An all purpose cleaner is safe on most everyday sealed surfaces, but it is not for everything. Avoid using it on unsealed timber, unsealed natural stone like honed marble or limestone, waxed or oiled finishes, raw cast iron, bare brass and copper, screens, leather, terracotta and natural fibre flooring. Check the care guide first, every time.
One thing we notice constantly in our own cleaning work is that the most useful product in the cupboard is also the one most often used in the wrong place. An all purpose cleaner (sometimes sold as an all in one cleaner) earns its place because it goes almost everywhere: kitchen benches, bathroom tiles, glass, stainless steel, sealed floors. That same versatility is what trips people up. Because it works on so many things, we stop reading surfaces and start spraying on autopilot.
This guide is about the exceptions: the surfaces where reaching for your all purpose cleaner is the wrong call. HomeKind is run by people who also run a cleaning business, so we see these mistakes on real jobs in real homes, not in a lab. We sell an all in one concentrate ourselves, so it would be easier to pretend it is magic on everything. It is not, and no honest cleaner is. Knowing where a product stops being the right tool is the difference between a benchtop or floor that lasts the life of the kitchen and one quietly worn down over a year of well meaning Sunday cleans.
The short answer: surfaces not to use an all purpose cleaner on
Most all purpose cleaners, including plant based and enzyme cleaners, are formulated for sealed, water tolerant, everyday surfaces. The trouble starts on surfaces that are porous, unsealed, reactive, naturally protected by a coating you can strip, or simply too delicate for any liquid. Here is the at a glance version before we go deeper.
| Surface to avoid | Why it is a problem | Better approach |
|---|---|---|
| Unsealed or raw timber | Soaks up moisture, swells, raises the grain, can stain or grey | Barely damp cloth, dry immediately, or a dedicated timber product |
| Unsealed natural stone (marble, limestone, travertine, some granite) | Acids and citrus can etch and dull; porous stone absorbs liquid | pH neutral stone safe cleaner, or water and a soft cloth |
| Waxed, oiled or French polished finishes | Cleaners can cut through the protective layer and leave dull patches | The wax or oil maker's own care product |
| Raw cast iron and carbon steel pans | Strips the seasoning you have spent months building | Hot water, a scrubber, dry and re oil |
| Bare brass, copper and other untreated metals | Acids react with bare metal, leaving marks or accelerating tarnish | A specific metal polish made for that metal |
| Screens (TV, laptop, phone, monitor) | Liquids can seep behind glass and damage anti glare coatings | Dry microfibre, or a screen safe spray on the cloth not the screen |
| Leather and untreated fabric | Can dry out leather, leave water marks or rings on fabric | A leather conditioner or upholstery specific cleaner |
| Unglazed terracotta and porous tiles | Soaks up liquid, can stain, acids attack the surface | A sealer plus a pH neutral cleaner made for terracotta |
| Natural fibre flooring (sisal, jute, coir, seagrass) | Water marks, browning and shrinkage from wet cleaning | Dry vacuuming, blot spills, a specialist natural fibre cleaner |
If you only remember one thing, remember this: porous and unsealed surfaces, protective coatings you can strip, and reactive bare metals are the three big no go zones. Everything below explains the why, so you can make the right call even on a surface that is not on this list.
Unsealed and raw timber
Sealed timber (most modern kitchen benches, polyurethane floors, painted skirtings, laminated tables) is generally fine with a well wrung cloth and a gentle cleaner. The problem is bare or unsealed timber: raw butcher blocks, oiled chopping boards, untreated outdoor furniture, old floorboards where the finish has worn through, and many antique pieces.
Wood is essentially a bundle of straws. When you spray liquid onto an unsealed surface it wicks in, the fibres swell, the grain lifts, and as it dries you can be left with a rough, greyed or watermarked patch. Repeated over time, this is how a beautiful timber board ends up looking tired and felty. The cleaner itself is rarely the villain here; water is. Any liquid cleaner used too wet on bare timber risks this.
The safe way to clean unsealed timber
- Use the least moisture possible. A barely damp cloth, not a soaked one.
- Wipe along the grain, not across it.
- Dry the surface straight away with a clean cloth. Never let timber air dry wet.
- For chopping boards and butcher blocks, re oil with a food safe oil such as raw linseed or a beeswax and oil blend on a regular schedule rather than relying on cleaning alone.
When this is not the right fix: if your timber bench or floor is properly sealed with polyurethane or a hard wearing finish, you do not need to baby it like raw wood. A diluted all purpose cleaner on a wrung out cloth is perfectly appropriate. The caution is for bare and oiled timber specifically. For the sealed kind, our guide to caring for sealed timber floors covers the everyday routine in detail.
Unsealed natural stone: marble, limestone, travertine and friends
This is the surface that catches the most people, because polished stone looks tough and indestructible. Calcium based stones (marble, limestone, travertine, onyx) are chemically vulnerable to acids. Citrus, vinegar and other acidic ingredients react with the stone and leave etch marks: dull, slightly rough spots where the polish has been eaten away. Etching is not a stain you can scrub off, it is a physical change to the stone surface.
Many natural and plant based cleaners use citrus derived ingredients like D limonene for their cleaning and degreasing power. That is wonderful on tiles and stainless steel, and genuinely awful on honed marble. If a cleaner contains citrus or any acid, treat all calcium based stone as off limits unless the surface is well sealed.
Granite and quartz behave differently. Most quartz is engineered and non porous, and much granite is sealed, so a gentle pH neutral clean is usually fine. But sealing wears off, and the word granite at the showroom can cover a wide range of stones. The honest answer is that you cannot tell a stone's vulnerability by looking at it, which is exactly why checking the care guide matters so much on stone. Our guide to cleaning natural stone benchtops goes through each stone type in turn.
How to clean natural stone without risk
- For everyday cleaning, warm water and a soft microfibre cloth handle most of the job.
- For anything more, use a cleaner specifically labelled pH neutral and stone safe.
- Wipe spills, especially anything acidic like wine, citrus juice or coffee, promptly. On stone, the damage is often the spill, not the cleaning.
- Re seal porous stone on the schedule your installer recommends.
Our All in One Cleaner Concentrate is genuinely excellent on sealed stone and quartz benchtops, where it cuts grease without the residue film that leaves a benchtop looking cloudy. We are deliberately clear that this means sealed stone. On unsealed or honed calcium based stone, reach for a dedicated stone product instead. That honesty is the point of this page.
Waxed, oiled and French polished finishes
Some surfaces are protected not by a sealant baked into them but by a softer layer sitting on top: furniture wax, Danish oil, tung oil, a French polish, a waxed concrete bench, even some specialty paint finishes. The whole job of that layer is to take the wear so the material underneath does not. A capable cleaner, especially one with any degreasing action, can cut straight through it.
The result is usually not dramatic in the moment. You wipe, it looks clean, and a few weeks later you notice dull cloudy patches where the wax or oil has thinned unevenly. Now you have a maintenance job: stripping back and re applying the finish across the whole piece so it matches.
The fix is simple. Antique and waxed furniture, oiled benches and similar finishes should be cleaned with the care product the maker recommends, usually a matched wax, oil or a very mild dedicated cleaner. Save your all purpose cleaner for the hard wearing sealed surfaces it is built for.
Raw cast iron and carbon steel cookware
A seasoned cast iron pan carries a thin polymerised oil layer that took weeks or months of cooking to build. That seasoning is what makes it non stick and rust resistant. Cleaning products, particularly anything with degreasing power, are designed to remove oils, which is the exact opposite of what you want here.
Clean cast iron and carbon steel with hot water and a stiff brush or scraper while the pan is still warm, dry it thoroughly on the heat, and wipe a thin film of oil over it. Soap is a long running debate among cooks, but full strength cleaning product on bare cast iron is not a debate, it strips the surface you have worked to build.
Bare brass, copper and other untreated metals
Lacquered or sealed metals are usually fine, but bare brass, copper, bronze and some aluminium react with acids. On these metals an acidic cleaner can leave dark marks, blotchy discolouration or accelerate tarnishing. Some people exploit that reaction deliberately to polish copper, but it is unpredictable on finished fittings and not something you want happening by accident on tapware or a heritage door handle.
Use a polish made for the specific metal, follow its instructions, and if you do not know whether a fitting is bare or lacquered, test in a spot that does not show. The same caution applies to anodised aluminium and some painted metal finishes, where harsh products can dull the surface over time.
Screens, electronics and delicate coatings
Televisions, laptops, monitors, phones and tablets are a category of their own. Two risks combine here: liquid seeping past the edges into the electronics, and chemicals attacking the anti glare or oleophobic coatings on the screen. Many modern screens have a coating microns thick that a strong cleaner can cloud or strip, leaving permanent smears no amount of wiping fixes.
For screens, a dry microfibre cloth removes most marks. If you need more, lightly dampen the cloth with water or a product specifically labelled screen safe, never spray onto the screen itself, and wipe gently. The same applies to camera lenses, glasses and other optically coated surfaces. This is one place where the it is just glass reasoning genuinely gets people into trouble, because the coating, not the glass, is what you damage.
It is worth separating screens from ordinary glass and mirrors, which are a completely different story. On window glass, shower screens, splashbacks and mirrors, a good cleaner that dries streak free is exactly what you want. Our concentrate is formulated to be streak free on glass and mirrors specifically, so it can replace a separate glass cleaner, and you can read more in our guide to streak free windows and mirrors. Coated electronic screens are the exception, not glass in general.
Leather, untreated fabric and other porous soft surfaces
Leather lounges, car seats, bags and untreated upholstery are porous and often treated with finishes that a general cleaner can disturb. The risks are drying the leather out, leaving water rings on fabric, or lifting a dye. A surface cleaner is built for hard surfaces, and soft furnishings need products formulated to clean without stripping oils or leaving marks.
For these, use a leather conditioner or an upholstery specific cleaner, and follow the maker's care guide. Carpets and rugs are similar territory and deserve their own approach rather than a hard surface spray.
Terracotta, porous tiles and natural fibre flooring
Two common Australian floor types get overlooked because they look hard wearing. Unglazed or unsealed terracotta tiles, the warm rustic kind found in older homes and outdoor rooms, are very porous. They drink up liquid, which means an everyday cleaner can soak in and stain, and any acidic ingredient can attack the surface and the lime in the grout. The right approach is to keep terracotta sealed and clean it with a pH neutral product made for the job, used sparingly and dried, not flooded. Glazed and porcelain tiles, by contrast, are sealed by their glaze and are perfectly happy with a diluted all purpose cleaner.
Natural fibre flooring such as sisal, jute, coir and seagrass is the other one to watch. These plant fibres do not cope with water: wet cleaning can leave water marks, cause browning as the fibres dry, and shrink or distort the weave. Clean these with regular dry vacuuming, blot any spills immediately rather than rubbing, and reach for a specialist natural fibre product for anything more. The same gentle thinking applies to acrylic baths and shower surrounds, painted feature walls and rubber door or window seals: a light dilution wiped and dried is fine, but neat product left to sit can dull acrylic, lift paint or perish rubber over time.
A quick word on cleaning versus disinfecting
It is worth being clear about what an everyday all purpose cleaner is and is not. A cleaner lifts grease, food, grime and general soil from a surface, and a good one does that across most of your home. That is different from disinfecting or sanitising, which means killing germs to a tested standard. Our All in One Cleaner Concentrate is a cleaner, not a registered disinfectant, and we will not pretend otherwise. For most kitchen and bathroom surfaces, thorough cleaning is what you want day to day. If you specifically need to disinfect, for example after handling raw meat or during illness, use a product that is registered and labelled for that purpose and follow its contact time. Honest labelling matters more to us than an impressive claim.
How to check a surface before you clean it
Checking a surface is the single habit that protects you across every surface above and every surface this guide has not thought of. It takes two minutes and it is the most professional thing an amateur cleaner can do.
- Work out what it is. Natural stone, engineered stone, laminate, timber, metal or glass, and whether it is sealed.
- Read the care guide. The maker or installer usually says which cleaners suit it.
- Use it the way it is meant to be used. Water first, then 10ml (1 capful) per litre of water for everyday cleaning.
- Wipe and dry. Never leave any cleaner pooled on stone or timber.
Check whenever a surface is new to you, valuable, old, or you simply are not certain what it is or how it is finished.
Dilution and dwell time: getting the strength right
A lot of surface damage is really a strength and contact time problem rather than a fundamentally wrong product. A heavily concentrated mix left to pool on a borderline surface is far more aggressive than a light everyday dilution wiped and dried quickly. This is one practical advantage of a concentrate: you control the strength.
| Job | Rough dilution | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday surfaces, glass, mirrors | About 10ml (1 capful) per litre of water | Everyday mix, ideal for daily wiping |
| Heavier grease and grime | About 10 to 20ml (1 to 2 capfuls) per litre of water | Give enzymes a minute or two to work |
| Mopping sealed floors | About 20 to 30ml (2 to 3 capfuls) per mop bucket | Wring the mop, do not flood the floor |
| Stubborn spots | A little neat on a cloth | On suitable surfaces only, then rinse |
One 1L of our concentrate makes up to 100 standard spray bottles at the everyday dilution, which is part of why it works out to roughly 40 cents a bottle compared with around 4 to 7 dollars for a ready made supermarket spray. It also means you are rarely tempted to over apply, because a little goes a long way. For a full breakdown of dilution by task, see our concentrate dilution guide.
When an all purpose cleaner genuinely is the right tool
It would be a strange honesty page that left you nervous to clean anything. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of surfaces in an Australian home are exactly what an all purpose cleaner is for: sealed kitchen benchtops, splashbacks, glazed and porcelain tiles, sealed floors, glass and mirrors, stainless steel, painted walls, appliances, bathroom surfaces and basins. On all of these a good all in one earns its place by replacing several single purpose bottles under the sink.
Our All in One Cleaner Concentrate is plant based and enzyme activated, with a protease, amylase and lipase blend that targets protein, starch and grease, which is most of what builds up in a real kitchen and bathroom. It is streak free on glass and mirrors, so it genuinely replaces your separate glass cleaner, and it is greywater and septic safe, which matters for a lot of homes outside the city. It comes in two scents on the same formula right now, Lemon Myrtle + Eucalyptus and Mandarin Peel + Rosemary. Peppermint + Pine Needle and Fragrance Free, for sensitive households, are back soon. If you want one bottle that handles nearly everything on the safe list while you keep a couple of specialists for the surfaces above, you can order the All in One Cleaner Concentrate here. For a room by room walk through of where it shines, our surface by surface cleaning guide goes deeper.
The bottom line
No all purpose cleaner, ours included, belongs on every surface. Keep it away from unsealed timber, unsealed calcium based stone, waxed and oiled finishes, raw cast iron, bare reactive metals, coated screens, leather, unglazed terracotta and natural fibre flooring. For everything else in a typical home, a properly diluted, well chosen cleaner is not just adequate, it is the better, simpler, less wasteful choice. Check the care guide when in doubt, control your dilution, dry as you go, and you will get years of good service out of your surfaces and your cleaning routine both.
