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My laundry detergent leaked on my concrete floor in my cellar and it's all over the place. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to clean this up without making a bigger mess than what there is already? Thanks!!!

Liquid or powder?

Guess it really doesn't matter. Using something solid, like a dustpan, get it all into as much of a pile as you can. Then scoop it up. Next step is to wash with damp rags.

You could use a shop vac but I think that would just add another item to be cleaned.

Unfortunately it's liquid. I wish it would have been powder because I would have broken out the shop vac for that. This is just my luck

I think the tune of tiny bubbles is coming to mind about right now. Thanks for your suggestions!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: luvboyds,

Bummer. Scrape up what you can.

This happened to me on a small but still messy scale. A bit of plastic was caught in the spigot of a big bottle of detergent. I had about a cup of the sticky mess in the cabinet over my washer. Now, I turn the lever off and on for each use.

Thank you! Yeah the scraping part sounds like it's a good start. I'll have to use dry towels to clean up the other rest of it. If I do get it wet I thought of using kitty litter on it to absorb it...just thinking of what ifs.

After scrapin and wipeing....how about washing the floor with vinegar...doesn't that cut soap?

I think I would try using a rubber squeegee and a dust pan to get as much off the floor as possible. Delay adding water till all the thick stuff is picked up. Dump this in a bucket, shower or toilet as it is removed.
Seems white vinegar does help break down soaps/detergents pretty well, so maybe use that to do the initial cleaning.

Gonna take lots of old towels and rags. If you have a front loader washer, then I would rinse the towels and rags in a shower or bath tub between cleanings, to remove most of the soap. You don't want to have a suds lock on your washer.

If it spilled on concrete, I agree with the idea of using cat litter to absorb whatever is left after the scooping methods discussed above! Cat litter does a great job on concrete - very absorbent - and yet won't hurt the concrete surface! Good Luck!

Thank you so much for all your helpful replies. I'm just now starting the dreadful task of cleaning and wanted to come here first before I truly got into it. I do have a HE washer so I'll defintely be rinsing and rinsing rags before throwing them in. Thanks for the idea about vinegar. I did not know this. Thanks for the good lucks as well. I'll let you know how it turn out. Fingers crossed.

Well, that's over with thank goodness. I used the dust pan to scrape up the excess. I couldn't find my squeege unfortunately. Then I used dry paper towels to get some of it up and spread kitty litter on top of that I swept that up then wiped with a rag and several buckets of water. Boy was it soapy...lol. I did put vinegar on it as well. Then I took a spray bottle of bleach and water and sprayed it it help with the stain and wiped that up. It looks so much better and smells good too.

I went to Walmart and bought two storage totes to store the extra bottles of detergent in along with paint cans so this doesn't happen again.

Thank you all so much for your helpful advice it was truly a lifesaver.

Bet the floor is nice and clean! At least that would be a bonus!

Glad it worked out and all is cleaned up.

Oh, you mentioned paint cans!
That is a good thing to either dispose of (latex/acrylic paints) or make sure you have them stored over a tray, plastic bin or other confinement. The old cans especially were prone to rusting out and leaking. Now that is a mess and a half!

Yes, the floor is nice and clean and decluttered. Actually the whole cellar is decluttered as I went through each and every item and threw out expired things that I never used. What a waste of money. Never again will that happen along with the laundry detergent leaking as well. That was one mess that literaly took hours to clean up. I hit my back and head on shelves so it was literally a painful experience

Yeah I noticed that about my paint cans as well. That's why I decided to get the totes to store them in also. In the next week or so I will go through each can to see what I need to keep and what to have disposed of properly.

Next on my agenda is my yard sale next weekend. So much to do yet