Cleaning

Whether you are prone to dust allergies or will just rest easier knowing the area you spend 8 (okay, 7?, 6?) hours sleeping in each night is clean as a whistle, your bed zone is well-worth a half hour of your time this weekend. Clean Your Bedding: Strip your bed of blankets, comforters, sheets, pillows and mattress pad and give them all a good wash. If you haven’t done it recently, now’s a great time to flip your mattress.

If you’re here with us, spring cleaning on a Saturday—thank you! And if you’re just getting started—welcome! We’re only a handful of days into our 20-day program, so there’s still plenty of time to sign up and catch up. It’s a brand new thing for us, this team spring cleaning event, and I have to admit that we editors struggled with whether or not to keep the plan going through the weekends. Ultimately, efficiency won out.

We tackled the refrigerator on day two of our spring clean, when I teased that freezer day was yet to come. So I hope that you’re now primed and ready for round two: Cleaning out the freezer. Because the freezer is home to more long-term storage than the fridge, you might find that your ice box has become somewhat of a history museum inside, showcasing relics from months and months ago within its walls. So now’s as good a time as any to get inside and do a little digging.

Hopefully you spent some of your weekend catching up on your shows, because today’s spring cleaning task is all about your home’s main entertainment area. If it’s possible, I’m asking that you don’t turn the TV on tonight until you spend some time cleaning up around the TV—on top of and throughout your media center area. If you can swing it, I always find that it helps to tidy the TV area while it’s plenty light outside.

I grew up in a house without a dishwasher. And for a really long time after—even when my college and post-college apartments had these cathartic symbols of luxury installed under the countertops—I sort of just… kept doing dishes by hand. It was easier, to me. While dishwashers are indisputably the pantheon of modern efficiency, it pays to mind the words of Uncle Ben Parker: With great power comes great responsibility.

At the risk of sounding like a cloyingly optimistic Peppy Patty (which I can assure you, I am not), I never really understood all the pervasive hate for Mondays.

Congratulations to everyone! We’re officially halfway through our 2017 spring cleaning mission. Ten days down, ten more to go… and to celebrate, today’s task should be a simple one. In fact, the hardest part is just going to be toting a stepstool around your apartment for a little while. Unless you’re 7 feet tall, there are likely a few spots around your home that hide from view, and spend their days collecting dust and grime until, well… right about now actually.

It’s better not to reinvent the wheel, sometimes. As much as modern conveniences are revitalizing our home lives, there are moments when, frankly, grandma just got it right. Today’s task in our spring cleaning plan is one of those moments. I’m thinking your rugs could use a little retro refreshing.

Hopefully you’re not too bitter with me about making you clean again this weekend. But we’re starting the home stretch of spring cleaning! One week from today is the official last day of the program—so I think it’s just best if we buckle down and get going… Today’s task is another one of those once-in-a-while types of missions, where we aim to clean a spot that likely only gets its due this time each year.

In literature, in outfits and in life, it’s the details that truly matter. A bathroom that’s been decluttered, scrubbed and sanitized can still look a little bit off if you’re not minding your lines. For a sparkling clean bathroom—top to bottom and wall to wall—you’ll want to make sure your grout is really clean, too. The good news?

If you’re the type of person who enjoys adding items like “eat lunch” to your to-do list, you’re going to love today’s spring cleaning mission. Staying productive isn’t always easy. When you’re faced with an overwhelming amount of work in front of you, it’s all too easy to get stuck in productivity paralysis; instead of doing something, you do nothing, and the pressure just seems to mount.

Your floors, counters and tabletops get their fair share of attention — they’re likely the first places you clean any time you work to make your home a tidier place. And no wonder: They’re big areas that collect visible clutter and dirt. But if the cleanliness of your home were one of those maps where states or countries are distorted and re-sized based on a staggering statistic, you might see things a bit differently.

It’s been really inspiring to me how much we’ve all embraced spring cleaning this year. Even when I’ve given you permission to take a day off — like when you’ve recently cleaned your kitchen cabinets or because you don’t have a dishwasher — I’ve seen you chiming in, finding something else to tackle that day in the name of a cleaner, refreshed home for the sunny season.

Our spring cleaning journey has been about turning over some lesser-cleaned leaves and refreshing your space to feel brand new for the season ahead. So in many ways, today’s assignment is symbolic of the whole shebang. We’re going to be flipping and turning, revealing a fresh new face for some of the most-used and much-loved parts of your home. Your sofa and bed see a lot of action day to day.

You don't have to be an allergy sufferer to reap the benefits of clean air at home.

Summer is upon us, and that means that—now more than ever—you’re likely finding the underarms of your favorite white shirts are turning dull and yellow. Seriously, it’s the pits (sorry, I had to). As if dripping with sweat the second you step out of an air conditioned room all summer isn’t bad enough, it has to ruin your clothes, too?

Want the clock to move a little faster as you scrub the tub? Just turn on some tunes. We’ve always known that music is proven to provide positive benefits and affects when it comes to mood and emotions, productivity and focus, and learning and memory. But for something as mundane as scrubbing floors or washing dishes to become an enjoyable task—well, that’s a significant leap.

If you’re lucky enough to have your own, your washer and dryer are probably among your most expensive household appliances. But it’s easy to just crank the laundry through them without giving them much care. They are sophisticated machines, though, that need proper maintenance if you want to keep them working their best and for a long time. This weekend, familiarize yourself with how to properly take care of these very handy workhorses.

Are you more of a cleaning wipes person, or are you more of a cleaning spray person? If you prefer the spritz-and-wipe method over ready-to-use cleaning-solution-soaked wipes, you might not like what you’re about to read: a recent study found that wipes are actually more effective at killing bacteria than sprays are.

Love a clean home but hate actually doing the cleaning part? Same. Sometimes a good “I’m stressed and I need something to distract me” clean can be totally satisfying, but on a daily basis, chores can be hard to keep up with. “The Cleaning Ninja” by Courtenay Hartford, aims to help people who want to keep their home cleaner and get it done faster.

As I read the introductory chapters of Cheryl Mendelson’s Home Comforts, in which she describes the homekeeping styles of her English grandmother in contrast to that of her Italian grandmother, I began to think about how much the way I do things in my own home is part of the heritage passed down to me by the women in my family. I saw that my methods of homekeeping are more cultural than I realized and in a context of passed down, inter-generational wisdom.

Though it would seem like life without a closet in your bedroom is an impossible way to live, it’s more than just possible — it can even look stylish. All these beautiful homes below have something in common: The master bedroom either doesn’t have a built-in closet or doesn’t have nearly sufficient closet space. But, these home dwellers were able to come up with an elegant storage solution anyway.

You wash your hands when you leave the restroom, and maybe even reach for a paper towel to open the door handle to keep bathroom germs off your hands. You wash your face with skincare products that cost more than the food you eat, and maybe even sleep on fresh pillowcases every night to keep spots off your face. But all of that is for naught—like going to the gym everyday on a diet of donuts—if you’re not taking care of the filth on your cell phone.

We joke about retail therapy all the time, but as it turns out, there is some merit to the idea that people spend more when they’re stressed—just, maybe not in the way you’d expect. According to recent research from the Journal of Consumer Research, when people feel like they’ve lost control of their environment, it can affect their purchases—even at the grocery store.

When you live with your partner, sharing a closet is one of those challenges that inevitably presents itself in every home — big or small. These couples below tackled the small closet challenge with functionality and aesthetic in mind, and their ideas are easy (and affordable) enough to try in your own home…whether you rent or own. See if some of their solutions will work for you.

Doing laundry seems like a fairly straightforward process, and it’s one of the first chores many of us learn how to do. But there are a lot of ways—both big and small—that you could be damaging your washer and dryer in the process, so it’s important to be careful when you’re throwing your clothes in the wash.

How often do you swipe on deodorant, get dressed, and get ready to leave only to realize you’re streaked with visible white deodorant marks right before you walk out the door? Sometimes you can get the spots out easily, but other times they’re so stubborn you wind up changing your outfit at the last minute. (Personally, I’ve fallen victim to trying to use a wet wash cloth and stretching out my shirts in the process—ugh, the struggle!).

You know how it goes — it’s been a minute since you did a load of laundry, so you roam the house scooping up soiled clothes. When you happen upon the moist dish rags in the sink and the cleaning cloths you recently used to wipe down the counters, you toss those in, too. Hey, we’ve all done it. But is it even OK to wash your cleaning supplies and clothes together? The question, of course, isn’t whether you can. It’s whether you should.

Here at Apartment Therapy, we do our best to share tips and ideas to help you live a happier, healthier life at home, but sometimes our readers (yes, you!) really do know best. We learn from you—and you all learn from each other—in the comments all the time, which is why we decided to survey readers about your favorite podcasts, books, blogs and websites for learning about taking care of your home. These reads (and listens!

Keeping your home clean and organized requires a lot of effort—there are a lot of tasks both big and little to keep track of that add up, taking up quite a bit of your time and energy. It can honestly get overwhelming, especially if you lead an already busy lifestyle, or deal with depression, and have to face a mess that’s piled up.

Paring down your wardrobe can make your life so much easier—less clothing takes up less space, and keeping your options to a minimum makes getting ready quicker. But on the other hand, it can be a challenge: what if you still want the option to try new trends and experiment with different styles without buying more and more clothes? If you’re in this boat maybe it’s time to try a clothing rental service.

It’s that wonderful time of year affectionately dubbed “sweater weather.” But those sweaters that have been sitting in storage for two to three seasons could probably use some freshening up. Here’s how to care for your sweaters so they can keep you warm and looking your best year after year. To make sure that your sweaters are handled with the delicacy they deserve, you can’t go wrong with hand washing.

It’s a sign of my age that I get crazy excited about the little things at home. Sure, the frivolous things of my youth still hold some sway, but all I really want is a good vacuum that will suck up rogue animal fur, and a sink that cleans itself. I can probably manage the vacuum, but a self-cleaning sink is most likely not in the cards. That’s ok though, because this one from Elkay is the next best thing. I was recently online, drooling over someone’s recent kitchen renovation.

Last weekend, you tackled your bedroom, clearing it of unnecessary clutter and junk. This week, it’s all about building it back up, and getting ready for colder weather. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of slipping between luxurious sheets at a nice hotel at the end of the day — or staying in them just a little bit longer at the beginning of a new one, for that matter.

Thanksgiving is next week and the whole holiday will happily hum along if you do a few things in advance: 1) Let the seams out of your favorite pants; 2) fill some index cards of questions to ask distant cousins at the dinner table; and 3) do this one other very important thing before next Thursday.

It’s impressive when a couple shares a tiny home together. But even more extraordinary is what Devon Loftus and her chef husband Brian Loftus have managed to pull off in their super small, 320-square-foot tiny house: cook, bake and entertain, despite having a kitchen that’s only 18 square feet! How do they do it? The couple generously shared their small but successful kitchen dwelling secrets.

Advice from design writers is great and all, but what’s useful is learning about what people who are actually dealing with real rental issues are doing to overcome design dilemmas. Since the worlds of rental issues and small space problems can often overlap, why not look to folks with stylish spaces for ideas on how to make the most of the rental space you have?

Everyone’s home has easy-to-overlook spots that get neglected day to day. Most often, they are the places where horizontal and vertical surfaces meet, or the cracks where dirt gets trapped. They are the hardest to get to during routine cleaning, but also the most satisfying once you do. This weekend, clean your home’s seams. To do this project, you’ll need a small cleaning brush or two. These are my favorite.

I like to reduce the chemicals in our household, not only because I don’t want them accessible to my young children, but also because I try to reduce our chemical exposure in general. That’s why I mix my own Alvin Corn glass cleaner (“alcohol, vinegar, cornstarch” — awesome stuff), and use baking soda to scrub my sinks.

I’ve tried so many things to help me manage the massive amount of laundry that is generated in my household. I strive to do a load a day, I “complete the cycle” by putting folded clothes away right away, and I even bought myself a nifty little tool that makes folding extremely satisfying. But I’ve realized that what I need to address is something way more fundamental. Nothing quite screams You’re behind on laundry like a hamper that’s too full.

We’re so used to our own home’s impressions that only a deliberate look can show us what guests might notice. Walk into your house and try looking at it and smelling it with objective senses. If you’re a dog house, you may become aware of several issues that need to be addressed to make your home ready for the not-as-dog-appreciating guests you’re getting ready to host. Your eyes may not even see much of the fur that’s become part of your living space.

The Internet loves a good decluttering trend: We’ve long extolled the value of KonMari-ing your stuff, for instance, keeping only the things that “Spark Joy” and discarding the rest. But this year the latest big thing in cleaning and organizing philosophies has taken a decidedly darker tone: Swedish Death Cleaning.

As if laundry isn’t hard enough to keep under control, there are those little labels with tiny instructions and inscrutable hieroglyphics that we’re supposed to obey. But, seriously, who has time to sort not only by color and clothing type but by meticulous instructions?!

If you’re like me, then about half an hour before any house guests arrive you frantically run through the living and dining room, sweep any evidence of actually living in your home off of your surfaces, and jam all that crap into the nearest drawer/cabinet/closet to create the appearance of cleanliness. I would literally sweep clutter under a rug, if I could! Unfortunately, it would probably look lumpy under my flat-weave carpets.

Your kitchen is the workhorse of the home, and the items you store in it — serving pieces, utensils, and all that cookware — are among the toughest items in the whole place because they have to stand up to daily use. And even though these items are super-durable, if you store them incorrectly, you could potentially damage them (or, at the very least, waste space you could be using for something else). Here are five kitchen items you may be storing the wrong way.

When we think about big cleaning seasons, spring usually comes to mind. But winter is actually a pretty good time to do some serious cleaning. I mean, think about it: Soon we’ll be stuck inside, staring at the walls, and we won’t mind working up a sweat. Here are five projects to tackle the next time you’re faced with a gray wintry day. This time of year is peak baking and roasting season.

I firmly believe that some things are best left out of sight. When someone walks into my kitchen, I definitely don’t want the first thing they see to be a trash can. So stashing that trash bin in a cabinet seemed like a logical, aesthetically pleasing solution. Bonus: Keeping it behind closed doors meant I wouldn’t have to waste (get it?) precious square footage. I’m sad to report, however, that keeping garbage in the cabinet below my sink has proven to be a bad idea.

Emily Ley is a mama of three, a designer, author, and the creator of the wildly popular Simplified Planner. She lives in a perfectly imperfect new-build house in Florida with her husband and kiddos…and she knows a thing or two about simplifying life. Below, her four simple steps for ruthlessly clearing the clutter in the New Year. Here’s Emily: The beginning of a new year feels so fresh, doesn’t it? The giant, light-up holiday decor has been put away.

If it seems like everyone you know has the flu, well, you’re right. The Center for Disease Control released data on Friday that shows just how widespread the influenza virus is already this season. Whether you’re just getting over the bug or trying to prevent it, here are some precautions you should take to keep your home healthy. The CDC data shows that flu cases spiked rapidly in the week before Christmas, and is now widespread in 36 states.

Get the right organization in place to suit your cabinets and your needs.

In any survey of most-disliked household tasks, cleaning toilets is high on the list, for obvious reasons. You may know how to clean a toilet properly, and you may enjoy the end result of a less-than-enjoyable toilet-cleaning sesh. But what if you could take cleaning the toilet off your list of to-dos for good? Although the self-cleaning toilet concept isn’t brand new, prices are dropping and they are starting to pop up in more regular homes.

Why is doing laundry always so tedious? Maybe because it takes forever. We spend an average of 18,000 hours of our lives on laundry, and just over one year (375 days) just folding clothes. These stats come courtesy of the marketing materials for the Laundroid, an automatic laundry folding robot, of course… because they have an automatic folding machine to sell. But also, you had us at laundry folding robot.

As much as we talk about all the things to do when you clean your kitchen (get that crack between your counter and your sink! Sweep the floors! Take everything off your counters!), there are a few things you shouldn’t do. Here are three things I never do. Okay, this one is a little bit of a cheat because my household is a shoeless one. We live in Manhattan, where the streets are covered with goop, goo, and who knows what else.

One of the best parts of sweating it out in a group fitness class is using a perfectly white, fluffy towel — and you don’t even have to, er, sweat the laundry. Exercise chains deal with hundreds of sweaty towels per day, but somehow, each one feels brand new. “There is no better feeling than a soft towel after an intense workout,” says Tanya Becker, cofounder of Physique57, which offers barre classes in New York City, Beverly Hills, and beyond.

Once in a blue super blood moon, a blogger comes along and from the first time you see them on video, you want them to move into your house and be your best friend. For me, that moment came this year when “meeting” delightful wish-she-would-adopt me mama Tonya Payne of Hey Tonya, whose YouTube tutorial documenting her complete overhaul of a tiny rental laundry room using only dollar store products is going viral. Because it’s genius — and she’s just plain adorable.

Pegboard and IKEA seem like a match made in heaven and now we can enjoy this marriage here on earth. Released in Europe and other parts of the world last spring under the name SKADIS, the line just landed here in the U.S. and neatniks everywhere can rejoice. The basic SKADIS board comes in three sizes priced between $8-$16.

Since its debut at the Olympics in 1998, perhaps no winter sport has captivated our collective curiosity quite like curling. Turns out, thanks to two fans watching at home, all you need to get in on the action and try it out for yourself is hiding right in your cleaning closet.

It would be great if we could solve all our clothing problems with a quick spin through the washer and dryer. But some items wouldn’t withstand their rigors — and some problems just can’t be solved with the washer and dryer. There’s another ubiquitous household appliance, though, that addresses some common clothing conundrums. Here are some occasions for sticking clothes in the freezer instead.

At Apartment Therapy, we are forever seeking to discover the secrets of organized people. And there is no organized person whose secrets we want more than, of course, professional organizers. They’re often indistinguishable from the rest of us mere mortals until you see their homes (or Instagram feeds), where everything is infused with the kind of calm we can only aspire to. (Kristen Bell knows what we’re talking about). And when they speak, we listen.

We all love shortcuts — especially when they involve saving time doing repetitive, not-fun chores that we can’t escape …like, uhh, laundry. With the more recent advent of washing machines and detergents that are said to wash clothes just as well with cold water as with warm or hot, the suggestion to flout convention and forego separating seems to be gaining popularity. Here’s why we say no to combo laundry loads and yes to doing laundry the way your mother taught you.

I wanted to find out if washing, say, every other week is really that horrible and what I'm chancing if I stretch the prescribed weekly routine a bit.

I’ve struggled with finding a truly functional dustpan and brush combo. Too often the bristles don’t pick up all the debris, and dust gets caught under the lip of the dustpan, leaving that frustrating line of dirt behind. It makes me crazy! I finally found the right dustpan and brush combo, and it’s great almost all of the time.

In makeup, as in home decorating, much of the art lies in drawing the eye to attractive traits (the eyes, the art above the couch), and keeping the eye from being distracted by things you’d rather leave unnoticed (acne, a tangle of cords). Since the things that aren’t supposed to be there demand attention, they’ve got to be disguised.

Do you have cleaning wipes at the ready at all times? Does sweeping make you feel Zen? Have you been taking flak from your friends for years for being a quote-unquote neat freak? Well then do we have some good news for you. People who like to clean are supposedly happier, according to research recently conducted by The Clorox Company (who, of course, it deserves to be noted might have a vested interest).

We are always looking for more eco-friendly ways to shop for our homes. In addition to being better for the environment, it’s also a money-saver. That said, it can often mean spending more money up front for savings down the line, even if it’s small (like our new favorite $6 solution to paper towels). So when we do see deals on green products, we get excited. Ahead, three buys that are better for the environment – and currently better for your wall – on Amazon.

As we approach a brand new season, you may find yourself with an extra spring (pun intended) in your step. Instead of lounging on the couch watching football or recovering from heavy holiday food comas, spring’s warmer weather and abundance of green causes us to shed our down coats for short sleeves, head outdoors, and crave light, fresh foods. It’s important to welcome spring into our homes, too. But we’re not just talking about finally dry cleaning your duvet.

I love inexpensive, simple DIY household cleaners with one giant caveat: they have to work. One of my very favorite homemade cleaners is Alvin Corn. I’ve mixed one up for every bathroom in the house and one for common areas and it’s one cleaning solution I’ll never replace. Alvin Corn is a homemade glass cleaner that actually works — and works so very well. I first found out about it years ago on Crunchy Betty when she tested several homemade glass cleaners.

Although those in the path of the Nor’easter may disagree, spring is officially here. Thankfully, no matter the outside temperature, we can already start observing one of our favorite parts of the season: spring cleaning. The unofficial holiday starts around the time we start thinking about the last time we vacuumed under the bed and runs until we actually vacuum under the bed (as late as mid-June for some of us).

Cleaning house is fresh on everyone’s mind this time of year, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve got a long list of things you’d like to get done before patio weather breezes in. I’m here to tell you: It’s OK if you don’t finish everything on your list. The goal with Spring Cleaning isn’t a perfectly spotless home.

Someday I’ll learn to stop asking questions on social media. I forget sometimes that well-meaning folks will offer advice I find… puzzling. This is how I recently found myself explaining that no, thank you, I’m not interested in banning my dogs from the rug. Here’s the story: There was this tattered old Persian rug in that I fell in love with when I saw it in the window of a little antique shop near our old house.

Dusting is probably a regular task in your cleaning routine, covering all sorts of hard working surfaces like doorjambs, lampshades, furniture ledges, and side tables, among many others. But there’s one cleaning task — pertaining to our wooden furniture in particular — that’s too-often neglected.

We’re eager for that moment to throw our windows open to fresh spring breezes — and it seems that the things outside our homes are awaiting the opportunity, too (but for different motives). If it’s not the pollen blowing inside, it’s the bugs that somehow make it through the tiniest nooks and crannies you don’t see (even if you have screens).