Is the Swiffer Duster safe to use and does it work?
That's a great question and we're going to talk about that today.
Hi, there.
I'm Angela Brown and this Ask a House Cleaner.
This is the show where you get to ask a house cleaning question
and I get to help you find an answer.
Now today we're going to do a product review on the Swiffer Duster 360.
360 means it goes 360 view all the way around this handle.
Now they also sell a 180 view.
You can see that on half of it, there's nothing.
And for the price, I've noticed that the price is about the same.
So between you and me, if I have a choice, and I'm a professional cleaner, so I want
to get the biggest bang for my buck.
But as a professional house cleaner, I'm going to go with the 360.
The 360 lets me do more, and then when it gets dirty on one side, I can turn it over,
and use the other side.
So, for me, I prefer the 360.
Let's talk a little bit about the 360.
It's designed by the Procter & Gamble Company, who also makes Febreze.
So if you love the smell of Febreze,
they make the Swiffer Duster heads, these are disposable heads.
They make these in unscented and Febreze scented duster heads. Yay!
So if dusting has been something that you've been holding off on because you don't like
doing it, and you love the smell of Febreze, this might be an incentive now for you to
pick up dusting.
Okay, so it is a plastic head.
It's about 13 inches in length.
And it comes apart, just like this.
Then when you get ready to put it back together, it just snaps in place.
And there are two-little, sleeves that this just slides right into, and slides on, and
becomes your duster.
Now I like this duster because it's small enough that it fits in my back pocket.
So as a professional house cleaner, I always have it with me,
and it's always just within reach.
So I can be cleaning the house, doing something, and then I see some dust.
Grab it, take it out, dust it, put it back, and I'm good to go.
So I love having it with me at all times.
Now the secret to making this work, is you got to have a button in your back pocket,
so that it holds the duster from falling out while you're using it.
Okay, so the story, real quick, of Procter & Gamble, and how this came to be.
Back in 1999, Procter & Gamble decided that they already had a product line of cleaning
chemicals, and supplies, and mops, and all these things.
But the market was kind of stagnant, and so they decided they were going to renovate the
cleaning line, and find more efficient, easy-to-clean ways for people.
And so what they did, is they spent five years and a bunch of money in research and development.
And they went out and they made a whole bunch of appointments with people.
And they went and they watched the way that consumers clean.
And they came up with a whole new line of products.
They did not invent them all, but they took products that were on the market, existing
products some other manufacturers had already created, and they reconnoitered them to the
products that we're so fond of today.
Okay, so this is one of those products.
And when I first heard about this, it was several years ago.
Another house cleaner called me and said, "You're going to love the new Swiffer Duster."
And I did not love it.
I was accustomed to the old one, the feather dusters, where you would use them, and then
you would shake them out when you're done.
And this one does not shake.
Okay, so it's designed with all these trap and hold elements to it, so when you shake
it like you do a regular duster, nothing comes out.
And so that's kind of awesome because it traps everything inside, which allows you to use
it for an entire house, while you're cleaning it.
Now the marketing method that they use, in the marketing arena,
we call it the razor-and-blades method.
Where, in the olden days, they would sell you a razor, very inexpensive.
And then the blades were very expensive.
And so in order to keep refilling the blades, you got to pay the big money to get the blades.
This is the same concept.
You can buy a starter pack, this is a starter pack,
and it came with one of these handles in it.
And so, you get that for the price of, I think this had three, and one handle.
Then when the replaceable heads are gone, then you have to buy more.
Now these are not cheap.
You can buy them in bulk, so the boxes are bigger, and you get more for your money.
But it averages out to be about a dollar per head, okay.
So these are not cheap.
Now, as a professional house cleaner, we are inside peoples' houses, and we charge them
for the cleaning supplies.
So my suggestion is, build in the cost of one of these per house because you will use
one per house, and when you're done, they look nasty, okay.
They've got lots of dust on them.
See if I can get up close here, you can see how nasty that looks.
It's got hair, and cobwebs, and dust, and junk on it.
And this is typical of any house.
You're going to get this much dust off any house.
But when you're done, you don't want to take this into another customer's house.
And so, when you take off your gloves at the end of your cleaning, you can just peel this
off, like this.
And this goes right in the trash.
Now I have the SDS Sheet here in front of me, and we'll go over the pros and cons of
the unit, itself, and is it safe, is it biodegradable, and all those things.
We'll talk about that right now.
Now it is Proctor & Gamble.
We talked about that already, and they are a worldwide company.
These Swiffer Dusters are available worldwide.
So if you're excited about them, I know I am, too, you can get them just about anywhere.
All right, the next part of this is what are the hazards, and they have to list this, by
law, like we talked about before from the Globally Harmonized System.
Proctor & Gamble even went so far to go with OSHA, which is the Occupational Safety Health
and Administration, and then also the Canada version of OSHA, which is the Workplace Hazardous
Materials Information System.
So they've cleared their products on all fronts because it is a worldwide product.
So that's good to know.
So the hazard that they have listed from the
Globally Harmonized System is ingestion issues.
So you cannot eat this, not for pets, not for kids.
And if you do eat it by any example, then you need to go to the doctor because that's
not cool.
Another thing, the fire hazard.
If it catches fire, and it will catch fire, because like it's fluffy.
If you light a match to it, it will catch fire.
But water or a regular household fire extinguisher will put it out.
So that's good to know.
Okay, so as far as it being biodegradable, it is not biodegradable.
It is not, but it has been cleared to go in landfills and processed in your regular garbage.
So as far as throwing it out, you're allowed to throw it out in your regular trash.
That's what it's designed to do.
All right, there are no other special warnings specifications.
When you talk about the description of it, it comes in yellow, and it comes in blue.
So this is exactly what the boxes look like, it matches the picture on the box.
So we're good to go.
Okay, it is a stable product.
It says store in a cool, dry place.
It doesn't have any reactions to anything that we know of.
No target organs are reported.
So if you use it, it's not going to affect your heart, or your lungs, or your liver,
or any of that stuff.
So that's good.
All right, the last thing, is it safe to travel?
Well, it's not regulated by land, air, or sea.
So if you want to ship these anywhere in the country, that's fine.
And, if you want to carry them, and sneak them in a carryon bag on an airplane, it's
safe to do that, as well.
So just so you know.
All right, then the last part is the regulatory information.
And the regulatory information, it says, all ingredients are CEPA Approved for import by
Canada and Proctor & Gamble.
So the product has been classified in accordance with the Hazardous Criteria for the Canadian
Controlled Products Regulation, which is CPR.
And the MSDS, which is the Material and Safety Data Sheets.
All right, now I want to show you a couple of different ways that we use the Swiffer
Duster.
I use it on all sorts of things.
For example, silk plants.
If you're going to use a Swiffer Duster on silk plants, what you want to do is, you want
to pull the stem of the silk plant out, and you want to start at the base of the silk
plant, and you want to brush towards yourself, so that you're brushing the dust in the direction
or the grain of the plant.
It's also great for real plants that have deposits on them, either from themselves,
or from dust, or debris, or whatever.
So you can use them on real and silk plants.
Another thing we use the Swiffer Duster on are blinds.
So if you have blinds that are really icky from a customer's house, the first time you
clean their blinds, you may want to clean them with soap and water, and then after that,
just use your Swiffer Duster.
Because the pattern of using them on the blinds is very easy to do, and it will keep your
blinds dust-free.
And again, because it traps the stuff that's there, if there are any cobwebs inside the
windows, it will trap that.
Then you can just brush the window down, and the window sill, and you're done.
Then moving on through the rest of the house, there are other things you can use your Swiffer
Duster for.
For example, let's say that you have something fine, like glasses on a baker's rack.
When you use this on the glasses on the baker's rack, you just want to be very careful that
you hold the glasses in place, so that you don't knock them off as you're dusting.
But you can dust right between those, and the little filters of the microfiber cloth
here, it goes between the glasses.
And so it fits into little nooks and crannies that normally, you would not be able to reach
with just a regular cloth.
Another thing that we use the Swiffer Duster on are stairwells.
This is excellent for stairwells, to reach the banister railings that would be very hard
to get between, especially if they have little decorations and designs on them, like those
that you find on wrought iron stairs.
And then as you come down the stairs, there are ledges on the side of the stairs that
you want to make sure that you dust, as well.
And while you're there on the stairs, especially if it's a hardwood floor, hardwood stairs,
you can actually dust the stairs themselves and make sure you get this rim underneath
the stair, where cobwebs like to hide.
Then you sweep all your dust down to the bottom of the stairs.
And guess what?
There's nothing there because it trapped it inside your Swiffer Duster.
So if you're going to do a stairway, what I do recommend is that you use this and do
this as one of the very last things you do cleaning a customer's house.
Because at the end of the stairs, you're going to want to throw the head away because it
will be full of stuff and it will be icky.
All right, another thing that we like to use this on, are lights.
We like to use it for recessed lighting to clear out cobwebs.
Now the secret of using it with lights, any light, is to have the light turned off.
Because if you go at this with the light turned on and the light is hot, this can melt, or
it can stick to the light bulb.
So you don't want that to happen.
You want to make sure that the light is turned off and cool before you go around recessed
lights, or inside bathroom lights, or inside lamps, or on the outside of lampshades.
You want to make sure that your lamps are cool.
Also, if you touch a light that's hot, there's a chance if you touch the light bulb, itself,
that the light bulb could break.
So you want to be very careful about that.
But it's great for all kinds of flat surfaces.
It's great for things like TV screens, so that you can get all that electrostatic dust
off there.
It's great for entertainment centers.
It's great for wood pieces of furniture.
And then as you go down the sides of the wood furniture, you capture all the dust that's
resting on the side, and in all the ledges.
And then underneath the furniture, where cobwebs also like to hide.
So it's a great tool because it's so flexible.
It flattens out so that it slides under skinny places, and into skinny places, and between
skinny places.
And then again, because it's so convenient, it's always on your person.
Now there's another thing that I should mention.
Swiffer Duster has an extender pole.
So if there are places that you want to reach that are up high and you don't have a stepladder,
you can buy the extender version.
We'll talk about that another time.
But if you don't have the extender pole, we can just use a small stepladder, and even
get things like ceiling fans, and the tops of refrigerators, and you can also get other
things that are high, like shelves or even cabinets.
So there are so many different things that you can do with the Swiffer Duster.
Now one of my favorite uses for the Swiffer Duster, is I keep it in the pocket of my car.
Right as you open the door, I keep it right there between the seat and the door, so that
if I'm sitting there in traffic, and I have a couple minutes, and I'm not going anywhere,
I can sit there and I can dust the front of my car with all those little nooks, and crannies,
and crevices, and I can get out any food, dust, debris, anything that may have gotten
in my car when I open the door.
So another great use for the Swiffer Duster.
Does the Swiffer Duster do what it's designed to do?
Yes, it does.
And it's become one of my very favorite cleaning tools because it is disposable.
And I'm a big fan of tossing it out when you're done with it.
And I do bill the customers for these.
Now the ones I use in my personal house, I bill myself, and it just comes out of my grocery
budget.
But, like I say, I love the opportunity of throwing it away when I'm done.
So that I'm not recycling the dirt, the dust, and all that stuff.
So I love this and I'm going to give this the Savvy Cleaner Seal of Approval.
All righty, and that's a little bit about Swiffer Dusters.
If you haven't given them a try, maybe it's time you do.
And I want to hear all about your experiences.
Leave me notes below and let me know whether you're a 180 or a 360 user.
I'm dying to hear your experience.
All right.
That's it for today.
Until we meet again,
leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét