and Formica and enamel might not be "fashionable" anymore but they were sure a heck of a lot easier to clean and maintain!!!! I am the only tidy person in my 4-person household and whew lord the granite and stainless are NOT helping.
Also the stainless shows every speck of dirt, and the granite shows none, and it just drives me even more nuts.
The WORST is this stupid charcoal gray quartz in my “luxury” (lol) apartment. We must have hard water and there’s just constantly water stains everywhere. And apparently I use a lot of salt because it is always all over the counter! And the black stove top.
Keeping a stock of microfiber cloths in my kitchen saves my sanity. Using them when they are just barely damp is the easiest way to buff out the hand oil prints my husband/son are so good at getting on the fridge door handles/countertop.
The only material I hate more than granite and stainless is marble. WHO thought putting a material that gets stained by WATER in a kitchen was a good idea?!? I cannot wait until we can do a kitchen reno and put in a soapstone counter.
I like the idea of paring down to dish soap for so many things and finding an unscented option that fits. Question though - if I’m using diluted soap as all purpose spray, do I still just wipe it off and done? Or do I need to re-wet the surface? Or does this depend on the type of soap I’m using?
If you have Costco access, I quite like the giant jug of Kirkland Unscented laundry detergent. Is it as good as the Tide? Maybe not. Does it get adult and baby clothes clean? Yup! And it’s like $15 for like 150 loads of detergent.
Dr Bronner’s also makes an unscented liquid that I’ve used on humans, a baby, and a cat.
Did I write this in my sleep? Or maybe during a raging migraine? Seriously I *am* this person. Plus I have “non-allergic rhinitis” which is a fancy way of saying that my nose runs when I go to the cleaning aisles of Target. Here is my stash:
Seventh Gen for dish soap, hand soap, all purpose cleaner. My kitchen sink looks like a Seventh Gen ad. Also stain spray. Weirdly, I cannot find the glass cleaner anywhere! I actually just use the all purpose cleaner on my mirrors and it is fine.
Tide Free & Gentle is my laundry detergent. I’ve been looking for a fragrance free *darks* detergent, would love a recommendation on that because all my clothes as black. Or are dark detergents a scam? Please advise.
Dropps dishwasher pods are great. The only thing is that they don’t come in a container that is anything resembling airtight so I recommend putting them something else because you don’t want your pods to get exposed to moisture.
Lysol Laundry Sanitizer makes a fragrance free version, they don’t always have it at Target for some reason but Amazon carries it.
Affresh fragrance free dishwasher cleaning tablets and Go Green washer cleaning tablets. When I moved into my apartment, the washer stunk of somebody else’s detergent. I ran two loads with Go Green and another with nothing and it took the scent out.
Seventh Gen makes a hydrogen peroxide based disinfecting cleaner. I mean, it smells vaguely of hydrogen peroxide, but it doesn’t bother me.
Ohhh this is so good to have in my back pocket next time I know I’m going to need to use unfamiliar washers repeatedly
Not unscented cleaners but for other smell sensitive people - became obsessed with unscented fabreeze after reading the power of habit. It talks about how there’s a molecule in fabreeze that traps certain odorous…compounds? Something like that 😅. Anyway they discussed how despite it working to remove smells no one would use it as a habit because it “smells like nothing” and we go nose blind. Cue me obsessively searching out unscented fabreeze (usually can be found at Walmart.) my BIL recently randomly shouted me out as a person who “knows how to make any house smell good” despite living with my moms elderly pee happy dog, a toddler and a new born.
I’m okay with some cleaner scents so I’m no help there but FUCK 409 that stuff will trigger a migraine for me in -2 minutes
Also a fan of unscented febreeze!
Jolie, I know you have recommended Soak no-rinse hand wash laundry detergent before. My mom told me she heard the fragrance free version doesn’t work as well. Is that true? I just use dish soap for my hand washable but I have a friend who hates hand washing and I thought not having to rinse might convince them to hand wash. (They keep ruining super delicates in the wash…)
Firstly I LOVE THIS POST! I struggled with severe migraines since I was 6 years old. I found a neurologist who gave me medication and they're nearly gone. The 8 day migraine torture...no more! (I use the Emgality monthly injection - CRGP blocker).
I really like Earth Breeze. I use the regular kind but I know they make an unscented version. I think they're a neat invention. No more massive jugs!
I cannot say it is a better laundry soap than any other kind/brand. But it does the job well!!
It's not 'unscented' but the Lysol hydrogren peroxide cleaner has a very minimal scent. I keep it on reserve for extra germy stuff (spraying down my sink after handling poultry, etc.). I bought it when my kid's school had an outbreak of Norovirus, I do NOT mess around with that (or HFM) and hydrogen peroxide will kill anything you need killed.
Yeah I feel like you need a disinfecting cleaner. I haven’t tried the Lysol HP product but I have the Seventh Gen one.
Speaking of Lysol, I would love to find a disinfecting aerosol spray that doesn’t have a scent. I like to use original Lysol to spray down garbage cans and things like that.
We made the switch to Force of Nature when my second kid was born with eczema. Great for cleaning and we can spray it directly on skin! (Same active ingredient that you'd pay $$$$ for in Magic Molecule / Tower28 SOS spray).
Now off to dig through the archives for how to get the standard Tide smell out of clothes, because I love a good hand me down but cannot with the scented detergents.
I’m very late to this party, though grateful to the host! I’d recommend Force of Nature! It’s a concentrate in an ampoule of salt and vinegar solution which you mix with water in an activator vessel, then plug in to electrolyze and voila! It’s a cleaner, sanitizer, and disinfectant for almost all surfaces! It’s also rated by the EPA and kills stuff like certain viruses ahem! and other microbes.
I have been using Better Life all-purpose cleaner and glass cleaner for years now, and they work beautifully! (I order from the company directly online.) They’re unscented AND made with basic, natural ingredients. And they’re both super effective, which I don’t find with, say, Seventh Generation.
For anyone dealing with cat urine AND a fragrance sensitivity, first that is terrible I’m sorry. Second, there are high quality fragrance free enzyme cleaners available in commercial quantities - if you have a large problem and money you can spend on it, find a local carpet/upholstery person who is a chemistry nerd, and put them to work. (I found one indirectly by asking a local custom furniture maker for a referral.) For DIY, the best compromise I’ve found is a well-fitting mask, Bio-Kleen Bac-Out in the Lime variation, and a couple of hours of running my Coway filter on high in the region. The lime scent isn’t so strong it renders the mask un-re-usable, the enzymes actually work when used as directed (do! Not! Over saturate!), and my very asthmatic old cat is not distressed by the smell, and after a couple of hours I can unmask. By day 2-3, I can get up close and personal with the spot without detecting lingering odors. If you have something better, LMK!!!
It is not an enzyme cleaner, but Reddit turned me on to Folex and it has gotten some gross pet stains out of my carpet.
I use PurrFect because it was designed for cat pee! But you'll definitely need more than 1 bottle (depending on need) because you are really supposed to drench the stain). It doesn't break down fabric and there's no toxic ingredients. My dog loves licking. So it's okay if he decides he likes that spot. Patch test ofc for fabric compatibility