Thankfully I don’t go through heaps of cleaning product in a small apartment.

Dish soap alone or with vinegar does a lot of heavy lifting for general cleaning and mopping, a lazy $4 bottle of Earth Choice spray lasts me a while and if something really needs to be disinfected I hit it with the bleach.

But if you want proper cleaners and do get through a lot then concentrates could work out to cents.

A concentrate I do buy is Bio Blitz Biological Cleaner. It’s multipurpose but I use it a lot on carpet accidents with an older cat and it works out at a fraction of the pee cleaner bottles from the pet shop. (Those can go for between $30-40 per 750ml. That much gets you 1 litre of concentrate which depending on dilution strength can make 20 litres of cleaner.)

Basically it contains cultured bacteria that breaks down the biological stuff until the urea crystals, vomit, grease or whatever residue is completely gone and won’t smell. It works fairly well. Just blot as much of the stain off as possible and soak letting it stay damp for some time, repeating if necessary. The only drawback for me is the artificial lemon smell. It’s not overpowering but it’s noticable.

Initially I used to get their Wee Off in bulk because it had an unscented option and it was urine specific which was the main occurring issue at the time. It’s still the one I’d prefer to use. However that was a fair bit more expensive and you couldn’t get it as a concentrate. It also smells a bit funky itself up close while wet (that disappears when it’s done its work).

For transparency, Simple Green from Bunnings was the product actually on my mind when I began this post. I thought it was a great idea. But I saw that in 2020 there was a settled class action in America disputing the non-toxic claim. The reason for this is 2-butoxyethanol.

(Someone on Reddit said the Bunnings Activ’O spray and wipe concentrate also contains Oxirane which is apparently carcinogenic. So be mindful of industrial stuff.)

Simple Green also can damage surfaces if you don’t dilute well enough, as with many things (off label it’s used undiluted to remove acrylic paint). So if you use any kind of cleaning product concentrate definitely pay attention to the dilution, ingredients, ventilation directions and the safety sheet.

You could try a multipurpose orange cleaner concentrate from an autoshop or cleaning supplies place instead but definitely test in inconspicuous spots first for damage. Orange oil is a powerful degreaser and could potentially damage anything that isn’t solvent resistant. The smell could be pungent too, potentially not good for asthmatics or migraine suffers. Also it might give you unwanted memories of school.