Cleaning Basics

It’s a task that’s too-often overlooked, but cleaning your makeup brushes regularly is so, so important: it’s an easy way to promote healthy skin by keeping bacteria and dead skin cells at bay. It takes just two minutes, and can even prolong the life of your makeup brushes. How often should you clean your makeup brushes? At least once a week for concealer and foundation brushes that get caked with build-up.

Forget harmful oven cleaners: This two ingredient, all-natural recipe is great for more recent stains, like quickly cleaning up the lasagna spillage in your oven (and on your pans!). I know baking soda is a miracle compound, so I had pretty high expectations as to what this magical paste would do for my oven. The photo below is what I was hoping to tackle, but alas, this years-old stain was just too much for the simple recipe.

I recently moved into a very old home and inherited a gorgeous claw foot tub. It’s pink, gigantic, and nearly perfect in every way, except for one issue: the porcelain around the drain has been worn away, leaving a very unsightly, uninviting rusty ring in my otherwise dreamy tub. While I have plans to keep this tub around, its not currently in the budget to have it refinished.

Here’s a cleaning tip even Marilyn would appreciate: Make those diamonds sparkle and shine with a non-traditional jewelry cleanser that will also clean your toilet and flower vases! Denture cleaner tablets Warm water Small glass jar Toothbrush 1. Drop one cleansing tablet into a small dish filled 3/4 full with warm water. Add the jewelry and let sit for 20-30 minutes. Once the tablet starts to effervesce, the water will turn blue and start to foam. 2.

Fresh flowers are a treat for yourself and your home. The clean up afterwards, especially on narrow-necked vases, not so much. Our solution? Denture cleaner! The tiny tablets pack a punch and go to work on a myriad of household chores —and can be stored away with ease. Denture tablets Warm water Add very warm water to your bottle, stop an inch or two from the top to allow for possible fizzy overflow. Break apart one tablet and drop it inside.

It kind of makes sense — if toothpaste can remove plaque on your teeth then it should come as no surprise that it will also do a number on that pesky tarnish that has built up on your silver! Toothpaste (not gel!)An old scrubbing toothbrush Apply a dollop of toothpaste to your piece of silver. I used about as much as I would on my teeth, however, if you are working on a larger piece you might need to use more. Add just a bit of water to your brush and go to town!

Of all the responsibilities that come with taking care of your home, paying special attention to your wood furniture is sometimes overlooked. I recently inherited a beautiful wood rocking chair that had been stored away for a few years and was in need of some TLC. If it’s time to restore the surface of your wood furniture, this step by step guide shows you everything you need to know and how to lengthen the time before your next polish as much as possible.

Bananas are legit. They are a proper on the go snack, packed full of nutrients and vitamins, and come in a convenient peel-and-toss wrapper to boot! But before tossing the wrapper, consider attempting this super simple method for cleaning your silver. BananasWaterBlenderRag to polish silver There are a few all natural recipes for cleaning silver but this is my preferred method for jewelry.

If you’re tight on space and don’t want a bottle of rarely-used wood polish hogging the shelf, don’t buy it! Wood polish is easy to make in small, single use batches, so you don’t have to worry about trying to jam yet another bottle away under the cupboard. Depending on the size lemon you use, the polish ends up being around about 1/2 cup of liquid.

Its delicious on french fries, but can you clean with ketchup, too? We gathered a few pieces of tarnished silver to see if this diner staple could pull double duty and make the job of polishing silver just a bit easier. Word on the street is that the acid in the tomatoes reacts with the oxidizing of the tarnished silver in just three simple steps. We tried this with our old souvenir spoons and the results were… well, lets just say this is not our preferred method of polishing silver!

In anticipation of spending the warmer months with our oscillating fans on to keep us cool, now is a good time to pause and take a few minutes to give them a quick clean. They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them and could use a little bit of attention. (Plus it will keep your fan—and your lungs—in better shape!) Small toiletry items like cotton swabs, makeup brushes, foam craft brushes, or toothpicks are great for jobs like this.

A clogged or slow-draining bathroom sink is a common problem in most homes. It shouldn’t happen too often, but when it does, be sure to use this natural formula to remove all the gunk–believe me, you don’t want a list of what that “gunk” actually is–and get that drain in tip top shape. 1/2 cup Baking soda 1/2 cup Vinegar Lemon juice (optional) Measuring cups Step 1. Remove the drain cover.

I don’t buy into the I-can’t-have-nice-things-because-I-have-a-pet hype. This is especially true when it comes to textiles in my home. So when I spotted a gorgeous velvet sofa on Craigslist for a song, I did my research and went for it.

Don’t toss those orphan socks — the singles who get mysteriously separated from their pairs between washing and drying can be helpful. Put them to use in a variety of smart ways to help keep your home a bit cleaner. Slip a couple of damp socks on your hands and give the leaves of your favorite plants the gentle touch for a dusting that won’t damage. Toss the sock in the wash when you’re done.

Do you dread the job of cleaning home? Rather pass on tackling chores? Do you view such tasks as scrubbing and mopping as the most boring and unappealing things ever? Do you either fail to get started (putting cleaning off until things are really bad) or do you run out of energy before finishing everything on your to-do list? You might need to rearrange the order of what cleaning tasks you tackle first. Have you ever heard of something called job crafting?

Whether you’ve got a trusted cleaning routine that keeps your home in tip-top shape or not, there are six things you should never let go uncleaned, not even for a day (barring vacation and illness, of course). Every day, take a few moments to tackle this handful of cleaning tasks — you’ll live in a cleaner home for it! You’ve heard it said before — don’t let those dishes pile up.

Get easily bored or completely distracted when you try to clean your house? You’re not alone. When some folks try to do too much at one time or try to tackle too many tasks in one session, cleaning can end up abandoned. But there’s a type of cleaning routine for folks just like you that will help you stick to cleaning tasks, keep the momentum going and leave you with a whole clean house each week. See if it’s something that might fit your lifestyle (or cleaning personality)!

Cleaning bathrooms, ugh right? No one likes to do it, and certainly no one likes to spend a ton of time doing it. So take as little time as possible to clean yours by checking out this complete guide — all the tools you’ll need and the order in which to tackle tasks — so you can get the toilet scrubbing done quickly and get back to living life.

There are a few conversation topics that remain off limits today. Polite company (if they want to remain polite) might not touch politics. Coworkers often avoid talking about their salaries. And unless you’re very close friends, you probably don’t ever feel brave enough to reveal how truly filthy you actually are at home. Thankfully you don’t have to.

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.

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.

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.

Story time: When we first started talking about this at Apartment Therapy, my immediate reaction was, “Machine washable rugs exist?!?” so if you’re reading this thinking, “wait, really?” you’re not alone. (If you did know this already, you can probably still learn a thing or two, and those of us who didn’t know appreciate your patience with us.

You already know hydrogen peroxide comes in handy for cleaning up cuts and scrapes and even for whitening your teeth, but there’s a lot more to it than that—it’s also great to have on hand for cleaning your home. It’s inexpensive, you can find it at just about any pharmacy and grocery store, and it can do just about anything. From disinfecting toys and countertops to keeping your shower mold and mildew free, H2O2 has your back.