Cleaning

Keeping things simple is one way to preserve your limited resources. And the principle is just as relevant to your cleaning arsenal as it is to anything else.

And a few tools you already have on hand!

If your laundry is in a constant state of disarray, you’re not alone, and solving the problem probably isn't as complicated as you think. You don’t need tons of space to prevent your clothes from piling up in your laundry room or bedroom—you just need a reliable system.

“If I made a washer, it would only have one setting on it,” says laundry expert Patric Richardson.

If you keep scrolling through choreographed dances and memes, you’ll stumble upon a corner of the app where lifestyle bloggers, pro cleaners, and normal people, like you and me, generously share genius cleaning products, tips, and tricks.

Whether its composed of stainless steel, thick plastic, or aluminum, here is what our experts say about water bottle care.

Like anything else when it comes to sending kids to school, the most important thing to remember for homeschooling is organization, organization, and more organization.

The humble pantry staple is key to preventing and removing stubborn fingerprints, smudges, and other frustrating marks.

Here are some tried and true ways to expand your use of OxiClean beyond the laundry stain soak you've come to know and love.

There's definitely a time and a place for simple solutions that make cleaning easier—but this isn't one of them.

A little pro strategy goes a long way in making sure that you don't sabotage your own best efforts.

Reviewers rave over this stuff. So I tried it for myself!

If you’re not the type to mark the calendar for chores, look out for this telltale sign that your coffee maker needs some love.

And not one of them is a Dyson.

How much truth is there in these wives tales we have always heard growing up?

The key to breaking free of the messy home cycle is knowing how to direct your efforts, and where to spend your limited time for the biggest impact.

Because we only get 24 hours in a day!

Blasting Spanish-language music connects me to my heritage as much as it makes chores more enjoyable.

We have two main lengths of counter, on either side of the kitchen, and they're broken into two zones each.

Take it from someone who's spent far too many Saturdays cleaning the garage: Cleaning is not what weekends dreams are made of

Make a little room for these things.

Not all stains are created equal.

It's a rare person who keeps every unseen space spotless. (I'm certainly not one of them.)

This trusty cleaning tool helped me tackle cushions stained with spit up, shower doors littered with hard water marks, and hardwood floors caked with tomato sauce.

Before you spring for a new machine, check through this list of common vacuuming mistakes that could be sabotaging your attempts.

Ina Garten showed us a peek at the her clean dishwasher load, revealing a few "forbidden" items that just took a spin through the machine.

Learning these things will save you frustration, time, and money—and keep your items looking their finest.

How a $2 household staple helped me tackle hard water stains that nothing else would eradicate.

Treat the purchase as a "trigger" to make a thankless cleaning task a little easier.

A laundry hack sweeping social media helped me save an entire load of laundry from indigo dye stains.

The shine of the pot after I cleaned it with ketchup was satisfying in a way I hadn’t expected, considering I felt sure the Italian shop owner was trying to punk me.

You might end up making the chore harder than it needs to be, and in some cases, causing harm to your home.

Whenever I pick up a new bottle, I started doing this one tiny, brilliant thing that has helped me banish unwanted smells from my refrigerator.

Rather than giving tasks short-shrift, you end up going above and beyond with this one small switch.

Its fans include one editor's mom *and* grandma.

I recently started keeping one of these by the sink, and right away it came in handy for even more chores than expected.

To get the yuck out of your towels, you'll need three things (that you probably already have at home).

The kitchen can be such a black hole for storage, because everything in it feels necessary. When it comes to tools and cups and food storage containers, no amount feels like enough. And in your mind, you probably have a use for all of it.

Swap out your store-bought solutions to common organizing, baby-proofing, and plant-parenting woes, and use a pool noodle instead.

There’s a common misconception in interior design that light colors, especially white, are the most impractical choice for furniture and textiles.

When you’re culling through a collection, you should spend your time thinking about what you want to live with, instead of what you can live without.

Here are five different ways I've put this tip into practice around my home.

Good ventilation is a sensible splurge.

It's no wonder you put it off.

We asked the experts about a dishwasher's impact on the environment, and the useful life of your appliance.

It just requires a few small tweaks to your normal laundry routine.

The trick says to shake for at least 45 seconds, but I went for 90 seconds—hoping I’d be shook myself with the end result.

You’ve probably spent plenty of time cleaning every visible space in your house. But the key word here? Visible. Just because you can’t see it (or don’t think about it) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cleaning it.

When nothing could soothe me, my therapist suggested I focus on factors in my life that, in this moment, aren’t subject to change.

It not only makes your cleaning time more efficient and thorough, but also makes you feel like you accomplished more.

Simplifying almost always means less. But when it came to solving my laundry problem, it turns out that simplifying means having more of something.

Let us help you make dishwashing less of a chore.

Parenthood is definitely full of surprises, but “Yes, I’d leave my 6-year-old alone with a Sharpie” is truly something I never thought I’d say.

If you're looking to level up your cleaning expertise, we asked for advice from housekeeping pros.

Other cleaning products might not be as efficient as oven cleaner, but the good news is, you can use it to clean lots of other things in your home.

Every now and then, in my nightly TikTok scroll, I find a life hack I absolutely have to try.

Here's a plan for when you didn't clean all week (but want your house to look and feel like you did).

Dusting is one chore that's easy for me to let slip through the cracks. But there's another dusty spot that gets overlooked even more often than tabletops and shelves.

It's bound to get a bit uncomfortable after a while. And the solution is 10 minutes and $2 away.

I've found that it works the very best when I spray the solution on a cloth rather than spraying it on the glass itself.

Even if you take on a thorough washing with a scrub brush, it's challenging to get all the nooks and crannies of a can opener clean.

Rock climbers and avid campers aren’t the only people with a good use for these sturdy clasps.

Check out this list of things that rarely see the touch of a rag or bristle of a broom—and then change that.

For your deeper window cleaning to remove dirt and restore shine, the experts recommend a seasonal cadence of once every three or so months. Here's how you do it.

Recently, the luxury mattress experts over at The Saatva Company took a shameless look at what other people do in bed. As it turns out, surveying couples about their sleeping habits yielded some rather surprising results. We can get to the responses about sex and mattress preferences later, but first things first: Of the 1,500 participants, the 962 who use a duvet actually prefer to clean all the toilets in their home over washing and reassembling the bed covering and its contents.

Because I choose to put my limited energy elsewhere or because I simply just don't do it, these are the tasks that remain unchecked in my house.

Get rid of your clunky iron for good.

Plus here's exactly what you need to know to make that deep clean happen.

Whether it happens at the laundromat, the laundry room, or just a tiny corner of your apartment where you stash the washer/dryer, Tide wants to take laundry day off your plate. This week, the detergent giant launched Tide Cleaners, an on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service “aimed at giving people the option to spend more time on life and less time doing laundry.” Although cleaning the bathroom is America’s most hated chore, doing laundry isn’t exactly loved.

Inspired by the folks who described their own homemade cleansers in our green cleaner comment thread yesterday, we remembered this list of simple and safe homemade metal cleaners in Real Simple Cleaning, and pulled it off the shelf this morning to take a look. Perfect for keeping your kitchen or bath faucets shining bright without chemicals!1. Ketchup brightens copper. According to Real Simple Cleaning, the acetic acid in ketchup dissolves the oxide tarnish that makes copper look cloudy.2.

Kate’s West Village Charm This weekend, in a search of a lost item, I ventured into the no-man’s land of one particular area of my kitchen and was aghast at what I found there. Even though it’s a little-seen area, that doesn’t make it any better in terms of the dust accumulation and the total ick-factor I experienced when I realized what kind of filth I had been harboring. So where was all the grossness hiding?