A suprising discovery

[BarbCA]

A few days ago the dishwasher leaked water onto the floor. When I cleaned it up I was amzed at how clean the spot was.
Our kitchen flooring is very hard, almost impossible to get clean because it has little pores all over that collect dirt.
When I mopped yesterday I used dishwasher detergent and it cleared out almost all of the dirt that I couldn't even get out with a scrub brush.

[Nalani]

Wow, you've discovered a better way of cleaning your kitchen floor. We used to have a floor like that and I know what you mean about trying to get it clean.

[Cynders]

I used dishwasher detergent in the childcare like this, I used to dissolve the dishwasher detergent in hot water (3 Tbsp - 1 cup) add it to a spray bottle and fill with cold water, spray it all over the floors and leave for an hour, then mop as usual. It took out many stains and all the grime, much better than scrubbing.

I also add 2 Tbsp of detergent with hot water to a roasting dish and leave it to soak overnight, gets of 90% of the burnt on bits, of course if the resident teen cleans the dish it's only 70%.

It's great for taking stains off the inside of teapots, coffee pots and flower vases, just add a Tbsp and fill with hot water and leave overnight.

[Kayce]

Year ago when the kids were still home I used dishwasher detergent in along with my laundry detergent for white clothes.. worked pretty good. especially the boys socks!

[jgarcia]

Very good information here... will need to try it!

Barb, what kind of flooring? We have tile and the grout gets really grungy...
Kayce... I've often wondered how to get whites 'white' without bleach... I bought some Tide "pods" and that seems to work well... but maybe dishwasher detergent would work better?

[karlinann]

Dishwasher Detergent contains bleach. Maybe that's what is doing the cleaning.

[Cynders]

I thought it was the Caustic Soda in the dishwash detergent that worked...maybe it's the bleach.

If you want your whites to be white try adding a teaspoon of blue food colouring to the final rinse, sound weird I know but it works. Don't blame me if you add it before the washer is full of water and you get blue streaks on your whites!!

[JoGee]

Good stuff to know. Thanks .

[Cynders]

In the interests of science and the Rounders (and because I am home and the chore I am doing means I have to wait for stage 1 to dry before continuing) I tried mixing 1 Tbsp of dishwasher detergent with 1/3 cup hot water and brushing the mix onto the grout on my bathroom floor tiles.

I can report that after leaving it for an hour, then scrubbing it with an old toothbrush, I get a better result with bleach. Test complete.

[spring]

Very interesting finds...