08/27/2010
Seven Favorite Kitchen Cleaning Tips
Here’s a medley of housekeeping hints that should make your housework easier and faster.
- To remove stuck on food from your pans, put a couple of inches of water in the pan, add 2-3 tablespoons of baking soda and simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Wash the filter above your stove in the dishwasher periodically. If there’s a lot of greasy buildup, spray with a laundry prewash such as “Spray’nWash.”
- Be prepared for a casserole boiling over by placing a piece of aluminum foil (dull side up) on the bottom of the oven. Be careful the foil doesn’t touch the connector unit or you can short it out. Now lay several smaller pieces on top, so you can just whisk off the top piece leaving another ready and waiting.
- Sanitize wooden cutting boards by wiping them with either white vinegar or 3% hydrogen peroxide. No need to rinse.
- Speed up a slow drain by pouring in a cup of baking soda followed by a cup of white vinegar. Wait a few minutes til it stops foaming, flush down with hottest water from the tap. This works as well if not better than anything I’ve ever used.
- When cleaning counter tops two hands are better than one.
- The lasagna yummy, but now the clean up! Make quick work of it by filling the casserole dish with hottest tap water and add “Cascade” or other dishwasher detergent. Stir until dissolved. Let soak for 15-20 minutes and wipe clean.
Now, it’s your turn. What can you add to the list? Please share!
08/15/2010
House Cleaning Tips Save Time and Effort
One reason we started The Clean Sweep was because we hated to clean our homes! So we are fortunate enough to have excellent housekeeping help right at our fingertips, so to speak. But unless you have daily maid service, you still need to do in-between cleaning. The goal, however, is to dispense with the house work as fast as possible and get on to something more fun! Here are a few of our favorite time-savers.
- Whenever possible, use two hands to wipe down surfaces. My favorite for dusting and wiping counters, sinks, etc. is a microfiber mitt. The best and least expensive one is available at Amazon.com. Just enter “quickie mfg. 456.”
- Speed up the drainage of your tubs and sinks by pouring down each a cup of baking soda followed by a cup of white vinegar. Wait til the mixture stops foaming and flush for a minute or two with the hottest tap water. It’s like magic! (This is something the kids enjoy doing, too).
- Drastically reduce the amount of dust that enters your home by replacing the furnace filters every 2-3 months.
- Use 2-3 denture cleaning tablets to clean the toilet bowl with no scrubbing. They’re also great to clean a glass vase that’s discolored. Just fill the vase with hot water, toss in a couple of tablets and leave it overnight.
- Keep your kitchen sponges and sink brush clean, sanitary and sweet-smelling by putting them in the top rack of the dishwasher every time you run it.
- If you use plastic liners in your wastebaskets, keep a supply of bags on the bottom of the container under the liner. When you empty the trash, voila’, there’s a clean one.
- To prevent soap build up on your glass shower doors, switch from bar soap to liquid body wash.
We hope these tips are useful. Please share your own time-savers.
Bald Mt. Press
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