Clean, Dust, Wash, Smile

How we love to cook and entertain. We have a passion for creating recipes and serving them to family and friends. But as you might expect, during preparation, there is always quite a mess to clean. And then, of course, there is more cleaning after the meals are served. Dishes, counters and floors all need scrubbing, cleaning, wiping, shining. And, alas, not everything goes in the dishwasher.  So, just as we use efficient culinary tools to cook and bake, KosherEye is always searching for the best cleaning “assistants” for the kitchen, and for the rest of the house. For our kitchens, our new personal cleaning assistant is the Libman.

We discovered Libman after attending a Libman Twitter party!  We were enticed, so we tried some of them. We can report that these are clearly 21st century cleaning tools. So, If you are still using a dip and squeeze mop, or a plain hand held sponge, consider yourself so 20^th century!

But before we describe our new helpers, let’s first take a look back:

William (Bill) Libman a Lithuanian immigrant to the U.S., founded Libman. For more than 115 years, the Libman family has made cleaning products with a singular mission: quality. The original goal was to make the finest, most durable wire-wound corn brooms. It was the best seller from Bill’s pushcart of sundries and cleaning tools. Since that day, the family, including William’s sons, grandsons and great-grandchildren, have widely expanded the company to include mops, brooms, brushes and cleaning tools.

Based in Illinois, The Libman Company is now one of the largest housewares facilities in the country. During the past 15 years, the company has enlarged its product line to become the leading manufacturer of high–quality brooms, mops and brushes in the United States. Today, it is still family run, by the fourth generation of Libmans: Andrew, Rachel, Aaron and Ilana

And now meet our new found cleaning assistants from Libman, and they are all made in the USA:

The Floors:
Freedom Spray Mop
This all in one cleaning tool includes a detachable, 18 oz. cleaning solution bottle so that you can use and refill the mop bottle with any solution you choose. The cleaning pads are made of microfiber –they are machine washable, scratch-free, and reusable, which saves money. The mop has a hand-powered solution sprayer so that the amount of solution sprayed on the floor could be controlled. The microfiber cleaning pad is easily removed and machine washed. Libman tells us that it can be washed up to 50 times before it needs to be replaced. It is usable on any hard surface floor, and worked beautifully on our wood kitchen floor. We filled the bottle with a solution of white vinegar and water. It worked beautifully.

Freedom Dust Mop
This floor duster has a reusable, washable microfiber cleaning pad, and comes with a comb to remove pet hair and other dirt. Each pad has “little microfiber fingers” which seems to work better in removing dust and dirt than flat pads. Libman says that each pad can effectively use up to 100 times, so it is quite a savings over disposable pads. We used this throughout the house on our wood floors. So much better than a broom.

Libman recommends using the Freedom Dust Mop for dry dusting, and then the spray mop for cleaning when necessary.

Cook, Serve, Clean
All of the following cleaning tools have long handles – no need to keep hands in soap and water. They make cleaning fun – well almost!

Culinary Brush        
This 6-inch handled brush is perfect for scrubbing potatoes. It even has a tiny potato eye remover attached.

Glass Dish Sponge
This handled cylindrical sponge makes cleaning china and glassware a cinch. The 7” handle makes it easy to can reach down into the

Dish Scrub and Soap Dispenser
Now this one is a favorite. It’s an all in one handled sponge and soap dispenser. We filled the 7” handle with liquid dish soap and washed away. It scrubs, scrapes, angles, cleans.

We thank the Libman Company for providing cleaning tips for our readers. For more about Libman visit Libman.com.

Watch this video demonstration on the Libman Freedom Mop.

October 30, 2011