Hardest Things To Clean In Your Home – Forbes Home

There’s no denying that you need patience when cleaning blinds. These window coverings are dust magnets, and the sun’s rays are especially unforgiving, highlighting every missed spot on each slat. The best cleaning techniques depend on the type of blinds, their material, slat size and operation.

With their delicate and thin horizontal slats, popular Venetian blinds can be a nightmare to clean when they’re hanging in the window. It often involves stretching awkwardly while attempting to hold the wiggling blinds in place and avoiding dripping dirty water onto your furnishings or flooring below.

It’s often easier to remove the blinds from the window, taking them outside and laying them on a protective ground sheet. Use a bucket of warm, soapy water and a sponge to quickly and gently clean each slat before rinsing with cold water and air drying. If you’re short on space or the blinds need a deep soaking, put them in a bathtub filled with warm water and some dish soap.

Swishing a blind duster over the slats weekly means you won’t have to deep clean as regularly or scrub as intensely.

A buildup of grease, food waste, hair, soap scum and other debris can lead to backed-up drains. Be proactive with your cleaning to prevent having to call out a plumber to clear a clogged drain. Regularly pour boiling water down the drain, followed by a 1/2 cup of baking soda and then a half cup of white vinegar. This should loosen any lingering debris before it gets too thick to budge.

If that doesn’t work, try using a plunger, drain snake or a straightened wire coat hanger to catch the clogging culprit and pull it out. It’s best to avoid using harsh chemical drain cleaners. These can damage your pipes, and if they don’t unblock the drain, the sludge you need to remove will now be a hazardous, caustic concoction.

Samantha Jones / Forbes Home

Puppy puddles and red wine spills on pristine pile can send you into a panic. Fortunately, with some speedy and specific strategies, it’s possible to remove carpet stains without calling in the pros.

The best thing you can do is blot up any excess as quickly as possible. Removing carpet stains is tougher the longer the liquid has to soak in. If you need to use a stain-removing solution, always pre-test this on an out-of-sight section on your carpet first. .

A mild solution of 1/4 teaspoon of dish detergent and 1 cup of warm water works for most food and drink stains. Don’t go overboard with the detergent, otherwise you’ll end up with a sudsy mess. Apply the solution sparingly, starting at the outside and working inwards to prevent spreading the stain, and blot rather than scrub. Rinse thoroughly without saturating the carpet and blot up any excess moisture.

If you’re cleaning up puppy potty accidents, having a commercial enzymatic solution on hand is helpful. These break down the water-insoluble uric acid crystals in urine so your carpet isn’t left with lingering unpleasant odors.

Research shows kitchen sinks and their sponges are commonly the germiest spots in our homes. To keep your sink sanitary, you need to remove traces of bacteria-laden raw meat and other food particles.

After using the sink to wash or prep food, wipe it down with a clean sponge, microfiber cloth or single-use paper towel dipped in dish soap and warm water.

Sanitize using a solution of household chlorine bleach at a ratio of 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. Leave it on the surface for at least a minute to kill off all the bacteria before rinsing it off. Make a fresh sanitizing solution daily, as it loses its effectiveness after 24 hours.

We don’t spend much time looking up at our ceilings, so it’s easy to forget about cleaning fans and light fittings. However, by wiping them down monthly you’ll reduce the dust in your home. This can help alleviate issues with allergies and keep debris from dropping onto your furnishings and flooring.

You might have to remove the fan cover to access the blades, and it’s easier to thoroughly clean light fittings if you can remove them and clean them on the ground. Wiping with a warm water and dish soap solution is usually enough to lift layers of dust and cobwebs.

If you need to use a stepladder to access these fixtures, ensure it’s stable, fully opened, locked into position and avoid overreaching. Placing a drop cloth or plastic sheet over floorings and furnishings protects them from any falling particles. Don’t forget to let the fixture fully dry before switching it on again.

With the spatterings of baked-in grease and grime and their thin wire racks, ovens are one of the hardest things to clean in the kitchen. By the end of all that scrubbing, you’re usually stooped and caked in carbonated black smudges.

The key to efficient oven cleaning is to wipe the cooled-down interior (including the racks) with warm water and degreasing dish soap after every use. This means you won’t have to handle layers of thick, stuck-on, smokey grime. For tougher spatters, let the soapy solution sit for half an hour to work its magic or apply a gently abrasive cleaner, with a scouring pad.

Where possible, avoid harsh chemical cleaning products as they can be hazardous to health and if they aren’t properly rinsed away they can come into contact with food.

Sarah Beckler / Forbes Home

Gross grout is the blight of many bathrooms. This porous material can become a breeding ground for mold and mildew as it absorbs moisture from the humid surroundings. The key to cleaning tile grout effectively is consistency.

Regular scrubbing with an old toothbrush or grout-specific brush prevents a difficult-to-remove buildup of spores and stains from forming. Use a gentle abrasive cleaner to help keep away rust and lime, and spray with an alkaline-based commercial mold and mildew cleaner. Avoid acid-based cleaners that can wear away the grout and oily soaps that leave a sticky residue.

The gaps under heavy appliances and big furniture items—like sofas and beds—can be havens for dust bunnies, crumbs and who-knows-what-else. Given that the gap is often too small to fit a vacuum hose or sweeping brush, it’s easy to just turn a blind eye. However, an accumulation of debris under appliances isn’t only gross—it can eventually affect their functionality, plus food particles can attract pests.

This is one time when a seemingly gimmicky cleaning tool is the perfect hack for this task. Under-appliance dusters feature a flat, stiff microfiber duster attached to a thin, bendable, telescopic handle that leaves these hard-to-reach spaces dirt-free with minimal effort.