Before you pick up a rag
A note from Matt
You don't have a dirt problem. You have a bottle problem.
Open the cabinet under your kitchen sink. There's probably a spray for glass, one for granite, one for stainless, a cream for the stovetop, a gel for the toilet, and a box of pads for a mop that only takes that company's pads. Most of them are half full. Every one of them is mostly water, and you paid to haul that water home.
My Grandpa Earl was a school custodian in Ohio for forty-one years. His whole cart held vinegar, washing soda, a jug of bleach he kept far away from everything else, a bar of soap, rags, and a mop bucket. He used to say, "The bucket does the work if you let it sit." Most of this book is that sentence, written out with measurements.
My mother, June, kept five kids and one house clean on a grocery budget. Later I spent years fixing things in other people's homes, and I saw what the cleaning products did to them. Flappers eaten up by tank tablets. Marble counters etched by "natural" sprays. Washer seals black with mold.
So here it is: seven basic ingredients, exact amounts on recipe cards, and an honest grade on every method. You asked for it in the comments, so I wrote it down.
Start small. Pick the job that bugs you most, do that one, and come back for the next.
Matt, at the workbench
