How to Clean Up Liquid Laundry Detergent
Since liquid laundry detergent is a cleaning product, it seems it would be easy to clean up from flooring. While not difficult, cleaning detergent spills can be time consuming. Liquid detergent is usually quite concentrated. This means if you initially add water to the spill, this will only spread the detergent further, increasing the time you must spend cleaning this off your floors. Following the right steps, on the other hand, will reduce your cleaning time significantly. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Dust pan Squeegee or broom Bucket Several dry bath towels Hot water Absorbent cotton mop
Instructions
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How to Clean Up Liquid Laundry Detergent
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1
Place a dust pan on the floor. Carefully push some of the spilled detergent onto the dust pan. Dump this into a bucket. Continue gathering up as much of the spill as you can in this way.
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2
Rub a dry bath towel over the spill. Let it absorb as much as it can. When it can't absorb any more detergent, place the towel in a bath tub or washing machine for rinsing. Now rub another dry towel over the area.
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3
Put the second towel with the first, in the washer or a bath tub. Fill a bucket with hot water, and wet a cotton mop in this water. Wring the mop out, and mop over the detergent on the floor. Since you got most of the concentrated detergent up in the previous steps, you are now adding some moisture to get up detergent residue sticking to the floor.
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4
Rinse the mop head in the bucket of hot water. Go over the floor again with the mop. Then, place another dry towel down and let it absorb soapy water from the floor.
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5
Rinse the floor with hot water. Keep scrubbing with the mop and wiping the floor down with towels until no detergent residue remains.
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Tips & Warnings
The more detergent you get up without adding water (via damp towels or a mop), the quicker this will go. Once you add moisture, the detergent will get sudsy and spread, so make sure you wait until you've gotten as much detergent up via the dust pan (or similar implement) before mopping or using damp towels. It will take longer to clean the detergent up if the spill occurs on a porous surface, such as concrete. For carpets, you'll need to use a wet/dry vac to clean up the spill.
Detergent makes flooring very slippery. Make sure to watch your step and keep others out of the area until it is cleaned up.
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Comments
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We found that a paper plate worked well for pusing the laundry detergent into the dust pan...Great suggestion.
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mine was Wisk also. Makes you question the caps construction, huh?
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You know, I just got home with this bottle of Wisk and was really bummed when it fell on the floor and the cap broke. On the other hand, the hallway smells really nice right now.
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My dad just spilled large container of concentrated tide on the tiled laundry room floor... what a mess. I was able to hep him clean it up pretty quickly by first using two pieces of thin plastic (one in each hand) and bringing them together in a scooping motion. I was actually able to pour most of the detergent back into the bottle (Good thing the floor was clean). When the soap became too thin th scoop I got a hold of my neighbors furry (and fat) cat. I then held it upside down so that the fur on the back was facing the floor. I proceeded to wipe the cat against the tile in a circular motion until fur became fully saturated. By rinsing the cat in a pot of boiling water, I found that the detergent quickly separated from the fur and transferred into the water. I repeated this process 3 times and the floor was spotless! This technique had the added benefit of getting rid of my neighbors pesty cat. Hope this helps. Jack Frost
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I sucked mine up with my floor cleaner first (mines a wet dry floor cleaner) then put a towel down then cleaned again with the floor cleaner and water.
