clean
-
Blog
Expert Tips to Clean Behind and Under Your Stove
It can feel like a daunting job, or at least an oversized one compared with other tasks, but getting in a rhythm of cleaning behind your stove ensures your health and cleanliness in one of the most important rooms of the home. “The best way—meaning the most effective way—is to slide the oven out, vacuum up debris [such as] dust…
Read More » -
Blog
How to Clean a Dutch Oven
One of the things a Dutch oven does best is sear and cook “low and slow.” Sauces reduce, sugars caramelize, and meats brown with great success in these pots, but your food won’t be the only thing left with a brown crust. The creamy white interior of enameled Dutch ovens can get pretty gunky. Here are some ways to clean…
Read More » -
Blog
It’s time to spring clean your dishwasher — expert cleaning tips on how to bring back your dishwasher’s sparkle
My dishwasher is one of the hardest working appliances in my home and keeps all my pots and pans clean. However, although it’s a cleaning machine, it can still succumb to a build-up of dirt. So, even if you own one of the best dishwashers and your dishes look clean, the truth could be more sinister. So, with Spring Cleaning…
Read More » -
Blog
How to Clean a Dishwasher
This step is vital for manual-clean filters, which are common on newer machines. These filters eliminate the grinders found in self-cleaning dishwasher filters, which pulverize food scraps and send them down the drain. The manual filter is much quieter, but since its job is to trap food scraps that get washed off dishes, it means you have to clean it…
Read More » -
Blog
Safer Ways to Clean Your Kitchen
A very easy-to-use resource for finding safer cleaners is the EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning. It independently analyzes top cleaners’ ingredients and ranks them in an A-F grading system, while also designating the safest products with a verification seal. The EWG breaks down the cleaners into categories. Among EWG-Verified dishwasher soaps and pods are the Branch Basics fragrance-free tablets and…
Read More » -
Blog
Clean Up Your Tap Water
You have several options, but before you buy be sure the filter or system is certified. The gold standard certification for water filtration products comes from NSF/ANSI, two independent groups that establish thresholds for pollutant removal. And let me just say: I wish I had gotten a certified system. In 2020, concerned about lead and PFAS in my water, I…
Read More » -
Blog
How to Clean a Mattress (and Why)
Health benefits aside, a clean mattress can also help prevent pest infestations. That’s why it’s important to pay as much attention to it as you might your couch, and focus on how you clean your mattress, as well as how often. Back when most mattresses could be flipped over, the conventional wisdom was that you should turn it twice a year,…
Read More » -
Blog
How to Clean Your Dryer Vent
Even if you’re diligent about emptying the lint screen, small fibers will get through the trap and into your dryer vent. Left unchecked, this lint can slowly snowball, to the point where an errant spark could lead to a serious conflagration inside the vent. That’s why it’s critical to clean the dryer vent every few months or so, depending on…
Read More » -
Blog
I used ChatGPT Voice and Vision to spring clean — and it even told me how much some of my ‘junk’ is worth
Every year around this time when the temperature shifts above freezing and the sun seems a little brighter, I start thinking about spring cleaning. While I love springtime, I really don’t like cleaning out the clutter that my family of five has accumulated over the winter. Seasonal cleaning is about getting organized, making space, and maybe even making a little…
Read More » -
Blog
How to Clean Your Coffee Maker
Minerals in your home’s water can clog your coffee maker’s tank and tubes. If it gets bad enough, the machine could stop working completely or its brewing performance could be compromised; excessive steaming and increased brew cycle times are two telltale signs of trouble. The removal of this mineral buildup is called descaling. If your machine has a cleaning indicator,…
Read More »
