The best whiteboard cleaner

I don't know anything about the current state of the whiteboard marker industry except that if it's strong, it's probably partly due to me. We have so many whiteboard markers in this house that it's not funny. I'm a lover of stationery, a sucker for bright colours and I use them for work so I must have bought every brand and every colour at least once. 

I use whiteboard markers (and a code of shapes and colours) to mark out our work schedule each night. My little 'assistants' like to draw and write on the map too. 

And I use whiteboard markers to write our shopping list and menu plan on our pantry door. And for the reminders list next to the door into our garage. And my girls use whiteboard markers for homework, to practise writing their name and numbers and to fill out the 'news' outline that comes home each week.  

That's a lot of whiteboard marker that needs cleaning off each week! 

I've tried every whiteboard cleaner I could get my hands on both here and at my last job. None of them were great but some work better than others and after doing a little back-of-bottle research I realised the ones that worked best were the ones that contained a high level of alcohol. 

It turns out that rubbing alcohol (which you can find in the first aid section of the supermarket for around $10) works better than any whiteboard-cleaner mix and costs around the same per ml anyway! So we use rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth. A little goes a long way so we use it straight from the bottle but you could put it into a little spray bottle. 

So if you find your whiteboards are looking 'ghosty' or smudgy, give the rubbing alcohol a try (just please remember to keep it out of reach of little hands as it is poisonous).