Cleaning Products in Germany

Before moving here, I was never so aware of the variation that one could have in cleaning products. There are so many options, and it's also a bit tricky to figure out which of the eco-friendly options (should you prefer them) work better among the rest. Here's a starter guide to help out...

For really powerful cleaning that's not eco-friendly, but does the job: Bref (any type) and Bleichmittel (bleach) are my go-tos. Persil is great for laundry detergent. DM brands are excellent value as well.

For eco-friendly cleaning: Ecover's quality is excellent. Frosch is also very good, and picking up quite the following outside of Europe - most of their products are even made in Germany / Austria! Don't forget to load up on "waschlappen" for scrubbing...

For room-by-room cleaning:

Kitchen:

• Ceramic cooktop scraper: you can buy a small tool (I found one at Tchibo) to scrape food off the cooktop, then scrub it clean. Don't use steel wool, I learned this the hard /expensive way at our old apartment. 
• Frosch Lavendel Hygiene Reiniger is a good all-around cleaner, and like everything Frosch sells, comes in refill bottles.
• Every month I put a dishwasher tab in the sink, plug it up, and fill it up to soak overnight. It really gets everything clean. 
• Dishwasher tabs: my favorite are the DM brand for value / performance.  You can also buy tabs to clean your dishwasher, recommended monthly. 

Laundry:

• Every 6 months, we use the Wasch-Maschine Reinigung to clean the drum, inside, and drawer of our washing machine. I'm not sure if it really makes a difference, but given the sand our kids bring in the house + constant washing of cloth diapers, it probably helps.
• Every 3 months, we vacuum the dryer filter, along with all other filters in our house to lengthen their lives. 
• Detergent: 
• For cloth diapers: Persil Sensitive megaperls, unscented. Works great, no buildup. 
• For colors, Persil Colors works well. 
• For whites, I use Tandil (Aldi brand) weiss.
• For wool / delicates, I use Persil Wolle & Feines, just a bit goes a long way.
• There are all sorts of softeners or scented add-ins - we use these occasionally but I find that wool balls (4-6) in the dryer help fluff everything up just enough.
• For stain removers, I love the Ecover flecken-entferner. Frosch's pre-wash spray stain remover "dwarf" are pretty good too. The best, so I'm told is to add Ace to your washing machine drum before running a load. I also like to add a small scoop of Flecken-Salz to the washing powder for extra cleaning power. 
• Don't forget your color catcher sheet, 1 per load! You can buy reusable ones too - but these are great if you're running a mixed loads. There are versions for white loads as well. 
• Every load goes in with an anti-kalk tab, since we have hard water around here, to keep the washing machine in good shape. 
• For dry cleaning at home, nothing beats Woolite's dry cleaner's secret. Best / cheapest bought in the US - it's crazy expensive overseas! 

Bathroom:

• Essig Reiniger and some elbow grease will get the calcium  / hard water stains out of toilets. It's also good for pen marks on tables.
• Every 3 months, we put a WC Reiniger tab in the toilets and let it soak for 30 mins. Makes a big difference!
• Anti-Kalk spray is great for removing hard water stains on faucets & shower heads. 
• Frosch Glas Reiniger is perfect for windows, glass shower doors, and mirrors. For the shower doors, we also squeegee everything daily to prevent buildup.

...and I'll update as I think of more tips! 

Note - this is very much not a sponsored post. It's the result of a lot of lessons learned over the years... However - this post does contain affiliate links. For  more information, see the "About" section of this site.