Surly Domesticated Mad Max Cleaning Thread of Dominance

[Celery Man 20950]

"Y’all are some domesticated mini van driving cargo shorts wearing bed bath and beyond weekend going madmax thunderdome hosses " - @troph

There was some good conversation in the "I put coffee machine descaler in my dishwasher will i die?” thread that I wanted to follow up on. And honestly, despite the relentless bullying that i'm sure will ensue, I've been meaning to start this thread for a bit. My wife is the fucking worst at cleaning and laundry, but she does do the bulk of the cooking. And being anal about getting shit clean and organized before going to bed has filled some of the booze shaped hole in my life over the past several years. So that's mostly my lane in our house, and I've learned a lot and have a lot to learn.

So, one thing I've learned is that baking soda is the key to getting carbonized shit off of pots and pans. You can dump some in with some water and boil it, a lot will come off. Make a thick paste and scrub it in, stuff will come off. If you have something like an enameled cast iron with black stains all over the bottom, go give it a try right now and watch the color reappear - go heavy dumping baking soda on it, wet sponge (that will remain a bit squidgier afterwards btw), elbow grease, that shit will come up.

On 3/30/2023 at 1:52 PM, Celery Man said:

explain why adding baking soda works when I definitely not me but instead my wife is trying to get stubborn burnt on shit off of baking sheets, pans, etc.

On 3/30/2023 at 4:21 PM, Bateshorn said:

Baking soda is basic (alkaline). It’s why any cleaning idea that  involves combining it with vinegar (unless you want the foaming action of the reaction) is sorta dumb. 
 

But I’d recommend Oxyclean Free.  Leave it to soak overnight.  Works like a charm. 
 

two questions - can you explain this to me like I am five (why is a basic solution good for cleaning shit like this off of a pan), and is the "free" part of OxyClean Free what makes it safe to use on things that i cook with (or put simply in deference to me - will I die if I soak a carbonized pan in regular old oxyclean)?

 

Question 2:

this nozzle is obviously stuck kinda in between spray and flow. It's the lever/button, most likely. What I do every now and then is take the spray head off and put it in a cup of white vinegar, press the button back and forth a few times, let it soak for a good half hour and reattach. It gets better but not for very long. Is there some better thing I could be doing here to get this to stop being like this?

Edited April 1, 2023 by Celery Man

[Guest]

I cleaned carbon off the flame sensor of the furnace in the attic  this morning.

That's all I got.

[ztejas 43452]

This stuff is great but it will take latex paint off so I wouldn't put it on walls or painted cabinets or anything. 

[Celery Man 20950]

Honestly my go to spray bottle is diluted dawn. I use that on most things, but the primary application is cleaning off the counters every night. For a while I used some Mrs Meyers lavender shit (bought in concentrate) but I had much better luck at getting the quartz to feel clean (brush my hand across it and it is smooth) by using diluted dawn, a bamboo cloth, and then going over the counters again (dry) with a microfiber.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Celery Man

[Celery Man 20950]

Also critical to kitchen cleaning success - noise cancelling headphones and “I Love My East Coast (or Underground) Classics” on Spotify.

[Baboontyme 2812]

East Coast??? Death Row for life. 

[Bateshorn 9927]

2 hours ago, Celery Man said:

"Y’all are some domesticated mini van driving cargo shorts wearing bed bath and beyond weekend going madmax thunderdome hosses " - @troph

There was some good conversation in the "I put coffee machine descaler in my dishwasher will i die?” thread that I wanted to follow up on. And honestly, despite the relentless bullying that i'm sure will ensue, I've been meaning to start this thread for a bit. My wife is the fucking worst at cleaning and laundry, but she does do the bulk of the cooking. And being anal about getting shit clean and organized before going to bed has filled some of the booze shaped hole in my life over the past several years. So that's mostly my lane in our house, and I've learned a lot and have a lot to learn.

So, one thing I've learned is that baking soda is the key to getting carbonized shit off of pots and pans. You can dump some in with some water and boil it, a lot will come off. Make a thick paste and scrub it in, stuff will come off. If you have something like an enameled cast iron with black stains all over the bottom, go give it a try right now and watch the color reappear - go heavy dumping baking soda on it, wet sponge (that will remain a bit squidgier afterwards btw), elbow grease, that shit will come up.

two questions - can you explain this to me like I am five (why is a basic solution good for cleaning shit like this off of a pan), and is the "free" part of OxyClean Free what makes it safe to use on things that i cook with (or put simply in deference to me - will I die if I soak a carbonized pan in regular old oxyclean)?

 

Question 2:

this nozzle is obviously stuck kinda in between spray and flow. It's the lever/button, most likely. What I do every now and then is take the spray head off and put it in a cup of white vinegar, press the button back and forth a few times, let it soak for a good half hour and reattach. It gets better but not for very long. Is there some better thing I could be doing here to get this to stop being like this?

I can’t help you with the nozzle thing, maybe CLR?  
 

Anything sufficiently acidic or basic will have a corrosive effect (lye will kill you just as quick as battery acid). It’s just that different things react to acid and bases depending on their natural PH. 

Oxyclean Free is the dye and perfume free version of oxyclean. I don’t exactly understand why it works so well on carbonized (burnt) stains, but it works like a charm.  It also subs in for Powder Brewery Wash (PBW) when you want to clean somewhere without a brush, since it oxygenates (bubbles) and then rinses clean with sufficient water.

I always pour some water in a hot pan after I’m done cooking to let it soak a few minutes while we eat. Makes clean up so much easier

 

SAFETY NOTE: Never mix ammonia and bleach. It produces pure Chlorine gas and will kill you like a British soldier in WW1. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, ztejas said:

This stuff is great but it will take latex paint off so I wouldn't put it on walls or painted cabinets or anything. 

When I clean, That's the kinda shit I like to use.

Caution: avoid contact with skin or it may eat your arm off.

[ztejas 43452]

59 minutes ago, slorch said:

When I clean, That's the kinda shit I like to use.

Caution: avoid contact with skin or it may eat your arm off.

No it's actually totally harmless and non-toxic. It's good for washing your hands with. 

It's just whatever the specific composition of it is will eat away water-based paint. 

[Guest]

what a let-down...

[Bateshorn 9927]

2 hours ago, slorch said:

what a let-down...

I can always rely on you being you: I also cleaned my flame sensor in the last month.  It’s amazing what 10 seconds of scotch-brite will do. 
 

not that I need it with the warm east coast winter spring.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Bateshorn

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

I can always rely on you being you: I also cleaned my flame sensor in the last month.  It’s amazing what 10 seconds of scotch-brite will do. 
 

not that I need it with the warm east coast winter spring.

way back  when... In the Marine Corps cleaning inner wheel bearings...with dry cleaning solvent.   Yeah, i always was first to do my shit, reagrdless of consequences.

 

LOLz at Camp Lejeune water supply.

 

 

Yeah when we got back from the range, we cleaned rifles with that bullshit too.

Edited April 2, 2023 by slorch

[Bateshorn 9927]

It’s amazing stuff.  It’s also toxic as fuck.  
 

I worked with a guy who did Asbestos litigation.  His comment: it’s the perfect substance. Light, plentiful, flexible. Insulating. Fucking shame it causes cancer. 🤷‍♂️ 

[TwiceHorn 31472]

5 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

It’s amazing stuff.  It’s also toxic as fuck.  
 

I worked with a guy who did Asbestos litigation.  His comment: it’s the perfect substance. Light, plentiful, flexible. Insulating. Fucking shame it causes cancer. 🤷‍♂️ 

Carbon tet?

[troph 24800]

8 hours ago, ztejas said:

This stuff is great but it will take latex paint off so I wouldn't put it on walls or painted cabinets or anything. 

I’m currently using it to clean latex paint off shit so I can attest.

[troph 24800]

Our decision to go rainwater collection is a meandering boondoggle that may not work out but one thing I can say, all of the water related issues you guys talk about just aren’t present at all. We don’t use rinse aid or any chems and we use the non toxic dishwashing detergents and our glass comes out spotless, shower glass doesn’t spot, there’s no scale, pipes are going to stay clear, etc. if any of you ever end up in a situation where you consider well give rain water collection a hard hard look. It’s fucking spectacular.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

What are going to do when the acid rain starts

[Goofyboy 3293]

What are going to do when the acid rain starts

Acid makes everything just a little more spicy

[Celery Man 20950]

9 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

What are going to do when the acid rain starts

[Celery Man 20950]

Tips - run the sink until you’ve got hot water before starting the dishwasher, especially on the speed cycle. It recycles the same water for much of the cycle and assumes it has hot water available. Also it uses less water than hand washing (for a surprisingly low number of things) if you’re into the whole water thing.

 

if you have a flat cooking surface with gunk/shit that you think are scratches, you’d be surprised at how much you can get off scraping with a razor blade at a ~45 degree angle. Wait for the surface to be cool to avoid scratching.

[Pato del Muerto 52498]

another thing with baking soda is that if you add more than can be dissolved by the water you use, the remaining crystals act as an abrasive to scrub stuff. 
 

so- that means it will do things like scratch softer materials. So don’t do that with nonstick coated pans for sure, maybe even some soft metals like aluminum.  Can always test the underside of the pan to see, if it’s made of the same material. 

[Celery Man 20950]

19 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

another thing with baking soda is that if you add more than can be dissolved by the water you use, the remaining crystals act as an abrasive to scrub stuff. 
 

so- that means it will do things like scratch softer materials. So don’t do that with nonstick coated pans for sure, maybe even some soft metals like aluminum.  Can always test the underside of the pan to see, if it’s made of the same material. 

People on r/cleaning love the shit out of barkeepers friend but I’m afraid to use it on most stuff in the kitchen for that reason.

Good callout though. I feel like when I can’t scrub out a nonstick pan it’s time to replace, but wife tests that to theory sometimes.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Celery Man

[davidg 4038]

Y’all are cleaning stuff in your house? I thought you were supposed to just move and get new stuff when your old shit got dirty - Surly 1%

[troph 24800]

10 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

What are going to do when the acid rain starts

It already has a tad. Rainwater ain’t what it used to be.  

[After irth 1243]

This makes for an interesting thread, especially considering the diversity of this group. 

I've been the "homemaker" at our place for the past 9 years.  Over the past few years, I've had two of my friends take over home duties as well, and they've come to me for advice on their routine and house management.  

It helps to have a routine.  I've got house divided into 6 grids.  Something gets cleaned every day, even if I'm half-assing it.  If you miss a day or a grid, that's what day 7 is for, but I also don't play catch-up if I miss something.  If I miss a grid one week, I just deal with it the next.  Forward progress is the key, otherwise it will all fall apart.  I do towels on a routine, same for sheets.  I also have a list of specific things that get checked off every 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, and annually.  I handle the shopping, the cooking, the laundry, etc.  Fortunately, I have very few outdoor chores to tend to, so lawn maintenance is not much of an issue.  

As far as my wife, she loves it.  She works and manages her career.  I take care of the rest.  When she's off, we do whatever the hell we want.  Considering that she works in chunks, it's nice that I'm free when she wants to goof off or travel.  And...somehow...food magically appears in the pantry or fridge, clothes magically appear in the closet.  She's more than capable of helping, but I very rarely ask her to pitch in.  To be fair, she's very grateful, and deals with my few demands without question or complaint (put your dirties HERE, keep these things HERE, give me 2 days notice if you're running out of something I didn't already catch, etc.).  

Not having kids (obviously) makes it easier.  I have a buddy who is retired military and he takes care of dogs, two kids (with all their various activities), and the household duties while his wife bangs out the last few years at her (excellent) job.  It helps that he's a highly organized and driven mofo.  Basically, he's one big and buff soccer-mom.

I can elaborate further, but only if anyone give a shit.

I will stick to the original OP post by contributing however.  Most of our place gets cleaned with 409, and especially in the kitchen.  Simple, old-school, and effective.  SOS pads get the stubborn stuff off the bottom of my pots and pans without much effort.  And I abuse the crap out of my cookware...

[NoName 16352]

On 4/3/2023 at 12:27 PM, After irth said:

This makes for an interesting thread, especially considering the diversity of this group. 

I've been the "homemaker" at our place for the past 9 years.  Over the past few years, I've had two of my friends take over home duties as well, and they've come to me for advice on their routine and house management.  

It helps to have a routine.  I've got house divided into 6 grids.  Something gets cleaned every day, even if I'm half-assing it.  If you miss a day or a grid, that's what day 7 is for, but I also don't play catch-up if I miss something.  If I miss a grid one week, I just deal with it the next.  Forward progress is the key, otherwise it will all fall apart.  I do towels on a routine, same for sheets.  I also have a list of specific things that get checked off every 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, and annually.  I handle the shopping, the cooking, the laundry, etc.  Fortunately, I have very few outdoor chores to tend to, so lawn maintenance is not much of an issue.  

As far as my wife, she loves it.  She works and manages her career.  I take care of the rest.  When she's off, we do whatever the hell we want.  Considering that she works in chunks, it's nice that I'm free when she wants to goof off or travel.  And...somehow...food magically appears in the pantry or fridge, clothes magically appear in the closet.  She's more than capable of helping, but I very rarely ask her to pitch in.  To be fair, she's very grateful, and deals with my few demands without question or complaint (put your dirties HERE, keep these things HERE, give me 2 days notice if you're running out of something I didn't already catch, etc.).  

Not having kids (obviously) makes it easier.  I have a buddy who is retired military and he takes care of dogs, two kids (with all their various activities), and the household duties while his wife bangs out the last few years at her (excellent) job.  It helps that he's a highly organized and driven mofo.  Basically, he's one big and buff soccer-mom.

I can elaborate further, but only if anyone give a shit.

I will stick to the original OP post by contributing however.  Most of our place gets cleaned with 409, and especially in the kitchen.  Simple, old-school, and effective.  SOS pads get the stubborn stuff off the bottom of my pots and pans without much effort.  And I abuse the crap out of my cookware...

interested in that 30/60/90/180/annually list if you don't mind sharing

[High Plains Drifter 11049]

On 4/1/2023 at 4:20 PM, Bateshorn said:

 

SAFETY NOTE: Never mix ammonia and bleach. It produces pure Chlorine gas and will kill you like a British soldier in WW1. 

 

Actually, bleach and acid make chlorine gas.

bleach and ammonia make these smelly things called chloramines. Probably less deadly that Cl2, but still not good.

you want a real party, mix bleach and hydrogen peroxide.

 

 

tldr: don't mix bleach with anything. You probably really don't even need bleach at all. Toxic and dangerous chemicals are toxic and dangerous, yo.

 

 

Finally, what does Snoop Dogg use to clean his floors?

 

BLEE-OTCH!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HamsterHookah 112]

2 hours ago, NoName said:

interested in that 30/60/90/180/annually list if you don't mind sharing

Same.

We have a large house, square footage wise, and find that cleaning it is a multi-day affair and so having the grid system actually seems cool.

Otherwise it literally costs $450+ to have a team of nice ladies clean all day and you have to be out of the house all day which isn't possible for the littles homeschooling. Paying a min. of ~$1000/month just on house cleaning isn't gonna work for me in 2023 because I'm poor again, so I need the help.

I recently learned the "run the hot water before starting the dishwasher" trick myself, so that's cool. I feel like I'm growing in my abilities, slowly but surely, but I hate to do any sort of cleaning.

[Celery Man 20950]

1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

tldr: don't mix bleach with anything. You probably really don't even need bleach at all. Toxic and dangerous chemicals are toxic and dangerous, yo.

 

i'm a late bloomer with doing anything laundry related past "everything in the wash all at once, tap cold". is bleach acceptable/useful for keeping white towels/sheets/etc white? Also, I.... feel like I both found and validated this approach from several sources on the internet and then went overboard on the rinsing followup, but I used bleach (with water of course) to disinfect a bathtub that a certain toddler deposited a floater into. But I wasn't sure about it.

 

I'm interested as well in after irth's insight. Part of my wife's "i'm going to work part time" deal was that she was going to pay a lady to clean our house once or twice a month, so we do that and most of my cleaning is getting the downstairs living area picked up and then getting the kitchen back to near pristine every night. Curious about wooden toilet seats - any good approach to getting off nasty crud without abrasives that remove the paint?

[bluto 4929]

Fucking dog hair… lab undercoat pine needles not that fluffy retriever stuff. I have found a swiffer rag type push mop is excellent for snow plowing it from hard floors. But that shit gets imbedded in cloth/woven fabric. Fuckin dog hair it just never ends. Any roomba recs for a reasonable price?

[NoName 16352]

8 hours ago, bluto said:

Fucking dog hair… lab undercoat pine needles not that fluffy retriever stuff. I have found a swiffer rag type push mop is excellent for snow plowing it from hard floors. But that shit gets imbedded in cloth/woven fabric. Fuckin dog hair it just never ends. Any roomba recs for a reasonable price?

this guy is the best when it comes to which vac to buy. pick out which one you want, then set a slickdeals alert for it.

[Celery Man 20950]

We have a Roborock S4 and I think I’m happy with it. It’s more of a supplement - it picks up a ton of shit but doesn’t get rid of the need to vacuum and clean the floors once every now and again. Cons are it is a bit if a pain in the ass to get situated on the charger correctly if it gets stuck somewhere and then the battery dies. But that doesn’t happen all that often, it’s been doing it’s thing for over 2 years now, and cheap Amazon replacement parts have replaced old worn out parts just fine. No previous experience with roomba/whatever to compare against.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Celery Man

[Celery Man 20950]

Yeah, watching that video I would hate if I couldn’t tell it which rooms to clean or draw “no-go” lines, if it didn’t actually make a map and cover the whole area (and pick up where it left off when you need to pause it), and especially if I couldn’t tell it to go back to its dock. I would love if I didn’t have to empty it as often, I would hate if I had to buy proprietary disposable bags all the time.

[NoName 16352]

1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

Yeah, watching that video I would hate if I couldn’t tell it which rooms to clean or draw “no-go” lines, if it didn’t actually make a map and cover the whole area (and pick up where it left off when you need to pause it), and especially if I couldn’t tell it to go back to its dock. I would love if I didn’t have to empty it as often, I would hate if I had to buy proprietary disposable bags all the time.

autoempty bins are a gamechanger. we had a trash tier one before, then updated to the Costco version of the Roomba i7 and it's awesome. technology has gotten way better even since then, Roborock and such are great machines.

[High Plains Drifter 11049]

21 hours ago, Celery Man said:

i'm a late bloomer with doing anything laundry related past "everything in the wash all at once, tap cold". is bleach acceptable/useful for keeping white towels/sheets/etc white? Also, I.... feel like I both found and validated this approach from several sources on the internet and then went overboard on the rinsing followup, but I used bleach (with water of course) to disinfect a bathtub that a certain toddler deposited a floater into. But I wasn't sure about it.

 

 

 

You don't need bleach to disinfect a hard, non-porous surface like a bathtub. Soap works fine.

 

[After irth 1243]

On 4/4/2023 at 1:39 PM, NoName said:

interested in that 30/60/90/180/annually list if you don't mind sharing

Absolutely.  Don't mind sharing at all.  It ain't rocket science, but it keeps me on track.

It started years ago when I had to remember to give the dog the monthly heart/flea chew.  Oh yeah, when I do that, I should check THIS, do THAT, and then it just became a checklist from there.  I'm sure you can come up with a million stupid things that you need to do around your house on a regular basis.  This process just ensures that shit gets done, looked at, inspected, cleaned, replaced, whatever.

Monthly:  check/change AC filters and closet Damprids, run clean cycle on dishwasher, vac/rotate/flip couch cushions and recliners (I've got 3 sectionals)

Even Months:  Change Dyson & Roomba filters (inspect brushes and replace as necessary)

Quarterly:  Flea pill for cat, descale coffee maker, clean grinder, run clean cycle on washing machine, check dryer vent, change Sonicare heads, wash mattress pad, charge emergency car kits

Semi-annually:  Rotate mattresses, clean all water aerators

Annually:  Change batteries and check all detectors (garage door pad, too), replace fridge water filter. 

As far as my house routine:

Monday:  Towels.  Clean Kitchen/Breakfast Nook/Hall

Tuesday:  Dining Room & Game Room

Wednesday:  Trash.  Sheets.  Bath mats.  Clean Master suite

Thursday:  Living Room & Front Room

Friday:  Bathrooms

Saturday:  Spare Rooms and Hall

Sunday:  Catch up or fuck off.

 

Don't know if any of this helps, but hey...we're all Domestic Gods here, right?

 

 

[ChickenSandwich 9836]

On 4/4/2023 at 11:00 PM, bluto said:

Fucking dog hair… lab undercoat pine needles not that fluffy retriever stuff. I have found a swiffer rag type push mop is excellent for snow plowing it from hard floors. But that shit gets imbedded in cloth/woven fabric. Fuckin dog hair it just never ends. Any roomba recs for a reasonable price?

My roobma i7 works great for the lab (undercoat pine needle), but is not great for the fluffy retriever hair. 

[Guest]

My wife ends up doing the majority of the day-to-day cleaning, but it's likely 65/35. I'm the one that does the irregular cleaning stuff like re-caulking the tub, baseboards, cleaning the oven, etc. I'm amazed at how quickly stuff needs attention as we aren't a huge family and we're all pretty tidy. But damn the amount of dust is a mystery to me. Where the hell is it coming from?!

Also, I'm huge on getting rid of clutter. About once a quarter I'll flip out and just start tossing stuff that I don't use. I feel like Kenny Powers in this clip afterward:

[Celery Man 20950]

7 hours ago, After irth said:

 

Semi-annually:  Rotate mattresses, clean all water aerators

 

how frequently do you calibrate the mattress scale, and do you do a low weight reference or the whole shebang where you bust your calibration mattress out of it's plastic and pop it on the scale, etc?

do you really get by with cleaning the kitchen once a week? half the time my wife wakes up early to make lunches/snacks/etc for the kid and the kitchen is already halfway fucked between when I look on it with satisfaction and go upstairs for the evening and when I wake up and come back down for coffee.

 

I'm still trying to decide an approach to make my life easier with the sink sprayer - if I were to take the CLR approach, do I run the risk of ruining the finish or anything like that? And is it sufficient to just give it a good external rinse and then run a bunch of water through it to bring it back to "the water from this tap is potable"? Or am I going to kill my family?

[After irth 1243]

10 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

how frequently do you calibrate the mattress scale, and do you do a low weight reference or the whole shebang where you bust your calibration mattress out of it's plastic and pop it on the scale, etc?

do you really get by with cleaning the kitchen once a week? half the time my wife wakes up early to make lunches/snacks/etc for the kid and the kitchen is already halfway fucked between when I look on it with satisfaction and go upstairs for the evening and when I wake up and come back down for coffee.

 

I'm still trying to decide an approach to make my life easier with the sink sprayer - if I were to take the CLR approach, do I run the risk of ruining the finish or anything like that? And is it sufficient to just give it a good external rinse and then run a bunch of water through it to bring it back to "the water from this tap is potable"? Or am I going to kill my family?

Mattress:  that's some funny shit, you magnificent OCD bastard...ha!

Kitchen:  I'm referring to "room cleaning" which is basically vac and mop, and may or may not involved dusting hard surface and fixtures, baseboards, or whatever the "room" needs.  Even though there's just 2 of us, I/We cook a lot, so washing pots, wiping counters, loading and unloading dishwasher, wiping counters, etc. is a just part of the daily grind.  

Your sink sprayer:  are you sure there's not some filter of some kind in there that's helping to gum up the works?  Or we're assuming that it's a bit of hard-water corrosion making that switch stick.  Personally, I would totally soak that fucker in CLR, but, man...I really hesitate to tell ya that your finish will be just fine, and then look like an asshole.  When you read the label on CLR, however, it will tell you that it's just fine on sink and shower fixtures, and the various materials that are inside your sprayer.  Personally, I've never ruined anything with CLR, but there's always a first time, I guess.  

[Celery Man 20950]

My assumption is.... well I guess I'm assuming it is just gunked up internally around the switch because it will switch all the way to spray or flow if I give good pressure to the toggle, it just very rapidly loses that "click" into place and usually is kinda in between unless I do give it a hard squeeze. I think I'm going to try the CLR (I absolve everyone here of any responsibility for my fixtures), although maybe I should take the head off again tonight and see if I can figure out how to dismantle it any further than that.

[After irth 1243]

On 4/4/2023 at 5:07 PM, Celery Man said:

i'm a late bloomer with doing anything laundry related past "everything in the wash all at once, tap cold". is bleach acceptable/useful for keeping white towels/sheets/etc white? Also, I.... feel like I both found and validated this approach from several sources on the internet and then went overboard on the rinsing followup, but I used bleach (with water of course) to disinfect a bathtub that a certain toddler deposited a floater into. But I wasn't sure about it.

 

I'm interested as well in after irth's insight. Part of my wife's "i'm going to work part time" deal was that she was going to pay a lady to clean our house once or twice a month, so we do that and most of my cleaning is getting the downstairs living area picked up and then getting the kitchen back to near pristine every night. Curious about wooden toilet seats - any good approach to getting off nasty crud without abrasives that remove the paint?

Laundry:  I despise the use of bleach, in general, mostly because 99% of my wardrobe is black, and I don't want anything with bleach anywhere near me, but...I do, occasionally, use it in the laundry to brighten up the whites.  1/2c should work, no more than a whole cup in a laundry load, with soap, on hot, will totally take care of your towels and sheets.  

Work and nice clothes are inspected, pre-treated, and then washed on Cold and hung dry.Warm, dried on low, and folded.

Unless you're wearing some goofy designer undies and/or socks, that shit gets washed on Hot and dried on whatever the label says.  Same thing for sheets and towels.  

I use liquid fabric softener, because the sheet will coat your dryer, and not everything needs fabric softener.  And, by the way, never put fabric softener in towels of any kind.  

 

Wooden toilet seats:  what kinda crud problem are you having?  That sounds disgusting...!

 

[After irth 1243]

When it comes to laundry, by the way, it is worth noting that most modern washers and dryers wash on "cooler" settings than when we were growing up.  So...regardless of where you keep your water heather, you will find that your washer's internal thermostat will keep things a lot more mild than you think.  Warm isn't really THAT warm, and Hot is not truly that hot.  

If that helps...

[Celery Man 20950]

i mean, I'm not a toilet physicist or anything and our shit is fairly clean and of course this is a intrinsically gross subject, but I think accumulated stains (piss) from splashing and whatnot on the bottom of the seat can get tough. Probably easier if they're cleaned quickly, I suspect there's some chemistry at play that makes them a bit tougher. And to be clear, I don't mean like 1970s wooden toilet seats, I mean white toilet seats that are made of painted wood, which is where the problem comes in because something mildly abrasive and elbow grease = you start getting through the paint. I guess I could try toilet bowl cleaner directly on the seat or... make sure I've tried magic eraser which is probably less abrasive than barkeepers friend (which I know created that problem for me).

Hey fun thing I learned reading about toilet stuff - if you have a constant problem of the pink shit/ring around where the water level is, you should go get checked for diabetes.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

On 4/1/2023 at 3:53 PM, Baboontyme said:

East Coast??? Death Row for life. 

UGK and Swishahouse ‘round hurrr. 

[fattyflattie 4639]

Anyone have issues with their hoods?  Ours seems to collect oil like crazy. We deep clean it fairly often, but I mentioned that a neighbor that moved in same time we did (11 years ago) and they said they’ve never had to do it once.  I’ve been in their house and it’s very clean (on the surface, cleaning crew 1x week).  Makes me wonder wtf I’ve got going on.  I don’t think I’ve fried anything in 5+ years on that top.  

[Celery Man 20950]

Curious. I wonder if it has to do with type of oil, type of pan, food cooked? I clean off the (builder grade shaggy middle class) microwave fairly frequently but my wife’s tofu prep is a splatter fest. Actually that’s probably just a fact of pan frying something moist like tofu.

 

The Cheetos have fallen from the pines, signifying an end to pollen season. I steam mopped the porch just in time for rain all fucking weekend long 

 

 

oh and I deserve to be roasted for the patio furniture. At some point we’ll actually put something out there.

[hornian 5219]

On 4/4/2023 at 4:27 PM, HamsterHookah said:

Same.

We have a large house, square footage wise, and find that cleaning it is a multi-day affair and so having the grid system actually seems cool.

Otherwise it literally costs $450+ to have a team of nice ladies clean all day and you have to be out of the house all day which isn't possible for the littles homeschooling. Paying a min. of ~$1000/month just on house cleaning isn't gonna work for me in 2023 because I'm poor again, so I need the help.

I recently learned the "run the hot water before starting the dishwasher" trick myself, so that's cool. I feel like I'm growing in my abilities, slowly but surely, but I hate to do any sort of cleaning.

Didn't read the whole thread; but the $450 number must be for a "deep clean" - we have 2x week housekeeping on a 3K square foot house in Austin that doesn't cost us $1,000 a month. 

[HamsterHookah 112]

5 minutes ago, hornian said:

Didn't read the whole thread; but the $450 number must be for a "deep clean" - we have 2x week housekeeping on a 3K square foot house in Austin that doesn't cost us $1,000 a month. 

2x a month (every two weeks), with tip, it's ~$900 (north of 4k sqft, they bucket you per sqft).

If we are hosting an event or a party, like we did for Easter brunch, it's an additional ad-hoc visit and expense.

We trust and really like this team and have used them for years, so not sure if it's the most competitive price on the market these days, but it was in-line with quotes and services we had previously.

[fattyflattie 4639]

Gotdamn. 11k/annual for 24 cleanings.  Wife and I spend a bunch of time cleaning (read: lots of small kids) but I don’t know if I spend 11k worth.  Cant put a price on time and all that, I get it, but whew.