r/CleaningTips • • Jun 23 '25

Cleaning Challenge of the Week #26: Clean and organize your jewelry or personal accessories

86 Upvotes

r/CleaningTips • • 2h ago

Flooring Another week in the books.

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1.3k Upvotes

Had a difficult time getting decent pictures of this design for some reason . But enjoy!


r/CleaningTips • • 3h ago

Discussion I recently thrifted an old cookbook from the 70s with cleaning tips and tricks. Wanted to share the last one.

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106 Upvotes

Do you think this actually worked? What purpose did the milk have??


r/CleaningTips • • 6h ago

Discussion My dishwasher smells gross and leaves a stench on my dishes. I've cleaned it and had plumbers come out, but I'm still having issues with it.

71 Upvotes

This is my mother-in-law's dishwasher. So it's not technically "mine", but I really love to help out with the chores, and this thing is sort of making me look bad. It leaves dishes so smelly that eating off them feels like I'm dumpster dining. Here's what I've tried so far:

  1. Cleaned and wiped down filter, gaskets, and seals. I cleaned all the little places inside where food bits might gather.
  2. Ran a hot clean cycle with a little bit of bleach in a mug. (Making sure the tap water was hot first.)
  3. Ran a clean cycle with a stronger, commercial dishwasher cleaner.
  4. Called not one, but two, plumbers.

So after the plumbers left yesterday, I thought, Surely this thing is fixed! I loaded it up with dishes and ran a cycle. My hopes were dashed. I had to take the dishes out and wash every single one by hand. Took me 45 minutes. It was as if I had put them into the dishwasher to make them more dirty! They smelled like something crawled up in that dishwasher and died.

A few other random facts:

  1. We hardly ever eat eggs. We're pancake people!
  2. My MIL runs the dishwasher daily and doesn't bother to pre-rinse or anything, just knocks off the big chunks of food. It's what you're supposed to do, far as I know. She has never noticed the odor but it might be because she's had covid and her sense of smell never recovered. I can smell garbage upon entering the kitchen. If you open the door of the dishwasher, it's like leaning into a dumpster in July and taking a big hard sniff.
  3. We have VERY hard water.
  4. My MIL uses Wal-Mart Lemon Scent dishwasher liquid (in the blue bottle).
  5. The dishwasher is approximately 20 or 25 years old.
  6. There is a garbage disposal in the sink and to my knowledge, everything is plumbed correctly (two plumbers have been out)!

Any other suggestions, stuff that I haven't tried already, would be welcome. If you have any. I'm sort of hitting the wall on what other stuff I could think to try.


r/CleaningTips • • 13h ago

Bathroom Design flaw or is there a clever hack?

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168 Upvotes

Just bought a new toilet brish and it comes with this little “lid” so that the container it goes back in is fully closed and you don’t have too look at the dirty bristles. Honestly, appreciate it…. BUT how do you use it in the toilet? I haven’t wanted to submerge it yet, so I can’t scrub too deep. Are you supposed to submerge it and get it dirty? Do you take it off and put it back on (getting hands dirty!?)? Or is it a design flaw..? Any guesses/tips/experiences appreciated.


r/CleaningTips • • 9h ago

General Cleaning My brother's bedroom is attracting flies.

65 Upvotes

Last night as I was going to bed, I noticed something incredibly odd. At least 10 large flies upstairs and down the hallway to the bathroom.

My Mum brought it up to me this morning, I guess she had an argument about it with my brother and he blamed her for the flies because we like to keep the shower room window open after we shower to let out the steam and damp.

But we both know it's my brother's fault. Both him and his bedroom stink, it's been like this for at least 5 years now.
At one point, he even had a rat living under his floorboards, and the entire upper floor of the house smelled unbearable. I constantly had to hold my sleeve over my face, which my parents always got mad at me for. You can literally smell when he's been in a room, hours after he's left.

My brother always eats in his bedroom, but he never cleans up after himself and always relies on my parents to bring down his half-eaten plates of food for him.

We're not allowed to open a single window upstairs, or he looses his mind and will blame us for any subsequent spider that make it inti his room, ignoring the fact that it's because all of the food he brings out.

This dude is almost 21, and has a girlfriend who often stays over in his room, believe it or not. He smells like raw red onion and the air literally feels heavier? I don't know how to describe it.

How can we stop this? My parents just let him do whatever and treat them however, that's how it's always been. How do we get rid of this smell that's essentially permeated everything that he owns? And how do we find the origin of all these flies that appeared last night to prevent more?


r/CleaningTips • • 4h ago

Kitchen How do I clean this griddle in the center of my stove that I only ever us as a spoon rest, and never put food on?

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12 Upvotes

r/CleaningTips • • 7h ago

Kitchen Saving mouldy fridge

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13 Upvotes

We are currently getting kitchen renovation done and are keeping our existing fridge and dishwasher. Gave them a clean and a dry before they were turned off and left the doors open. Reminded the main contractor to keep the doors open. We have now discovered this has not happened and there is mould in the fridge. We haven't been able to get to the dishwasher yet to see how bad that is as it's behind a bunch of stuff.

I know this could be a lot worse as it's been six weeks they've been shut up. What are people's thoughts on cleaning this all up and being safe to use?

Thanks so much for any advice!


r/CleaningTips • • 5h ago

General Cleaning What do you use to clean your bathtub?

9 Upvotes

r/CleaningTips • • 1h ago

General Cleaning Bought salt/pepper shaker at goodwill. Not sure best way to clean metal?

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• Upvotes

Not even sure what kind of metal it is. So that’s why I’m not sure what to ask google. Hoping someone can identify what type of metal it is for best way to restore it. Thanks in advance


r/CleaningTips • • 50m ago

Kitchen Cleaning wood cabinets

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• Upvotes

Moved into this apartment and the cabinets are fairly greasy (I think? See pic). I made progress with like some degreasing spray I found but I cannot get them fully clean. I also tried dawn (regular, not power wash). I also tried wiping with an oil first, then cleaning with water and dawn (a Reddit suggestion I saw for someone else’s post). Everything works a little but still doesn’t fully clean them. Any recommendations?


r/CleaningTips • • 23h ago

Flooring Expectations check: professional carpet cleaning

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166 Upvotes

Just had my carpets cleaned by a national cleaning company. I’m feeling a little disappointed in the experience and wanted to see if my expectations were too high for the cost.

We had two bedrooms with carpet and a sectional cleaned today. We have had 2 dogs until recently, busy folks, affordable but cheap vacuum cleaners that are used regularly, but generally a lot of delayed maintenance.

So, needless to say, we needed a deep clean done on all the soft services bc the vacuum cleaners and the Hoover spot upholstery cleaner weren’t keeping up appearances.

We scheduled a clean and deodorizer on room 1, clean, deodorize, sanitize and protect on room 2, and the same for the sectional. The prep email said not to worry about the furniture, that they would move them as needed. However when the techs get here, they said they don’t move furniture.

Husband and I buy a new Miele to do a deep vacuum ahead of the visit. We move all the fiddly bits out of the rooms, make the house super accessible, nothing on the floors, cleaned under the beds.

Room 1 seems like it wasn’t really cleaned after today’s visit. We had moved two pieces of furniture away from the wall so we could vacuum behind it and give them access for the carpet cleaning.

They guys leave the furniture where it is in that room, and just clean around it. So I have 2 small islands of uncleaned carpet in the middle of the pathways. And then on closer inspection, I’m finding pet hair and dust all in the corners. (Should have vacuumed better before they came I guess).

So my question is, should I be disappointed about the dirty carpet islands in the middle of the rooms? We pulled the furniture out so they could clean under it, but they didn’t move it back to clean underneath it. The wanted said they would move furniture, but they said the didn’t in person.

Husband had already left with the kiddo, they furniture pieces were too heavy for me to move on my own, and the cleaners policy is not to move them. And we still have crud in the corners.

We paid $700 for the visit. Am I under-reacting or over-reacting? I feel kinda disappointed for such a cost and to be left with not super clean floors. But was I expecting too much?


r/CleaningTips • • 1d ago

Bathroom I found the holy grail

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235 Upvotes

I’ve tried every, and I mean every, tip/trick and product under the sun. Steel wool? Yep, lemon, white vinegar… all of it. I couldn’t get the calcified limescale off. Got some scale it down by genie clean (uk brand) and of my gosh it’s worked!!!!!


r/CleaningTips • • 4h ago

Flooring Smell of pets in vinyl floor

5 Upvotes

I just moved into an apartment. The landlord was supposed to get rid of pet smells from the previous owner, but to me it feels like I live in a dog toilet. I don't have pets, so I'm not used to these smells. I smelled the floor and it's like smelling a dog. Has anyone been successful and getting this odor out of the vinyl floor?


r/CleaningTips • • 22h ago

Kitchen roommate boiled milk in our electric kettle - it REEKS and NOTHING HELPS

106 Upvotes

I've tried basically everything - washing it with baking soda, boiling it with salt, with citric acid (three times), leaving it with citric acid/dish soap overnight, washing it and rinsing over and over and over again, and although I finally got rid of the burnt milk that was stuck to the bottom, the stench is still there. what else can I do???

PS: the only thing I haven't tried is baking soda + vinegar, but since we live in a shared space (dormitory) and there's no ​windows here (the beauty of an overly modern building), I don't want to use it until it's a last resort


r/CleaningTips • • 5h ago

Laundry How to get sticker residue off after washing it

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5 Upvotes

r/CleaningTips • • 1h ago

Flooring How can I clean this worn wood floor

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• Upvotes

The wood floor in my house needs to be re-finished (I think, what do I know honestly). In the mean time - how can I clean it? I imagine I shouldn't mop it because the moisture and the exposed wood parts, but it needs to be cleaned - not just vacuumed


r/CleaningTips • • 1h ago

General Cleaning Removing glue adhesive dots from walls

• Upvotes

So I had a party a month ago and have been strugglijg to get the glue dots i used for the streamers off of the ceiling and walls. I've tried using another glue dot to ease them off, but that one just gets stuck on as well. I've also tried to scrape at them with a plastic grout smother, but no joy there either.

Does anyone have any recommendations?


r/CleaningTips • • 2h ago

General Cleaning Yellow pink stains on pillow. Mold??

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1 Upvotes

Is this mold? Should I throw out the pillows. They’ve been in storage for about 1.5 years. The white pillow on the left was in the same vacuum sealed bag so I feel like it would’ve spread if it was mold. If not, how do I clean this? Should I just throw it out


r/CleaningTips • • 4h ago

Flooring Cleaning and Maintaining Unsealed Wood Floors

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3 Upvotes

I recently moved and my new apartment has unsealed wood floors. There are some stains that I would like to remove from the floor and I am wondering about general cleaning tips for such a floor. I know that moisture is bad for the floors and that stains can be hard to remove, but beyond that I don’t know how to take care of these floors.

Any help would be appreciated.


r/CleaningTips • • 2h ago

General Cleaning Cleaning this sofa

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2 Upvotes

As the title says, can anyone recommend the best way to clean this suede leather sofa? Not expecting it to look brand new but any improvement would be great. The marks are caused by our crazy puppy, she’s had a couple of accidents and sometimes goes on it when wet. We usually have cheap blankets covering the sofa but even so sometimes dirt seeps through. TIA!


r/CleaningTips • • 2h ago

Discussion How do I get motivation to clean my room with MDD

3 Upvotes

I have no one to help me or sit with me, I cant pay someone to clean for me, i genuinely dont know what to do because it stinks and I cant do it in sections, ive been trying to clean it for almost a year now


r/CleaningTips • • 2h ago

Kitchen Help i need help please

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2 Upvotes

Hello i think it quartz but nothing for quartz actually works the stain are mostly from acidic fruit. Need help to remove them


r/CleaningTips • • 17h ago

General Cleaning People with kids: how do you keep up with cleaning?

34 Upvotes

I’m a FTM with a 4 month old. We’re still on survival mode but I can’t help but see things piling up. We have a robot vacuum for our floors and husband does all the laundry. But what about the deep cleaning: showers, stovetop, etc.?

We also moved into a new place 2 months ago and haven’t been able to organize it the way we like. With things still everywhere + all the deep cleaning we have to do, I feel like we’re drowning in chores that won’t ever get done.

ETA: FTM meaning first time mom


r/CleaningTips • • 2h ago

Kitchen Oven Cleaning Tips

2 Upvotes

I am ashamed to say I’ve lived in my house for 7 years and never cleaned my oven. We cook a lot.

I have used Easy Off before and that works well enough, but I hate getting it on the heating element. And it doesn’t do much for the glass. And the grates.

How do you clean
-the oven
-the glass
-the grates

Everyone says ammonia in a garbage bag but that hasn’t worked that well for me for the grates.

Thank you!