Water, Water Everywhere and Good Enough to Clean

Tired of wasting hard earned money on fragrant, weirdly smelly cleaners promising a better life by cleaning so well, people will idolize you like Martha Stewart or Rachel Raye's fast cooking, perky mutant love child?

Try water.

Yes, use water - good old tap water. While it's true not all spills and messes are equal, and every self respecting toddler seems to know exactly how to best dirty up a household, it's undeniable plenty of water is available to most of us. In most cases, the water supply for the everyday person is pretty sizable. Certain areas around the USA - or the world for that matter - do prize water more as a scare resource than some do of course, but where there is an abundant supply of H2O - most cleaning requirements can basically be met.

For me the turning point came in college, when finances and time were at a premium. Cleaning up spills or stains around my dorm apartment meant juggling how much I could afford at the supermarket cleaner aisle. Looking back, for four guys living in an apartment, my roommates were damn clean, but collegiate life gets pretty crazy. When spills and messes entered the scene, we reached for spray bottles - full of tap water.

I admit I had reservations at first. Only water to clean up? But boy did it work! Don't confuse this advice if handling ground in coffee stains on say a deep pile shag rug, or truly wicked dirt on a couch or something. We used water for quick everyday kind of messes like spilled orange juice, soda or those long cram sessions full of greasy Chinese food dripping in soy sauce. Seldom are stains as sticky stubborn as dried soy sauce, but our water spray bottles blasted away the gooey soy nicely.

Is this a stern admonishment of commercial cleansers like Windex? Am I wagging my finger at our collective species, or jumping on the green scene bandwagon and harping to all that everything must be biodegradable and natural? Not in the least. I will say pricey store bought cleaners do nothing to ease wallet woes, and their main ingredient is basically water.

We'd all like a cleaner environment - that's a real no brainer. Sometimes we all practice a little overkill when tackling a chore. Simple daily cleaning up can be achieved through using plain old water. Water and one more thing - a little grease - as in elbow grease. Perhaps that's the main reason people love pricey store cleansers - there's less personal energy involved. Water can be just as effective - but you must work a bit harder to make it a cleaning buddy.