Most Indian kitchens have six bottles under the sink and still cannot get the scale off the shower glass. The problem is not the brands; it is that the bottles are all the same kind of chemical. Here is what each type does, what to read on the label, what must never be mixed, and the tools that matter more than any of them.
The four chemicals a house needs
Cleaning is chemistry and friction. Chemistry does most of the work if you pick the right type for the dirt, so the first thing to know is which type you are holding.
Acid cleaners, for scale and hard water
The white crust on taps, the cloudy film on shower glass, the yellow ring in the WC and the rough feel of a bathroom floor are all mineral scale from hard water, and only an acid dissolves them. Toilet cleaners of the Harpic type are hydrochloric acid at around 10 percent; descalers for taps and glass are usually a milder citric or sulphamic acid. Read the back of the bottle: "hydrochloric acid" or "HCl" means strong and fast and must not touch metal fittings for long; "citric acid" means safe on chrome but needs ten minutes to work. A litre of toilet cleaner is ₹80 to ₹150; a descaler spray ₹150 to ₹300. Never use either on marble, Kota, granite or any natural stone: the acid eats the stone, and the dull patch it leaves is permanent. Professionals charge ₹500 for a bathroom descale because it is an acid soak, a scrub, a rinse and a second pass.
Alkaline cleaners and degreasers, for grease
Kitchen grease is fat, and fat is cut by alkalis. Dish soap is a mild one. The degreaser sprays sold for hobs and chimneys are stronger, usually with sodium hydroxide or sodium metasilicate listed; the chimney-filter soaks used by professionals are caustic soda solutions that must be used with gloves. A good degreaser spray is ₹150 to ₹350 for 500 ml. Baking soda is a weak alkali and works on a lightly greasy counter but not on a chimney filter. A kitchen deep clean at ₹1,500 is mostly degreaser, dwell time and elbow work, and the ₹1,200 chimney job is the filters out and into a caustic bath.
Chlorine bleach, for mould and disinfection
Sodium hypochlorite, sold as liquid bleach at 4 to 6 percent, is the one thing that kills the black mould that comes with the monsoon and reliably disinfects a bathroom. Dilute one part to ten with water, apply, leave ten minutes, rinse. ₹60 to ₹120 a litre. It bleaches fabric, pits steel if left on, and loses strength within months of opening, so buy small bottles. Bleach is also the chemical behind every mixing accident in this trade, which gets its own section below.
Neutral cleaners, for floors you want to keep
A pH-neutral floor cleaner is a mild detergent with a disinfectant and a perfume. It removes dust and footprints without attacking the floor, which is all a daily mop should do. It is the only thing to use on marble, Kota, granite, wood and any polished stone. Branded floor cleaners are ₹100 to ₹250 a litre and are diluted a capful to a bucket; phenyl is cheaper and stronger-smelling and does the same job on tiles. The one check: if the label says "removes tough stains," it is probably not neutral.
The three combinations that must never be mixed
This is the most important part of this guide. Two bottles that each work fine on their own can, together, make a gas that sends people to hospital, and the combinations are ordinary household products.
- Bleach and an acid toilet cleaner. Pouring Harpic-type cleaner into a WC that already has bleach in it releases chlorine gas. The smell is sharp and the cough starts within seconds. Flush between products, and never use both in the same bathroom in the same hour with the door closed.
- Bleach and ammonia. Ammonia is in some glass cleaners and some all-purpose sprays. Together with bleach it makes chloramine gas. Read glass-cleaner labels before you use one in a bathroom you have just bleached.
- Bleach and vinegar. Vinegar is an acid; the result is chlorine gas again. The "natural" bleach-and-vinegar tips online are dangerous.
A professional team keeps acids and bleach in separate crates and does the bathroom in a fixed order: degreaser, rinse, acid, rinse, bleach last with the window open. Copy the order.
Dilution and dwell time
Nearly every product is used too strong and rinsed too soon. The label dilution is right: a capful to a bucket for floor cleaner, one-to-ten for bleach, undiluted only for toilet cleaner inside the bowl. Using more does not clean better; it leaves a film that attracts dirt. What cleans better is time. Spray the degreaser and leave it five minutes before wiping. Pour the toilet cleaner and come back in ten. Leave the bleach on the mould for ten minutes before scrubbing. Dwell time is free, and it is why a professional's results differ from yours with the same bottle.
Abrasives: where the scratches come from
Scouring powder, steel wool and the green side of the sponge are abrasives. They remove dirt by removing a little of the surface with it. On a stainless steel sink used with the grain they are fine; across the grain they leave swirls. On glossy tiles, glass, chrome taps and any coated surface, they scratch, and the scratches hold dirt forever. Buy a non-scratch scrubbing pad (white or blue, ₹30 to ₹60) for everything except the sink and cast-iron, and keep the steel wool for the pressure cooker.
Tools matter more than brands
- Microfibre cloths, ₹40 to ₹100 each. Buy ten. They pick up dust and grease without a chemical, they do glass without streaks, and they go in the washing machine. One colour for the kitchen, one for the bathroom, one for everything else.
- A spin mop, ₹700 to ₹1,500. The bucket wrings the mop drier than hands can, which is what stops the streaks and the slow-drying floor. Replace the mop head every three or four months.
- A floor wiper with a rubber blade, ₹150 to ₹300, for the wet bathroom and the balcony. Pushing water to the drain beats mopping it.
- A squeegee for glass and shower doors, ₹100 to ₹250. Thirty seconds after every shower is the difference between a clear door and a ₹500 descale every six months.
- A long-handled duster for fans and cobwebs, ₹150 to ₹400. Fans cleaned monthly never need the ₹80 per fan professional job.
- Nitrile gloves, ₹100 to ₹200 a pair. Acid and caustic cleaners burn skin slowly; you notice the next day.
- A wet-dry vacuum, ₹5,000 to ₹12,000, if you have sofas, carpets or a car. It is the machine behind the ₹180 per seat sofa job, and it pays for itself in two years of not booking it.
What to check on the box before paying
- The active ingredient and its percentage. If the label lists only "cleaning agents" and perfume, it is a mild detergent whatever the front says.
- A pH statement for floor cleaners. "pH neutral" or "pH 7" is what you want for stone. No pH statement on a floor cleaner usually means alkaline.
- The manufacturing date on bleach. Older than six months on the shelf is already weaker than the label.
- The dilution instructions. A concentrate that dilutes 1:100 is cheaper per bucket than a ready-to-use bottle at a third the price.
- "Safe for marble" in writing before using anything on a stone floor. If it does not say so, assume it is not.
- A child-resistant cap on acids and bleach, and a shelf above a child's reach to keep them on.
What to stock, and what not to
A sensible under-sink shelf is five items: a neutral floor cleaner or phenyl, a toilet cleaner, a degreaser spray, a small bottle of bleach, and dish soap. Add a citric descaler if the water is hard, and a stone cleaner if the floors are marble or Kota. Skip the specialised bottles for glass, steel, wood and tiles; microfibre and water do glass and steel, and the four basics cover the rest.
The one product to be wary of is anything sold as "all-in-one" for the bathroom. It is usually a mild acid with a surfactant, strong enough to dull marble and too weak to clear real scale. Buy the two things it is pretending to be instead.
For the pests that cleaning products cannot reach, the pest-control guides cover what the sprays in the supermarket do and do not do. For a marble floor already etched by the wrong cleaner, the floor-polishing guides explain what a diamond polish can bring back. And for curtains and upholstery covers, the laundry guides cover what can go in a machine and what cannot.