14 December 2012

Save money: Pine cleaner

Am I the only one who thinks "clean" should smell like pine? My mother was a fan of Pine-Sol, and the military was big on it too. Pine oil based cleaners are one of the few scented products that don't kill my allergies. Aside from smelling nice, pine oil has disinfectant properties, cuts through grease, and is safe to use on just about every non-food surface you can put water on.

What some folks don't realize is that most pine cleaners are only 5% pine oil. Most of the rest of that bottle is just water. I don't like paying for water, so I get the concentrated stuff. Pine-o-Pine is sold at my local hispanic grocery, and it's 30% pine oil:
The bottle isn't very big, but when you only have to use it by the half-teaspoon it lasts a long time. One of these typically lasts me a year or more. Always read the label before you buy. There are some pine cleaners *coughSuperPinecough* that misleadingly label themselves as "90% pure pine oil and surfactants", to make you believe they have more pine oil in them than they do.