Best kitchen cleaning product i've used....

dandy-candy

I can't quite believe it myself, but it was soap!

About a week ago I was in Shropshire and visited Blist Hill Museum, and bought a lump of Carbolic soap.
Yesterday I decided to blitz the kitchen - now at the risk of letting you know how scummy I am let me just say I hate cleaning. Not like those people who say "My house is such a mess!" and you walk in and find it looking like a show home, my house REALLY is a mess. The kitchen units have grease solidified on them with fluff and dander and God only knows what - or at least they did!

I filled the washing up bowl with water as hot as my hands could stand, soaked and wrung out a knitted cotton wash cloth, then rubbed it on the bar of soap. Then I went over the greasy manky units and with literally no effort they came clean!

In the past I used eco stuff, then Mr Muscle, even mega scouring stuff like Vim! This has done the best and easiest job - i'm in shock :eek:

Justamum

I might have to get some of that - I've just googled it and I like the pink colour :rotfl:Is it harsh on your hands? I use liquid soda crystals as my normal grease blaster and that works brilliantly too.

BitterAndTwisted

I suspect that Fairy household soap or Sunlight would garner you similar results and are a bit easier to get hold of. Didn't they used to use carbolic for hand-washing in hospitals before the days of MRSI? It can be got online at the website you can probably guess the name of, plus all sorts of other delightful, very desirable and useful vintage products

Any road, I am not giving up my Stardrops. No, I am not.

Justamum

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I suspect that Fairy household soap or Sunlight would garner you similar results and are a bit easier to get hold of.

You can get them both from the same website, plus lots of other traditional cleaning products.

snozberry

I love the smell of carbolic soap.

dandy-candy

Justamum wrote: »

I might have to get some of that - I've just googled it and I like the pink colour :rotfl:Is it harsh on your hands? I use liquid soda crystals as my normal grease blaster and that works brilliantly too.

It was fine on my hands, although i'm religious about moisturising after washin up anyway!

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Didn't they used to use carbolic for hand-washing in hospitals before the days of MRSI?

Yes it kills germs - which is great in my kitchen

Toxic_Lemon

I can google carbolic soap for the official details but can anyone give any more information on its environmental impact or similar? I'm very against soap as it's made using acid and is so damaging to the skin, etc, etc. I don't use anything with soap or SLS.

Sue14

snozberry wrote: »

I love the smell of carbolic soap.

Me too, I think it's because it reminds me of my childhood, as my mum always used it for scrubbing the floors, which I also do occasionally.

sb44

You can buy it directly from the manufacturer.

http://www.lifebuoy.co.uk/carbolic-soaps.htm

Nicepeach

Hi All:wave:

Reading this thread has reminded me how much I like soap in a bar but I never buy it in bars now, just in liquid form hand wash/shower gel as, although I always rinse around after myself, my DS (18) never, ever does & I can't bear the soapy scum which bars leave behind or the manky jelly it sits in when someone leaves it stood in a puddle (makes me go all queasy & I can't bear to pick it up!)

I'm the weird freak you will find sniffing the bars of soap in the supermarket or shop, I love the smell! When I was growing up we always used Imperial Leather & the smell just transports me back to my childhood. Goodness knows what they stuck the label on with as you could NEVER get it off & it always lasted right to the very end of the bar! Sometimes we'd have Pears too but this was "really dear" so we didn't have it very often!

I always have a sniff of Wrights Coal Tar Soap as that reminds me of both sets of my grandparents. As does "green" household Fairy (excellent for getting stains out of clothes & general household cleaning) but I wonder if any of you can remember a soap my Nan ALWAYS had in the bathroom which smelt like Wrights Coal Tar but it was white & had small brownish "grains" in it? She always had Wright's Coal Tar in the kitchen for hand washing. Love the smell of that too!

Sorry to go off topic a bit but the soap thing brought back lots of happy memories & I can't for the life of me remember what the white one was called? My Nan always had a bar of Camay soap too but only for ladies to use - she said ALL the old film stars used that one & that's what made their skin so beautiful!

BitterAndTwisted

Camay must have been expensive because we never had that at home and so was Pears as I'd never even smelled it until after I'd left home. I reckon it was probably Lifebouy we had. I don't remember the Wright's-smelling white soap with the brown bits in it but I do remember having my hair washed with carbolic when I was at boarding school. No expense spared.