I come from a family of neat freaks. My grandmother’s level of cleaning was beyond what normal people would ever do. The tales I heard of her, rigging up homemade scaffolding to balance precariously over the stairs to clean a window. Her daughters followed suit although my poor mother had four kids who were a tornado of clutter and mess. It me! I’m one of those kids.

Still, I always envisioned when I had my own home, it would be spotless. However, I went from living at home with my parents and sisters to living with Grams. I moved in with my Grams when I was 30. She had a caretaker who did most of the cleaning. 

After Grams died, I did pretty good for awhile with home upkeep. We were still having Sunday dinners at my house so I would do a hurried cleaning frenzy before the family would come over. When dinners shifted away from my home, so did my cleaning routine. 

I also had some senior chihuahuas, one of whom was never trustworthy with house training so with their messes, I always felt like my home was dirty. Still, I would buy different products to try or make sporadic efforts to get into a routine but let’s be honest, cleaning sucks. 

The last couple of years I have been obsessed with reading Buzzfeed articles about the must have cleaning products for lazy people. It’s finally put me in a groove, slowly, but it got me going again.

First I bought the ceiling fan cleaner and was so impressed. It made cleaning my ceiling fans a breeze, no pun intended. It really traps all the dust with one or two swipes on each blade. 

Next I bought a stainless steel cleaner, as this was often a sore spot for me. It is plant based and made in the USA. Since I do share my home with four spoiled critters I prefer to use cleaners that are greener and safer for all of us. The shine this gives stainless is amazing and it repels dirt and junk for a long time.

Inspired by my successes, I tried the Wet It and Forget It Shower Spray, which didn’t disappoint. I hate cleaning the shower so anything I can spray and leave overnight and rinse in the morning is a winner in my book! The smell is pleasant though can be a little strong during application, in my opinion.

At this point, I hit a wall. I had some products that were working well but I still hated vacuuming despite buying a nice upright vacuum during the pandemic. Also, my one cat would instantly hide in the basement whenever I would bring out the vacuum and take ages to come back up. I’ve long wanted a Roomba but kept putting it off because of the price tag. Christmas Day, Amazon had a sale and I finally decided to spoil myself. I LOVE IT!!!!! I run it every other day and my floors have never looked better. Between my sister, myself, three cats, and a dog I have a hairy house. Or did. Roomba has nixed that for me. 

For cleaning glass/mirrors, I purchased Micro Fiber Glass Cleaning Cloths. I only need water and I get a beautiful, streak free clean. No more harsh smelling glass cleaner. 

This left me with two small challenges. First, how to clean my furniture without freaking out the cats ideally. I use the ChomChom which I love but sometimes furniture just needs to be vacuumed. Enter my Bissell hand vac. It’s quiet, lightweight, and does a great job of cleaning furniture and things like windowsills, etc. 

The last challenge on my quest for easy, safe cleaning was mopping. I have a spin mop which is fantastic but I still hate busting out a bucket and mop, I agonize over what cleaning solution to use. I often feel like my floors are sticky after mopping. Plus, I give myself a panic attack since my one cat follows my every move, therefore walking on the wet floors and I’m convinced she will die of poisoning. 

A friend suggested a Shark Steam Mop made for hardwood floors. It’s also got a lift away option, for ‘above floor cleaning’ and I am so impressed. I used it to clean the hood over my stove and holy moly! The caked on grease basically melted away. I used the steam cleaner, scrubbing with it, then wiped it with a paper towel and presto! A shining, gleaming over the range hood. 

I think I now have my arsenal of cleaning tools and solutions. My house has never been cleaner and I’m ecstatic! Having a cleaner home is boosting my mood. I also love that I am not stressing over poisoning my critters or myself in the process.

For the record I’m not getting any money for these product recommendations. I just wanted to share as someone who has struggled to find the right tools to make cleaning easy. 

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