My Home Cleaning Tips - Weblog

Cleaning Your Vinyl Siding

You probably chose your vinyl siding because it’s so easy to care for. That may be true, but putting it up and forgetting about it won’t exactly give you the results that you desire. To keep your siding looking as good as new, a yearly cleaning is in order. Don’t grumble! Think of those homeowners who are scraping, sanding, and painting, and you’ll be able to wield your scrub brush with a smile.

Scrub It and Forget It

All that you need to keep your siding clean is a brush and bucket. Just fill a bucket with warm water and add just enough dish soap to make it foamy. Dish soap is ideal for your siding because it won’t hurt your surrounding plants and grass. Also, the de-greasing agent makes short work of most grime. Start at the bottom and work your way up the wall. This may sound counterproductive, but it stops streaks. When the sudsy water rolls down the wall, it won’t streak the siding that’s already wet and soapy. Use your brush to whisk across each strip of siding in a back and forth motion. Provided your siding isn’t extremely dirty, you shouldn’t need to apply much pressure.

If you don’t like ladders, invest in a long handled car-washing brush. These are made to wash trucks and RV’s and usually have telescoping handles. If you have a multi-story house, you might be stuck with that ladder, but it’s worth it to clean by hand. Pressure washing can work for you, but you need to take care. If you use too much force, you can push water behind the siding where it can rot the wood. Make sure that you use a lower setting. Also, don’t blast straight upwards from the ground. It can loosen strips of siding. Use your brush as much as you can.

What If I Have Tough Stains?

The most common stains to appear on vinyl siding are mold and rust. If you have hard water, you’ll probably see rust around your spigot and near flower beds where water has sprayed on the siding. Fortunately, rust can be easily removed with household rust removers, such as Rust-Out or CLR. Follow the directions on the product. For stubborn stains, try a nylon mesh dishwashing pad to gently scrub. Never use steel wool, as it can worsen the problem of rust. Mold is most easily removed with bleach. Make sure to cover the grass or any nearby bushes or plants with a tarp. Dilute the bleach three-to-one with water, and use a rag to apply the bleach water to the mold. It should come off easily, but if it’s stubborn, the nylon scrubbers work well in this situation as well.

It’s true that vinyl siding is easy to take care of. As long as you spend a little time once a year giving it some TLC, it’ll stay beautiful for years to come, keeping your property value high!

There are plenty of oven cleaners on the market, but if you’ve ever gagged and wheezed your way through cleaning your oven, you know that the fumes can be unpleasant to say the least. Good news - there’s a better way!

To clean your oven more easily, pour 1/2 cup of ammonia into a glass or ceramic bowl and place in a cool, closed oven. Leave it overnight, and in the morning, use paper towels or a sponge to remove all the soil. If there are some spots that persist, scrub gently with a fine grade steel wool. Rinse with a sponge dipped in warm, soapy water. It works just as well as pricy oven cleaners, and the fumes are much easier to tolerate.

It seems that shiny faucets attract lime deposits and soap scum like magnets! Luckily, there’s an easy way to get those faucets sparkling clean without much work. The easy method is to soak several paper towels in white vinegar and wrap them around the metal faucet area. Cover the faucet and water knobs with zipper seal bags and secure them with rubber bands. Leave the bags on for two to three hours, and then remove and discard the paper towels. Then simply wipe down the metal areas with a clean, damp cloth. Mineral deposits and soap residue wipe away with no scrubbing!

Keeping Porcelain Clean and Stain-Free

Porcelain can be intimidating to clean because it can be easy to scratch, and too-harsh cleaning methods can leave the surface dulled. Your regular bathroom cleaner should be sufficient for everyday cleaning, but stubborn stains can require extra elbow grease. Abrasive cleaners can be damaging, so try this easy tip - make a paste of equal parts table salt and white vinegar. Apply to the stain and use a nylon scrubbie to gently work the paste against the stain. Rinse well, and your porcelain should be as good as new!

Maintaining Your Stainless Steel Sink

Prevention is the best way to keep stainless steel clean. Make sure not to leave anything acidic, such as vinegar, pickles, or citrus fruit or juice, in your stainless steel sink, as they cause corrosion. Also, never use steel wool to clean your sink, because it can cause rust. As always, vinegar is a safe and easy mineral deposit remover, but be very careful when using it on stainless steel! Use at most a 25% dilution with water, and never leave it to sit on the metal. Soak a cloth with the diluted vinegar and rub gently at the lime spots and then rinse with clear water.

If you notice scratches in your sink, try a product called Scratch-B-Gone. It’s specifically made for stainless steel. Keep the metal wet while you work with it. Also be sure to use non-metal scouring pads at all times. To prevent future scratches, use a rubber mat in the bottom of your sink. Just be sure to clean under the mat frequently to prevent nasty build-up from forming. If you notice rust anywhere on your stainless steel sink, try this easy tip: crumple a small piece of aluminum foil into a ball and dip it in Coca-Cola. Rub the foil across the rust spots and they disappear!

Every time we cook our favorite foods, we’re unwittingly creating build-up on our cabinets that can destroy the natural beauty of the wood. That nasty film leaves cabinets looking old and dirty, as well as making them feel sticky and unpleasant.

Without buying special products, you should be able to eliminate that greasy build-up from your kitchen cabinet doors. To start, foam two tablespoons of dish soap in two cups of water. Use clean rags or paper towels to rub the suds onto the cabinets. Make sure to follow the grain of the wood. Then rinse with a damp sponge and rub down with a dry dish towel. The grease fighters in the dish soap will cut that greasy residue easily.

There are also plenty of commercial products that can work wonders on greasy cabinets. Try Orange Glo, Greased Lightning, or Simple Green. Just follow the directions on the products. Once you get your kitchen cabinets really free from the grease, you should then clean them every other month so they won’t have time to build up much residue.

It seems silly that we’d have to clean our dishwashers, doesn’t it? After all, with all the hot water and soap swirling around in there, it seems like the inside of the machine would get as clean as the dishes. However, soap scum combines with the greasy food residue, and it can make hard-to-remove grime over every surface of your dishwasher.

The easiest home remedy for cleaning your dishwasher is to use citric acid powder. This is most commonly used for canning, so check the area in your local grocery store where canning jars are kept. Fill the soap compartment of your dishwasher with the citric acid powder, and run the empty dishwasher on the regular cycle. This should take care of any build-up and odor.

Also, to help keep odors at bay, fill a mug with white vinegar and set it on the top rack of the dishwasher and run it on the regular cycle. If you notice that the grime builds up again more quickly than you’d like, or if your dishes are still not as clean as you’d like them, put a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar in the rinse aid cup and run the dishwasher as you normally would. Also, check to make sure that you are using hot water when you run the dishwasher.