Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cleaning

How do I clean my silver and pearl bird's nest necklace?

pluckemin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:55:55 -0800

How do I clean my silver and pearl bird's nest necklace? I have a bird's nest necklace made out of silver wire with pearls. After wearing it every day for, oh, about a year, it's not looking so good. Not only is it really tarnished, it also looks kind of gunky, probably from my sunscreen. (Side question: is it just me, or does silver tarnish crazy fast in Chicago?) I can't even wear it anymore because it looks so grungy.

But I have no idea how to clean it! I can't dip it in silver polish because of the pearls; my silver-cleaning cloth is of no use because it only rubs the very exterior of the nest and doesn't get into all of the little nooks and crannies. Is there some kind of pearl-safe silver dip I can use? Can I take it to a jeweler and let them deal with it? Or is this just a necklace with a limited lifespan?

I don't have dentures but do I need denture cleaner?

pdb — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:19:31 -0800

What's the best way to clean a nighttime bite guard? I use a custom bite guard from my dentist to prevent me clenching/grinding my teeth down to little nubs. After every use, I brush it, and I brush it again before I go to bed, but it still gets all white and crusty about every 6-7 months; the dentist cleans it, but it doesn't get all the crustiness off.

I was thinking of using something like a denture cleaner to soak it in, but I don't know if that will damage it - does anybody know a good way to get and keep my clear plastic bite guard clean?

Best way to clean soapscum off a shower curtain?

Nonce — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:55:28 -0800

What's the best way to clean soap scum off a shower curtain? I don't want to remove the curtain, and I don't want to die from the fumes. And I don't want to spend $4 on another curtain when the old one is just fine. I'd love a chemical that I can spray on the scum, wait a bit, and then just rinse off. Does such a thing exist?

(Currently I spray on cleaner and use a brush to scrub the scum off, with my free hand pressing against the other side of the curtain to provide a surface to scrub against.)

Cleaning marker pen off LCD screen

WhackyparseThis — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:33:28 -0800

Has anyone had success in removing permanent marker from an LCD monitor? My 2 year old got hold of a purple Vivid marker, and drew on the computer screen. I usually wipe the screen with a dry microfiber cloth, but it's not working on the dried marker.

Ugly dirt marring expensive glasses

castironskillet — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:40:22 -0800

How do I keep the bottom edge of my half-frame glasses clean? This is my second set of half-frame glasses. The lenses are held in by means of a length of monofilament attached to each end of the frame and running along a groove in the bottom edge of the lens.

In my last pair, this groove and line collected dirt and became a visible dark line. I got a new pair on Monday and today noticed that there is already a spot of dirt trapped in the groove under the monofilament.

This must be a common problem? Do any of you have half-frame glasses and a successful method for keeping them clean?

shredding shreds

anonymous78 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:21:51 -0800

How can I save the shreds in my shredded jeans? I recently bought a pair of jeans with some shredded patches. Every time I wash them, some of the threads snap. I don't want the shreds to turn into holes so what can I do to stop/minimize the thread snapping when I wash them? Would dry cleaning make a difference?

How do I care for sterling silver jewelry?

peanut_mcgillicuty — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:36:22 -0800

How do I take care of sterling silver jewelry? I feel dumb that I don't know how to do this, but I have no idea how to take care of jewelry. My family does not wear any for religious reasons, so I've never seen how it's supposed to be stored or cleaned.

I mostly own costume jewelry, but I have a number of pieces of sterling silver jewelry, most of which is from SilverJewelryClub.com. Some of the pieces are tarnished and dirty, but not all of them, and there's no rhyme or reason--it's not the pieces I wear the most that look tarnished, nor the pieces I wear the least. Some of the pieces are just as bright and shiny as the day I bought them.

All the pieces are less than five years old. I keep all my jewelry in a clean old makeup case which was never used for storing makeup, so doesn't have any residue in it. I never wear the jewelry swimming or in the shower and don't sleep in it. I hang the necklaces so they don't get tangled, and toss rings and earrings into the box of the case, which is lined with cloth. It is open to the air, so could be getting dusty, I suppose. The room is not especially humid nor especially dry.

I used an aluminum foil/baking soda/hot water mixture to clean and brighten some of the pieces a few weeks ago, which made a difference but some of them still look just, well, old and dirty. I've done some reading online about how to care for jewelry, but I'm looking for realistic advice--I'm not going to wipe down my jewelry with a special cloth every time I take it off, or store it in a special jewelry chest with velvet linings or anything like that. That's not really how people live, right?

So. Am I being unrealistic and sterling silver jewelry really does need that level of care? Or are the pieces with the problems more likely just junk? Or am I doing something else wrong?

Housemate doesn't clean up after himself. Help.

dunkadunc — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:58:24 -0800

My housemate doesn't clean up, like ever. How can I do to make things work, or at least more bearable? I've been sharing an apartment since the beginning of September with an old acquaintance, and everything's been going well enough. EXCEPT:
My housemate doesn't help out with the cleaning. Every day I come home to even more mess, and it's starting to really bug me.

Some background here: My housemate and I are both 23, male, and college seniors. We went to high school together but lost touch after graduation. I was looking for a housemate for an apartment I found this August, and a mutual friend said Housemate (whose mom died last year) was looking for a place as well. We signed a lease, moved in and started school, so far so good.
The first hint I got that Housemate wasn't very good at cleaning was about a week in when he asked me what "rinsing" dishes meant. Since then, he's remained pleasant, but the amount of housework he's done has gone from little to almost none.

The main problems:
-His dishes stay dirty in the sink either until I wash them or there are no more clean ones, whereupon he washes a dirty one, uses it, and puts it back in the sink. The same thing goes for pots and pans. I can count the number of times he's washed all the dishes in the sink on one hand, and even then they've come out covered in brown curry grease and needed to be washed again.

-When asked to wash his dirty pots and pans that were filling up the sink, Housemate was surprised that I would want them to be cleaned even if I wasn't immediately going to use them. Housemate said that he would wash them before he needed them again "only as a favor". He cooks about four gallons of curry every two weeks.

-Although he was willing to split the cost of a $50 vacuum cleaner, the only time he's picked up a broom was when he broke a glass. He's been leaving brown greasy globs of curry on all the kitchen surfaces and covers the floor in oil when he cooks. All these problems with cleaning up have carried over to the bathroom as well.

Apart from all this, he's been a decent housemate, asking if I want to watch cartoons or split a pizza or whatnot, or coming out to parties with me.
I've talked to him about washing dishes and cleaning up around the apartment, and he's always said "sure"- the problem is it doesn't end up happening. He tends to drink beers and watch cartoons when he's done with schoolwork and doesn't have anything to do, so it seems like a combination of procrastination and just not knowing how to run a household: his mom used to do all the housekeeping.

What can I do to encourage him to do his share of housework, or failing that, what can I do to minimize the amount of mess I have to deal with? Ideally, we would clean up after ourselves, and if someone else missed something then the other would clean it, no problem.
I don't want to be that passive-aggressive guy, but something's got to change, since I'd like to be able to have guests over without feeling embarrassed. I'd be tempted to only clean up after myself, but I'm afraid the apartment would be taken over by maggots.

How to restore a glossy laptop screen?

bashos_frog — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:22:31 -0800

Is there any way to restore the glossy coating on a Macbook Pro screen? It seems that my keyboard has has transferred enough oil to my screen to permanently damage the glossy coating in spots (especially the line caused by the bottom edge of the keyboard). Is there any way to reapply some kind of coating, or restorative that will make the screen look new again?

Web template for cleaning business?

zeikka — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:39:17 -0800

Where can I find simple, yet professional and elegant web template/ Wordpress theme for cleaning business? I'm helping someone who's starting a small scale residential/ business cleaning service. I have domain and cheap hosting for her, but would like to find nice web template to use.

Wordpress theme would be ideal as I'm not very experience web designer or don't have experience with complex publishing system. Free would be great this as is very small scale.

Faint of butt

ignignokt — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:14:09 -0800

While I was driving him home from the vet yesterday, the cat took a dump in his carrier, which was made of cloth. (He was in the front passenger seat.) After taking care of that, I noticed it still smelled like cat feces in the car. I didn't see any stains on the seat, and I had to go, so I just rolled down the windows and went to work.

Later that night, it still smelled like cat poo in the car, but I had a bad, tiring day, so I left it alone and hoped it would be better today.

Unsurprisingly, it's not. So, I guess some secret poo liquid got onto my car seat. What method for getting rid of it and the smell maximizes efficiency and minimizes effort?

Smudgy Stainless

yellowcandy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:37:52 -0800

Stainless steel everywhere. What's the best way to clean it to be free of fingerprints and smudges? We inherited a kitchen that is pretty much wall-to-wall stainless steel (cabinets, countertops, sink, fridge, etc.). The smudges and fingerprints make me crazy. What's the definitive word on cleaning it?

I really hate dusting. Like, A LOT.

Kimberly — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:34:12 -0800

Does anyone in the Denver Metro area (or even better: Aurora) have a recommendation for a house cleaner for bi-weekly cleanings? We prefer not to use Merry or Molly maids, someone who has their own business is preferred. I'm checking out Craigslist and following a few other leads, but personal recommendations would be great. If you can tell me about how much you spend either in this thread or via mefi mail it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

how can I clean this couch?

helios — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:54:31 -0800

My landlord just bought a brand new sofa (this beige model) for my apartment, and I seem to have ruined it already by letting my friend sleep on it for a few days using dark-colored sheets. The area under the head/pillow is now slightly darker than the rest of the sofa; it looks as if it's always slightly wet. The cover can be dry-cleaned but will be expensive; what are the chances of it working? Are there any easier/less expensive alternatives?

Help me clean a window.

Frasermoo — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:31:27 -0800

What is the best way to clean my window with a hose? We have a large window at the front of our house. It's too high up for me to get to it with a ladder, and I have tried extension poles and it leaves terrible streaks and really didn't get the job done. I want to use my hose to spray down the windows, maybe with an attached bottle for spraying soap as well.

Anyone done this?

Too much dust in apartment

Aanidaani — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:13:24 -0800

Dust, dust, everywhere! I recently moved to a new apartment on the 12th floor of a high rise building in Philadelphia and find that dust accumulates all over everything like crazy. Is there something I can do to slow it down? I generally keep my windows open all day, which I'm sure contributes to my problem. I've looked at a few room air filters, but I don't know about their efficacy--has anyone else had experience with this?

Sadie the tidying lady?

mjao — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:08:07 -0800

I know how to--and rather enjoy--housecleaning. But I suck at tidying. my brain just doesn't work that way. As a consequence, I'm clean but quite messy. How do I look at a room & figure out the most efficient way to make it look neat? Share with me all your approaches and strategies.

What to do with the Apple II?

niles — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:27:18 -0800

What do I do with several Apple IIs (and a Commodore, and maybe a few other "vintage" comptuers) that I have? Nostalgia has finally given way to practicality, and I need to do something about the basement shelf overflowing with computers older than I am - but I have absolutely no clue how to do it. It seems wasteful to throw out a perfectly working Commodore 64 (in the original packaging!), or any of several models of Apple IIs with boxes of related 5.25" disk software. I read about a team at MIT creating cheap computers out of Apple IIs for developing countries, and while I can't find any further information for them online, donating to a cause like that would be awesome. Short of that, what else can I do to clean out the house? What's the best thing to do with these computers?

Metamess Prevention

magnoliasouth — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:04:25 -0800

What are some tips on preventing electric range messes? I'm not talking cleaning them, but preventing the messes in the first place.

You see, I am buying a new electric range and it is to be delivered tomorrow. I have 5 adults (three are young adults) in this house right now and it's a battle getting them to clean up after themselves, but that's for another post. The point is that I'm trying to come up with creative ways to keep my new stove nice looking and to prevent filth altogether.

I know there are a lot of seriously safety minded folks out there and while I'm not feckless I'm also not overly concerned with it, so ideas such as disposable drip pans, or oven liners, are fine by me.

Are there any other tips out there? Also I'm really looking for stove-top ideas since that appears to be the biggest problem.

better mopping

bookdragoness — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:38:30 -0800

Mopping - is there a better way? Am I just doing it wrong? I hate mopping. It's such a hassle in my current apartment because the sink isn't big enough to put the bucket in to fill and I have no squeegee lid for it.

I sweep/vacuum the linoleum floors regularly, but the actual mop-on-floor part gets neglected (3x in 2 years?). I'm trying to be a better grown-up and mop it more often, plus get rid of sticky/slippery parts.

I have a string mop. I've tried the sponge mops that have squeezing parts built in and dislike those even more. I've tried using the kitchen sink as a 'mop bucket'; I've washed off spots by hand with a rag; I just don't have a real setup for mopping and this half-assed one isn't working.

I believe that if I get something that makes it less of a detestable chore that I'll do it more often. It worked that way with my vacuum
(went from el cheapo to a Dyson and now magically vacuum >10x more often).

Should I just break down and get a bucket with a squeegee lid attachment? Are Swiffers really that awesome? Is there just a better way to do it that doesn't require so much effort?

Bonus: shedding cats
Double bonus: litter boxes in two of the three linoleum rooms - as much as I try, not all the litter gets picked up by sweeping and vacuuming

Landlord unwilling to return cleaning deposit

monkeystronghold — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:00:15 -0800

My former landlord returned substantially less money from the cleaning deposit than expected. Should I bother with small claims court? I've left my rental home of two years, and I'm now having trouble with the landlord. At the time of move in, I paid a $500 damage deposit, and $125 pet fee, and a $500 refundable(?) cleaning deposit/fee. Check in condition agreement documented the home problems pretty thoroughly. Now, 30 days after move out, she sent a refund that kept the entire $500 depost for cleaning. It stated that she had paid $12 for 99 hours of cleaning.

Some additional information:

- The Rental Agreement is a standard form and says "Non-Refundable Fee". She crossed out the "Non-Refundable" part at the time of signing, changing the text to read "Cleaning". All other correspondence refers to this as a "Cleaning Deposit". Verbally, she said this money would be used for cleaning if the house was not cleaned upon vacating.

- I sincerely believe that I left the house as clean as when I moved in

- The house had been abused by the previous tenants. Carpet riddled with cigarette burns. The hardwood floors are untreated wood painted with wall paint. Holes in doors. Etc. This was not a house of refinement. I have emails to her documenting things we found to be broken, in addition to the move in report that accurately assesses the condition of the house.

- I requested a move out walkthrough on multiple occasions, and she never responded. The assessment that she sent stated that she paid for 99 hours of cleaning. The gap between my opinion (clean as when we moved in) and hers (99 hours of cleaning?!) is vast.

I tried to call to discuss it with her, calmly, and she got very upset and hung up. All correspondence since that time has been in writing.

I've lived in many rentals and never had a problem, so I have no idea what I should do next. Is small claims court worth the trouble? I'm in Oregon if it matters.

Did cleaning my old plastic toys make them unsafe?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:47:33 -0800

Should I dump my old toys, or give them to my toddler to play with? I have a large box of Fisher-Price "Little People" and various related plastic/wood toys from 30-40 years ago that were well-loved by me and my siblings. They were very grimy, so I dumped them in a sink full of warm soapy water and used a scrub brush to try to get the dirt off. That did nothing. I then used a Magic Eraser, which did really well getting the old grime off of the plastic.

My husband wasn't so happy about this - he reminded me that the Magic Eraser is just very fine sandpaper, and what I did was remove very fine layers of plastic from each toy. Now I wonder if I have rendered these old plastic toys unsafe for my small child to play with.

Renting in New Zealand - Pets urine on carpet. Smells. Pet hair

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:13:10 -0800

I'm currently renting a flat unit in New Zealand which I will be moving out next month. My current rental agreement states that I do not need to have the carpet professionally cleaned before I move out. I have two cats in the house and the question was raised with the property agent before I moved in. They have agreed to let me have the pets in the house and on the rental agreement, it also states that they are okay with it. The property agent did an inspection of the house recently and they have asked for me to have the carpet clean by a professional carpet cleaner because they can smell cat urine. This was not raised previously in the previous few inspections. I suspect this could be due to the fact that I'm moving out for good. I do know that my cats have made a few accidents on the carpet which I have already tried my best in cleaning up the area. The smell does remain but it's not strong. the carpet is discoloured slightly as well. My questions are: Is it reasonable for the property agent to request for the carpet to be professionally cleaned? If I disagree, am I in any way in breach of the tenancy agreement? I am thinking that since the property agent allows us to keep pets in the house, wouldn't the cat 'accidents' be the normal wears and tears of having a property rented out?

How should I clean an interior brick wall?

bfranklin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:27:53 -0800

How should I clean an interior brick wall? I have exposed an interior brick wall that had been living behind wood paneling for many years and it looks filthy. I've already cleaned my exterior brick with muriatic acid with great success, but I am hesitant to even attempt to use it inside. Pressure washers aren't happening -- this isn't in my basement.

Googling comes up with suggestions of dish soap and elbow grease, but I doubt this is going to work based on my experience cleaning the outside of the house. Does anyone have firsthand experience in cleaning interior brick? What products/strategies should I use?

Help! My shower is growing things!

bluloo — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:23:55 -0800

How do I a) get rid of this mold in my shower and b) prevent it from coming back? I'm a college student, and this is the first apartment I've lived in on my own, and thus have no idea what the best course of action is. I should preface this question by saying that we are pretty bad about keeping up with the cleaning throughout the apartment, but especially the bathroom... although until now mold hasn't been an issue in our bathroom.

I share a bathroom with one of my roommates, and I subleased my room to someone for the summer. When I got back last week, I found a lovely ring of mold around our shower. The shower is one of those cheap vinyl shower/tub combos, and the mold has sprouted in a line where the shower wall meets the tub, along the caulking. I know that my other roommate (who has her own bathroom in the master suite) has had a lot of problems with mold. The landlord has come by twice or so in the year that we've lived here and recaulked with supposedly anti-mold caulking. (And, if it matters, we are the first people to live in this newly constructed house). I just finished cleaning the shower with Tilex Mold Root remover, but all I succeeded in doing was stripping the caulk down a layer in a few spots. What should I do/what products should I use to eradicate the mold? What preventative steps should we take to keep it at bay?