What is your solution?

Often I am asked by a curious passerby on the street  what I use to clean windows. The look of surprise on their face when I reply I use Sunlight dish soap suggests they were expecting something fancier. There are specialized products on the market but we've found the best value comes from the same product commonly found under the kitchen sink.

Why dishsoap? Like other soaps, dishsoap is an excellent cleanser because of its ability to act as an emulsifying agent. An emulsifier is capable of dispersing one liquid into another immisicible liquid. This means that while oil doesn't naturally mix with water, soap can suspend oil/dirt in such a way that it can be removed.

One of the tricks is getting the right ratio of soap to water. Too little soap and there won't be enough to act as an emulsifying agent. Too much and there will be a soapy haze left on the glass. I find that a good 1-2 second squeeze of the bottle in about 2.5 gallons of water does the trick.