High price doesn't assure quality of cleaning products

To confirm my good experience, I also handed out some Method products to neighbors and friends, and everyone raved about the experience. Particularly nice were the pink grapefruit all-purpose cleaner, the lemon ginger floor cleaner, and the pomegranate hand soap (in an unusual tear-shaped bottle).

Not everything Method made worked well. Its glass cleaner was thin and did not clean windows well enough. Its cucumber fragrance smelled too ripe. And while Method is best known for its upside-down dish soap bottle, which many love, I found it hard to use. But these are quibbles — in a race among all these products, Method comes out cleanest.

Another cleaner worth mentioning is the popular Simple Green, from Sunshine Makers of Huntington Harbour, Calif. Unlike the other cleaners, which are already prepared, you must mix its base cleaner with water (using bottles it provides) and then add a fragrance, which the scents of wild rose, lavender, citrus, green tea and jasmine.

You get a lot of cleaner for the money (it's $29.95 for the kit, which averages out to $1.75 a bottle), but as you might imagine, it's a pain to mix. The scents also have a medicinal quality, and the bottles have been simplified to the point of nakedness.

That said, the cleaning power was strong. It pulled up grime from the grout between tiles easily and left no film. In addition, the company asserts that it is safe enough to be used on dogs and horses. Without explanation, it doesn't recommend using it on cats. Apparently, felines aren't quite ready for cleaning enlightenment.