Cleaning Tips

• Stainless steel appliances

  Prevention is always better than the cure: rare indeed is the stainless steel refrigerator that can maintain its streak-free sheen with children in the house, especially if it has an in-door water dispenser. The best product on earth has limited effectiveness once water streaks and fingerprints have done their work. When a water-based product fails, we have a bit of magic we can resort to -- but it involves the use of a solvent, and that is not something you want to be using on a regular basis. Ditto with dishwashers. Stainless ovens tend to do better. The only stainless steel refrigerator I have seen that has not suffered these effects is made by Kitchen Aid and worth any price difference! I would also shy away from soft black appliances, as they very easily scratch and quickly lose their initial gleam. Hard black surfaces are much better. White may be out of style at the moment, but it sure has the longest life and easiest care!

  Black

  In furniture, black is the hardest to keep clean, as it shows every speck of lint and highlights smudges. Even with the finest damp microfiber cloth and multiple passes, rinsing well in between, you may find it nearly impossible to completely remove fine dust from such furnishings, especially in the proximity of electronics. Unless you like the look of lint or don't mind dusting every day, you might want to go with a dark walnut tone instead.

  Likewise, black toilets and sinks do not hold up well. They tend to look scratched and worn after only months in use. Add to that the fact that you really can't see what grunge might be lurking around toilet hinges, for instance, to clean them, and I will take white any day!

  Natural stone

  While we are on the topic of black, as much as I love black galaxy granite and its cousins, it shows every water spot and drip when used as a bathroom vanity top. Larger, swirled patterns are much more forgiving. In addition to its propensity to look messy, anything in the way of natural stone around a faucet is asking for eventual mineral buildup. If you love granite countertops but don't want to see them ruined over time by the accumulation of lime and other scale, be sure to have them well sealed and then maintain them regularly. Also be vigilant that no acid-based cleaners or other products come in contact with the surface. They will remove the scale, all right -- but so will they the stone itself! Natural stone is simply mineral formations, after all.

  So how is a person supposed to keep granite, marble, lime, and other such surfaces clean and free of scale? You can purchase a product formulated especially for natural stone, such as Marbamist by Stone Care International. After years of trials with many approaches, I have found that specialty cleaners have a very limited use: to raise money for the companies that manufacture them. :) Marbamist smells heavenly, so you might justify its use by that virtue alone. But if you are looking for real results, I have not seen them. A high-quality microfiber cloth and water will give your stone countertops as lovely a gleam as any specialty stone cleaner. For scale buildup around the faucet, try a window scraper -- carefully. Verrrry carefully over softer stone such as lime or soapstone. For weekly cleanup around the faucet and for grease buildup at the back half of countertops, good old-fashioned powdered Comet works as well as anything. You want a gentle abrasive that is non-acidic. (Bleach is a base, so not a serious concern for natural stone, unless in a mix with other compounds.) Shaklee's ScourOff is another excellent mild abrasive (this one a paste).

  For stone showers, your best bet is -- here I go again -- never to have them installed! Oh, they look beautiful, all right. For the first three months. In the guest shower. Since they cannot be sealed with any pleasing result, they are porous and just awaiting further deposits of stone on stone as minerals in the water hit the walls and floor. Rare indeed is the stone shower more than a year old that does not have some semblance of whitish mineral buildup on the lower half of the stall where the water tends to hit. You can fight it every day until you finally despair and have it torn out (violence is acceptable in this situation :)), or you can just avoid the problem altogether and go with ceramic tile or a solid enclosure.

  Colored shower grout

  Another problem we encounter in showers is fancy tile with colored grout. Avoid it! The grout will eventually absorb minerals (with their attendant discoloration) and become grungy from mold, requiring lightening agents, both of which have the result of changing the color of the grout on the lower half of the shower walls. Simple white grout may look boring by comparison to the options out there, but after three or four years of use, it wins hands down! If you must use colored grout, my advice is to go as light as you can. And then squeegee religiously! Prevention is about your only hope.

  Other shower comments

  At $5.00, a shower squeegie may be the best investment you ever make in your home. In just seconds a day after your shower, you can eliminate the bulk of the water residue that results in mineral buildup over the course of days and weeks. Once mineral scale etches the glass of the surround and door, there is no way to get it back except to replace the glass. If you really abhor the idea of squeegying after showers, those automated Scrubbing Bubbles dispensers really do work to keep down buildup between cleanings. Only NOT on natural stone! But you have to use them. :)

  Ovens

  I am not a big gadget person, but those $20 oven liners sold at Bed, Bath, and Beyond are worth their weight in gold for keeping the bottom of the oven like brand-new. Even the worst spills release with the lightest pass of a cloth, leaving you only the sides and back to clean -- and those are often not as bad, unless you are a true southern cook who revels in all that deep oven frying. :)

  So what do you do when the oven has gotten away from you and company is coming for dinner? Short of shooing them all into the dining room and coaxing the kids to block the entryway while you pull out the Thanksgiving turkey, here is how to get it clean: Remove all racks and side grates first, as the cleaning product is caustic and will permanently discolor them if left in. Spray with Fume Free Easy Off (the Walmart equivalent does NOT work), avoiding gaskets, vents, and the side of the glass that, when the door is closed, would cause dirty product to run down the inside where you will never be able to remove it. Close the door and let sit for at least an hour -- two if you can. With gloves on (your hands will thank you), wipe out the oven, rinsing frequently. Still see spots and drips and burnt-on crud? Take a glass scraper to them. You can do this to the glass as well, so long as you maintain a clean edge and work in one direction only. Shiny, huh? :) Still see gunk on curvy areas? Take a copper scrub pad to it, testing gently at first. I have only ever seen two ovens that scratched at this treatment, and one of them did so after years of not objecting! Do NOT use copper on the glass. Now, with your gloves still on, take that same copper scrubber to the oven racks. Yes, it is work! But think of the toned biceps that will complement your holiday attire! Allow a good hour of elbow grease per pair of oven racks if it has been a while. Then put them back in and pat yourself on the back. You now belong to the elite 5% of Americans who actually use their oven and can open it without fear. :)

  Entryways

  Door mats are indispensable to keeping outside dirt from entering the house. If you live in the country, even more so. Consider a longer, industrial-style mat outside the entry for superb dirt control, longer intervals between vacuumings, and protection of delicate hardwood or soft stone flooring.