06/01/2026
I’m always telling friends and clients this save it to you phone love y’all
One of the most commonly misused cleaning products in America isn't bleach.
It's concentrated floor cleaner.
I'm talking about products like Mr. Clean, Pine-Sol, and OdoBan pH Neutral Floor Cleaner.
Most people pour these products with their heart instead of measuring them.
The problem?
These cleaners are concentrates. They're designed to be diluted with water before use.
When you use too much, you're not getting cleaner floors. You're leaving behind excess product that can cause:
• Sticky floors
• Dull-looking floors
• Streaking
• Residue buildup
• Floors that seem dirty again within days
• Increased dirt attraction
Think about it this way: if you don't rinse the soap out of your hair, it feels sticky. The same thing happens to your floors.
Here are some examples of manufacturer-recommended dilutions:
Mr. Clean Multi-Surface Cleaner:
About 1/4 cup per gallon of water.
Pine-Sol:
Typically 1/8 cup per gallon of water for general floor cleaning.
OdoBan pH Neutral Floor Cleaner:
Usually around 2 ounces per gallon of water.
Yet I routinely see people dumping several times that amount into a mop bucket.
So why do people do it?
Because we've been conditioned to believe that more product equals more cleaning power.
But cleaning chemistry doesn't work that way.
Once you've reached the proper dilution, adding more product doesn't make it clean better. It simply leaves more residue behind.
In professional cleaning, one of the biggest lessons you learn is that the correct amount of product often looks like it's not enough.
Sometimes the secret to cleaner floors isn't using more cleaner.
It's using less.
