Cleaning banknotes

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While the ANA and those content to parrot them will say that yous should NEVER clean a note, this is nonesense.

Personally I think you have to consider why the note is being cleaned.
If the note is cleaned or restored only and I mean only for your own personal use or presentation by all means go ahead...but if it is for the purpose to deliberately misrepresent a note that you plan to sell (for gain or profit or whatever other reason you may have) and NOT specifically point out to the prospective buyer what has been done to it is WRONG as far as I am concerned
One on the biggest issues is that new collectors as well as some less experienced seasoned collectors may overpay for a cleaned /restored note with their hard earned money to only later find out that what they may actually own is worthless/undesireable etc to a collector which is aware of its true condition.
Bottom line is I would personally feel screwed and deceived if I purchased a note that was known to be tampered with and not told so that I could make an informed decision...Others may disagree with me but this is almost like fraud

I look at cleaning the notes the same way as I look at rolling back the odometer in a car. It's highly unethical (and illegal)  to roll back the odometer in a car and then sell it without disclosing, because you are misrepresenting reality.

But for your own personal use, there's no problem with cracking open the odometer and rolling it back to zero (which I have done on an old car that I restored.)  Of course I kept a record of the reading before rolling it back, and fully disclosed all of this to the buyer when I sold it. Cleaning notes is the same - fine to do it, but disclose, disclose, disclose.

While the ANA and those content to parrot them will say that yous should NEVER clean a note, this is nonesense.
Many inexpensive notes are out there and cheap because they are in appalling condition. filthy, torn wadded up in a ball. 
I have purchased many of these for a song then put some work into restoration to produce a note that, while far from UNC, is quite presentable.
The first step, almost universally, is to soak the note for a few hours in a luke warm solution of water and Dawn dish soap.  I use about half or less of the amount of soap I would use to wash the dishes.  I use Dawn because it is most effective at breaking down the soils typically accumulating on banknotes.  Additionally, the soap will reduce the surface tension allowing the water to penetrate the fibres of the note paper.
Once the water begins to take on a dirty appearance I change it for clean water.  I repeat this until the water remains clear.
Next, I place the notes between two or more sheats of blotter paper and press the sandwich under a modest weight. (My 3 volumes of SCWPM are just about right)  I leave the stack over night then change the blotter paper for dry sheets.  This process I repeat several times.
The result is a much cleaner if still imperfect note in a flat, presentable condition.  By comparing the note after this treatment to its condition before, it's difficult to argue that the note has not been improved.
This process was gleaned from papers published by the Smithsonian and others.  If you wish to review this process and others for proper conservation of banknotes and other documents I recommend the NORTHEAST DOCUMENT CONSERVATION CENTER

Visual evidence, please.  I would really like to see your notes before and after hours of soaking. 

So terribly many notes have been damaged or ruined by people who attempt to clean them.  There's nothing like a good laundering to take out some of the delicate tints and manuscript signatures, dates, etc.  Just leave the note alone and it will be much better for it, and collectors of the future will have cause to thank you.

Here is a good example of what can happen if you soak an old note for a long time, especially in the presence of certain kinds of chemicals.  Notice anything missing?