Cleaning

Bathrooms can be the toughest areas of our homes to clean — a 2018 study by the American Cleaning Institute found that 52 percent of respondents dreaded bathrooms more than any other area when it comes to tidying up. The study also found that the average American spends about six hours a week cleaning, and a third of those...

When you invest in a new set of sheets or towels, it’s normal to wonder how long they’ll stay in their best condition. After all, you purchase these items to use them regularly, and there are few household items that go through as many wash cycles as bedding, bath and tabletop fabrics, whether that’s pillowcases, washcloths or table linens. If...

Thanks to their role as gathering space and a source of meals, kitchens tend to be the unofficial drop spot for all things life. Think rogue mail, loose keys, discarded backpacks, stacks of schoolwork, you name it. If all you see when you enter your kitchen are things that shouldn’t really be there, you might begin to wonder if all...

The amount of information swirling out there around the most effective cleaning (and sanitizing, and disinfecting) practices can be dizzying — and often, misleading. What's likely true is that your home and the surfaces in it aren’t getting the thorough clean you think they are. Disinfectant Granite & Stone Wipes While strategies for cleaning are aplenty, one way to take guesswork...

This year, the phrase “winter is coming” has new, anxiety-provoking overtones. After a year in which our lives were upended and our roots planted firmly at home, it can be daunting to think about another significant stretch of time inside. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With a little forethought, you can transform your house into a home,...

Whether you like to tidy on a daily basis or do a once-a-week deep scrub, keeping the house clean almost always includes some head-scratching moments. Trying to dust a sky-high bookshelf without toppling it, or reaching behind the toilet touching it, can often feel like your own little version of household Jenga. Stocking a few specialty tools (and regular household...

Despite it being an essential task — especially in bathrooms and the kitchen — few people truly enjoy mopping a floor. Imagine if you had something that could do it for you without complaining that didn’t require buckets of water, a dirty mop, back-breaking effort, or worse, getting down on your hands and knees? Enter the robot mop. Similar to...

If all the talk of a “twindemic”—the overlap between COVID-19 and flu season—has sent you into a cleaning frenzy, you’re not alone. But it takes more than a simple paper-towel swipe of the counters and doorknobs to clean and truly disinfect. First things first: You need a quality product — ideally one that’s overtly labeled as a disinfectant, like 3M...

Before you roll your eyes at the idea of adding more to your already overflowing to-do list, consider this: Taking a few beats each day to check off cleaning tasks, says Carolyn Forte, Cleaning Lab Director of the Good Housekeeping Institute, can actually save you time in the long run, not to mention cut down on harmful germs and...

If you’re wondering how to remove oil stains from clothing, think about what teenagers normally do when t