Barbara Flanagan of I.D. Magazine has a fascinating article about microfiber, a cleaning cloth introduced in Europe a decade ago that’s never caught on in the U.S., despite its ability to clean all sorts of things without the use of cleaning chemicals—”the product cleans surfaces mechanically, not chemically, by scraping them with microscopic precision.”
When Flanagan tested microfiber products herself, she found that they worked as promised but made people feel that something was off—and illustrated how deeply packaging and brand expectations control our cleaning purchases:
Robbed of the sensory excitement of cleaning solutions—bright colors, heady fumes, sudsing, foaming, and definitive rinsing—everyone felt ineffective and disarmed. The rituals didn’t feel right. But unquestionably, the stuff worked. Windows disappeared, floors gleamed, the Subaru sparkled.
She went on to ask the big cleaning companies what they thought of microfiber, and was met with a generalized “meh”:
Several lines of questioning, repeated over the course of two months, via approximately 100 phone calls and countless emails, uncovered several facts. First, large makers of household chemicals are very, very hard to reach and are unwilling to reveal their ingredients for fear of piracy. Second, they’re hell-bent on convincing customers to disinfect their premises using the strongest chemicals possible to annihilate bacteria and viruses, evidenced not just by the kind of products they sell and the scare tactics by which they’re marketed, but also by the corporate refrain I heard over and over: Okay, maybe microfiber can remove germs, but it does not kill them.
(To disinfect or sanitize, technically one must kill 99.999 percent of microorganisms in 30 seconds.)
Never mind that removing germs is likely to be enough for the average homeowner, assuming he or she takes the time to wash the microfiber cloth properly afterward. Never mind that new university research finds that “safe” household chemicals are proving unhealthy now that so many of them are building up and mixing together inside our hyper-sealed homes, then draining outdoors. Never mind that more scientists are predicting the rise of superbugs as over-disinfecting threatens to create invincible strains of bacteria and viruses.
But of course corporate self-interest is only half the story, because U.s. companies are responding to the desires of their market, and the U.S. market remains a place where chemicals and no-work convenience win out over a re-usable cloth.
The observation that all company spokespeople confirmed, whether makers of disinfectant toilet-bowl cleaner or makers of microfiber, was quite a revelation: America loves its cleaning chemicals, and lots of them. We have a distinct cleaning culture. And as much as that culture makes us look stubborn, superstitious, underinformed, and overly aggressive, it’s who we are.
“The Strange Case of the Missing Microfiber” [I.D. Magazine]
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Not sure if I missed this, but some of them can also be used in the dryer instead of dryer sheets. Yes, it decreases their life-length, but it grabs all the static without the chemicals of dryer sheets (plus the extra waste). Only thing is, it’ll inevitably be stuck to your pants, shirt, etc. when you take them out of the dryer, so you’ll have to hunt for it. Also, it’s warm weather season, so yahoo for hanging your stuff out to dry.
I’m going to buy some of these. I’m moving away from even using Method and Mrs. Meyers. My husband comes from a family who has to bleach everything to “clean” it, so it’s been a struggle, but I think he’s finally on board. It helped that I complained A LOT when I’d walk in the house and it reeked of bleach.
@krom: Wish I could say that some Canadians are better, but I work with a guy who just bought a new car with a V-8 and bragged about how much gas it burns through. There’s also a guy in town with a giant pick-up truck whose back-window decal says:
“Burnin’ gas and haulin’ ass”
Puke.
LOVE these, but didn’t know they weren’t supposed to in the dryer. I bought mine on Amazon.
@suburbancowboy: Dr. Bronner’s is wicked! At first, I had a hard time getting over the sick-scary amounts of bible scripture, but once you see how much and how well it works, you’ll have a hard time going back. I worked at a locally-owned healthfood store, and that’s how I got into it. I’ve used it for everything from cleaning the bathroom to shampoo/bodywash/facial cleanser while camping. Being a girl, I also love the scents that are available. Last time I checked, there was Peppermint, Lavender, Eucalyptus, and Unscented. Apparently you can also get it in a ‘bar’ form now, too, which may not last as long, but be more convenient for camp. Long live Dr. Bronner’s (no, I don’t work for them).
@Carl3000: Of course you didn’t. You simply alluded to it.
@friendlynerd: isn’t all soap supposed to be antibacterial? what’s the point if it isn’t
@wiretapstudios: I haven’t heard about this stuff. At least I didn’t know they were a substitute for household chemicals (I tend to tune out infomercial sales pitches).
Though I become more and more convinced that I can easily and effectively replace all chemicals in my house with white vinegar and baking soda. Watching vinegar do its work on a humidifier after years of neglect is nothing short of amazing.
@lookatmissohio:
I own a natural cleaning business. I use microfiber for pretty much everything. You should look into Earth Friendly products as an alternative besides the Ecover.
Even when you find them, like anything else, quality will vary. Funny how you pay so much for those ones to clean glasses with, yet one with 20 times the area for the same cost doesn’t work half as well. IE, just about anything on Advance or Autozone shelves tends to be crap. Target seems to have some decent ones, though.
BTW, I’ve only recently begun to use them a lot.
@LucyInTheSky: Nothing? I use all that stuff all the time. You can also use such rather safe chemicals with the fancy microfiber cleaning cloths, where needed or desired (even the greatness of microfiber can not replace the greater greatness of baking soda).
As an aside on the chemicals, try Pure Castile. The one with the quotes all over the bottle. Works fine on skin, gets rid of misc. car grime no problem, takes care of mold, etc., and is more or less just good quality oil soap. It can replace many cleaning products around the house (like scrubbing bubbles and gojo). Just figure out a good scent for you, and off you go…with your microfiber cloth, of course, to keep this on topic
.
I can’t even go near the cleaning products aisle without sneezing! Seriously that stuff is horrible and I dread for what it does to the environment. I’m am totally buying some of this at Target today! Maybe even Amazon…awesome article!
@nedzeppelin:
No, soap needs additives to be antibacterial. Any soap will remove bacteria from your hands and send it down the drain, but “antibacterial” soaps actually kill what’s on your hands.
Theoretically.
The issue is that antibacterial soaps are rarely used correctly. If you look at the directions you’re really supposed to have it on your hands a minimum of 30 seconds. Most people are through washing their hands and out the door by the time 30 seconds has passed. The result: killing the weaker bacteria and leaving the stronger ones (likely more harmful ones than the ones you just killed) to thrive. At the same time you might be maiming those stronger ones but the ones that live go on to reproduce, making more of the resistant strains.
Final result: chemical-resistant superbugs.
@andykay: I would still bucket-wash the car if it’s got a significant amount of dirt on it. While the microfiber cloth won’t scratch the paint, grit trapped in it can.
I use them. I will have to admit, though, that I like the smell of my house after I clean it w/ chemicals. It smells “clean”. I find after I use the microfiber cloths, I go around and spray Febreze throughout my house just to give it that ‘clean’ smell. HAHAHAHA! I’m such a sucker, I know.
The REAL reason microfiber hasn’t caought on in the US is it is based on the METRIC SYSTEM.
=)
I use these; they’re awesome and they dust anything. My mom got me a few from Dollar Tree, I think, or maybe Sam’s Club.
@bohemian: Hmm. That comment is as inflammatory and presumptuous as the original article.
I will tell you one reason microfiber won’t replace cleaners; geometry. When my dog is a bad dog on the carpet, no amount of rubbing it with microfiber will get the dog crap out of the places where it has soaked. I want me some surfactants to get in there and kill those e.coli bacteria before I walk on that surface with bare feet again. Or consider the humble corner. No matter how hard you push that microfiber towelette into the corners of where your kitchen counter meets the wall, there will be a teeny, tiny space where the cloth can’t get. This may be a problem only Mr. Monk could worry about, but the point is that mechanical cleaning methods don’t solve every cleaning problem.
Incidentally, I own a cast iron skillet (great for steak) and use mechanical cleaning on it every day, just about.
@opsomath: That’s why god invented vinegar and baking soda.
YOu can buy them at Target.com , Wal-Mart, Costco and Trader Joe’s, so how missing are these products?
Proof that the majority of american consumers are idiots and the companies that cater to them know this for a fact.
If people are interested in cleaning without chemicals, you should check out the Lotus Sanitizing System. It’s a countertop oxygenator that transforms tap water into supercharged cleaner, 10x more powerful than bleach, but completely nontoxic.
I’ve had one for over a year and use it on everything but wood in my house.
And it comes with a microfiber cloth
@BScrivner: I shop at TJ’s but never shop in the non-food sections. Now I know. Thanks!
Bought a two pack of micro fiber cloths from GM at Stop & Shop based on this
thread. I cleaned a bunch of surfaces in the kitchen with water, but it
seemed like I could do the same with any cloth. So I put a micro fiber
towel to the ultimate test. A few months back I had to remove the tinting
on my car windows. Anyone who’s done this knows that a windows sized layer
of a super gummy adhesive is left behind. The only way to remove this
adhesive according to numerous car care forums is to use chemicals. Lots of
them along with razor blades or trash bags. It would take hours, not to
mention leave the car smelling like nail polish remover, or gasoline, or
Goof-Off for days.
I dampened the cloth, went out and rubbed a bit on the remaining glue
covered window. Holy freaking micro-fiber Batman!!! I cleaned the adhesive
off of the entire window in 20 minutes. There is no residue left and I can
now open the window again without it sticking. Micro fiber cloth = good!
Mark me down as one of those who doesn’t give a crap about the “mystique of cleaning”. Less work, no harsh chemicals, and relatively inexpensive? Sign me the hell up.
Where can I get some of these, for real?
I have some microfiber shop towels, and they kind of suck. Sure, they’re really absorbent…once you finally get them to absorb anything. They also feel really weird to the touch when both they and your hands are dry. They’re just generally unpleasant.
[www.shopmicrofiber.com]
This is a site that my wife runs, microfiber is a great product and we have been using it for years. If anyone is interested I may be able to convince her to put up a coupon code for the consumerist gang
shagybones at yahoo.com if you are interested or have any questions.
Okay, I asked my wife for a coupon code for her site and she setup a 15% off code:
[www.shopmicrofiber.com]
SMFOR15
Hope everyone enjoys!
@AndyRogers: @AndyRogers: @AndyRogers:
yes, you do. They scratch less than cotton cloths, less than your bare hand, but their “micro” scrappers remove dirt more effectively.
rub your hand over a fresh, dry microcloth and you will feel the difference
Microfiber never gets the dust off of my furniture – it just sort of shakes off of the cloth when I move to a different area (yes, I dust regularly, but I live in the San Joaquin Valley, aka ‘dust bowl’) I always have to use a light spray furniture polish.
But, much better cloths are ones I get at the janitorial supply or Smart & Final … they’re a flannel-like material, treated with some sort of waxy substance. Hands down, the best furniture dust cloths EVER! You never have to use polish, and the dust sticks to ‘em like a magnet.
I have been using these for years and they are truly the best. I never buy window cleaning solution anymore, just get them lighly damp and they will clean windows crystal clear. I buy them in 25 packs at Sam’s Club. I haven’t bought a roll of paper towels since I bought these things.
I think part of people’s reluctance to use them is that it’s hard to feel they are “clean” even after they’ve been washed. That being said, I use them, but probably not as much as I could. Of course, I also don’t clean anywhere near the level my mother would say was close to satisfactory… But at least there are no super-bugs around me.
Hello, I saw you were interested in microfiber. My wife runs a company that sells them and I had her set up a coupon code for Consumerist readers. Please let me know if you have any questions.
[www.shopmicrofiber.com]
15% discount code
SMFOR15
Also, she said Microfiber is not abrasive and doesn’t scratch. Microfiber is unique, and works so well, because the fibers are actually split on a microscopic level, so they grab in and trap dirt, instead of just pushing it around.
One drawback that I think is overlooked, since most cleaning products are marketed to suburbanites, is that for me using a reusable cleaning cloth is markedly more expensive than using paper towels and some kind of cancer-based chemical product.
A roll of paper towels and a bottle of blue stuff costs me less than three dollars if I find a good sale, and gets me 25 to 50 cleaning jobs, depending on how many towels I need. Washing and drying a microfiber cloth at the laundromat costs three dollars, and gets me one cleaning.
And for those who are about to say “Just wash it in the sink, you lazy deserve-what-you-getter!” …I’ve tried that. Microfiber’s magical grippy properties are unhelpful when you’re trying to release the dirt.
I found mine by accident in the auto store. Started using them as dish clothes, then found larger ones at grocery outlet, use those as dish towels. Now I use them for everything, in cases of really tough grease or grime I use a little vinegar in the water I rinse the clothes in, grundge gone. I even use them as washclothes, great for exfoliating. So far I haven’t found anything I can’t use them on or with. My grandkids would rather have their little face washed with the microfiber than a plain washcloth, and don’t fight getting cleaned up after meals. Their great.
Particularly in the last few years disposable cleaning products have really been the in thing, from Swiffers to one-time use toilet bowl scrubbers. In part I think because people have become more aware of the germs that linger in sponges and mops. I’ve found myself falling into that trap. I’ve got disposable scrubby things in the kitchen for stubborn pans, swiffer wet and the equivelent for cleaning the vinyl floor, and I don’t want to even think about quickly I go through paper towels cleaning up after my cat (he gets confused as to where his litterbox ends and the bathroom floor begins).
So I stopped by Target on my way home to grab a pack of microfiber cloths, and I tried them out on a particuarly stubborn dish which had been used to cook some sugary glaze that I just couldn’t get to come off with any other implement, and while it didn’t come all the way off, the microfiber cloth did a better job then anything else I’d tried, including baking soda. My cat was “kind” enough to piddle on the floor in front of the litter box, so I wiped that up with another microfiber cloth, rinsed it out and as of this morning there was no cat urine smell, but we’ll have to wait a little longer to see if they can truely replace paper towels for that application.
Microfiber cloths are the bomb. I use them with very hot water to clean my glass top range and they get all the stuff off except for what needs to be bladed off (glass top owners know what I mean). These things are amazing and will take grease and grime off any surface with just a little bit of pressure.
They are also great for “damp” dusting. Just spritz with plain water and they grab all the dust easily.
My understanding is that the more you subject them to soaps, detergents and cleaners, the sooner they will wear out. Meaning: their little diamond cut fibers that are so good at grabbing dirt will degrade and no longer work properly. They should only be rinsed out well with hot water unless they are very dirty and then washed with a mild soap and air dried.
The American sheeple need to let up on all the chemicals. I am always floored by the logic (lack of) of those who rush out to buy the latest air freshener that’s conveniently sprayed into the air every 20 minutes! Disgusting way to poison yourself! All those fake fragrances in everything from cleaners to air fresheners are POISON to the body. The conglomerates have to make $$ for their shareholders so they’ll claim anything (like you NEED these to “freshen” your air). OPEN A WINDOW if you need fresh air! Use some plain vinegar or baking soda if you want a good SAFE cleaner that won’t poison you! Just say NO to chemicals, especially when urged to buy these by the corporate giants who are only trying to make $$ and could care less if you live or die. Really, people, all they want is your money, they don’t care if they make you sick with their poison products.
Microfiber cloths are 100% awesome! I use them dry for light dusting, but I usually keep a small spray bottle of 50% isopropyl alcohol and 50% distilled water for helping with particularly sticky or greasy jobs.
I’ve pretty much stopped using store-bought all-purpose cleaners since you can clean just about anything with one or more of
Water
Isopropyl alcohol
Vinegar
Ammonia
Bleach
Just remember to never mix ammonia and bleach and read the directions!
We use the Target ones as the absorptive material on pocketed cloth diapers. They work very well, are cheap, and last forever.
I bought some of these and they work great – the brand name was Starfiber and they have a website. What was hard for me was getting used to the texture – they feel weirdly rough and grabby, but that’s what makes them work.
@Orv:
Armor-All. Evil product.
You acorrect sir! Once you apply to plastics, paint, rubber or leather you are doomed, hooked. It lasts maybe two weeksweeks, rich and shiny.
Then it evaporates, taking with it original phthalates (sp) (plasticizers – that element which makes plastic flexible) and leaving your surface looking, well, bad.
Buying a used car? Check the tire-walls. Are they preturnaturally black (and shiny, even)?
Run. They’ve been Armor-Alled. They are decaying even as you look.
I just Googled “microfiber cleaning products,” and was interested to see
that most of the websites that were selling “super-cleaning microfiber”
products were directed to men: car stuff, boat stuff, computer stuff. The
product isn’t being sold to the women who buy most of the regular cleaning
products, and P&G and other cleaning product companies aren’t going push a
product that will put them out of business! That’s just simple math. If
the microfiber manufacturers want sales in the U.S., they have to figure out
how to sell their product to the people who buy the most of all products:
women. Now I will go buy some microfiber cloths at the car accessories
store down the street, because they sound great to me.
convenient that they dont talk about how much cheaper a microfibre cloth is versus buying chemicals.