The Secret to Cleaning…Anything

Being in the cleaning industry can be challenging. Sometimes we are asked to clean some very strange things. Sometimes we don’t even know what we are being asked to clean. My strangest, was being
asked to remove bear saliva from carpet and upholstery.

‍
When tasked with “cleaning” something, always remember the “3 Ss”. Surface, Soil, Solution. Cleaning is removing an unwanted matter (soil), from a surface, using a solution. Sometimes the soil is soot from a
fire, some type of food or beverage residue, or maybe even blood and body fluids. Sometimes we have
no idea what the soil is.

When faced with the unknown cleaning challenge, start with identifying the surface. Surfaces can be porous or non-porous, natural or synthetic. The rule of thumb is to use a dry cleaning method when
cleaning a porous or natural surface and use a wet cleaning method when cleaning a non-porous or synthetic surface.
‍

Dry cleaning is any cleaning method that does not involve the use of a water-based product. This could include vacuuming, using a dry cleaning sponge, or using an oil-based product. Wet cleaning is using a water-based product, or a bleach. Wet cleaning is always more effective than dry cleaning, but can damage some porous or natural surfaces.

‍
Once you know the type of surface, try to determine the type of soil. Soils fall into four main categories; water-soluble, oil-soluble, dyes, and insoluble.

‍
Once you know the type of soil, the solution becomes clear, water-soluble soils will be dissolved and removed by water-based products, oil-soluble soils will be dissolved and removed by oil-based products, dyes can be removed by bleaches, and insoluble soils can be removed by vacuuming.

‍
There is one more aspect to understand. All water-based products have a pH and we have to have a basic understanding of pH if we want to use water-based products effectively. pH stands for Potential of Hydrogen and since water is two atoms for hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, it has a pH. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14. 0 to 6.9 on the scale represents acids, 7.1 to 14 on the scale represents alkalizes, and 7 on the scale is neutral. When it comes to selecting a cleaning product, the rule is, if you are trying to remove an acidic soil, use an alkaline product, and visa versa, if you are trying to remove an alkaline soil, use an acidic product.

‍
Almost all of the food that we eat and the liquids that we drink are acidic, so most household soils are acidic. This why almost all of our household detergents are alkaline. Our laundry and dish detergents are all alkaline. Soot from a fire is acidic, which is why the products we use to clean after a fire are alkaline. There are some soils that are alkaline. Rust, oxidation on aluminum, calcium deposits, especially those on concrete, are all examples of alkaline soils. To remove these soils, you should use an acidic detergent. By the way, removing the bear saliva turned out to be easy. While bears will eat just about anything, they mostly eat plants and berries, which have tannin. Tannin is a natural dye which is also in coffee and wine. We removed the bear saliva on the carpets and upholstery the same way we would have removed a wine stain, with a bleach.

Dale Dohner

‍