apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Magic. Eraser. Dunzo.

I use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser all the time. I didn't know about the Scotch Brite brand.

Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean.........

Mr. Clean does the job perfectly. It's impossible to improve upon perfection, so unless they're giving the Scotch-Brite pads away for free, baldy keeps my business.

Plus I have a certain distaste for 3M products after their supposed safe-for-renters Command Strips peeled several walls down to the paper coating on the dry wall, costing me a big chunk of my security deposit. And those were just the ones I could actually remove. About a third of the pull tabs broke off at the first gentle tug.

Dissenting opinion on this one. I like the double-sided aspect of the Scotch Brite pads. Some times you need some extra oomph, and they hold up better than Mr. Clean because they have a harder surface on one side.

meh. whichever is cheaper.

simply the magic eraser.

i am completely in love with my magic eraser.

Love, love, love the Magic Eraser! It even did wonders on the over 50 year old upholstery on our classic car! I tried everything to get off the crud, grime and grease - you name the product - but nothing could touch how well the magic eraser and some hot water worked.

Neither. Not too friendly to the environment. I can live with a few scuff marks myself. No big deal. Disintegrating melamine foam in my home and subsequently washed into the groundwater? No thank you.

magic eraser

I must have been living under a rock or something... What exactly do these things erase?

Neither. I use a sponge and baking soda. Does the job fine.

Magic Eraser has a double sided one too. Competition is good.

Haven't used the ScotchBrite. Didn't like Mr. Clean Eraser. I thought it was worthless. Or maybe my dirt isn't erasable??!!

Mr. Clean.

I use both. I think Mr. Clean does a better job but the ScotchBrite is a close second, and when it's cheaper (which is most of the time) I choose the ScotchBrite.

I prefer baking soda and vinegar

Oh, and Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds.

Yeah I feel like AT veers sharply between "we're green yay" and "which plastic chemical laden thing do you love today?" Today its getting all the toothpaste out to the last drop, then this yucky post, last week its self watering cans from mother earth news...or landfill and plastic -y pet hair solutions. So which is it? Will the real AT please stand up? Because frankly it's starting to feel a bit schizo...

LOL mskk. "schizo."

Gotta agree. I sometimes wonder if there's any communication between AT Re-Nest and the rest of the AT blogs.

mskk...
These eraser things are about as chemical free as they get. It's the molecular structure of the material that is gently but magically abrasive when damp, so instead of using a bunch of towels soaked in cleaning supplies or paper towels that will be thrown away and more cleaning supplies, we have a product that can be used several times without any of the paper or water waste. See, it's not so bad!

I agree ChzPlz
We had some black rings on our wooden countertop. Nothing, not even sandpaper could clear away the rings coming from hot metal cans.
The magic eraser removed every trace of the spots.
For regular cleaning we also use vinegar or citric acid.

Walmart's generic ones seem to last longer - I liked those.

Good to know about the ring stain in the wood counters - I live in Sweden now and all kitchens usually have wood countertops. I stained the last apartment we were in just this way and felt awful - but couldn't get it out. Now I know just to have the family ship me some of these!

Thanks Reni for the tip!!

@kaneeneenie: I appreciate your clarification, I really do, since I was not aware the eraser didn't have lots of chemicals, but it still has some, its still meant to be disposable, it takes hundreds of years to degrade in landfills and is made by Procter and Gamble, a company which foists tons of chemicals on us in every guise imaginable. Im not trying to be holier than thou, just when I see all the packaging and waste and how inconsistent it all is, it makes me ill! I don't use paper towels and huge chemicals to clean and never have, I use sponges or rags and detergent with boiling water/vinegar/ scouring powder/in a pinch a dash of bleach... the sponges last about months, the rags as long as I want them to. For cleaning larger or more set in things or getting rings off wood, for example, I use small gauge steel wool, which rusts away in a matter of months... but still, I know isn't truly green.. It's a problem I think we are all facing about being greener - what does it really mean to us day to day? How do we implement it? On a health level, I am also nervous about constantly exposing myself to all the crazy chemicals used in these products, even in small doses, since some of them have cumulative effects, and our culture has a history of unleashing dangerous chemicals first and asking questions later. I also don't want to be responsible for putting them into the food chain in any way since other creatures have lower tolerance to toxicity than I might . Now as I write I see that my next step is leaving the bleach and sponges behind and moving to vinegar, boiling water, and rags. Ill keep you posted! See I feel like I sound like the Unabomber right now, but I am interested in seeing what it truly means to walk as lightly as I can on the earth. And I think its so important to see all this as holistic - that is, green as integrated into the way we live and decorate not as a seperate website or something we think of once in a while but pervading the way we live. Its a paradigm shift was all might consider. If AT is about living well and creating daily beauty in our lives what about being more beautiful in our actions as well as in how everything looks? Sorry for the rant and I am not 'against' anyone personally I just think its vitally important.

Mskk:

Don't completely stress yourself out. There are big things and small things to get upset about. Concentrate on the big things.

These things are made of melamine foam. Melamine tainted food is what killed over 8,000 pets in the US last year. You put two two together.

- Nate
method lust

two AND two, sorry.

nathan aaron--maybe if you weren't so hellbent on pimping your site you could concentrate more on writing to include conjunctions.