I’ve talked before how important it is to write down your ideas or tasks and how I take full advantage of the massive dry erase board in my office.

Between that dry erase board and my calendar, I (we) would be lost. We plan our entire family life around these two items. Phone numbers, appointments at the dentist, what days Caron is at work and what shift, soccer practice, hockey and cheer trails… it’s the only sane way to keep track of everything. We’re a BUSY family of five.

If you use a dry erase board you’d be able to relate. After a message is on that sucker for a couple weeks and you try to wipe if off with the duster it comes with or a piece of paper towel, you get streak marks. Almost like a cloudy residue of red, black, blue… depends on the colour marker you used.

This pic shows exactly what I mean. I cleaned the board with a piece of paper towel and though the main notes I made are almost gone, the residue left back made the board seem dirty and you can still see the outline of my original notes.

After the first time it happened, I went out to Staples and purchased the “Expo2″ brand dry erase board cleaner. Though it did clean the board with a slight difference than what you see above. The fact remains, it didn’t really “CLEAN” the friggin board.

In the pic below you’ll notice 3 things…

- the “Expo2″ cleaner I purchased that didn’t work

- household cleaner

- scouring pad, ones you use to wash dishes.

No need for fancy products that don’t work.

After being disappointed with the product that was made specifically for this problem, I tried some household cleaner we had under the sink and the sponge/scouring pad we use to do dishes. All I did was spray the cleaner onto the sponge and wipe the board clean. No real effort and it came clean as the day it was first purchased.

Dry erase residue/stains were gone!

Do you have a tip you’d like to share? Leave me a comment below.