Housekeeping Cleaning Tips

One of the best ways to upcycle your old books is to donate them to a charity of your choice. There are dozens of charities you can choose from, as many charitable organizations are looking to improve their libraries.

Modern problems require modern solutions. And for those who use silicone ice cube trays, there’s no exception. You have to keep your ice molds clean, or else someone could get sick. But can you put silicone ice cube trays in the dishwasher or not? Let’s see.

Have you ever walked into your house and noticed there’s a distinct, sugary, and almost overwhelming stink?

If your home has a guest room, then there is a good chance your houseguest will spend the majority of time in this room. Therefore, the bulk of your energy should be focused on making this a pet-hair and dander-free area.

It is perfectly safe to reuse your bath towel more than once without washing it in most cases, and it can even save on your electric bill. But as a rule, you should only reuse it two or three times. After three days, most experts agree that you should swap it out for a fresh one. This will reduce the risk of bacteria growth or the dreaded smelly towel.

Hoover is one of the most well-known manufacturers of vacuum and carpet cleaners out there. They have been behind some of the most innovative solutions and have since become a trusted name in the cleaning industry.

If you are someone who gets bitten by mosquitos in the summer months, then you will be happy to know Epsom salts can help. Not only will an Epsom salt bath help your skin feel better, but dissolved salts can also help relieve itching associated with mosquito bites.

There are many reasons why a garment can only be washed by hand. It might be the fabric, the colors, or even how the garment was made. Washing duffel bags and backpacks often needs to be done by hand as well. Whatever the reason, if the tag says 'hand wash only,' make sure you wash the garment by hand, and use the tips below.

Duffel bags are versatile and convenient, and they can be made of leather, fabric, or synthetic material. Duffle bags serve well as gym, travel, and sports bags, and they’re also used by non-commissioned personnel in the military.

Sitting around a fireplace during the chilly weather is cozy but it is not so cozy when some of that charcoal gets onto your carpet. Or during the summer when you are barbequing, you may have tracked some charcoal in from the deck. Don’t panic! You can fix it.

While ironing might not be everyone’s favorite chore, it’s sometimes part of the laundry process. Maintaining your ironing board and washing your ironing board cover are essential to keep your clothes from getting dirty all over again.

Getting dents in your carpet may seem unavoidable if you have heavy furniture. However, your carpet isn’t doomed to have dents forever, especially if you take preventative steps. Luckily, we have several easy tips for how to protect your carpet from heavy furniture.

Some states ban sauna suits, while others say they’re okay. You can use them to shed unwanted water weight and fit into your favorite clothes. But can you put sauna suits in the dryer after you wash them? Here’s what you need to know.

If you’re anything like me, your coffee pot is one of the most important and utilized appliances in your home. With such busy schedules, we rely on the coffee that they brew to wake us up in the morning and keep us motivated throughout the day. Though, like all other kitchen appliances, they too need to be cleaned on a regular basis.

Automatic or self-cleaning litter boxes work via sensors and a rake. The sensors detect dirty litter and the rake sweeps the litter aside. In some cases, the dirty litter falls into a separate compartment below, and in other cases, it is stored on the side.

Rainy weather can be relaxing if you’re at home, that is until your house smells like rotten eggs afterward. It can come as a shock when you notice sewer odors in your home, especially right after a peaceful rain. So, why is it that your house smells like rotten eggs when it rains?

Swiffers make it easy to clean your house without needing to drag a bucket around with you. The Swiffer’s cleaning solution is quite effective and eliminates the need to make a mixture of your own. However, Swiffers aren’t ideal for all applications. There are several things you should never clean with a Swiffer.

Everyone loves peanut butter. Nourishing and delicious, it is the perfect sandwich filling, especially with jelly or jam. It’s a versatile ingredient for a number of dishes, ranging from classic cookies to the famous peanut sauces of Indonesia. However, when eating or using peanut butter, an accident may sometimes happen, and some could fall onto your carpet. If this happens, how do you clean it up?

Burnt sugar is one of the toughest stains to remove because of its strange consistency. It’s common to burn sugar on your stovetop, but that doesn’t mean that you’re out of luck.

Ceramic mugs are great for a lot of reasons. One can customize a ceramic mug to make it unique, and often ceramic mugs hold sentimental value. And of course, ceramic mugs make it easy to drink hot liquids like tea and coffee.

Your oven is essential for everything from an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner to a simple frozen pizza. You can bake cookies or broil vegetables with relative ease as long as your oven is functioning properly. In order to ensure your oven cooks consistently and evenly, you need to make sure it is clean and free of burnt debris. But exactly how do you know when it is time to deep-clean your oven?

If you’ve had your dog for a while who is prone to accidents, you likely know the warning signs when one is about to happen. For example, they may walk away from you and find a discreet, comfortable spot. Placing potty pads in such places can encourage your dog to use pads instead of having an accident on the floor.

The average homeowner keeps bleach around to clean the house or even do laundry. There is no denying that bleach is an effective cleaner, but it is hard to get past the strong smell. So, what can you do if your house smells like bleach after cleaning?

When you have no clothespins, but you have a home office with supplies, then you’re in luck. Binder clips are great for keeping documents together and can work just as well as clothespin alternatives.

Coffee lovers often have a particular fondness for their coffee makers. That is no less true for those who use Keurig as their coffee maker of choice. Like every good coffee connoisseur or anyone who just likes good coffee, that often means  taking care of those coffee machines. That also leads to questions about things such as water filters and other coffee maker considerations.

Having children in the home means that there are bound to be some accidents; in fact, accidents become a part of your daily life. Chalk and markers have been loved by children throughout the decades and are still highly used by children today! This means that you will find yourself trying to get ink or chalk out of your carpet at some time or another. You may already know the remedies for ink, so what about chalk?

When your dishwasher gets clogged, it won’t be able to function properly. You can do a variety of things to unclog a dishwasher, and one common method is using calcium lime and rust remover (CLR).

Sometimes the pots and pans you use to cook Thanksgiving food get crusted over and burnt. There is a lot of dairy and sugar cooked on this holiday, so don't be surprised if all your pans have a bit of crust that is hard to remove. 

Cast iron stove grates are found in many homes and businesses these days. Often, when you’re cooking something—like boiling pasta—water will run over a pot and onto the stove grates, and when this happens repeatedly the grates can become dirty. Also, there are some things—like bacon for example—that will splatter no matter how hard you try to avoid this.

Bissell has been a leading manufacturer of home cleaning appliances for more than 140 years, and it’s been said that this company even supplied England’s Queen Victoria with sweepers in the 1890s. Since that time, their products have improved substantially, and one can find their sweepers, washers, vacuum cleaners, and bare-floor vacuums being used by not only homeowners but business owners as well.

Most snow is tracked into the home from your shoes. Therefore, the best way to prevent it from reaching far into your home is to stop it where it enters. Most homes have doormats outside. In the winter, it’s wise to have mats on the inside of your home as well.

Is there anything worse than going through the trouble of washing your towels, but they stink like a sweaty locker room? (Okay, there are probably lots worse things, but after you spend time doing laundry, nothing else comes to mind at that moment.) You should have fresh, clean linens, so why do your towels smell after washing?

Coffee machines are super convenient to have in your home, especially cause so many of them come with timers now, so you don’t have to remember to turn the coffee pot on in time before heading to work or starting your day. However, one thing that gets super annoying is the need to descale it. But, it needs to be done! But what if you have a Breville Coffee Maker? How do you descale that?

Kitchen mats sure can tie the room together. Not only that, but they also serve a functional purpose. Kitchen mats provide a comfortable surface during long dishwashing sessions. They’re also good to have around in the presence of water to soak up spills and minimize slipping.

Dirty burner caps don’t just make your stove look bad, but they can throw off the vibe in your kitchen. It’s hard to keep burner caps clean when you cook several days a week. However, it’s best to clean them as much as possible before stains form and it becomes harder to remove them. Many homeowners struggle with how to clean gas stove burner caps.

What looks like a skunk, smells like a skunk, and makes your house smell like a skunk? The answer seems pretty simple…or does it?

Despite their status as one of the more popular brands for power tools, Bosch actually makes far more than that. As a matter of fact, they make a good deal of kitchen appliances as well. That includes dishwashers, which have become a favorite for homeowners.

The first method you should try to remove stains from your cutting board involves your kitchen sponge, soap, hot water, and elbow grease. Use the same method you would use to wash your other dishes, only apply extra effort to the stained area.

Ideally, you should replace your sheets every 2-6 years or sooner as needed. Sheets with a low thread count must be replaced within 2-3 years in many cases. They wear out much faster and easily become thin and stained.

Cleaning your toilet can be a big pain, but it’s one of those chores that you must do on a regular basis. Thankfully, bleach can make the job a whole lot easier and a lot less gross. If you’ve had to deal with stubborn stains that won’t seem to fade in the past, you may have found yourself wondering if you could leave bleach sitting in the bowl to do the hard work.

We all heard Elvis Presley’s “Blue Suede Shoes,” but what about your blue suede couch? Suede is one of the hottest options for couches as well as couch covers. It’s satiny, leather, and absolutely gorgeous. It’s a good choice for matte looks. But, how do you wash suede couch covers, or at the very least, keep it clean?

Resin furniture, also known as Polywood, can be an attractive and versatile addition to a patio. Affordable and with a wide variety of styles to choose from, you can furnish your outdoor living space with tables and chairs, which will last for years. However, in common with other materials, unless they are correctly and regularly maintained, they can deteriorate over time. Your furniture can start to look dirty, chalky, and worn. So, how do you clean them when this happens?

Why does my house smell like a permanent marker? This is the first question that will cross your mind when you notice the smell. However, before you start finding the reasons behind the smell, it’s best to remember that the odor is never a good sign, since it points to a problem somewhere in your house.

You must protect yourself before you can protect your home from mold after a flood. Floods can stir up harmful bacteria and materials that are dangerous to inhale. Ideally, you should protect your lungs with an N-95 mask to avoid breathing in dangerous materials. 

Vaseline is considered to be one of the most useful household products on the market. It can moisturize your body. It can help lubricate items that squeak. It can also be turned into DIY lip gloss and more. Unfortunately, petroleum jelly is not one of those things that works well with carpeting. Ask anyone who’s spilled it on their carpet, and they’ll agree. How do you even lift this type of stain?

Hamilton Beach is one of the largest coffee maker manufacturers in the world, and that means that you probably own one. If you want to keep your coffee tasting fresh, you need to know how to clean it. Cleaning a Hamilton Beach coffee maker isn’t always easy, though. So, how do you make your coffee maker squeaky clean?

In recent years, memory foam has become the pillow material of choice because of its long lifespan. Memory foam pillows can either be one solid piece or shredded pieces of foam.

Nothing is more entertaining to the kids as making crazy animals and other shapes out of colored dough. Play-Doh can keep your kids busy for hours. But it can also keep you busy trying to get the bright colored mess out of the carpet later. Maybe the kids should only play with Play-Doh in a room without carpet next time. But now you have a mess to clean up.

Coconut oil has become one of the most popular “superfood” buzzwords of the last decade, and rightfully so. It can be used for almost anything from massage oil to a delicious additive to your food. Unsurprisingly, it’s also found itself on many unsuspecting carpets across the country in unprecedented quantities. So, how do you get this oil out of your carpet?

Dishwashers are modern conveniences that can help reduce the amount of time spent cleaning dishes in the kitchen every day. But, when you regularly find undissolved dishwashing pods left in your dishwasher, you know that your dishes are  not properly cleaned.

Windbreaker season is here. It’s fall. It’s time to see leaves change and that means that you’re going to see apple cider spill on windbreakers from time to time. Windbreakers season is great, but trying to launder it is a pain. Drying, in particular, is a pain. Can you even put a windbreaker in a dryer?

Water quality is always a topic of great interest for homeowners who want to be certain that the water flowing into their homes is safe for consumption. Those who err on the side of caution will purchase products like Brita pitchers to ensure they’re drinking clean water. But to work their best, they need to be clean, leading to the question, are Brita pitchers dishwasher safe?

Do you know that feeling when, on opening the door of your dryer, you see the unmistakable signs of oily residue smeared all over your clothing? (We hope you said no!) Not only do you have to clean your dryer, but you’re also stuck trying to figure out exactly how to get the melted Chapstick out of your clothing. However, don’t worry, we have the answer for you!

Carpet on stairs presents a few extra challenges when it comes to cleaning. It’s not like you can quickly run your vacuum across the steps. However, knowing how to clean carpet on stairs doesn’t take a lot of specialized knowledge or tools.

Today, we live in an era that is celebrated for being the age of lifehacks. Want to wash a wall? There are tricks for that. Want to wash a floor? Just go on Google and you’ll find a ton of information on how to do it quickly and effectively. These days, we’re even talking about power washing rugs. Is this actually okay, though?

Vinyl plank flooring is an excellent way to get the look of hardwood floors at an affordable price. They’re also durable, many types of vinyl floors are waterproof, and they’re easy to maintain. But if you don’t take care of them, they can get dull over time. Luckily, it’s easy to make vinyl plank floors shine like new.

The simple answer is that you should clean everything when you move out, but it’s more complicated than that. We’ve put together a cleaning checklist for moving out that isn’t meant to be done in any specific order. Instead, you can use this checklist as a guideline to clean up and get your deposit back at your pace, depending on your move-out schedule.

Create a schedule for tidying up and review it with your family members. Post it where everyone can see it.

It is okay for a washing machine to shake a little bit during the spin cycle. This happens when clothes move around and slap the sides of the drum. The combination of the impact of the clothes and the washing machine spinning makes it shake.

Has this happened to you? You drop the coffee grounds all over the floor when trying to make your morning cup of Joe. No problem, you think, you’ll just grab your trusty Shark vacuum. The only problem, it won’t turn on, and you’re forced to reach for the broom and dustpan.