Category: News

Livin’ the dream

Ahhhhhh, the beauty of stainless steel appliances. So many of us were swept off our feet by your illustrious sheen. We ripped out old stoves & dishwashers and yanked out refrigerators. Those old appliances were replaced with top-of-the-line, brand spanking new shiny stainless steel. We treated you like a baby (heck many of us even spent night after night coming back into the kitchen just to look at you )

But our dreams of never-ending, not a smudge anywhere, I can see myself in the reflection love affair, would come to an abrupt end with the very first greasy handprint.

Soon after you bought your shiny new appliances you then went out and bought any product that came with a promise of getting that glow back and erasing those tiny little fingerprints.

But once again you would find yourself heartbroken as many of the products geared towards cleaning stainless steel end up either leaving a thick paste-like haze behind or it looked greasy. (an attempt by chemical companies to cover the marks with a greasy shine) and the oily sprays just attracted dust like a magnet.

The bad thing about some of these products is once you start using them they build up a film on the surface and you will have to use a degreaser to remove and start back at a clean slate again.

You can avoid all of that ( the expense of trying overpriced creams and wipes and oils) and just stick to the basics. What I am about to say may sound crazy, but it’s so crazy because it actually works.

Are you ready? Plain soap and water, but the secret is what you dry it with. Shhhh, it’s something I discovered one day while cleaning and I am only telling you!

Step by Step

Get your favorite grease-cutting dish liquid (I love dawn Platinum), a spray bottle, 2 microfiber cloths, and the secret tool; a round microfiber wax applicator (the kind they use to apply a wax coat to cars).

First, fill your spray bottle with 90% warm water and 10% Dawn Platinum dish liquid.

Starting at the top of the refrigerator spray it top to bottom, and left to right. Take one of the microfiber cloths and soak it with water and wring it out. Then use the microfiber to go in circles cleaning and scrubbing the appliance to remove any grease, stuck-on food, or handprints. Immediately use another microfiber with plain almost hot water and rinse the appliance, again top to bottom, and left to right. Now the secret is before it dries, use the wax applicator pad to really dry it and buff it out. The magic of the applicator pad is it is microfiber wrapped around a sponge in the middle. The sponge absorbs any moisture and the microfiber buffs out any streaks!

It literally costs pennies to clean this way

This method of cleaning stainless steel is non-toxic and cost-effective as we all have dish soap on hand and the microfiber sponges can be washed and reused. This is truly non-toxic, earth-friendly, and budget-friendly.

Products I Do Not Recommend

Products that I would NOT use that many people swear by (I think they love how shiny it looks at first).

Baby oils and WD-40. Any oil left on the surface will instantly attract any dust particles floating through the air, instantly negating the idea/look of a clean surface. Not to mention as soon as you touch an appliance with a thick oil applied you leave behind fingerprints, and now your hands are oily.

Also, WD-40 is on the top 10 list of carcinogens and is highly flammable which causes a hazard if someone attempts to spray a gas stove front.

Again using products with all of that oil or those heavy creams might give you a very short-term shine that you are looking for, but they will build upon the appliance and look greasy in hours.

Many people tout using vinegar and glass cleaner to clean stainless steel. This is a huge NO!

Glass cleaner contains ammonia which when used on a regular basis will cause the metal to pit and eat away at it and vinegar is a huge NO on stainless steel as it contains a diluted form of acetic acid, positive hydrogen ions in the acid remove electrons from iron, ionizing it and making it susceptible to rust.

What you need to know about your appliances before you deep clean them

Check your cleaning products ingredient list before you apply! Know your products before you apply something to your new $2,000 fridge. You don’t want to ruin your appliance nor do you want to apply anything to a gas stove/oven that is flammable. It may not cause a fire when applied but if there is a residue left near the open flame when someone turns the stove on, it could be a huge problem.

Original article at Martha Stewart Living

Recently I wrote an article for Martha Stewart Living on this very subject. Here is the detailed method of how I like to clean and maintain my kitchen floor and my favorite tools to get the job done. The link to the article is at the bottom.

Let’s Be Honest…

The kitchen is the hub of the home, and everyone in your household is in the kitchen multiple times a day from sun up to sun down so it sees a TON of traffic. Adults coming home from work, kids coming in from sports, furry friends coming in from running outside. It all adds up and equals outside dirt and debris in your home.

The key factors that would determine how often you should clean your kitchen floor either vacuuming or with soap and water, would depend on different factors.

The location of your home. Do you live in a dry dusty area like Arizona, or Vermont where it snows 6 months out of the year and you have salt being tracked in or maybe it’s a house near the beach with lots of sand?

Do you have furry pets who shed and bring in mud from the outside?

Do you have little ones crawling around on your floors?

Quick cleanups to remove the debris

If you have one of the above-mentioned factors you will want something that cleans up hair and food debris quickly and easily on a daily basis. My top favorite pick for quick clean-ups of hard surface floors would be this Cordless Shark Stick vacuum.

Shark® Cordless Pet Stick Vacuum | Bed Bath & Beyond

Time to get to the nitty-gritty

When you are ready to clean your floors with soap and water, taking into consideration the material of the kitchen floor will determine how often you should use soap and water.

Ceramic tile? Clean it every day if it suits you. My go-to is a neutral floor cleaner like Pledge Neutral Floor cleaner found on Amazon.

It is safe to use on ceramic and wood floors when diluted with water and will not leave a sticky residue behind.

Pledge Multi-Surface Floor Cleaner … – Amazon.com

Wood floors should only be cleaned on a weekly basis so as to not wear down the finish. To keep wood floors looking new sweep and vacuum more frequently so that dirt and debris don’t scratch the floors or wear the finish off.

This is where the magic happens

When it is time to clean the floors with soap and water I LOVE LOVE LOVE the O’cedar spin mop. This option can’t be beaten for effectiveness and ease. The great thing about this mop and bucket system is the fact that you can control the amount of water you put on the floors. Ceramic tile, medium soaked op head, wood floors very lightly damp, spun out as much as possible, just enough to get the debris and dirt up off the floor and into the bucket.

O-Cedar EasyWring Microfiber Spin Mop … – Amazon.com

Once a month I like to scrub my floors by hand, but my knees don’t love that. I found this great tool from Fuller Brush for getting them deep down clean without wrecking my knees and it does an amazing job.

I like to fill my O’cedar spin mop bucket with the neutral floor cleaner I mentioned earlier and super hot water. Then I very lightly wring the mop head out (it has an easy to use foot pedal that you push up and down and it wrings the water out of the mop head as a salad spinner does to lettuce) to soak the floor I might push it down once, maybe twice.

With the mop, I make a swishing back and forth motion. I soak the floor with the cleaner to let it break down the dirt and get in the grout lines. Then I use the Fuller brush Tile grout E-Z scrubber. I start with the grout lines going back and forth and loosen all the dirt that’s trapped in between the tiles and then I go over the large squares of the ceramic tile scrubbing back and forth (not recommended for wood floors)… once I have gone over the entire floor I empty it out and I then fill the bucket with very hot water and use a new mop head and rinse the floor. I promise it will look like you spent an hour scrubbing and it will take only maybe 15 minutes to give it a deep down scrub that will allow you to get away with a quick mop in between. Here is the link to the scrubbing tool.

Fuller Brush Tile Grout E-Z Scrubber Complete … – Amazon.com

For cleaning wood floors on a regular basis I also recommend the O’Cedar mop but suggest spinning the mop out 8-10 times till the mop is just barely wet, enough to grab the dirt in the microfiber strings and for the solution to wash away any dirt.

Here is the link to the Martha Stewart Living article where this advice was published.

My Top Picks For Quick Carpet Clean Up

Ahhhhhhh… Imagine one of those rare moments where you just finished cleaning the house and go to put your feet up and notice something staring at you from across the room.

Someone must have spilled hot chocolate on your carpet and now it’s screaming “look at me, look at me.” It might only be a small spot but it’s right in the middle of the living room where everyone can see it. It doesn’t require dragging out the steam cleaner but you still want to make it completely go away.

In this post, I go over a few of my favorite go-to carpet cleaners in a spray that I personally tested and recommend.

My recommendations were published in an article for Reader’s Digest. The link is below and here are my notes on the products I tested and how well they worked.

Heavy Duty All in One Knock Out Punch Cleaner

Hoover Max Strength Deep Stain Remover is great for quick everyday clean-up and any messes a pet may leave behind. It also got out coffee stains on a tan microfiber couch that had been there for a while. Easy to spray and you only need to wait a couple of minutes to start wiping it up and see results. I actually like to have a bucket with hot water and a couple of microfiber cloths and I scrub the fabric back and forth until I can see the stain is lifting. Then I use a cloth with hot water and remove any of the cleaner. Another great test I did was on some grease on the carpet in my truck. I just had my oil changed in my new truck and I found the mat on the driver’s side had oil/ grease on it. I used this and it came off after 2 tries. Easy to use, fast-acting, and did what I hoped it would do. Was happy to not have to drag out my steam cleaner to get the job done. It’s easy to see where you sprayed and where it is working without over saturating the area. It comes out looking like shaving cream and is thick and foamy.

Hoover Max Strength Deep Stain Remover … – Amazon.com

My Eco Friendly choice

Better Life Stain & Odor Eliminator, Eucalyptus. This is a great Eco-friendly choice. We love Better Life cleaning products as part of our green cleaning service for clients who request them. We always use this when we have a request for spot cleaning of a high traffic area in hallways where everyone walks. It’s a liquid instead of foam so you don’t need to spray as much and it works best when you spray it on, let it sit for about 10 minutes and use a white cloth to agitate and then blot the residue up. It does well with grease release and foot traffic spots.

Better Life Stain & Odor Eliminator, Eucalyptus … – Amazon.com

Red Wine Stain Removal

Hands down this works great for “just happened” red wine accidents (once red wine dries it is hard to remove) As always be sure to blot as much as possible with a white cloth like a kitchen or bath cloth, nothing with dyed fabric and the color may run.

Wine Away at Amazon® – Amazon Official Site

Old Set In Stains

I have had this product here at my house for years (actually I think it came with the house) and it is great for old set-in stains like grease and food stains. The other products mentioned are good for stains that just recently happened and need to be cleaned. Sometimes when we go to a new client’s house and they have old stains that have not been cleaned, Folex is my go-to. I was told by a carpet cleaner that I refer to my clients that the reason this works well onset in older stains is that the enzymes in the cleaners break down the old stain.

Folex Carpet Spot Remover, 32 oz: Home … – Amazon.com

 

 

Original article at Reader’s Digest