How can I deep clean my linoleum floor? I hate my linoleum floor but I still have to clean it. Since getting dogs, i noticed that there is a lot more ground in dirt. I was going to use ammonia to give it a really good deep cleaning. But that's a harsh chemical and smells so yucky. I will use it if I need to but I was wondering what is suggested to give linoleum a good deep cleaning.
Can you recommend a cleaning company or individual in downtown Chicago? I need someone to clean my 900 sf condo (1 br/1.5 ba) every other week. I live in River North. I would be willing to provide cleaning supplies and perhaps pay for parking (depending on the cleaning charge). I currently use Sparkle Queen, and while I haven't been thrilled with the job they do, I have been appalled at the amount they charge me to clean my place, in comparison to what some of my friends pay (unfortunately they work with individual cleaning ladies who are all booked up). I am currently paying $80 plus tip, which makes it about $105. In light of what my friends are paying (about $50 including tip), I feel like I am getting ripped off.
Asking for friend: How do I clean a yellow Fossil leather wallet that is starting to turn brown from use? I have a leather wallet I purchased from Fossil a few months ago. It is a women's wallet, made of a soft leather that I assume has been dyed yellow. When I bought it, the yellow was a bright yellow, but after a few months of use, it's beginning to turn brown/grey from what I guess is dirt. It also seems to be picking up a bit of the colour from my jeans. Here's a link to a similar wallet.
When I used a normal leather cleaner on it, the colour changed from yellow to an orange-ish yellow, as if the yellow pigment was being washed away and the natural brown of the leather was showing through. That kind of scared me away from trying other kinds of leather cleaners. There aren't really many inconspicuous spots on the wallet to test on either.
Any suggestions on how I can return my wallet to its original clean colour, and also any regular maintenance tips?
accident involving lots and lots of soot-like dust and my bedroom... my landlady has a bunch of guys converting the loftspace below her roof into a proper attic she can store items in. one of them broke through the floor and into my bedroom below. we're talking a big hole here - he actually landed in my bed.
the whole room is covered in 2cm of soot-like fine black dust. it went into all the cupboards and closets. all my clothes are severly blackened. it looks sort of what you'd imagine the inside of a chimney to be like and the stuff it itchy and makes me cough.
if you have dealt with this kind of problem before, would you mind giving me some basic info on what to do? I'm not talking financial issues here, obviously that needs to be worked out but my questions at this point are more basic:
how do I clean that kind of mess thoroughly?
are all my clothes ruined or can I get that stuff out?
is this something dangerous beyond just a hassle or nothing to be too worried about?
I'm also not sure what to ask her to do before I go back and sleep in there again. the mattress is covered, the sheets are ruined, do we need professionals to clean this or how do I do it?
one more thing on the soot: I washed my hands four times now and I still feel it all over them. this stuff does not go away easily.
Am I going to kill myself why attempting to clean my oven? Hi, there's a self cleaning oven in my apartment. It hasn't been cleaned in what looks like forever. I live in a studio. There is no outdoor ventilation near the oven. Just one window in the apartment, at the opposite end. Is it going to be really fumy in here? Is it going to make all my clothes, couch, and bed stink? (remember studio, all same room) Also, I'm worried about leaving the apartment when the oven is in clean mode, but also worried about fuming myself to death by staying here. Any advice? There were specific instructions in the oven manual about not cleaning it with traditional methods. Is that just BS though?
Does anyone have a recipe for homemade vinyl LP record cleaner? I just got an USB turntable and I have been converting my records to digital. I have one or two 45s that are a little dirty and I would like to clean them, but I don't really want to spend the time or money ordering professional record cleaner online. I am not an archivist, and not necessarily an audiophile, but I don't want to experiment on cleaning fluids and destroy the records.
I have considered 90% Isopropyl and a soft cloth. I thought briefly about Windex. Even thought about Grey Goose straight from the freezer. Anyone got a dirty record made clean success story?
What's the easiest way to wash a ceiling? It's a flat kitchen ceiling that hasn't been washed for years (in preparation for painting). It's probably got greasy residue. How good are those Swiffer doodads? Will that work? Or am i going to have to go with a rag and cleaning solution?
How do hotels keep their shower curtains mildew-free? Is it part of the daily cleaning regimen? Do they replace them often? Do they buy better ones?
I ask because I have an awful time with mildew on my shower curtain, and I assumed it was mainly because I don't have a bathroom window for light and ventilation. But hotel rooms don't either, and yet the hotels seem to have the problem solved (presumably because a mildewed shower curtain would be a deal-killer for most hotel guests.)
Window cleaning question: how much is reasonable to pay for gutter, soffit and window cleaning for a 3-bedroom Victorian house (UK)? So there is stuff growing in my guttering, and the windows need cleaning. I don't have the right ladders or the inclination to do this job. I've been quoted £90 - there are 8 windows and guttering front and back (it's a terraced house). Is this reasonable?
Can any of you recommend a good, reliable cleaning service in Williamsburg/Brooklyn? I share an apartment with a patient, understanding, laid-back guy. He's messy, but I'm a total slob. Lately, he's been tightening up on the cleaning, spurred on by his boyfriend. And I'm having guilt about this -- but am utterly incapable of keeping up. I'm rarely home and when I am, I don't want to spend that time cleaning. I just got a large raise, and I promised to cover maid service costs ... but am not sure where to start. We both rely on our computers and cameras, and I am a little gunshy about getting my laptop jacked, etc.
Can any of you recommend either a good, reputable service that will come to Williamsburg, Brooklyn -- or an independent person? Any cost guidelines, expectations are much appreciated as well.
How to clean a fine porcelain teacup that found its way into a bonfire? A friend moved recently, and apparently missed a cup in one of the boxes. While burning the moving boxes, he found one of his good porcelain teacups roasting in the fire. He fished it out, but it's a bit charred. I've been able to get much of the black off by soaking it in hot water, but the painted pattern is starting to come off, so I'm afraid to use Bon Ami or baking soda.
Any suggestions about how to get the remaining black crud off without further damaging the cup?
Help me de-gunk my outside air conditioner. Last year, I had a great guy replace my air conditioning unit in my five-year-old house. Being not the best homeowner in the world, I had no idea there was a vast series of weekly and monthly steps to be done to keep things nice (with the house in general), which led to me spending three grand putting in a whole new unit.
The guy told me that my outside air unit needs to be cleaned regularly to keep debris (leaves, bug bodies, crap in general) out of the blades surrounding the fan. He said the occasional high-pressure spray down with an outside garden hose would do, and that's what I've been doing. But he also mentioned that every 5 years or so, the blades in the vents would get so clogged I should do an "enzyme clean." He specifically said it was for the blades on the outside unit, NOT a duct cleaning or coil cleaning. Well, I tried calling the guy this summer and his number is disconnected, and googled "enzyme clean" and all I get is services for cleaning air ducts.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I looked at my unit yesterday and it looks pretty gunked up and I would love for it to be running as efficiently, cleanly and coolly as possible now that the 100+ degree days have started. Ideally, I would love to just do it myself, if that were possible, and he mentioned you could buy the product yourself and do it without professional help or hire an HVAC person to come and do the cleaning for you... but now I don't know who to call or what to ask for. If it helps, I'm in Dallas.
A bout of constipation and butt-dragging resulted in my cats rubbing their poop into the poorly-surfaced hardwood floors of my apartment, and no amount of scrubbing or Lysol will remove the poop caked into the grain of the wood. This is not a stain, the poop is literally caked into the wood. What do I do to remove it with a minimum of damage to the floors? Is there some way to dissolve the poop?
help! I adore gradual self-tanning lotion, but it's turning my laundry yellow! I've been using gradual self tanners on and off since last Christmas. I love having a hint of a tan, especially now that summer's around, without worrying about sun damage - but my whites are turning yellow. Actually, with long-term exposure, they're turning almost brown, making it look like I have some of the world's worst personal hygiene. This is particularly upsetting on my white bra straps (who really sees the inside of the cups but me?) - they stick out from under tank tops at times and expose what looks like really rotten skin residue. Blech. Plus, it's ruining some relatively nice lingerie.
I've scrubbed, etc., but haven't been able to get this stain out. Is there anything I can use to eradicate the color from fabric? Otherwise, not wearing white all summer might be a little tricky...
How do you clean these windows properly when you live on an upper floor of an apartment building? First you have to understand the dynamics of these windows. The side that's on the inside of the building is of course no problem, it's cleaning the outside-face of the windows that gets tricky. You would think logically that you just slide one pane over, reach outside, wipe it, and then slide the other pane over and do the same.
The problem is that one pane sits in front of the other one, so you cannot do this for one of the sides. You end up cleaning one pane entirely, and with the other pane you just cannot reach about 1/4th of it, so there's still this soot-filled section of my window that's driving me nuts!
The most obvious answer is "use a ladder" and go from the outside, but I don't have one and I don't even think my landlord does nor will he spend his precious time cleaning my windows.
Are there any special tricks to getting that hard to reach spot from the inside with a tool or something?
I'm interested in becoming more organized and consistent with my housework routine. Recently I started assigning different tasks to different days, so that I would be able to say "Okay, it's Tuesday, I need to water all the houseplants" instead of wondering "Yikes, when did I last water the houseplants?"
In that vein, I remember an old poem about housework:
"Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday."
I wonder if it's really possible to organize household chores in that way (obviously the poem would need to be modernized). What kinds of chores would work in that model, and what kinds wouldn't? Do you do your housework based on a daily or weekly routine? And if so, what types of chores get their very own day?
How can I eliminate and prevent mold and mosquitoes from my apartment? The lowdown: I recently relocated to Macau, which is hot, muggy and prone to mold. Mold grows on the walls and floors, on clothes in the closets, and on food, sometimes almost instantly.
I seem to be allergic to the mold. Sometimes my athsma is so bad I can't sleep, even if I use aaaaaaallllll my medicines at once. A few nights ago I woke up and my cheek was numb and pulsating. I went to the mirror and noticed a gigantic bug bite lookin' thing on my face. I was afraid I'd been bitten by something weird, but the bump went down a few hours later. I went to a doctor the next day, who said the bump had some kind of medical name and was related to skin allergy, and that they appear on the body more often than the face. A couple days later I had one on my shoulder, and then on my chest.
Recently there appear to be more flies and mosquitoes in the house, which was never a problem until just the other day. I have no idea what caused the outbreak. My body is covered in marks, but I can't tell if they are bites or skin allergy thingies.
I know mold and mosquitoes love warm, damp, humid environments. We try to leave all the ACs on (only wall ACs, we don't have central air) and vent the apartment as best as possible. I got some dehumidifiers and an air purifier. But there are problems with the setup of this house.
The kitchen is tiny and doubles as the laundry room. There is no AC in there and any time you do anything in the kitchen it gets really hot. Opening the windows in the kitchen just lets bugs and humidity in. Closing windows and opening the door to the rest of the house just exposes the rest of the house to the heat/humidity - the layout doesn't allow the kitchen to properly vent.
The bathrooms are also pretty small and have no climate control. It obviously gets hot and humid whenever you take a shower, and it's pretty damp when you're done. Do I open the doors and expose the rest of the house to this heat and humidity? Or do I seal it off and let the bathrooms fester?
I think the situation is controllable, but being a rookie in these environs I let it get out of control. We're now trying to get a handle on the situation...
How can I avoid shiny keys syndrome on my computer keyboards? This relates to the patches of smoothness that seem to appear on often-used keys after a few months of consistent use. On every keyboard I've used, after a few weeks of heavy use, there always seem to be certain keys which exhibit an odd, shiny smoothness compared to other keys. It is clearly because these keys are the most often used. The spacebar, for example, has a patch of shiny smoothness on the right side where my right thumb usually lands when I'm hitting the spacebar. The ? key on my keyboard is pretty shiny too. In contrast, rarely used keys like "Esc" or the F-keys are in pristine condition.
It's most obvious on black keyboards but the shiny patches are also quite evident on white keyboards if viewed at an oblique angle. They keys themselves function normally, they're just really... shiny.
My question is, is there any way to avoid the development of these shiny patches short of using a keyboard cover? Is it because the top layer of plastic has been worn off by my fingers or is it an accumulation of grease and oil and dirt? Can it be "cured"?
This isn't a very well-phrased question, so if anyone has any clarifications to ask I'd be happy to make them.
How does one salvage a suitcase from cat piss? My cat pissed in my suitcase (this is the second one she has fucked up). The first time, it was a light colored suitcase, so it stained the outer fabric and I had to toss it. My present suitcase is black, so I'm wondering if there is any special way to clean it and de-stink it so that I don't have to purchase yet another one.
Specs: It has a thin nylon inner lining and a normal what-ever-it-is textured exterior. It's of a really cheap quality, considering I got it for free from my grocery store during some VIC card deal.
It's nasty, and she likes doing this to me when she knows I'm leaving town. So any suggestions are welcome.
I had a very small kitchen fire ... but a bag of flour was involved, causing nuclear winter in my apartment. How thoroughly should I clean up, and how? Obviously I'm going to clean up the soot which is now ALL OVER my apartment. My problem is that the paint job, especially in the kithen and especially the cabinets, is so shoddy that (a) soot has settles into all the bubbles and flaws, making for a permanent speckled effect, and (b) cleaning (just basic damp-cloth cleaning) if revealing huge bubbles and making the paint crack and peel.
Now, the cruddy paint job was here when I moved in, and I always intended to paint over it. But this has revealed so many flaws in the cabinetry that I wonder if it's worth it. So:
Can I get rid of the visual traces of soot without repainting or hard scrubbing (which will mess up the existing paint)? And if so, what do I use?
FWIW, I'm in Toronto, I'd prefer not to use anything that might kill me, and I'm okay with methods that leave my kitchen temporarily unusable, as long as the rest of my (well ventilated) apartment is safe.
What's a good vacuum for mostly hard floors and some carpet for a cat owner? I have a serious cat hair and litter issue-it's all over my floors and rugs. I've recently tossed my old vacuum because it just didn't work. Can you recommend a good vacuum for this problem? I'm not looking to spend a ton, so I'd like to cap the budget around $150. Thanks!
Mold and bleach? How much to kill it, but not me? (And I guess not my roommate, too.) I've got some seriously moldy bathroom walls. This is a rental home, and I'm looking quite forward to moving out of it in the fall.
I'm looking for an easy, inexpensive solution to getting the mold off. Past askmetafilter questions say to wash the walls with bleach (straight?) or a bleach solution. Well... color me ignorant, but is it safe to simply spray the walls w/ bleach? If I need to make a solution, is there a standard bleach/water recipe?
Basically, this bathroom hardly ever dries. So, if the wall hardly ever dries, I have concerns about the walls being bleach and stinky the next time I take a shower after I clean it - possibly to an unhealthy, annoying level. Not to mention brushing against the wall with fabric and ruining it.
Am I being paranoid? I feel like a total cleaning n00b.
What to do with 150+ plastic buckets? I'm cleaning up my mom's house. She's somewhat of a hoarder and a cat person, and so we've got empty cat litter containers stacked to the rafters. They're all shapes and sizes, but most of them are the yellow buckets which held 38 lbs of litter.
If I can't figure out a use for them, I'll just recycle them.
All ideas welcome, from practical to whimsical (and yes, I've already considered building a fort out of them. That'd be awesome.).
how do I clean my paintbrushes? I've started painting (artsy painting, not the walls), a TON, and I am trying to figure out how best to wash the brushes. At first I was cleaning in the bathroom, but my bathroom sink is so tiny and it started getting clogged and gross. Plus, due to the tininess, I couldn't really get in and scrub or anything.
So I started washing the brushes in the kitchen sink, free from dishes of course. But is there any danger in washing brushes in the kitchen sink? Can something toxic come into contact with my plates? That would be not good. Is there something I should soak the brushes in before going for the sink? Are there environmental things I should also consider? Thanks in advance.
How can I clean away cigarette odor and tar buildup from a G3 iMac? I loaned an old iMac to a friend who needed a computer after his house was burgled. The “week or two” loan turned into many months, and I finally got the computer back last night.
When I saw the condition of my previously minty Mac, I was very sad. The keyboard, mouse, and computer are all showing signs of living with chain smokers. There is some tar discoloration in the clear plastic bits, and there is also a very distinct smell. It's strong enough that I can't bring the computer into my house.
I'm planning on taking apart the components and cleaning them up, but wanted to know if anyone had any additional tips or suggestions before I get started. Any idea on cleaning agents that I can use that won't craze the plastic?
