How to clean like a professional team—when you’re just one person?
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Anonymous
PP, I say this sincerely - you should write an essay about your life, cleaning, and philosophies! I hope your family is grateful. |
Anonymous
Right! It took me years to understand the difference. Having a tidy house is a completely different story than a clean house. I’ve seen tidy houses with dust upon dust and icky toilets and counters. I’ve seen houses with visual clutter with clean toilets and floors and countertops. I try my best to make sure I’m doing both now that I know better. |
Anonymous
 Using vodka is a tip that was given on DCUM a few years ago. I had borrowed an outfit from someone for a wedding in a pinch and it was a fabulous outfit with lots of beading, embroidery and appliques. No drycleaner would clean it. On DCUM, someone who worked as a costume person (costume designer? wardrobe manager?) for Broadway shows suggested spraying it with vodka to remove all smells, since that is what they use for cleaning costumes during shows. There was some explanation about why vodka and not rubbing alcohol, and it was to do with alcohol purity or content as I recall (or maybe it did take the edge off?), but it worked wonders. It remains a tried and tested method for cleaning and deodorizing clothes for me. Also stuff does not smell like teen spirit!!
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Anonymous
| Just a big "thank you!" to all who contributed to this thread. I'm a recently retired divorced guy who likes to keep a clean and attractive home and I picked up a lot of good ideas here. |
Anonymous
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Anyone want to do a group cleaning/organizing effort?
This part of DCUM is my fav because there is a nice community in here. It might be fun to plan a group effort…we could decide on one room each week to tackle or one odd cleaning task to do? I know there are cleaning calendars online. We could even borrow one of them to get idea? |
Anonymous
| Always vacuum, never sweep, whether it’s carpet, hardwood, vinyl, or tile. |
Anonymous
No problem. I have gone through many iterations of cleaning products and this is what I am doing currently. It really depends on your cleaning style and what you need. Floors - - I usually just use a vacuum (shark navigator), broom and steam mop (bissell powerfresh slim steam mop) to clean the carpeted and hardwood floors. I keep a vacuum on each floor. I am sure there are better alternatives. - I use choi bong Vietnamese brooms that I get for cheap at my local Asian stores. They shed but whatever stuff they shed helps in grabbing dust, which can then be vacuumed. When they start to become worn, I get new ones. Any normal broom can work instead of them. Walls, ceilings - - Microfiber dusters or static dusters from home depot or any other place. Clean your walls, fans, ceilings and you will be amazed how dust-free your whole house becomes. Carpets, rugs, kitchen mats - - I usually vacuum them and roll them up when I clean. If they are smaller - shake it outside. Don't let the dirt get embed in them. Vacuum regularly. I also have a steam cleaner that I got when my twins were younger and they got rotovirus from the daycare!! It is useful if there is a spill. However frequent vacuuming and not wearing shoes indoors keeps my carpets clean. - Tip - you can take your carpet outside on a chilly snowy day and slide it around (top side down) on the clean snow for some time. Shake it and you will have a clean carpet. The sand like snow is abrasive and will grab on to the dirt. It is too cold for the carpet to get wet. Yet the friction will slightly melt some snow and will clean the carpet fibers. Same works for tennis balls too (in case, you have a dog and grungy tennis balls). Cleaning cloths - - Microfiber cleaning cloths in different colors for different areas - bathrooms, dusting, kitchen. I bought mine from Amazon in bulk. - If you have a very dirty job - greasy oven or toilets - use paper towels or rags that you can discard. No need to use microfiber cloths on them because you will ruin them. I like Scotts blue shop paper towels because they are amazing for getting the real tough dirty jobs done and they behave like cloth towels. From Costco - https://www.costco.com/scott-shop-towels%2C-original-multi-purpose%2C-blue%2C-10-count.product.100816543.html - Normal Scott paper towels for mirrors and windows for streak-free shine with Windex. Costco Magic Eraser - - For some stuck on stuff on walls, light switches, doors etc. I use it sparingly. Costco. Scrubbing Bubbles - - For tubs, sinks, shower walls - This will cut down your cleaning time exponentially. Costco Lysol Toilet Cleaner - - Daily cleaning of the toilets. Takes minutes. Prevents funky buildups. Costco. Tilex Mold and Mildew remover - - This is the only thing that works on mold and continues to work even after you have washed off stuff.. Home Depot Mixture of dish liquid and white vinegar - - Magic solution for your shower doors, for a fantastic glorious professional clean. Put it in a spray bottle, spray, let sit, slightly agitate and watch all soap scum and hard water melt away, rinse with the shower spray and wipe down with microfiber cloth. Mrs Myers Clean Day all purpose cleaning spray - - For everything use. Smells really good. It is my favorite but you can also use fabuloso or any other cleaner. Costco. Tub-shroom and Sink-shroom - Life changing. I like it to be cleaned every day or after every shower. Amazon. Scraper - A cheap scraper is good to have to remove stuck on, baked on stuff. Home Depot. Easy Off - Yes, this is a highly toxic stuff but it will clean the horribly dirty baked on oven and toaster oven, without elbow grease. Your choice. You need a super ventilated place and use very carefully. Tape cardboard on the floor to prevent any drips. Poo-Pourri - Use before you go to remove smells completely. It is basically a blend of essential citrus oils in soap and alcohol. I use it in the sink drains too and also the garbage bins. Costco Baking Soda - Used for scouring anything that you want to from sinks to tubs, put in drain with vinegar to deoderize, mix in dish soap to have a paste that removes all sorts of grime. Vinegar - Use to remove any lime scale from any surface including your kettles and faucets. dip in a paper towel and wrap it around faucets to remove lime. Also, put in plastic bag and dip the faucet head and shower head in unclog them. Method Dish washing liquid - - I clean my kitchen counters with a sponge and dish washing liquid. Wipe it with wet microfiber cloth. It works better in my opinion. Vodka - - Drinking. Lysol - ok. I also hoarded stuff during pandemic. Lysol and toilet paper. Latex gloves/Rubber gloves - I don't clean without gloves. I have other stuff that I have bought and might use once in a while now because of loss aversion. But, really don't waste your money. Weimans leather, stainsteel cleaner, Pledge, Plink. Affresh. If you have to pare down everything and use the minimal of cleaning products, my recommendation is below. Most surfaces can be cleaned by just damp microfiber, especially if you are cleaning frequently. This is honestly every thing you need. - Dish washing liquid - Bleach - Baking Soda - White Vinegar - Scrubbing bubbles - Tilex (if you have mold) - Windex - Vodka or rubbing alcohol |
Anonymous
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During the pandemic, entire families were spending all their time at home, isolated from others. Clean house, clean work space, clean laundry, meals, childcare, health care, education - we did not realize how much others helped us in our daily care. When we had to do everything by ourselves, we were just overwhelmed.
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Anonymous
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This is amazing thank you!! I’m going to try the vodka for smells and the vinegar for the lime deposits on my faucets those are great tips. For the vodka how much do you spray would you say? And do you mix with anything else or straight vodka?
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Anonymous
| Pp you are amazing! Thank you for taking the time out to explain all of this. |
Anonymous
Straight vodka. A few sprays to provide a thin coverage on the whole surface. It should easily evaporate after some time. If it is a particularly smelly item, don't be tempted to drench it in one go. Continue the spray and dry cycle a few times until the smell goes away. Works great as a underarm deo in a pinch too. The vodka leaves zero smell behind. |
Anonymous
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Really glad you started this post and I appreciate all the helpful, practical information!
Hardwood Floor cleaning---what's the best way to do this? I feel like I'm always struggling and the floors are always dirty. I don't want to damage the hardwood but maybe it's time to try one of the wet vacs/mops like Bissell or Tineco? |
Anonymous
Welcome. Glad it helped. I have spent years struggling with cleaning, career, kids. Whenever I used to figure out a routine and get into a groove, stuff happened and then the routine stopped working. Or it used to feel like a big burden. I have kept cleaners too. Went from a monthly cleaner to once every three weeks, two weeks, weekly and twice a week. There were several problems with having cleaners. I was more prone to stashing things away before they came so that they had uncluttered surfaces to clean. It made clutter problem worse (more hidden) and things were disorganized. The other problem was that knowing that I was paying them to clean, I let the mess build up during the week so that I could get my money's worth when they cleaned it. So, inadvertently because of having cleaners I trained myself to not think of cleaning as a routine similar to daily toothbrushing or flossing, but rather a weekly root canal. Once the cleaners left the house clean, within hours it was a mess again. I thought of cleaning as a terrible chore, not as a wonderful way to bring peace and serenity. And I was so sure that my house would be trashed in a matter of hours that I just waited for my dire prophesies to come true. Because of kids allergies, we did not have too much dust, but we had clutter and the end result was chaos and stress in my mind. Once, I realized that I can clean a clean house every day - it became a soothing routine, therapeutic, not overwhelming, not a secret shame, a way to slowly get organized, declutter, become minimalist, become active. And the cleaning went fast. Your brain is so amazing that once you start cleaning, it become super efficient in finding the best cleaning methods for your needs and household. You also become very gung-ho about donating stuff and paring down because you don't want to clean more stuff. You automatically become less materialistic. You start having more fun in life because you can be on a zoom call and not be embarrassed by your clutter. You can have people come to your house and use your powder room, knowing that your house looks fabulous. You can ask people in for pizza and beer without too much notice because your house is pretty decent. You feel great about buying flowers for your house because your house is so gleaming pretty. If you want to let go of your cleaners, I suggest that you must systematically organize and declutter one room at a time and make them deep clean that room one time. Then you take over cleaning and maintaining that room every 2-3 days, and focus on fixing some other area. That way when you wean yourself off of having cleaners, you have already onboarded yourself in maintaining the house. You also have a fair idea of what you need to do. This is not a one time thing. You have to make your cleaning muscles strong over time. Happy cleaning. |
Anonymous
I have tried swiffer wetjet wood floor, Bona hardwood floor cleaner, murphy oil soap etc and it all ends up being weirdly sticky and hard to use. It actually attracted more dirty. I used to like hoover floormate too but there is a huge scratching problem and leakage with it for hardwood floors. It is good for laminate flooring. The easiest and best clean for me has been - Bissell PowerFresh Slim Steam Mop. You can feel the silky smoothness of clean floors when you walk bare feet. I also bought extra pads because the first time around it got filthy very quickly and I had to change it often. Bissel suggests using demineralized water but I just use my RO filter drinking water. |
Anonymous
I really like my Tineco cordless floor cleaner. Like the Bissel Crosswave it has a compartment that holds the cleaning solution/water and a separate compartment that holds the dirty water. They say you don't have to vacuum the floors first but our dog sheds a lot so I prefer to vacuum first. It will definitely suck up crumbs and hair while washing the floors though. I had a Shark steam mop before but I felt like I could never get the pads clean despite washing them. It felt like I was just pushing dirt around when my kitchen floors were especially dirty. |