8 Things You've Forgotten To Deep Clean, And How To Clean Them

Some of you may feel the need to deep clean now, due to a New Years resolution, or maybe you can tuck these tips away until Spring, either way, take a look at these eight things you may forget to clean regularly, and how to clean them effectively.

If you haven’t cleaned your lamp shades recently (or ever), here’s a smart, one-minute tip from The Creek Line House. Take a link roller and get all that dust off your shades in just a few strokes.

Rid your stylish coffee mugs of unstylish coffee stains with this baking soda recipe from DIY Cleaning Products.

How to Clean Coffee & Tea Mug Stains

Remove ugly coffee and tea stains from you mugs with this all natural recipe!

Author: DIYCleaningProducts.org

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Baking Soda (per cup)

2 tablespoons White Vinegar

Instructions

Place 1 tablespoon of Baking Soda into cup.
Add 2 tablespoons White Vinegar.
Let the mix fiz and use a kitchen cloth or scrub brush to cover inside of the mug with mix.
Let the cleaning solution soak in the mug for 10 minutes.
Rub inside of cup with a scrubbing brush or kitchen cloth.
Rinse with warm water.

Make this the year you start actually sterilizing your kitchen sponges. Here’s one quick way to do it from The Kitchn. Zap them in the microwave! The heat generated by microwaving a sponge for two minutes kills 99% of the microbes. Please microwave sponges when they are wet, and never microwave them dry; they become fire hazards.

I’ve never cleaned my mattress past a simple vacuuming, but this lavender & baking soda recipe from Make It Do is a great idea.

I start by removing all the bedding, including bed skirts and mattress covers… and putting it all into the wash.

Next I lift the mattress and box springs off the bed and thoroughly vacuum and dust. I also love to wipe down the wall and floorboards behind the bed.

I lay the mattress back into place and make my own special concoction. You could just use straight baking soda, but I love to pour about 1 cup of baking soda into a mason jar and drop in 4 drops of lavender essential oil. Put on the lid and shake up the jar.

Using a kitchen strainer sprinkle the baking soda mixture all over the mattress and let it sit. I leave it for an hour or more, usually the time it takes for me to finish washing all the bedding and press the bed skirt.

Using the hose end of your vacuum and an upholstery attachment, thoroughly vacuum the mattress. Bye, bye dust mites and other nasty things. The baking soda helps draw up any moisture and deep dirtiness. It deodorizes and leaves the mattress smelling fresh and clean. I also love the faint scent of lavender left by the essential oil.

My bathroom faucets are currently sparkling, thanks to the paper towel & vinegar trick in the post from Plumber Surplus.

First, find out what type of finish the faucet is, as each type of finish can have different care instructions

Once you have figured out what finish you have, you will need to gather up the items that are required to clean the faucet. They are as follows:

Cleaning cloths

White Vinegar

Dish Washing Soap

Toothbrush

Paper Towels

Baby Oil

Second, get the dish washing soap and dilute it with some water. Use the cleaning cloths to wipe down the faucet. Then, use the toothbrush to scrub the places where it is difficult to reach. Also make sure to scrub the tough-removal hard water spots as well. Many elect to use an onld household toothbrush for this process as it is simply used to scrub the faucet and a new one is not required.

Third, get the vinegar and dip some paper towels in it. Wrap these towels around the faucet for ten minutes. This helps to make the faucet sparkle as it will remove water stains and spots. The vinegar acts as a natural disinfectant, cleaning the faucet thoroughly. This serves as a cheap alternative, as a bottle of vinegar is commonly found around most households, and lasts for a long time.

Fourth, pour a few drops of baby oil onto a cloth and wipe down the faucet. This will help to prevent water spots from easily making marks in the future. It also makes the faucet shine without much extra work. A few simple drops will be plenty to do the job. Putting too much of the baby oil on the faucet will have an opposite effect, as it will become quite messy. This works on most types of finishes, but is recommended for chrome and stainless steel.

As important as it is to follow these cleaning steps weekly, it is also important to do a gentle cleaning of the faucet daily to get rid of germs. The best and easiest way to maintain the faucet’s cleanliness is to wipe it daily with a Clorox wipe. These wipes will be able to kill germs instantly upon making contact with the many bacteria that the faucet harbors. Following these simple steps should get your faucet clean and looking new in no time at all.

Clean your garbage disposal, trying these genius Lemon Vinegar Ice Cubes.

Purchase three or four fresh lemons and a bottle of white vinegar. You don’t have to go organic or purchase a special kind of lemon––regular grocery store lemons will do the trick.

Roll each lemon before slicing to loosen the juices. This will help to evenly distribute the juice before cutting.

Cut the lemons into small chunks or slices. Size them to fit each ice cube tray mold. Then, place the lemon pieces into the separate holes of the ice cube tray.

Line up the trays if using more than one, so that you can fill them completely with lemon.

Don’t worry about de-seeding the lemon wedges. You won’t be to eating these ice cubes!

Fill each ice cube tray with white vinegar. Fill each mold just before the top (don’t let it overflow).

Use only vinegar––don’t dilute with water. Diluting the cubes will lessen the deodorizing impact.

Freeze the cubes overnight (or for several hours). The cubes need to be rock hard.

Pop the cubes from the trays. Transfer them to a plastic freezer bag to store in your freezer. (Leaving the cubes in the trays will expose them to food odors, minimizing their deodorizing impact.) Label and date––labeling will prevent anyone using the cubes for their drinks.

Finished. Make a habit of dropping one cube in your disposal every night after doing the dishes. This will prevent last night’s dinner from intermingling with this morning’s breakfast.

If you have baskets that look a bit dusty, try this tutorial from eHow on how to properly clean them

Clean unfinished wicker baskets gently, using the brush attachment of your vacuum. If there is any lint or dirt in between the wicker work, softly use a dry toothbrush or cotton swab to clean it.

Spray a basket with a glossy paint or varnish finish lightly with a water and vinegar solution. Be careful not to get it soaked because it can hurt delicate basketry. If it doesn’t get good and dry, it can mildew or even rot.

Wipe down a damp basket with a lint-free cloth, like a cloth diaper. Be careful not to snag the basket and pull and the wicker work. Blot instead of wipe the more delicate places.

Sun dry baskets that are even a little damp. Don’t dry it near a heater or radiator. The heat can cause the basket to warp.

Clean a basket that has a good, protective finish on it with a little dish liquid and water on a rag. Use the toothbrush to gently brush any dirty areas. Don’t over wet the basket. Rinse it with a wet wrung out rag and blot it as dry as you can. Then, let it sun or air dry.

If you keep meaning to clean your humidifier, but haven’t done it, you should. It may be gross now, but it will be sparkling after you do the steps in this Apartment Therapy post.

Materials:
Humidifier
2-3 cups White Vinegar
Tap Water
Bottle Brush (if required)
1 teaspoon Bleach (optional)

Instructions

1. Break Down: After pouring out any remaining water in tank, take apart your humidifier and lay the piece out in front of you. Most humidifiers will have a lock or catch to remove a piece over the heating element, so if it feels like it should break down a little more, chances are it will (refer to your manual for specific instructions on this).

2. Add Vinegar: Vinegar is your best friend when it comes to humidifiers. It eliminates the need for bleach (though some still like knowing their unit is extra clean and use 1 teaspoon to the following mixes) and cleans things on the cheap. You’ll add your vinegar to two separate places: the water tank and base.

For weekly cleaning, add 1/4 cup white vinegar plus 2 cups tap water to tank. Replace lid to tank, shake and dump. For more intense monthly cleaning you may add as much vinegar as you like and allow to sit for several hours. For the base, you’ll pour the vinegar over your heating element area, which is usually denounced by the presence of deposits on the unit. Use enough vinegar to cover all deposits and let sit for 30 minutes. For longer cleaning, allow a longer time to sit for several hours or overnight.

If you have pieces that are removable that need a vinegar soak, place them in a bowl and cover with vinegar to help eliminate deposits. Some pieces are able to go in a dishwasher, make sure to check your manual to ensure there won’t be any melting! Use a bottle brush to dislodge deposits after the vinegar has done its job, you shouldn’t need to use anything to “chip them off,” re-soak if needed.

3. Rinse: Empty all vinegar and fill tank and heating area with tap water, shaking to dislodge any remaining deposits and to rinse out the lovely smell. It might take a few fills and shakes to get rid of all the smell, though allowing each piece to air dry fully should make it all dissipate fully.

Additional Notes: For particularly stubborn build up you might need to change your vinegar out. If your build up is “fizzing” then the vinegar is doing it’s job of breaking it down and tearing it away. If it stops, changing out your vinegar can be more effective than using sharp objects to scrape it away.

Weekly cleaning should only involve a quick swish and shake, but once a month it doesn’t hurt to let the vinegar sit for 4-8 hours to let it get a little extra cleaning power!

Note: Though this is a general guide, we do suggest you check out the manufacturers instructions for your specific humidifier model. Even if you’re manual is long gone, you can usually find it online. Some models aren’t built to have vinegar/water in the base and we strongly suggest double checking to make sure yours does before following through with the instructions below!