12 Cleaning Products to Make You Actually Like Cleaning

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One way to become more consistent with your home’s cleaning routine is to find products that you enjoy using. As a Bob Vila writer and product tester, I’ve tested more than a hundred popular cleaning tools, ranging from vacuums to steam mops to toilet bowl cleaners and everything in between. Through this experience, one thing has become very clear: When a product works well, cleaning is less of a chore.

If you’re stocking your cleaning closet and looking for tools that are satisfying to use, the 12 items below will help. Each one has been thoroughly tested and recommended by Bob Vila’s expert team of writers and editors, ensuring excellent performance and value. 

Vacuuming is an unavoidable part of a cleaning routine, and if you’re looking for an option that cleans well, is easy to maneuver, and is enjoyable to use, you can’t go wrong with the Dyson V15 Detect. One of our favorite features is the green illumination on its hard-floor head, which highlights otherwise invisible dust and hair for a spotless clean. It also has excellent suction, comes with a range of vacuum heads and accessories, and performed so well in our testing that it earned the title of best overall vacuum.  

While no product will make cleaning the toilets fun, the Lysol Power Clinging Gel can make it easier. This toilet bowl cleaner quickly breaks down even the most stubborn stains, so you spend less time scrubbing. It can also disinfect, killing up to 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses. During testing, it was the only cleaner that powered through the embarrassing toilet bowl rings built up in our porcelain throne. 

If you’d rather toss a dish with burnt-on food than scrub it clean, the Dremel Versa 4V Power Scrubber Kit is for you. This handy little tool comes with a variety of cleaning pads that can power through everything from scorched dishes to the soapscum on your bathtub surround. We tested this model against other power scrubbers and found it effortless to handle.

All-purpose cleaners are a must for tackling numerous household surfaces without needing to lug multiple products around. The Mister Clean Clean Freak Multipurpose Spray is one of the best thanks to its ability to break through dirt, grease, soap scum, and grime. We like the lavender scent, which smells great and is EPA Safer Choice Certified. 

If you want to kill germs and walk away with squeaky clean floors, a good steam mop is hard to beat. The Bissell PowerFresh Scrubbing and Sanitizing Steam Mop is one of our favorites, thanks to its three levels of steam that suit a variety of hard floor types. We also appreciate the easy maneuverability, which allows it to clean some of the grimiest spots in the house, such as underneath cabinet overhangs and up against the base of toilets. 

Nothing kills the look of stainless steel faster than food smudges and fingerprints, which is where the Therapy Stainless Steel Kit comes in. This kit, which includes a spray and microfiber towel, was the winner in our stainless steel cleaner tests and is also well-loved by its users with a 4.6-out-of-5-star rating from more than 20,000 Amazon reviewers. It cuts through grease and grime, leaving behind a pleasant lavender scent.

Whether you need to remove stains from carpet or upholstery, the Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaner has you covered. This machine is small but mighty, featuring a clean and dirty water tank, plus powerful suction that can remove dirt, debris, and set-in stains. It was the best-performing model in our portable carpet cleaner tests and has an impressive 4.4 out of 5-star rating from more than 100,000 Amazon reviewers. 

An often unsung hero of cleaning is a good dish soap, and Seventh Generation Free & Clear Dish Soap is the cream of the crop. Featuring a sensitive-skin-friendly formula, this dish soap outpaced all others during our tests, wiping away food residue with ease and performing well during household use. It’s also highly rated on Amazon, with a 4.6 out of 5-star rating from more than 19,000 reviewers. 

There are many different types of mops to choose from; however, when the goal is to get the cleaning done as quickly as possible, nothing beats a spray mop. The Rubbermaid Reveal Microfiber Spray Mop is one such option that’s worthy of a spot in your cleaning arsenal. It features a refillable bottle so you can mix your own cleaning solution, comes with washable microfiber mop pads, and is safe for all hard floor types. Whether you’re spot-cleaning a mess or deep-cleaning your entire home, this mop is convenient to use. 

If you want your floors to look spotless without constantly whipping out the vacuum and mop, the Ecovacs Deebot X9 PRO Omni Robot Vacuum and Mop might be the solution you’re after. Featuring AI navigation, it tackles dirt, dust, and sticky spots without user intervention. It also self-washes its mop pad for continued cleanliness and self-empties its vacuum contents into the base station, ensuring that you never have to lift a finger. 

While a steam mop can dislodge gunk from hard floors, the Bissell Steam Shot Handheld Steam Cleaner is suitable for tackling a wide range of cleaning jobs, from sanitizing toilets to blasting gunk out of the tops of baseboards. This small machine allows the user to control the amount of steam released and includes a variety of attachments for scrubbing, cleaning grout, washing windows, and tackling upholstery. It can even remove wrinkles from clothes. 

One way to enjoy your cleaning routine a little more is to speed it up, which is exactly what the Tineco Floor One S5 Smart Wet/Dry Vacuum does. Rather than vacuuming and mopping separately, this floor-cleaning machine tackles both jobs at once. Its self-propelled design makes it almost effortless to use, and thanks to its sensors, it can detect how dirty your floors are and adjust its cleaning power accordingly.

 

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