I have been reading this thread with interest. I am amazed that professional cleaners are just using stuff they buy off of the grocery store shelves. This stuff just doesn't work well at all. I don't do cleaning for a living, but working in restaurants, we do have to do all the cleaning around the place. Professional products work a hundred times better. I am lucky, I can order professional cleaning products for myself, for my home, through my employers account. If you have a cleaning business you can order directly for yourself. I have a friend who does have a home cleaning business and sometimes she asks me to go out on jobs with her, to help her when she does not have enough staff. She was using junk from the grocery stores for her cleaning jobs. I couldn't believe it. I showed her the products I have, and showed her how well they work, and she was amazed. Although every restaurant I have worked at may use a different line of professional cleaning products, The BEST I have found is by North Woods: http://www.northwoodstm.com/his/index.shtml Over the years I have converted new empoyers to their produsts. I even give their products to friends and relatives and they come back to me begging me to get more for them. They do appear to cost more when you look at the prices, but they are much more concentrated that the ordinary stuff you buy at the store. For instance the Dew Drop laundry detergent used only 2 ounces per 50# of laundry. Their Blue Ox cleaner is only 3 cents per GALLON (!) when diluted. AND this is some of the best stuff out there for cleaning. They don't spend money on TV commercials. They don't print coupons and send them through the mail. They don't rent shelf space in stores. (Yes, shelf space is often rented in stores.) They don't have fancy packaging. They don't sell through a pyramid scheme. The Fireball spray degreaser works like magic. I just pulled my refrigerator out from the wall the other day and used it on the back of it. The greasy dirt just ran off. I first sprayed it with some Mr. Clean that I use for quick wipes of my counter and the Mr. Clean barley put a dent in the built up greasy dirt. Fireball zipped it right off. No other cleaner can do what this stuff does. I just used it on my keyboard today and it is squeaky clean white again. None of the store bought stuff does what this does. Sure, the store bought stuff will clean things OK, but not great. The Brilliance they sell cleans glass and ceramic like nothing else and never streaks. They have a window cleaner called Clarity that beats everything. They have a hand protectanct called Force Field that is great for protecting hands when doing cleaning tasks. I have no connection to this company. All of there prodects that I have tried have surpassed my expecations. They only sell to businesses. There may be other companies who sell *professional cleaning products* that are just as good and are just as economical. I haven't tried them all. North Woods has become my preferred cleaning product. I have never used North Woods carpet stain remover, because I am rather loyal to Carpet Science, which is also a *professional cleaner* made by Johnson Wax Co to sell to businesses. I love Carpet Science and I used to obtain it through one of my employers, but I see now that office supply places online carry it. It's great for spot cleaning on carpets. I used it to clean my white linen lampshades after trying to use Tide on them. Tide did nothing. Carpet Science made them look new again. But my point is, is that if you are running a cleaning service you should be using professional products that work better and in the long run will be cheaper. Even commercial paper towels are better and cheaper in the long run, than Bounty or what ever popular brand is advertised. http://www.rightlook.com/browseproducts/Blue-Heavy-Duty-Paper-Towels.html The only gorcery store item I would recommend is the disposable toilet cleaning brushes. Sure, it is cheaper to just use bleach and carry a crusty, wet, toilet scrub brush from job to job, but it is rather gross. I wouldn't waste my money using them at home but my friend who has the cleaning service uses them because she doesn't want to carry around a smelly toilet scrub brush. And you wouldn't believe how many people out there *do not own* a toilet scrub brush. Really. She always brings one along. I would also recommend using Bar keepers Friend or Zud. These contain oxylic acid rather than chlorine bleach and will *eleiminate rust stains* and work well on grease. I think Zud is the better of the two but it is harder to find in the stores. You can order BKF cheaper by the drum 200# for $150 or 25# for $30. If you have a cleaning service you will have no problem going through tht much in a short time. An easier way to clean is to get cotton gloves and spray your cleaner or polish on them and then go over everything rather than using a bulky rag. It's a breeze to clean lamps and figurines and even mini blinds with this method. As far as hardwood floors go, the guy who refinished my wood floors told me to never use Murphy's Soap with water on them. He recommended Bona and gave me a sample with the microfiber mop. I have used it ever since. It cleans very well and does not damage the floors, after all how dirty are wood floors going to get? Kitchens, bathrooms, and entryways are going to be either tiled or have vinyl floor coverings on them, because they need to be scrubbed. Wood floors don't get filthy like they do. Any comments?

I bought Registry Mechanic. When I ran it the first time it found and fixed around 300 problems. On my laptop if fixed over 200. However, I could not notice any difference in the run speed on either machine. I suspect there is a lot of junk left dangling by various software programs that this package fixes. However, there is no indication that any of the "problems" it found were actually needin to be fixed. By the way, after completing the repairs I ran it again and on each machine it found zero problems. So I guess it "fixed" them the first time.

thx guys! maybe if they have to put down a primer the guys can do it a day I plan to not be there... do they have to do that for sticky tiles too? I do plan on a low gloss - I don't like glossy on floors, counters... I was wondering last wk about one of those hand held steam cleaners for bathrooms etc - reviews i read on them weren't so good tho. maybe i'll try one of those down the road tho. I need things easy to clean! it's good to hear those swifter things work good on the floors tho. I'm so looking forward to the day I can just run one of those around on the floor! i was thinking maybe those steamers would be good every so often for a deep clean. they said (showed) you could use it on the mattress, carpet etc to steam kill those body bugs - can't think of the name of them... icky to think they are all around us. no way to prove it really works for that tho. hopefully, I won't have any carpet but the area rugs. I think the steamer would probably be ok on sheet vinyl - but if the steam gets around the edges of the tiles (which it'd have to) I'm not sure that would be a very good thing... will have to ask the mfg if I end up with vinyl tiles. "If you have an issue with bacteria or infections, you might need a steam cleaner." I usually don't - but I do have a compromised immune system - so maybe it's something I'll check out down the road for occasional cleanings - depending on what flooring I end up with. I want the minimum texture - I think that makes it harder to clean also. I'll have to check out that clorox redimop. That sounds like it'd be a good germ killer.

I like registries. Seems like the only weddings I go to are the children of friends, or friends of my son. I don't know what their personal style is anymore. And usually you know only one half of the happy couple. lol As a matter of fact, the last wedding we went to was in November. My best friend from high school, and her hubby who is my husband's employer, it was their son. I don't know Matt anymore, and the registry was great. I went to Target and bought a LOT of kitchen gadgets that they had listed. It was a ball! And I wrapped the gift in three boxes using tan contracter's paper, with brown, gold and green ribbons and bows. Each box was smaller than the next, and I built a tower. I LOVE gift wrapping. It's the ONLY time that a bride (and Matt, lol) THANKED ME at the wedding reception for the cool wrapping! I was introduced to the bride and she was so excited that I took the time to wrap the gift in their wedding colors! LOL (got the colors from the invitation) A honeymoon registry, well sounds odd, I've never heard of one. Very intersting. I would rather send money. I was thinking that this was done through a travel agency. But I checked the link and I guess I was wrong! I know that these companies need $$$ to keep going, but I don't want 10% or more of my gift going to someone else. I just as soon give cash to the couple. Jannie, I love ya', I do, but I think it is kind of sad that it took you 32 years to get over someone wearing a specific color to your wedding. I have no problem with anyone wearing any color they want to, to celebrate with me. I wore black and white to Matt's wedding, and his Mom was wearing a gorgeous black velvet formal dress.