Cleaning

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

I don’t know about you, but what’s inside my wardrobe is nothing like the magical land of Narnia. It’s mostly a mess of clothes that get rarely worn, but saved nonetheless. Because maybe one day I’ll get invited to a gala in the Maldives where that long, lime green bridesmaid dress can finally earn its keep on my hangers. I’m guessing that, while you might not have a floor-length green dress like mine, your closet is full of similar stories.

Move over, Tide Pod challenge, there’s a new laundry-related caution in town—but this time, it has to do with storage. Displaying laundry packets in jars may look pretty, but according to the American Cleaning Institute, decanting the pods can be dangerous with small children or elderly people in the home. In time for both spring cleaning and National Poison Prevention Week (March 17-24, 2019), the ACI launched its sixth annual Packets Up!

Here’s the thing about knife blocks: We don’t really recommend them. They can dull the blades of your knives as you drag them in and out of their holders, they’re often sold as an expensive set with knives that you really don’t need, and they can harbor some serious mold (and maybe even bacteria) in those dark, hard-to-reach slots.

Q: There have been several House Tours that had a hidden litter box of sorts. How are you able to keep your cat box clean and smelling fresh in an apartment that may be only 600 square feet? 500? 400?? It boggles my mind. I mean, obviously, clean it out as soon as you can, but cat urine has such a strong odor. Even with a cool hidden compartment in a piece of furniture, it wouldn’t suddenly eliminate the smell. Any tips would be great.

Q: The house we are looking to purchase has a lot of cedar [please see photo below] and it was built in 1975. It just has a lot of that cedar smell, and I was wondering if anyone had an idea on how to remove that? Thank you. -Sent by Sanja Editor: What a gorgeous ceiling! Readers, how can Sanja eliminate the musty cedar odor from this house? Or do you recommend she pass on it because there’s really no solution? • Have a question for our community?

Thanksgiving, probably more than any other holiday, is all about the food and warmth of togetherness. If you’re hosting, though, the combination of having overnight guests, getting the house ready for them and for meal preparations, and then doing all the cooking can be overwhelming. Here’s how to plan ahead so you can enjoy the festivities too. By this point, you’re likely to know how many overnight guests you can expect.

I have to fess up: our end goal, with this spring cleaning plan, isn’t a totally spotless home, top to bottom. We’re all here to tackle our seasonal cleaning slowly—20 minutes at a time—over the course of 20 days. So, you know, life is going to happen in between.

Most of us probably keep our recycling bins near the kitchen and are pretty good about tossing things like empty cans, bottles, and cereal boxes inside. But we dispose of lots of other items around the house that we may not realize can be recycled, too. Here are some things that you can transform from trash to recycling, just by knowing you can. Note that not all of these items can go into your curbside pickup bin.

Walking out of a stinky bathroom has got to be on everyone’s top 5 list of cringe-worthy moments. Lighting matches or using spray aerosol are common remedies to mask the smell. Matches are great, but you can’t use them in airplane bathrooms. And aerosol? Don’t get me started – that stuff is poison. A new-ish product growing in popularity (which might seem like an April Fools joke) is Poo-Pouuri Before-You-Go toilet spray.

Here is an entirely true story about my first week in my NYC studio. I was cleaning the kitchen (because I am a certified grown-up), and I got out the vacuum to get the nooks and crannies beneath the dishwasher and cabinets. Before moving in, I had gone a full year without experiencing more than a spider in my living quarters and I was not going to entice any new friends with crumbs from my Cheerio-based dinner. As I moved the vacuum under the stove, it caught something.

There’s a well-meaning mommy meme out there about sticky floors and happy children. But here’s how that would work in our house: Sticky floors mean an unhappy mama and when mama ain’t happy… well, we all know the rest of that one. I have learned to let a lot of things go and I’m conscious about not missing opportunities for connection by constantly cleaning or organizing.

In the age of trendy multitaskers like concentrated cleaners, staying eco-friendly and saving money are, understandably, top priorities. If you can have one product that does a lot of things well, why spend your whole paycheck only to waste plastic and take up hard-fought storage space? Which begs the question: Do we really need both dish soap and hand soap in the kitchen if just one could do the trick?

Wasps can be helpful little creatures- they’re to thank in part for keeping the pest population in check- but they can also be quite the nuisance. Picnics and other outdoor summer activities are a bit difficult to enjoy when wasps are swarming overhead, so try to keep things under control with a DIY wasp trap. 2-liter soda bottle Honey or sugar water Utility knife Stapler or clothespins 1.

Traditional cleaning solutions are great, but your pantry is full of everyday items you can put to work when you clean. You already know about keeping blackboard chalk around for treating stains and using cream of tartar to clean your brick fireplace facade. So what’s the deal with using cola to clean? Before you whip out your 12-pack of Diet Coke and go to town on your kitchen, keep in mind that certain sodas work better cleaning specific surfaces.

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a space and it just plain smells good? Yeah, me too, and I’ve spent the last six months in my new apartment trying to achieve that singular goal. There wasn’t anything wrong with how my apartment smelled, but there wasn’t anything really right with it, either.

Chopsticks are wildly useful little tools to keep handy. And while most of us save our spare ones, or buy a more permanent pair, there are all sorts of clever ways to use chopsticks around the house. From cleaning crevices to stirring paint, read ahead for 10 genius things you can do with an extra set of chopsticks. Searching for a foolproof way to deep clean tough to reach nooks and crannies?

I get it. You’re proud of yourself if you manage to even vacuum as many times as it says to on your cleaning schedule. Me too. My personal goal is a quick vacuum with my cordless in the kitchen every night, a thorough vacuuming of common areas twice a week, and vacuuming the bedrooms once a week. But all of this rarely happens. And you know what’s even more impossible to achieve? Vacuuming areas of the floor that the vacuum cleaner can’t get to easily.

I’ve been reading a bit about birth order and one thing I learned about myself is that the reason I’m so committed to doing everything “the right way” could be because I’m a first-born rule-follower. There are ways things should be done in my house, and especially my kitchen. But I try to remind myself all the time: There are other ways of doing things that could be just as fine as your way—could be *better* even.

There’s a special kind of satisfaction that comes from finding solutions to problems that use things you already have on hand. I’m still very proud of myself for MacGyver-ing a broken pop-up shade canopy with a hair tie and a plastic bag—it’s silly, but it made me feel like I might just have made it in the pioneer days. Taking things you already have and making them more useful isn’t just self-congratulatory, it’s also frugal and earth-friendly.

Still using the same basic brushes to clean all the nooks and crannies of your apartment? You should know there’s a whole world of superhero brushes and scrubbers with all kinds of special features that will help cut your cleaning time in two. From soap dispensing dish brushes to a rechargeable spinning scrubber, here are eight cleaning brushes that will put your current basics to shame: Consider this soap-dispensing sink brush the Cadillac of dish brushes.

NBD wants to be the next big cleaning brand. But right now, NBD is literally no big deal—because it doesn’t exist yet. If you search this startup cleaning brand’s name, the first page is all unrelated results like one from Urban Dictionary that defines the internet acronym NBD as “no big deal.

Some people enjoy cleaning, and for various reasons. It could be the feeling of accomplishment or being able to exert a small but tangible amount of control over their environment. Or it might be something as simple as catching a thrill from vacuum lines in the carpet. I’ve never heard of anyone who likes dusting, though. Dusting, of course, is essential to any well-thought-out cleaning regimen. And when left undone, it’s not only unsightly, but can lead to allergy attacks.

Sent by AngelaEditor: First try using a pink eraser to remove the mark. If the marker stain proves stubborn, a mixture of 1 part isopropyl rubbing alcohol with 2 parts water (you make have to tweak this proportions) can also remove the stain.Ironically, using a black dry erase marker over the permanent marker can also help remove Sharpies marks, due to the solvent in the formula!Leave any additional suggestions for Angela in the comments below.

As hard as one might try to piece together the perfect kitchen, if you find yourself with an uncontrollable mound of dishes, that perfect kitchen ends up looking like a pile of mess. But is every spoon, fork, cup and plate in the sink absolutely essential? Can you really cut down the amount of dishes you do every day, without using disposables? Yes! Here are five places to start. 1. Own fewer dishes.

Q: A few years ago I DIYed an upholstered headboard for our queen-sized bed. Since then, we’ve moved into our own house and are looking at finally upgrading to a California king, as my partner is 6’5″ and has never slept on a bed that his feet didn’t dangle off of. In looking for a new mattress, we’ve also started considering a new headboard.

Q: My house—over 150 years old—has one room that is different than the others…my living room has an “old” smell. The kitchen on the same level has no odor. There is NO crawlspace for these rooms. Back when the house was built, they used white oak logs to support a room added-on. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, and no, we do not have gutters.

If you’ve been playing in the garden and find your Hunter boots covered in all the offerings of spring, they may be lookin’ worse for wear. Keeping them clean and tidy may seem as easy as jumping in a puddle, but high quality rubber requires just a bit more attention than your basic rain galoshes.

Congratulations! You’ve just removed that ugly label from your prized possession, but now you’re faced with a new problem: sticky residue from said label. What’s the quickest and easiest way to make it disappear? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back- just start walking towards the pantry.

Yes, marble is a stone, but it is surprisingly soft which makes it very susceptible to damage. Minimize the risk of scratches by avoiding using tools like a metal spatula blade or butter knife to remove sticky residue. Try this tip instead: Cooking oil (canola or olive work great!) 1. Pour a good amount of oil over the sticky residue and lightly work it in with your finger.

Plop plop, fizz fizz — oh how easy it is! Whip up a batch of these fizzy-fresh toilet tablets and say goodbye to the harsh chemical cleaners. 1 cup baking soda 1/2 cup citric acid 40-60 drops of essential oil (we recommend Rosemary, Peppermint, Tea Tree, or Lavender) Water Silicone or non-stick baking mold Medium bowl Mixing spoon Our tablets contain just a few simple ingredients and are essentially bath bombs.

As much as we love the cleaning tools and hacks that promise to make cleaning as quick and painless as possible, there’s no real substitute for our own eyes and hands. Getting down on hands and knees and mopping the old-fashioned, bucket-and-rag way results in a detailed kind of clean that no other method provides and that, every once in a while, is so worth it. When you get yourself on a different level, you’ll see things that haven’t been cleaned in a very long time.

This quick trick instantly delivers more space—just by raiding your utensil drawer.

I hate to toss around tired old adages, but the truth of the matter is that taking care of a problem when it’s small is far easier than addressing a bigger problem once it’s grown. “Stitching in time” is particularly relevant when it comes to home-keeping—where procrastination, like not sweeping dirt from hardwood floors, can lead to major tasks like eventually refinishing your scratched-up floor.

Disposable products may be cheap and convenient, but there’s a cost associated with throwing out all that material. Many items have alternate uses and longer lives than just the one use their makers intended. Instead of throwing them away, get the most you can out of the following six things. Aluminum Foil: After using tin foil to cover the casserole, save it and use it again around the house. Alternate uses range from getting rid of rust to homemade funnels.

Whether you’re just pulling out your sweaters or putting them away for the season, a moth repellent is key to making your winter wools last. Forget the stinky, toxic moth balls—and who really has the space for a cedar closet? What you need is good smelling, tiny alternative, and we’ve got just the thing!

Scents play a pretty significant role in my home, and I’m always searching for the perfect combo of comfort, cleanliness, and freshness. Creating your own room diffusers allow you the opportunity to make exactly the fragrance you are looking for — and it’s way more cost effective than what you’ll find in a boutique. bamboo skewers or paper straws Essential Oils 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup vodka 1/3 cup mineral oil Vase or similar container 1.

Whether you’re working to get stains out of an old, neglected marble mantlepiece, or rust stains out of a newer marble shower, the method remains the same. Marble is a porous material — as is our skin, and like our skin when we have a wound, making a poultice to draw the stain out of your marble works in just the same way making a poultice to draw out infection in a wound would. The recipe may vary depending on the stain, but the poultice method is consistent.

It's not magic, it's science.

I went to the dentist today and you know what that means! Yep, another new toothbrush—which means I get to promote (demote?) the one I’m using to my cleaning arsenal. Toothbrushes are the best little tools for cleaning small spaces like window tracks, shower tracks, around the faucets, the drains in the sink, the seams between the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the counter, grout, and so much more.

Spring cleaning is (almost) upon us! Whether you’re hoping to declutter your cabinets or make a switch to more eco-friendly cleaning products, liquid concentrates could be your new best friend. Versatile cleaners that can be diluted at home in reusable spray bottles, these multi-taskers boast a number of benefits. Instead of buying separate products for each household cleaning need, you can save time, space, energy and money by just using one, powerful concentrate.

And what about bar soap? Or laundry detergent?

Bleach is a strong cleanser that, when used properly, can be a safe and effective option for sanitizing various objects and surfaces in your kitchen, in the laundry and around your house. “But it’s not an all-purpose cleaner,” says Nancy Boc, senior vice president of education at the American Cleaning Institute.

Any tool that multitasks in the kitchen means less wasted space and more bang for your buck. A gadget with a specific use has to be downright amazing for me to give up kitchen real estate to it. (A strawberry huller falls under that category in our family, and gets used several times a week in the summer.) But multitasking isn’t a trait reserved just for kitchen tools that fit in cupboards and drawers.

We polled some of our favorite cleaning, organizing, and design experts on what messy spots they might pick up on in others' homes.

I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that the Year of the Dog is almost over. For Chinese people, the year of one’s zodiac sign is traditionally the unluckiest year for them with warnings of trouble and danger at every turn. So as a Dog person, I am looking forward to welcoming that first day of the Year of the Pig (February 5) with all the new positive energy that comes with it. But first, I have to sweep the past year away—literally.

We have a storage trick for your brooms, mops, dusters, and other handheld housekeeping tools.

If you've ever ruined a fancy blouse with an iron that sputters icky water, you're smart to be a little paranoid.

Kitchen counters are clutter magnets—plain and simple. As I look at my own countertops, I see seven-ish different piles in the works (kids’ art, unopened mail, recyclables on their way to the bin, etc.). It’s never-ending. And despite being a fairly organized, clean-surface kind of girl myself, and literally interviewing dozens of experts on the subject, there are only two times my countertops ever get clean. Oh, is it midnight the night before an article is due?

Just like “little drops of water make a mighty ocean,” it’s those tiny habits you keep around your home that make sure it’s tidy and spotless every day. Cleanliness begets cleanliness, but disorder begets more of the unwelcome same; it’s much easier to stack papers on an already existing pile than on a spotless horizontal surface, for instance. So you could always stand to start a new tidy home habit or two. And why not use the new year to do it?

Even if you ignore the pull to reevaluate your past year and make lofty promises to yourself for the year to come, you probably can’t help but feel a bit of a fresh-slate feeling with the recent turn of the calendar page. You know what stays the same year after year, though? Your household chores. But they don’t have to. Now’s as good a time as any to inject some of that new year pep-in-your-step to the household tasks that could just as easily drag you down this time of year.

There are no gimmicks here—just genius hacks that'll keep your home sparkling all year long.

Let’s face it—doing the dishes is one of the worst chores there is. But it’s often the people who can’t stand doing the dishes who are the best at avoiding them—by getting them done most efficiently. That’s exactly why I reached out for advice from people who don’t have a dishwasher and just absolutely hate doing the dishes.

In my experience, there are two kinds of dishwasher users: people who have figured out the right way to load the dishwasher, and people who really don’t care. Also in my experience, those two camps of people tend to marry each other and spend the rest of their lives complaining about the other’s method of loading or critiquing the other’s loading technique (sorry, husband of mine).

For most of us, it’s standard practice to clean before guests come over. We want them to feel welcome and comfortable in our house and we honor their presence by creating a general air of order and cleanliness. And on the other hand, we certainly don’t want to be judged for our dusty baseboards and the inside-out socks that seem to always be peppered throughout the house. But there’s more.

For as much as we tidy up around our homes, how often are we really giving our place a good old-fashioned deep clean? We called on housecleaning expert Jennifer Gregory, Brand Manager of Molly Maid, a Neighborly company, for suggestions on what tasks you should absolutely cover to consider your clean a truly thorough one.

Believe it or not, squeeze bottle tops—you know, the inexpensive plastic ones you use on bottles of condiments—are actually quite versatile. Along with dispensing ketchup, mustard, or salad dressing, we’ve discovered an unexpected way to use them to better clean your home, too. These commonplace bottle tops can make deep cleaning your home a whole lot easier if you use them like a makeshift vacuum attachment.

Turns out that your favorite go-to canola oil spray for non-stick cooking, like Pam Cooking Spray, also has some pretty stellar uses outside of the kitchen, too. Don’t believe us? Read ahead for a handful of surprisingly savvy ways to use cooking spray in your bathroom—yes, your bathroom—no skillet or cookie pans necessary. Who knew cooking spray could tackle soap scum buildup in your bathtub, shower, and sink?

Besides, you know, cleaning your dishes, your dishwasher can do a few other fun things.

You know how to clean a kitchen. So do I. But there are things we learned from our parents, shortcuts we developed ourselves, and just straight-up habits that may make our cleaning, well, less than optimal. Heck, half the time I research a story, I learn I’ve been doing something wrong my whole adult life!

Being an adult means tackling things we’d rather not do, and that is especially true when it comes to certain household chores. According to a new survey compiled by the American Cleaning Institute, over half of Americans rank this task their most hated out of all of them—do you agree? When it comes to cleaning tasks people dread cleaning the most, the top answer is (understandably) the bathroom, which scored 52 percent of the vote.

I hate to be the bearer of stressful-yet-delicious news, but the American holiday of Thanksgiving is just about 10 days away. Luckily, 10 days is plenty of time to ready both your appetite and your home. If you’re hosting Thanksgiving this year, this list is a lifeline for staying on top of things and avoiding that frantic day-before energy.

Look, we know when you get home after a long day of work the last thing you want to think about is cleaning, but like it or not, it’s a great time to get a little light housekeeping done. If you commit yourself to cleaning a small handful of things before you change out of your work clothes, you’ve got yourself some instant motivation and the opportunity to set yourself up for a calm (and clean) evening of chilling at home.

A good household cleaner can make housekeeping a breeze. But a good household cleaner that only costs five bucks or less? Well, that’s a game-changer for your home. To help make your housekeeping endeavors go more smoothly (and affordably), we rounded up the best commercial cleaning products under $5.

Window cleaner can be a game-changer for your housekeeping routine. Along with cleaning everything from your windows to your shower tile, this bright blue household staple is slightly less abrasive than most other multi-purpose sprays—making it great for use on more fragile surfaces. Unfortunately, however, there are some things you should never use window cleaner on, no matter how contradictory it may seem.

If you thought reusable cupcake liners were only good for baking, then think again. Turns out those colorful silicone cups, like these rainbow-hued cuties by AmazonBasics, are awesome for cleaning and organizing stuff around your home, too. Don’t believe us? Read on for a bunch of ways you can use (and reuse) silicone baking cups outside of the oven. Searching for a cute and inexpensive way to streamline your workstation?

Keeping your home organized on a limited budget is never easy. But what if we told you that we’d discovered a $4 buy on Amazon that can instantly create extra storage space in just about every room of your home? Believe it or not, suction holders for sponges, like this one from Amazon, can work wonders for over-cluttered and storage-deprived areas throughout your home, all it takes is a little imagination.

Raise your hand if you have a household chore that you just love to do. Even if you hate cleaning, you probably have your hand in the air. There’s always something. I love, love, love using the Shop-Vac. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch it cut a swathe through dust and dirt, swooshing everything up into its roaring nozzle. I can Shop-Vac all day long, and I always claim the job when we’re doing a big project. I even picked one out as a Valentine’s Day present once.

There is something in your kitchen that’s a super-cleaning agent, and you’re probably not using it often enough. And that’s silly — because it’s free (or almost free). That super cleaner is hot, hot water, and it costs about $0.0005 a gallon even in New York City, where everything is expensive! Few stains or debris stand a chance against super hot water, and it disinfects surfaces, too.

If you’re afraid of the luxury of having something nice like a leather sofa, we’re here to put your fears at rest. Leather is a performance material, and fortunately you don’t have to work hard to maintain it. “People make the mistake of assuming that because leather is more expensive, it requires more care—when it’s just the opposite,” says Whitney Tinsley, Moore & Giles‘ Director of Education. “Leather is meant to be lived in.

You can actually get your slow cooker to clean itself.