Cleaning

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.

It might sound like something straight out of “Downton Abbey”or “The Crown,” but you need a clothes valet. No, it’s not a butler you can tell your deepest secrets to as he fastens your cufflinks. But it is going to make getting dressed—and by extension, your mornings—a bit more luxurious and a lot more smooth. A clothes valet is a tall piece of furniture, usually about the size of a full-length mirror, that holds your clothes for the next day.

One extremely valuable feature of Amazon—one that takes some of the uncertainty out of buying many things sight-unseen—is the power of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of user reviews. When at item has pages upon pages of high-star ratings, it’s almost impossible not to check it out. Especially when it’s touted as a miracle cure-all for all your cleaning conundrums. Bar Keeper’s Friend is one of those.

If you moved in a rush, you probably just tossed everything in a box. But while you’re setting up the bathroom in a shiny new apartment, one look at your shower curtain liner sends you into a panic: You suddenly notice the bottom of the liner is brown or gray or cloudy. When was the last time you cleaned this curtain? If you have to ask, then it’s time to treat yourself and your new space to a fresh curtain liner.

Believe it or not, there’s a big mistake most people are making when they clean. Not cleaning your home from top to bottom—a.k.a. dusting first and leaving sweeping and mopping for last—can have some major consequences for your housekeeping routine. Don’t believe us? We called on cleaning expert Kadi Dulude, owner of Wizard of Homes NYC, to help us break down the benefits of cleaning your home from top to bottom. Read ahead to see what she had to say.

A few years ago, I learned a trick that changed my life. No, seriously, it was a complete game-changer in the care of my kitchen sink. This is a tip you’ll shrug off and then eventually grudgingly try. And then you’ll say, “Oh man, that was so easy and awesome! Why didn’t I do that sooner?” The key, my friends, to the most shiny and luxuriously polished stainless steel sink, is very cheap, very simple, and very weird: flour. Why would you want to polish your sink?

I’ve been cleaning my house according to this room-by-room cleaning schedule for years. When I keep up with it, my house looks perpetually clean. But (spoiler alert!) I don’t always manage to keep up with it. And I’ve begun to wonder if a particular shift in my routine could save me time and give me the impetus to finish my daily tasks. The room-by-room method works well enough.

Many of us are familiar with the trick of microwaving sponges to help disinfect them. Although that practice has been thrust into the spotlight and put under scrutiny lately. Turns out that microwaving sponges only kills the worst of the bacteria they harbor; the other microbes quickly recolonize the sponge and it’s as bad as it ever was, ewww. But there is a reason to microwave your rags, one that sidesteps the whole question of how to keep your kitchen cloths sanitary.

Forgive my hyperbole, but I firmly believe the very best thing you can do for your home is to clear the kitchen each night. It’s the heart of your home—and the place you’ll make your coffee in the morning—so you want to keep that heart healthy and happy. Sometime after dinners have been made (and a few bites of ice cream have been taken straight from the freezer), but before you turn in for the night, take a quick 20 or so minutes to clear your kitchen of its daily mess.

I grew up in a pristine home. I don’t mean to say that it was fancy — it wasn’t — but it was spotless from the fan blades down to the baseboards. This was no easy feat, considering our house was a century old and so had the unique ability to create dust after you had just wiped down that surface (whatever that surface happened to be).

Not only can a good stain remover save your garments, carpet, and upholstery from unsightly spills and stains, they also work to keep your stuff looking fresh and new for longer. That’s why it’s important to always have a handful of solid stain removers on hand, so you can rescue your goods from blemishes before it’s too late. So to help make your life, or at least laundry day, go more smoothly, we rounded up the top-rated stain removers on the market.

One of the trade-offs of living in a big city is small living quarters in exchange for easy access to culture and nightlife. I live in an itty-bitty studio apartment on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Space is at a premium, and to make the best use of my square footage, I own quite a bit of Lucite (or acrylic) furniture and home accessories. The see-through material looks chic and doesn’t take up a lot of visual room.

The logic should make sense: smaller spaces are easier to clean, right? In reality, small spaces, and even tiny houses, come with their own set of cleaning challenges. If you convert a trailer into a tiny house, you can expect plenty of dirt, grass, and leaves to be tracked in—300 square feet likely doesn’t allow for a mudroom. Since every inch is utilized in a tiny house, that means each surface is prone to messes.

Let’s face it: Pretty much everything at IKEA feels like a steal thanks to their perennially super low prices. But that doesn’t mean we still aren’t stoked to discover that the mega-retailer offers a slew of cleaning and organizing items you can take home for just $1. That’s right. A buck. For less than a cup of coffee, you can score an assortment of awesome housekeeping tools that are every bit as stylish as they are inexpensive. Don’t believe us?

I’m not typically squeamish when it comes to bugs. Until they get inside my house where they don’t belong, that is. The creepiest are usually those teeny tiny ones—like springtails—that are so hard to see I start getting paranoid that they’re everywhere. Springtails are minuscule wingless bugs found all throughout North America that thrive in dark, damp places.

Keeping the kitchen clean is hard work. Every single day, multiple times a day, you spill food across the floors and countertops. You chuck crusty dishes into the sink. You splatter sauce or grease. And the effort of keeping it all spic and span— all that wiping, sweeping, and scrubbing! — can get totally tedious day in and day out.

Soap scum and water marks are ubiquitous in most showers and baths. So often we treat them as an inevitable nuisance that is hidden from most eyes and that we address when we deep clean the bathroom, have guests coming, or just can’t take it anymore. And then we look for quick fixes and hacks like the baggie method to tackle the clinging grime (nothing wrong with that!).

I’ve written a lot about dusting, but like a doctor who stops for Krispy Kreme on the way to work, I have some blind spots when it comes to this one part of homekeeping. Namely, I’m not the best at staying on top of dusting the hard-to-reach spots in my home. Not that it doesn’t bother me that the tops of my built-ins and kitchen cabinets are coated with a thin coating of dust (ok, more than a thin coating).

The magic of IKEA pieces is not only in their well-thought-out, small-space-maximizing design, but in the numerous ways each versatile piece can be repurposed and hacked. Here are four ways to transform one of our very favorite IKEA staples, the VARIERA bag dispenser, into more than meets the eye.

Welcome to Apartment Therapy’s Chore-Free Summer. Every weekday until July 20, we’re arming you with time-saving shortcuts and hacks that’ll help you work smarter, not harder, when it comes to homekeeping this summer. Because cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore. This post is the last day of our chore-free summer series, to get the rest of the posts go here.

I recently learned something that totally blew my mind: you uh… actually don’t need soap to wash your dishes. Or at least, that’s what one cleaning brand called Goodbye Detergent claims, thanks to their Original Spaghetti Scrub. Spaghetti Scrubs are an environmentally friendly sponge alternative.

Welcome to Apartment Therapy’s Chore-Free Summer. Every weekday until July 20, we’re arming you with time-saving shortcuts and hacks that’ll help you work smarter, not harder, when it comes to homekeeping this summer. Because cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore. Not all kitchen messes are created equal. But whether you’re a dedicated home cook or somebody who has local takeout joints’ phone numbers saved as favorites, you still have to clean up after yourself.

Welcome to Apartment Therapy’s Chore-Free Summer. Every weekday until July 20, we’re arming you with time-saving shortcuts and hacks that’ll help you work smarter, not harder, when it comes to homekeeping this summer. Because cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore. Cleaning the bathroom is an oft-reviled chore, and for very good reason. You’re forced to get intimate with your filth—and the filth of the people you live with.

Before you spend another minute wiping, dusting, or disinfecting something you don't have to, look for these things that can get clean in the dishwasher.

It’s become ubiquitous. Whether it’s a tiny bottle of colored gel clipped to a teens’ backpack, or the more natural version that’s a common diaper bag companion, hand sanitizer is becoming a staple of everyone’s personal bag. Besides its obvious purpose (don’t forget that the CDC still recommends hand-washing as the best line of defense!), you can also bust out your hand sanitizer to accomplish these little cleaning tasks, at home and on the go.

Welcome to Apartment Therapy’s Chore-Free Summer. Every weekday until July 20, we’re arming you with time-saving shortcuts and hacks that’ll help you work smarter, not harder, when it comes to homekeeping this summer. Because cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore. No other household chore draws as much ire as the dishes. Maybe it’s because they just never. seem. to end.

Dare we say these hacks are… really cool?

Now, as a 30-something adult, I get it. I have the exact same rule for keeping the bedroom clean at home.

From scrubbing pots and pans to deep-cleaning appliances, baking soda is such a great cleaning agent that it’s tempting to want to use it on everything. But even though it’s gentler than some alternatives, baking soda still has some downfalls. Because it’s abrasive, you have to be careful with surfaces that are lightly sealed or that have a finish that can be worn away (the same way you would be careful with scrubbing too hard with a scratchy sponge).

Besides the relaxation and change of pace offered by a vacation while it’s happening, an additional benefit of taking time off is being primed to appreciate and enjoy your own home, routines, and everyday life again. Nothing kills this buzz more, though, than returning to a home that slams you with unpleasant demands the minute you walk in the door.

Let me begin with a caveat: I do not always do the dishes straight away. I do try to, because I think it’s always easier to just deal with the mess instead of letting it pile up. Why not put that coffee mug in the dishwasher or give that chef’s knife a quick rinse and dry and put it safely back on my magnetic strip? The alternative is that I don’t do those things and I just leave it all out on the counter.

Toilet plungers are not something we tend to discuss. But, for sure, we want them to work and we sure hope there’s one accessible if we—horror!—happen to need one in someone else’s bathroom. (By the way, this post has some great tips for how to unclog a toilet, should you find yourself without a plunger). Whether it’s through consideration for your guests or to equip your own home with the top tools for the job, we found the one toilet plunger to replace all others.

When it comes to housekeeping, few people know the ropes as well as Durk Johnson. In addition to serving as the executive director of Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP)—a national organization that specializes in housekeeping principles and procedures—he has over fifteen years experience in cleaning luxury rentals around the world.

No matter what I spill, or what I spill it on, I have a single stain remover I can trust to be my front line against anything.

Cleaning the toilet happens to be not only among the most odorous of chores, but also one that simply must get done to maintain any modicum of cleanliness in your house. But no matter how regularly you clean it and how much of a stickler you are for doing it the “right” way, you may not end up with a toilet that looks or—ahem—smells as fresh as you’d like.

A clean sink is one thing, but a shiny sink is another.

Toilet-cleaning ranks as one of the most dreaded of all household chores, and no wonder; it’s a dirty, dirty job. Personally, I don’t mind it that much because I’d much rather know it’s clean and shiny than put off doing it. Plus the more often you do it, the less yucky the whole ordeal is. There’s one part that always flummoxed me, though, until I had a silly epiphany that solved the problem.

With four children and three pets, I’m on a perpetual quest for a cleaning product that gets my floors squeaky clean. On a whim, I decided to try Murphy’s Oil soap on our tile floors since it’s one of those old-time standbys everyone seems to have at least heard of. When I saw that my mop water was dirtier than it’s ever been, I became a Murphy’s Oil Soap convert. Turns out, however, that floors aren’t all it’s good for.

There's a magic trick involving dryer sheets and dish soap that will make your next deep clean go a lot easier for you.

Dust is gross. A mixture of dead skin cells, pollen, dust mites, dust mite feces, pet dander, textile fibers, burnt particles of cosmic rocks, decomposing insects, and more—dust is no doubt dirty. But it harbors a more sinister component, a fact that has motivated me, for one, to finally become a little less lax and more fatalistic about how much of it I allow to stick around in my home.

A microbiologist pointed out there's a 4-minute rule printed right on the package.

Pre-washing dishes is one of those divisive things about life at home. If you’re secretly (or not so secretly) a pre-rinser, it’s because you think it’s the only right way to do it, and that not pre-rinsing is gross/dirty/lazy/doesn’t work/what-have-you. I know because I’m one of them. I grew up with a dishwasher that really didn’t get dishes clean on its own, so pre-washing became my practice.

In a recent quest to rid a gorgeous old handmade quilt of some weird unknown stains, I came across a so-called “miracle product” named Retro Clean. It promised to be able to do heavy lifting of bleach without being harsh and corrosive—in other words, the perfect solution for my delicate, yet well-loved vintage linens.

Bless the houseguest who hops up after a great meal and beelines for the kitchen sink. Thank you for your service on the serving ware, but also for saving the rest of us from the awkward dance of feeling out which one of us guests was going to volunteer as tribute to the trifle dish. Somewhere in the course of home history, “doing the dishes” became synonymous with “being a good houseguest.

This year, we’re on a mission to help you tackle spring cleaning on your time. Each weekday until April 13, we’ll guide you through a plan to clean and organize different areas of your home, but you’ll have the flexibility to choose exactly what to work on and how long you have to dedicate to the job. Nobody really likes cleaning, do they? I’m a home editor and I don’t even like cleaning. I enjoy having a clean home, of course.

If you’re a practical person and invested in high quality tableware in classic white, good for you! Your dinner guests will have to look long and hard to spy those tiny chips your plates may have accumulated over the years. For the rest of us who opted for brightly colored vintage dishes that we have to constantly protect with our lives — we need all the help we can get to keep our priceless pieces looking pristine. So what help do we offer? What ingenious tip have we? Ready for it?

Who among us hasn’t snatched a tiny hotel toiletry (or 10) in our time? Let she without blame cast the first miniature moisturizer bottle. For the record, though, why would they leave them out if they didn’t want you to take them? We say keep growing your collection. And while you’re at it, make you don’t forget the most underrated of items: the humble hotel shower cap. You may be wondering, “But, why? Like, why?

Dust, as we somewhat euphemistically know it, is a pretty disturbing amalgamation of pet dander, dirt, soot, hair, pollen, dust mite feces, and other tiny particles that get in our breathing zones and relentlessly coat every surface in our homes. Probably because dust is so pervasive, dusting is one of our most dreaded—and, therefore, often most neglected—chores. Here are some dos and don’ts that should take some sting out of the task.

Rice is a staple on dinner tables around the globe, but has many other great uses that go beyond the kitchen. Most of us have used it to save our cell phones from unfortunate run-ins with water because it’s hygroscopic and can trap the water molecules, but have you ever used it to trap odors? A cup of rice in a stinky space can make a world of difference. Making a deodorizing rice jar is one of the easiest, and best smelling things you can do for your home.