Never Ever Use Pledge

I’m cleaning the second piece of furniture I bought this weekend and I was just reminded of something I learned when I took my first refinishing class about ten years ago.  Today I noticed that the mineral oil component of my mineral oil/mineral spirits blend was not sinking into the top of this dresser. So I gave it a second going-over and got this:

See that yellow-ish stuff? Never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, use Pledge on your furniture. That is build-up from weeks of Pledge usage over the years. The first coat of cleaner must have loosened it so that the second coat started pulling up all that junk.
Pledge contains a chemical called dimethicone. As it explains on the ingredients page for Pledge on the manufacturer’s website, dimethicone is a silicone film former. The problem with this is that though it will look nice for a few minutes, when you apply it week after week, it builds up and makes a grody coating, especially because dust in the air will stick to it, ensuring that if you don’t do it every week, the piece will rapidly begin to look kind of dirty, dingy and dull. There is no reason for this.
Just dust your furniture with a microfiber cloth. You don’t need to use a special product. Plus look at all those chemicals. Do you really need all that in your life? Your furniture definitely doesn’t.
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