The Cleaning Supplies We Actually Use (and the DIY Cleaner That Saves Us Money)

If you own a cleaning business, you already know how overwhelming it is to figure out what to actually buy. Walk down the cleaning aisle and there is a separate product for every surface, every smell, and every stain, and most of them are marketing. After years of cleaning real homes, my kit is shorter than you would expect, and a lot of it I mix myself. Here is what we genuinely could not run the business without.

My DIY multipurpose cleaner

This is the one I get asked about the most. Our everyday cleaner is not something off a shelf. We mix it: rubbing alcohol, a small amount of Dawn dish soap, and water, filled up in our own spray bottles. It is cheap, it is efficient, and it disinfects, which means one bottle does most of the work in a standard clean.

The one thing I will not do is hand you an exact recipe and call it a day, because the ratio actually matters. It changes depending on whether you bought 70 percent or 99 percent rubbing alcohol, and “disinfects” is only true if you get that ratio right. So do your own research on the correct disinfecting ratio for the alcohol strength you have, confirm it, and then make it your standard. Once you dial it in, this cleaner works like magic and costs a fraction of what the name-brand sprays do.

Melamine sponges, with one warning

Melamine sponges, the white ones a lot of people call magic erasers, are the second thing we could not live without. They are disposable, cheap, and they work better than they have any right to on scuffs, baseboards, and built-up grime.

The warning matters though: they are mildly abrasive. You will see other cleaners online say that, and it is true. So do your research on what you can and cannot use them on, always get them wet before you scrub, and test on a hidden spot before you take one to a glossy or painted finish. Used the right way, they are some of the most cost-effective tools in the whole kit.

OdoBan for disinfecting, smell, and floors

The third one I reach for constantly is OdoBan. Their disinfectant is genuinely good at disinfecting, but the part I love is that it doubles as an air freshener, so a house does not just get clean, it smells clean when the client walks back in. That smell is part of what people are paying for, even if they never say it out loud.

We also use their floor cleaner on basically every floor type we run into. Obviously read the back and check the surfaces it is not made for, but being able to carry one floor product instead of five is exactly the kind of simplicity that keeps a real schedule moving.

The few specialty products worth buying

Most jobs do not need anything fancy. But a handful of products earn their place in the kit for the harder work:

• A heavy degreaser for the greasy jobs. A good degreaser has saved me on more than one deep clean, the kind of caked-on kitchen grease that a multipurpose spray just smears around. Reach for it on deep cleans, not standard ones. If you are not sure where the line is, we break it down in Standard vs Deep vs Move-Out Cleaning.
• A dedicated glass cleaner for streak-free mirrors and glass, because nothing makes a bathroom look half-finished faster than a streaky mirror.
• A gentle powder cleanser like Bar Keeper’s Friend for stainless steel, hard-water spots, and stubborn sink stains, where you need a little grit without the scratch.

That is the whole idea: a short list of reliable everyday products, plus a few specialists you only pull out when the job calls for it.

Test it before you trust it

The most expensive lesson I have learned about supplies had nothing to do with what to buy. It was about not knowing a surface.

A client once asked me how to get the buildup off her showerhead and faucets. I researched it, found the trick where you tie a bag of vinegar around the fixture, and tried it. It stripped the finish off everything. I was so embarrassed. She was kind about it, but I never forgot it.

So now the rule is simple: test any product, especially anything acidic or abrasive, on a hidden spot before you use it on something that matters. Knowing your surfaces is part of being a professional, and it is the difference between a product that saves you time and one that costs you a replacement. We treat this kind of thing as a documented standard, which is exactly what SOPs are for.

Your supplies are a line on your P&L

Here is the part newer owners miss. Supplies are not just a chore to buy, they are a cost of every single job, and that cost comes straight out of your margin. Labor is the big one, running about 35 to 45 percent of revenue on residential work, but supplies are real money too, and they add up fast across a full schedule.

This is why I mix our own multipurpose cleaner and lean on cheap, effective products instead of a shelf of expensive single-use sprays. It is not about being cheap, it is about protecting the gross margin on every job, which should sit around 50 to 60 percent after labor, supplies, and gas. Pair smart supplies with pricing that actually covers your costs, never below a floor of about $60 per labor hour, and the math finally works in your favor. If you want to see how the numbers fit together, start with Busy vs Profitable and the real prices on our cost pages.

What is in our cart

If you want to see the specific products we keep coming back to, including the ones in this post, they are in my Amazon storefront. (That storefront uses affiliate links, so we may earn a commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you. We only list products we actually use.)

Good supplies keep a clean consistent. Good systems keep the whole business consistent, which is the harder part. If you are ready to build the pricing, scheduling, and processes that let your business run without living in your head, that is what a Systems Call is for. Scrub smarter, scale harder.