Clever Household Cleaning Ideas

We continue our coverage on cool ideas for keeping the house clean and organized. Sometimes the simplest things can be useful in cleaning areas of your bathroom and kitchen. These ideas are taken from Naya Lizardo’s book “Tips and Tricks to Save You Time and Money”.

• Cleaning Cast Iron: Using cast iron cookware is the hot thing these days, no pun intended. Those who have been using cast iron know that soap should never be used to clean as it can damage the surface and spoil the taste of food. The best way to clean cast iron is by using salt. Add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil and 3-4 tablespoons of salt to the pan. Rub the mixture aggressively into the pan with a paper towel until it is clean. Then simple rinse and coat again with oil to cure.

• Cleaning Stove Burners: There is nothing more frustrating than scrubbing and scrubbing those stove burners after a long day or night in the kitchen cooking for the family. Grease stains and food that has been burned onto the burners can be very difficult to remove. Here are two interesting ways to clean them: 1) Put each burner into a Ziploc bag with some ammonia. You don’t need a lot of ammonia – just a little will suffice. Leave the bag sealed overnight and let the ammonia fumes do the work. Do NOT mix ammonia with any other chemicals, especially bleach. The fumes from the ammonia will dissolve the grease and loosen up any other food particles. Take the burner out of the bag and wash as usual. 2) If your oven has a self-clean feature, then try putting the burners in the oven and turning on the self-clean cycle. This will burn away most of the oil and any other stains. Wash as normal afterwards.

• Smelly Garbage Disposal: If your disposal isn’t smelling so great, try putting ice and lemon juice directly into the disposal opening and then grind it with water running.

• Sparkling Pans: There is a simple mixture that can be used to clean pots, pans, and stainless steel appliances. Pour ¼ cup of baking soda in a bowl and mix in enough hydrogen peroxide so that it forms a thick paste. Use this paste as a soap to clean your cookware.

• Inside of the Microwave: Let’s face it – nobody likes to clean the inside of the microwave. Drops of food and liquid become caked on to the surface and it can be difficult to remove. The simplest way to tackle this is to wet some paper towels and put them in the microwave. Run the microwave for 3-4 minutes. The steam from the paper towels will loosen up the stains and then you can simply use the towels to wipe everything down. Be careful, the towels will be hot so let them cool down a bit before handling.

For some of our customers, cleaning such things in the house is almost therapeutic in some ways. Dealing with the day to day tasks of work, family, and everything in between, sometimes there is literally no time to address the dirty pots and pans. Whether you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, or San Diego County, take advantage of a cleaning service to help you create that free time and feel vindicated after you have tackled that smelly garbage disposal once and for all.