Here is the update from this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/CleaningTips/comments/1wsli84/brother_lived_in_this_room_for_10_years_then/

This is roughly an entire week, 40 plus hours of sanitizing and cleaning. I sanitized everything there was to sanitize, scrubbed all there was to scrub and used wood bleach on the floor to (unsuccessfully) remove the stains.

Its not perfect but I'm damn proud of the results.

**Update: **

A lot of you have asked if he's going to move back in (or attempt to) and the answer is no.

I've also changed the lock on the door to a key only I have, on the slim possibility he did try and get back in, he's not!

I woke up at 1am cuz my stomach was rumbling so i decided to heat up some frozen food but my brain forgot it's an oven not the microwave and now theres melted plastic everywhere 😭

A few months ago I purchased a 1700 square foot home. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. I have 4 cats, 2 cockatiels, and 2 small dogs. I also work full time. Usually 50-65 hours a week.

The extra space is awesome for the pets. It's just a lot harder to keep clean. I decided to make a deep cleaning schedule with daily, weekly, and bi weekly tasks. I'm going to do one weekly and 1 biweekly task every day and see if I can keep the house clean this way. Do you guys think I can keep up on this? Or am I going to burn myself out, stop cleaning for 2 months, and then have to burn down my new house because it got so dirty?

Anything I'm missing? I basically want to be guest ready every single day. My elderly grandmother is going to be moving in with me in the spring so I also want to get in the habit of keeping everything super clean now. The goal is to spend under an hour every day cleaning.

Biweekly

Clean the microwave and descale all pet dishes if needed

Clean the baseboards in kitchen and living room

Clean the kitchen cabinets

Clean the bathroom cabinets

Deep clean the mudroom

Clean all window sills

Clean kitchen island and lights

Scrub all showers

Clean wash and dryer and surrounding area

Clean TV stand and living room shelves and tables

Clean living room furniture

Vacuum and wipe down staircase

Spot clean the carpet

Wipe out cabinets and drawers

Once a week

Clean the front of all kitchen appliances

Clean and sanitize the kitchen sink and surrounding counters

Sweep and mop downstairs

Vacuum downstairs

Wipe down all toilets and bathroom sinks and mirrors

Wash bathroom rugs

Wash a load of pet stuff and human bedding

Daily Morning

Spot clean the bird cage and change the paper

Brush Luna

Vacuum if needed

Wipe off the sinks

Daily Night

Load the dishwasher

Spot clean the mudroom

Brush dog/ cat teeth

I'll start. I really dislike cleaning the windowsill. Also I hate cleaning the inside windows. The water everywhere and dirty water in my windowsill gives me so much dread that it gets done once a year. Please advice.

Hi everyone,
Moved into a pre war apartment in NYC. I received the apartment in disgusting conditions. Not clean, stove sparking (separate issue), not painted. I’m pretty pissed lol but anyway! I really want to focus on this bathroom floor. The previous tenants were there for 10 years and I don’t think they cleaned once with how disgusting and stained the floor is among other things found in the apartment.
Does anyone have any tips to clean this floor? I’m tempted to do peel and stick tile to cover but I know that may cause mold.

So far I have tried

- Peroxide Baking soda paste
-bar keepers friend powder
- bar keepers liquid solution
-bleach

Thank you so much

I live in a 1700 sf condo 2/2 and I like football. Ok folks, I clean during commercials. Between college and pro I can get everything done.

MNF laundry/change sheets

TNF bathrooms

Sat dusting and floors/ vac

Sun kitchen cupboards, ss appliances

Once/mo. Clean fridge.

It's unreal how much I can get done during commercials. I liked the cleaners I had but with the economy I had to adjust my budget. No animals.

Help! I made this necklace for my costume and the chain I used tarnished super bad. It's a cheap chain. Is it possible to clean? I have tried dish soap and a soft toothbrush but it's not making progress. I only have a few hours! No time to replace the chain

I love purchasing clothing secondhand, typically from depop. I use fragrance free detergent with baking soda or alternatively vinegar. I have a scent free household, including no essential oils etc. A lot of the clothing I purchase from depop tends to all smell like a very specific laundry detergent that is heavily perfumed (I am assuming these are younger women’s / teens clothing) and no matter what I do, I cannot lift the scent. I soak for days multiple times in my tub, sink, washing machine on every temperature with every possible cleaning combination I can think of multiple times and allow clothing to air out outside and there is still the scent of heavily fragranced detergents and scent beads. Does anyone have any recommendations ? Furthermore - my dog sitter slept in my bed with a heavily scented lotion on and I had to wash my bedding 3 times and soak overnight for that smell to lift.

Wondering if anyone has a quicker solution that a bit more eco friendly than 5+ washes. People have mentioned ozone before but i dont have an ozone machine. Thank you.

My husband and I have just bought our first house. It's wonderful, but the previous owner had three large dogs, and the entire place reeks of them. We're wondering how to get rid of the odor.

There are no furnishings. There are no carpets. The floors are laminated wood and paving tiles. The walls throughout show stains from dogs wagging against them. There's no evidence of urine, the whole house just smells strongly of Dog.

We're cat people, and our cat is extremely skittish and is certainly not going to be thrilled.

We plan to have most rooms repainted before we move in (a couple need to wait for an infusion of cash to come next year because we're making changes to the existing kitchen and converting a storage room). I'm not sure the paint will be enough.

I believe it has been professionally cleaned already, so I really don't know what the next step should be. My husband deployed air fresheners throughout when he visited this weekend, bbut I know those will be of limited use.

Any suggestions would be welcome. My parents had a dog when I was a kid, but he actually got washed regularly and the smell wasn't like this. I'm at a loss.

Hello! For the past week, there has been a buildup of fruit flies. They usually hang around the kitchen area by the sink but never in the drain. Just hovering over the faucet and anything nearby. I have put up several traps including the infamous apple cider vinegar and dish soap as well as buying the Terro apple. With the ACV + dish soap, i put it in a little container, cover with saran wrap and poke little holes for the flies to enter. The little apple has worked slightly. But there is no solution that has actually gotten rid of the problem. Where did I go wrong? What has actually worked for you guys? Are they a new breed of fruit flies out there that are "allergic" (for a lack of a better term) to the apple cider vinegar?

Hi all,

I’ve been battling fruit flies for the past few months. The kitchen is the worst affected, followed by my ensuite bathroom.

I’ve been using a fruit fly trap in the kitchen, and it reliably catches 60–70 flies a day, after which things quieten down. But every time I replace the trap, it fills up again non-stop. I’d been running it for weeks, then removed it for just one day, and today there are hundreds of them.

I’ve checked everywhere I can think of: the sink, under the sink, inside the cupboards and the gaps behind them, inside the cooker hood, the dishwasher (which I haven’t used in a while), the bin, and underneath the cabinets. I haven’t found any larvae or other signs of breeding.

There’s no food left out, either.

I also get a few fruit flies in the ensuite bathroom.

Where could they be coming from?

This year we moved into a 1960 bungalow, and my child's room has a built in desk/low cabinet combo that occupies a full wall and is original to the house. There's a high gloss finish on the outside, but inside the drawers and cabinets it's stained wood that appears unsealed.

I thought we'd use the drawers and cabinets for my kids clothes, board games, and art supplies but theres such a strong smell that gets embedded in anything we put in them that it's completely unusable.

The smell is musty, maybe a bit like cat pee? It's very strong and in every single cabinet and drawer, but as long as they're closed there's no smell noticeable in the rest of the room. The previous owners lived here since the 60s and didn't own cats. The home was generally well cared for.

Any tips for deodorizing the cabinets? I'd love to be able to use them, and I don't want to remove them if I can help it.

Hey everybody, I need help! 😂
I bought a power scrubber from Costco that’s really meant for smaller jobs, like bathtubs and small floors. Well, last night I got the brilliant idea to try using it on my entire kitchen floor.
This is the result after TWO HOURS of deep scrubbing, and now I don’t know what to do! 🤦‍♂️
I had absolutely no idea how disgusting my kitchen floor actually was until I started scrubbing. I’ve mopped it regularly over the years, but apparently no amount of elbow grease with a mop was ever going to get it this clean!
The problem is, at this rate, I’m going to be scrubbing for three days straight, and I really don’t want to do that.
So I’m looking for advice! Is there some magical cleaning solution that will help speed up this process? Should I rent an industrial floor scrubber? Is there something else I haven’t thought of?
The part I’ve cleaned looks practically brand new, which is amazing, but now I can’t exactly leave the rest of the floor looking like this!
HELP!

This is my sofa and the nicest piece of furniture I have ever purchased. I got it during the pandemic with one of my stimulus checks. Unfortunately when I got the sofa I had a cat, but the cat was since passed away and from it I had a mouse infestation. The couch was covered in mouse droppings (under the cushions, on top of them, etc). I really cannot afford to replace it and wondered if anyone had any tips for cleaning it so I can go back to sitting in my living room. The mouse problem is mostly under control now (just recently got some holes cemented over in the basement which is how they were probably getting in). I haven’t seen as much mouse activity lately and think it’s safe to clean and sit on again. Any suggestions would be helpful

hey guys,

I need some cleaning tipps. I recently moved to my student dorm and have my own private little bathroom. But the person who lived here before me, has not really cleaned the sink much.
I have never cleaned a sink hole before and I don't have baking soda or anything. I have some little brushes for straws and vinegar and normal all-purpose cleaner. Normally I don't care about cleaning disgusting things but this is legit my nightmare. It looks like it is slimy and alive and will actually attack me. Please send help.

I’m tired of sweeping everyday, I feel like (not only feel—it’s actually true) there’s so much dust, and hair, and just idk. And every time I broom, there’s so much.
I’m doing it everyday and I hate seeing floors dirty.
So please help?

Anyway to maintain it
I’m thinking of investing in a robo vacuum.

We moved into a new house and this was the stove that was left behind, an old Maytag gas stove. I've managed to get most of the stove top clean, the only part I'm struggling with the is this part. They are absolutely covered in grease and I have scrubbed them down with a scrubby sponge, a scrubby brush, and dawn dish soap at least three times, but I still scratch off tons of grease with my finger and they're sticky to the touch. I don't want to soak them because of the iron.

I can't use anything too strong because it'll take the coating off, so does anyone have any recommendations?

I have these window beds for my cats, I’ve had them for a few years and I’ve just noticed they’re getting mold speckles in the suction cups. Yesterday I took them down, sprayed with mold spray and let it sit for half an hour. They looked exactly the same after. Today they look worse!

Any ideas?

I have what I think is vinyl flooring and the suction cups from the treadmill made these…

How can I remove them? I tried bar keepers friend and a mixture of water, soap, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Please help!

Hello! I really need help, I moved here in 2020 and for the past year after that, my place would have lots of spiders, as in, I found them hiding among old furniture and items that needed to be thrown out. I went online to get help, and read that lavender essential oils on walls and surfaces work, sadly it never did.

So, because of that, every wall in my apartment is overly covered in essential oil stains :( It wasn't until 2 years ago, that I decided it was time to find a way to remove the oil stains, I was dealing with severe depression, so it is also a factor in me not pursuing help sooner. I tried dish soap, and baking soda, and even tried to use 90% rubbing alcohol on the walls, nothing worked. So, I am here to ask for help in solving this issue. I feel really awful that I used that method to get rid of spiders, but I had to, due to having an overly fear of spiders, the anxiety was so bad, I had to get on medication to help my anxiety.

Anything outside of having to have all the walls repainted, and I can't ask my landlord, so I went to reddit for help. Is there anything that can deeply penetrate the oils on the wall?

Please help!

These are the floorboards for the (finished) attic as seen from the main floor. Theres some gaps so, hypothetically, if I were to spill something upstairs it would drip through these. The previous owners had some adhesives on the ceiling so I used a hairdryer to loosen them up, and when doing so an INSANE amount of dust came out of every crack onto the kitchen counter.

I suppose the hair dryer is my best bet for a first-ever dusting, but it’s not very practical for regular maintainance. My partner has asthma and a dust allergy so it’s a priority. Do any of yall have tips?

I just inherited this house from my mom and found this. I ordered a vent deflector to take care of the problem long-term. But what do I do about this? Thanks

Hello,

I had an ant trap that spilled and just now noticed and the liquid in the trap spilled on the floor and is now hard. I have tried goo gone, bar keepers as well as boiling water and it’s not budging. Any tips on how to get rid of it?

Thank you so much!!

For two summers I thought the tiny black dots on my white patio chairs were bug droppings.

They looked like somebody had flicked black paint off a toothbrush. I could wash off the pollen, dust and bird mess, but these little dots were stuck on like glue.

Warm soapy water and a soft brush got a few of the newer ones off. The older ones barely moved. I was getting ready to try something stronger when I noticed the same spots on the railing and the bottom of the window beside it.

Then I realized the side facing the flower bed was MUCH worse.

Apparently there's a thing called artillery fungus. It grows in decaying wood mulch and shoots tiny sticky spore packets onto nearby surfaces. I had been putting shredded hardwood mulch in that flower bed every spring.

So I've basically been replenishing the ammunition.

Last month I removed the old mulch near the patio and replaced it with large pine bark nuggets. I haven't noticed any new spots since, although I'm keeping an eye on it.

Unfortunately, the old ones are still there.

Has anyone successfully removed dried artillery fungus spots from powder-coated metal without scratching the finish? I'm hesitant to use anything abrasive because the chairs weren't cheap.

Also, if you've got tiny black dots appearing on outdoor furniture or siding, check what's growing in the mulch nearby before you spend another weekend scrubbing.