Cleaning

I’ve tried so many things to help me manage the massive amount of laundry that is generated in my household. I strive to do a load a day, I “complete the cycle” by putting folded clothes away right away, and I even bought myself a nifty little tool that makes folding extremely satisfying. But I’ve realized that what I need to address is something way more fundamental. Nothing quite screams You’re behind on laundry like a hamper that’s too full.

The Internet loves a good decluttering trend: We’ve long extolled the value of KonMari-ing your stuff, for instance, keeping only the things that “Spark Joy” and discarding the rest. But this year the latest big thing in cleaning and organizing philosophies has taken a decidedly darker tone: Swedish Death Cleaning.

Want the clock to move a little faster as you scrub the tub? Just turn on some tunes. We’ve always known that music is proven to provide positive benefits and affects when it comes to mood and emotions, productivity and focus, and learning and memory. But for something as mundane as scrubbing floors or washing dishes to become an enjoyable task—well, that’s a significant leap.

Emily Ley is a mama of three, a designer, author, and the creator of the wildly popular Simplified Planner. She lives in a perfectly imperfect new-build house in Florida with her husband and kiddos…and she knows a thing or two about simplifying life. Below, her four simple steps for ruthlessly clearing the clutter in the New Year. Here’s Emily: The beginning of a new year feels so fresh, doesn’t it? The giant, light-up holiday decor has been put away.

In any survey of most-disliked household tasks, cleaning toilets is high on the list, for obvious reasons. You may know how to clean a toilet properly, and you may enjoy the end result of a less-than-enjoyable toilet-cleaning sesh. But what if you could take cleaning the toilet off your list of to-dos for good? Although the self-cleaning toilet concept isn’t brand new, prices are dropping and they are starting to pop up in more regular homes.

Empty tissue boxes: Can’t live with them, but can’t figure out anything to do with them once they’re empty (other than just tossing them). Luckily, we discovered an awesome reason to save your used tissue boxes from the recycling bin, and upcycle them into something more purposeful for your home. Use your empty tissue boxes to collect dryer lint, folks. Dryer lint! You know, that unsightly stuff you peel off the filter before you do a load of laundry?

Once in a blue super blood moon, a blogger comes along and from the first time you see them on video, you want them to move into your house and be your best friend. For me, that moment came this year when “meeting” delightful wish-she-would-adopt me mama Tonya Payne of Hey Tonya, whose YouTube tutorial documenting her complete overhaul of a tiny rental laundry room using only dollar store products is going viral. Because it’s genius — and she’s just plain adorable.

Pegboard and IKEA seem like a match made in heaven and now we can enjoy this marriage here on earth. Released in Europe and other parts of the world last spring under the name SKADIS, the line just landed here in the U.S. and neatniks everywhere can rejoice. The basic SKADIS board comes in three sizes priced between $8-$16.

Seriously, stick a rubber glove under your sofa cushions and you'll never have to scold Fido for jumping on the couch again.

We all love shortcuts — especially when they involve saving time doing repetitive, not-fun chores that we can’t escape …like, uhh, laundry. With the more recent advent of washing machines and detergents that are said to wash clothes just as well with cold water as with warm or hot, the suggestion to flout convention and forego separating seems to be gaining popularity. Here’s why we say no to combo laundry loads and yes to doing laundry the way your mother taught you.

Do you have cleaning wipes at the ready at all times? Does sweeping make you feel Zen? Have you been taking flak from your friends for years for being a quote-unquote neat freak? Well then do we have some good news for you. People who like to clean are supposedly happier, according to research recently conducted by The Clorox Company (who, of course, it deserves to be noted might have a vested interest).

I love inexpensive, simple DIY household cleaners with one giant caveat: they have to work. One of my very favorite homemade cleaners is Alvin Corn. I’ve mixed one up for every bathroom in the house and one for common areas and it’s one cleaning solution I’ll never replace. Alvin Corn is a homemade glass cleaner that actually works — and works so very well. I first found out about it years ago on Crunchy Betty when she tested several homemade glass cleaners.

We’ve all been there. After several loads of laundry, the measuring-cap-slash-lid on your detergent can get pretty grimy with gunky buildup. But thanks to a clever tip from Redditor bluechris11, we now know a solid way to quickly clean your gross detergent caps. Believe it or not, you can simply toss your dirty detergent cap in with your next load of laundry to give it a good wash.

If you’re anything like me, then you love cuddling up with plush throw blankets when you’re in bed (and on the sofa). But with all that close-knit nightly snuggling, it can be hard to figure out the right time to let go of your favorite throw and toss it in the wash. Luckily, we have laundry experts John Mahdessian, founder of Madame Paulette, and Kim Duk Won, owner of Manhattan’s Nordic Cleaners to call upon for help.

You know how weightlifters and gymnasts use chalk powder to keep their sweaty hands dry? The same principle carries over with all kinds of grease (dry shampoo, anyone?). Next time you find yourself with an oil splatter or greasy stain on your favorite top, trade in your stain stick and try pre-treating with a little chalk instead. Like baby powder, chalk is ultra-absorbent, making it a must-have to keep on hand for bacon grease splatters and lipstick marks alike.

We’re eager for that moment to throw our windows open to fresh spring breezes — and it seems that the things outside our homes are awaiting the opportunity, too (but for different motives). If it’s not the pollen blowing inside, it’s the bugs that somehow make it through the tiniest nooks and crannies you don’t see (even if you have screens).

Nothing compares to the smell of fresh laundry that’s been hanging outside to dry. Not only is it a fresh and efficient way to do laundry, it’s also oft-touted as a way to brighten whites without having to use special detergents or harsh chemicals. All you need is plenty of time and sunshine. First, wash your clothing as usual, adding up to ½ cup of lemon juice to the wash for an extra boost. (You can also add lemon juice to a spray bottle and spray directly on tough stains.

Aspirin is a staple in just about everybody’s medicine cabinets. But beyond its medicinal purposes, aspirin comes in handy for many uses at home, with applications ranging from laundry aid to dandruff treatment. Especially if your aspirin tends to expire before you see the bottom of the bottle, these household uses will allow your go-to pain reliever to do more than just that.

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.

Paring down your wardrobe can make your life so much easier—less clothing takes up less space, and keeping your options to a minimum makes getting ready quicker. But on the other hand, it can be a challenge: what if you still want the option to try new trends and experiment with different styles without buying more and more clothes? If you’re in this boat maybe it’s time to try a clothing rental service.

Amidst vociferous feelings on both sides of the debate, many millennials are famously abandoning top sheets. But along with traditionalists and Xennials like me (I’d never do it), the bedding industry mostly hasn’t caught up with this probably-here-to-stay trend, because top sheets do serve an important purpose as part of a sheet set.

On National Laundry Day (April 15, if you’re curious), GE conducted a poll about the public’s laundry habits. Pertaining to bath towels, “50% of those polled live by the philosophy that ‘I’m clean when I use it’ because they all admit to using their bath towel at least five times before throwing it in the washer. An additional 14 percent use their bath towels more than eight times before it hits the laundry basket.

Laundry isn’t just about washing dirty clothes so you have clean ones to wear. It’s about cleaning and maintaining your wearables and textiles so that they always look their best, whether that means making jewelry sparkle, getting stains out of the lining of a purse, or keeping shoes looking their sharpest. And there’s a simple way to have all those things: A tube of non-gel toothpaste.

When my children were little, they had small security blankets. I learned after my first child that a light color (hers was pink) was a really, really bad idea. She took it everywhere with her, and within a few months, despite regular washings, it was a dingy pinkish gray. I’d jokingly refer to it as a biohazard. These days, most adults’ cell phones go with them even more places than a baby takes her security blanket.

There are a lot of ways to make—or not make—a bed. And although even the most habit-oriented among us changes up our technique every once in a while, it’s safe to say we all settle into a regular rhythm when it comes to the way we manage our sleeping abode. But what, exactly, do our sheet-folding, pillow-piling, comforter-crumpling tendencies say about the ins and outs of our lives (and our personalities) as a whole? Well, kind of a lot.

It’s a sign of my age that I get crazy excited about the little things at home. Sure, the frivolous things of my youth still hold some sway, but all I really want is a good vacuum that will suck up rogue animal fur, and a sink that cleans itself. I can probably manage the vacuum, but a self-cleaning sink is most likely not in the cards. That’s ok though, because this one from Elkay is the next best thing. I was recently online, drooling over someone’s recent kitchen renovation.

Our front doors are the portals between the outside world and the sanctity of our homes. Whether your front door is the actual entrance you use to get into your house, or you go through the back or garage door and only formal guests pass through it, this gateway deserves some attention. This weekend, no matter how plain or grand they are, we’re going to make our front doors the gleaming, stately entrances they want to be.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

The kitchen backsplash is often the accent of your kitchen, the design choice (whether your own or someone else’s) that gives your kitchen its personality and color scheme. Even if your backsplash is humble, it sets your kitchen’s tone. But backsplashes are not just for looks; they work hard, catching splatters, smoke, and dirt that we rarely notice. This weekend, we’re going to give this enduring and often-overlooked surface of your kitchen some care and attention.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

Even if you know all about sorting lights and darks, how to wash and dry different fabric types, and you remember to use the mysterious but very useful permanent press setting, there’s still an easily overlooked laundry mistake that could ruin your clothes and, in rare instances, your washer. Here’s the quick task you need to add to your laundry routine: Make sure your zippers are zipped before you do laundry.

Christine Platt is a writer and the Managing Director of The Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. And as you saw from her recent house tour, she also embraces many tenets of minimalism. But it’s not the empty, barely-own-anything minimalism you may be familiar with. It’s her own beautiful, bold, colorful brand that you can see on full display on her Instagram account, The Afro Minimalist.

Why is doing laundry always so tedious? Maybe because it takes forever. We spend an average of 18,000 hours of our lives on laundry, and just over one year (375 days) just folding clothes. These stats come courtesy of the marketing materials for the Laundroid, an automatic laundry folding robot, of course… because they have an automatic folding machine to sell. But also, you had us at laundry folding robot.

There’s no better time to get organized than moving in a new house. You have a blank slate to work with—but you also have that box full of clutter you were too overwhelmed to purge while moving. While it can be daunting to know where to even begin corralling stacks of papers or organizing the household junk drawer, there is at least an organization baseline everyone can start at. What is this mysterious model I speak of?

There are few things more inspirational than seeing an impressive before-and-after that takes place in the home. From the smaller spaces like this shoe storage area to the larger projects like this incredible kitchen reno (for under $400!), these jaw-dropping transformations can get you vamped up and ready to organize. To put it plainly, we just can’t get enough of these refreshes—part of the reason why we’re currently swooning over Busy Philipps’ pantry.

Repurposing your household items doesn’t just reduce waste—it saves money, too. That’s the good news. The great news is: You don’t have to be super crafty to reap the benefits of creative reuse. If you think you’ve got the chops (read: literally five minutes) for a super quick, easy, and clever home project, we’ve got just the kitchen DIY for you.

My personal cleaning schedule builds in one day a week to do a deep cleaning task that needs to be done monthly. Honestly, though, I’m rarely on-schedule enough that these monthly projects aren’t bumped out to catch up on skipped weekly chores. Whether a deep cleaning project is a catch-up task for you or it gets you ahead of the game, this weekend we’re going to pick something to clean deeply.

As the holidays approach, you’re probably beginning to haul your seasonal decorations and wrapping paper out from storage. Surprise! Your storage space is brimming with things you totally forgot about, too. But don’t be dismayed by all the crap you forgot—it’s actually great that you’re noticing it during a season when giving back is top of mind. Think of the holidays as your yearly reminder to donate your old, outgrown, and gently used items.

Vacuuming isn’t on many people’s lists of most-hated chores. In fact, I’ve seen it pop up multiple times as people’s favorite cleaning “guilty pleasures.” I get it, for sure. It’s a quick way to make a room look much cleaner and the rewards for your effort are instantly apparent. No matter how much you love to vacuum and how often you do it, though, you’re probably not taking full advantage of everything your vacuum cleaner can do.

Oh yes, there is a wrong and a right way to wash laundry, and you're probably doing it wrong. No more lazy laundering, y'all.

If you’ve just done a Marie Kondo-inspired purge or are midway through our January Cure, why not reward yourself for your newly-immaculate space with something beautiful and useful. We asked Etsy’s head of trends, Dayna Isom Johnson, to pick out her personal favorite organization buys from their marketplace. Ahead, twelve pieces for every part of your home, for a more organized, stylish 2019. “Never misplace your keys again when opting for these color-coordinated keychains.

Warmer weather means opening up your curtains and windows, and letting in the light and fresh air. But, with all that welcome air and sunshine sometimes comes unwelcome bugs and less privacy. Let’s welcome back a classic that can surprisingly solve both issues: lace! Lace is the perfect medium for letting light in and keeping bugs out. Madelene lives in an old Swedish house and, when it gets hot, loves to open the windows and let the air in.

We may not know what tomorrow brings, but that doesn’t stop us from worrying about it. Because let’s face it: There’s a lot going on in the world and in life. We need to carve out as many happy-making moments as we can. One really good place to start? Your underwear drawer. As sexy as the things within it might be, the drawer itself is a pretty unsexy idea.

Filed under things I didn’t know I had to worry about: the fact that the pretty finish on my new kitchen fixtures might not last. When you’re dreaming about a new kitchen, it’s often the jewelry—those gleaming brass fixtures—that imprint on your mind. They certainly did mine. Pinning my little heart out, I began to see patterns in what I liked, and that included modern brass fixtures.

What is it about laundry? For some reason, a well-designed and organized laundry area can inspire deep wells of envy. That’s certainly how I felt when I saw IKEA’s gallery of gorgeous laundry rooms—maybe it’s because my washer and dryer unhappily occupy a wall in my kitchen, a wall where style and organization is certainly less of a priority. Here are some of IKEA’s ingenious ideas you can steal for your own laundry space.

Taylor Swift is approaching a milestone birthday this year—the big 3-0. And while she still has a couple of months to go (her birthday is December 13), she penned a piece for ELLE, “30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30,” in advance of the occasion. Turning 30 can be a milestone year that gets you reflecting on the rights and wrongs that have happened within your 10,950 days of life.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

I don’t know about you, but what’s inside my wardrobe is nothing like the magical land of Narnia. It’s mostly a mess of clothes that get rarely worn, but saved nonetheless. Because maybe one day I’ll get invited to a gala in the Maldives where that long, lime green bridesmaid dress can finally earn its keep on my hangers. I’m guessing that, while you might not have a floor-length green dress like mine, your closet is full of similar stories.

Move over, Tide Pod challenge, there’s a new laundry-related caution in town—but this time, it has to do with storage. Displaying laundry packets in jars may look pretty, but according to the American Cleaning Institute, decanting the pods can be dangerous with small children or elderly people in the home. In time for both spring cleaning and National Poison Prevention Week (March 17-24, 2019), the ACI launched its sixth annual Packets Up!

Here’s the thing about knife blocks: We don’t really recommend them. They can dull the blades of your knives as you drag them in and out of their holders, they’re often sold as an expensive set with knives that you really don’t need, and they can harbor some serious mold (and maybe even bacteria) in those dark, hard-to-reach slots.

Q: There have been several House Tours that had a hidden litter box of sorts. How are you able to keep your cat box clean and smelling fresh in an apartment that may be only 600 square feet? 500? 400?? It boggles my mind. I mean, obviously, clean it out as soon as you can, but cat urine has such a strong odor. Even with a cool hidden compartment in a piece of furniture, it wouldn’t suddenly eliminate the smell. Any tips would be great.

Q: The house we are looking to purchase has a lot of cedar [please see photo below] and it was built in 1975. It just has a lot of that cedar smell, and I was wondering if anyone had an idea on how to remove that? Thank you. -Sent by Sanja Editor: What a gorgeous ceiling! Readers, how can Sanja eliminate the musty cedar odor from this house? Or do you recommend she pass on it because there’s really no solution? • Have a question for our community?

Thanksgiving, probably more than any other holiday, is all about the food and warmth of togetherness. If you’re hosting, though, the combination of having overnight guests, getting the house ready for them and for meal preparations, and then doing all the cooking can be overwhelming. Here’s how to plan ahead so you can enjoy the festivities too. By this point, you’re likely to know how many overnight guests you can expect.

I have to fess up: our end goal, with this spring cleaning plan, isn’t a totally spotless home, top to bottom. We’re all here to tackle our seasonal cleaning slowly—20 minutes at a time—over the course of 20 days. So, you know, life is going to happen in between.

Most of us probably keep our recycling bins near the kitchen and are pretty good about tossing things like empty cans, bottles, and cereal boxes inside. But we dispose of lots of other items around the house that we may not realize can be recycled, too. Here are some things that you can transform from trash to recycling, just by knowing you can. Note that not all of these items can go into your curbside pickup bin.

Walking out of a stinky bathroom has got to be on everyone’s top 5 list of cringe-worthy moments. Lighting matches or using spray aerosol are common remedies to mask the smell. Matches are great, but you can’t use them in airplane bathrooms. And aerosol? Don’t get me started – that stuff is poison. A new-ish product growing in popularity (which might seem like an April Fools joke) is Poo-Pouuri Before-You-Go toilet spray.

Here is an entirely true story about my first week in my NYC studio. I was cleaning the kitchen (because I am a certified grown-up), and I got out the vacuum to get the nooks and crannies beneath the dishwasher and cabinets. Before moving in, I had gone a full year without experiencing more than a spider in my living quarters and I was not going to entice any new friends with crumbs from my Cheerio-based dinner. As I moved the vacuum under the stove, it caught something.

There’s a well-meaning mommy meme out there about sticky floors and happy children. But here’s how that would work in our house: Sticky floors mean an unhappy mama and when mama ain’t happy… well, we all know the rest of that one. I have learned to let a lot of things go and I’m conscious about not missing opportunities for connection by constantly cleaning or organizing.

In the age of trendy multitaskers like concentrated cleaners, staying eco-friendly and saving money are, understandably, top priorities. If you can have one product that does a lot of things well, why spend your whole paycheck only to waste plastic and take up hard-fought storage space? Which begs the question: Do we really need both dish soap and hand soap in the kitchen if just one could do the trick?

Wasps can be helpful little creatures- they’re to thank in part for keeping the pest population in check- but they can also be quite the nuisance. Picnics and other outdoor summer activities are a bit difficult to enjoy when wasps are swarming overhead, so try to keep things under control with a DIY wasp trap. 2-liter soda bottle Honey or sugar water Utility knife Stapler or clothespins 1.

Traditional cleaning solutions are great, but your pantry is full of everyday items you can put to work when you clean. You already know about keeping blackboard chalk around for treating stains and using cream of tartar to clean your brick fireplace facade. So what’s the deal with using cola to clean? Before you whip out your 12-pack of Diet Coke and go to town on your kitchen, keep in mind that certain sodas work better cleaning specific surfaces.

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a space and it just plain smells good? Yeah, me too, and I’ve spent the last six months in my new apartment trying to achieve that singular goal. There wasn’t anything wrong with how my apartment smelled, but there wasn’t anything really right with it, either.

Chopsticks are wildly useful little tools to keep handy. And while most of us save our spare ones, or buy a more permanent pair, there are all sorts of clever ways to use chopsticks around the house. From cleaning crevices to stirring paint, read ahead for 10 genius things you can do with an extra set of chopsticks. Searching for a foolproof way to deep clean tough to reach nooks and crannies?

I get it. You’re proud of yourself if you manage to even vacuum as many times as it says to on your cleaning schedule. Me too. My personal goal is a quick vacuum with my cordless in the kitchen every night, a thorough vacuuming of common areas twice a week, and vacuuming the bedrooms once a week. But all of this rarely happens. And you know what’s even more impossible to achieve? Vacuuming areas of the floor that the vacuum cleaner can’t get to easily.

I’ve been reading a bit about birth order and one thing I learned about myself is that the reason I’m so committed to doing everything “the right way” could be because I’m a first-born rule-follower. There are ways things should be done in my house, and especially my kitchen. But I try to remind myself all the time: There are other ways of doing things that could be just as fine as your way—could be *better* even.

There’s a special kind of satisfaction that comes from finding solutions to problems that use things you already have on hand. I’m still very proud of myself for MacGyver-ing a broken pop-up shade canopy with a hair tie and a plastic bag—it’s silly, but it made me feel like I might just have made it in the pioneer days. Taking things you already have and making them more useful isn’t just self-congratulatory, it’s also frugal and earth-friendly.

Still using the same basic brushes to clean all the nooks and crannies of your apartment? You should know there’s a whole world of superhero brushes and scrubbers with all kinds of special features that will help cut your cleaning time in two. From soap dispensing dish brushes to a rechargeable spinning scrubber, here are eight cleaning brushes that will put your current basics to shame: Consider this soap-dispensing sink brush the Cadillac of dish brushes.