After quite a bit of thought about today's tip, I decided to let you in on a little secret we have. The secret is those green fiber scrubbies that you can find with the sponges in the grocery store. We use them by the crate. They cut cleaning time down to a minimum and save tons of money in household cleaners that never do what they're supposed to anyway.
I buy my scrubbies at a local dollar store where they sell seconds...basically, manufacturer's throw-aways. They work the same as the expensive ones except they cost about 700% less. I can get 3 1'x1' sheets for a dollar, then I just use an old pair of scissors to cut them to the size I need for the job I'm doing.
Uses I've found for them:
1.) Tubs and tiles (the best use by far). In combination with a little cleanser, these things will rip off any soap scum and hard water residue in no time flat! Do NOT use on fiberglass tubs and surrounds!
2.) Drywall sanding. Use wet or dry. These cost a fraction of sanding screens and work great wet to catch the dust! Perfect for small jobs, but I wouldn't recommend them to do an entire room.
3.) Any thing metal. These will take the rust off a chrome bumper, clean the crud off baking pans, even take the carbon of the inside of a gas grill. (use caution because they WILL scratch finished surfaces like chrome if too much pressure is applied...use plenty of water).
4.) Washing glossy painted surfaces before painting. Whenever we do painting of trim in a house, the first thing we do is wash all the trim with TSP and a green scrubbie. The TSP super-cleans the surface, and the scrubbie roughs it up to give the new paint something to bond onto. This saves the sanding step.
5.) Final wash on furniture after stripping. This will remove any small deposits left over, and scours the wood like steel wool.
Things not to use a scrubbie on:
1.) Any painted surface or finished wood that you are not re-doing. It will scratch the surface.
2.) Any porous surface that is not being refinished (i.e. flat wall paint). The scrubbie will sometimes leave behind a green film that causes no real problem other than it looks really bad.
3.) Glass. It will scratch glass badly!
Have another use for the scrubbies??? We'd love to hear it! Drop us a line. |
