Clean Like Magic

I have a new feather in my cap: Official BlogHer Reviewer. My first assignment: Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Full disclosure: I was paid to write this review and received free samples of the Magic Eraser from Mr. Clean and BlogHer.

Confession: I am lazy. I pay someone to clean my house every two weeks, and I generally don't lift a finger between cleanings, other than to stay on top of the dishes and wipe the counters after most meals. By the time cleaning day rolls around, things look pretty rough at my house, especially in the kitchen and bathroom. But again: LAZY. Getting out paper towels and such = SO MUCH WORK.

It was thus some kind of hint from the universe that I got asked to review a cleaning product, a cleaning product that purports to be magic, no less. Magical cleaning is something I could possibly get behind.

I first asked Mr. Clean to work the magic on my kitchen sink. I have a vintage 1950s white, enamel sink from a salvage yard that was restored to like-new condition by someone with way more talent and determination than me. I love it, but everything stains it and, except for the day after the cleaning woman is here, it always looks awful. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that it was magic, but Mr. Clean definitely did a better job than just my regular old sponge. After a scrub/wipe-down, the sink was . . . nearly white. Whiter than usual. Plenty white for me.

Evidently I could just save myself the trouble of having a sponge for washing dishes and a Mr. Clean for wiping the sink by using Mr. Clean for all, but I felt weird about using the Magic Eraser for washing my dishes. The eraser has a really strong scent, the scent of Febreze, which is a smell that makes me think of the other smells it's working to hide. Of course the smell would wash away when I rinsed the dishes, but something about it was off-putting to me.

Mr. Clean totally gets two thumbs up on the stovetop and bathtub, though. You know how when you wipe crumbs and other little bits of stuff up with a sponge, and it's hard to trap all the little bits when you're finished wiping, so you leave some little bits behind and it's gross? The magic eraser somehow—magically, I guess—traps all those crumby bits. Nice.

Overall, I liked the magic eraser. I was hoping that Maddie and Riley would have some kind of Crayon or Marker Incident over the long weekend so that I could test the eraser's power on the toddler craft table, but, alas, we were mostly outside in the sun. I'm guessing the eraser would be great for a toddler table, though, as that's just the kind of thing it's designed to tackle with aplomb.

So, magic? That might be a stretch. But it could be enough to keep some of my visitors in the dark about just how lazy I am.

For tips on all the different ways the Magic Eraser can simplify your life, see here.