Homekeeping hacks

[frugalmamatx]

Can anyone in here recommend a good way to get gunk off a gas stove?

 

 

I've let mine go for far too long, and now the cleaners I've tried won't touch it. 

[Critterfixer]

Oh, I had another tip. 

You know how stuff sticks to the pan when you cook something on high heat? I use a lot of cast iron, and sometimes I don't take care of it as well as I ought, and stuff sticks. I don't bother scrubbing it. I put water in it and reheat it on the burner. When the water begins to boil, I gently loosen stuff up with the spatula. Once everything is loose, pour off the water and give the skillet a quick and easy clean up. 

[Guest]

Can anyone in here recommend a good way to get gunk off a gas stove?

 

 

I've let mine go for far too long, and now the cleaners I've tried won't touch it. 

 

Have you tried Barkeeper's Friend?  It is by Comet/Ajax in the store.  But here is HOW you use it.  You make a paste of it and put it on the gunk and let it sit there until it dries.  Then you wet it again and let it sit there until it dries.  BarKeeper's Friend is an enzymatic cleanser and so it "eats" the grime.  

 

I think the same might be true of enzymatic dishwasher soaps like "Finish" (but not Cascade) so that would be worth a try, as well.

 

This works great on stainless and enamel pots and pans as well.

[Guest]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned cleaning the tub with Magic Eraser. It works wonderfully.

[Critterfixer]

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned cleaning the tub with Magic Eraser. It works wonderfully. 

 

 

I actually could probably get away with this now that we have city water. I literally tore up two Magic Erasers trying to deal with the chemical shell on my tub. I could not believe it, but the thing was literally tearing apart as I scrubbed. 

 

However, I would say that for pencil marks on the walls, Magic Eraser is your best friend.

[Miss Peregrine]

Have you tried Barkeeper's Friend? It is by Comet/Ajax in the store. But here is HOW you use it. You make a paste of it and put it on the gunk and let it sit there until it dries. Then you wet it again and let it sit there until it dries. BarKeeper's Friend is an enzymatic cleanser and so it "eats" the grime.

 

I think the same might be true of enzymatic dishwasher soaps like "Finish" (but not Cascade) so that would be worth a try, as well.

 

This works great on stainless and enamel pots and pans as well.

It is sold in a liquid paste form. It works well.

[scrapbookbuzz]

ammonia is a fantastic degreaser. Grease literally just wipes off the microwave above the stove.  Also put an open bowl of ammonia in your oven overnight. In the morning the baked on black that's on the door that the self-clean cycle doesn't remove will wipe off. (it does require a little scrubbing, but not much)

Oh,this makes me shudder! You realize when you do this, you breathe in those fumes, right? Ammonia is TOXIC. There are less toxic ways to get the same thing done. 

[Joyofsixreboot]

These may be repeats

1. Trash can in each room.

2. Each room has it's own cleaning supplies there. If I have to go get it I won't do it.

3. Kid labor!

[Audrey]

Can anyone in here recommend a good way to get gunk off a gas stove?

 

 

I've let mine go for far too long, and now the cleaners I've tried won't touch it.

Try a steamer? I love the Shark handheld one for kitchen grime. It works better than chemicals and you just steam the grimy loose, then wipe.

[Moonhawk]

I feel so famous you quoted me! :) I even showed my DH, and he laughed because I am the poster child for learning the hard way, lol.  He learned how to run a household by the time he was 13 -- cleaning, laundry, dinners every night, while "homeschooling" (his parents worked and he essentially did everything else, including help brothers with their homeschool; he does not recommend this method of learning-on-the-job, however, and is adamant our kids will know how to take care of a house but will not be responsible for OUR house, or other kids' messes/laundry/well-being). I was a single child whose parents' philosophy was "your job is to get good grades" and while I learned some household basics, what I did learn was inefficient to say the least.

 

Ok, onto what works in this house:

 

Dishes - everyone clears their spot and stacks dishes next to sink: plates on plates, bowls in bowls. Silverware/serving spoons go into a bin with water to soak.  I move the stacks to the dishwasher (hopefully this will change as kids get older, but at this point I still need to do the rinsing myself), silverware is left all day to soak until right before the dishwasher starts. 

 

Dishwasher - Does your dishwasher have a timer?! Mine does! I discovered this maybe 4 months ago and I LOVE this. Sometimes we like to stay up late, and this makes snacks!, but I don't like finding dishes in the sink in the morning. So all I do is get the dishwasher ready, and if there is room in the dishwasher for extra stuff, I simply set the timer to start in 4 hours, then we can add if we use something. If we don't, no harm no foul. If we do, yay!, less work the next morning. The danger is not closing it all the way after the new additions, so then nothing ends up getting washed. :( Only happened once though, and we learned our lesson. 

 

Laundry - basket method.  Each kid has a basket, and a hamper.  Clean clothes are in the basket.  As they are worn, into the hamper. Kids do their own laundry, and dump their entire hamper at once into the washer, wash and dry.  Then when done, all the clothes are just put back into the basket.  No folding necessary unless they want (8yo folds, 6yo sometimes, but then he messes it up when looking for a certain shirt, lol).  

 

Room Standards - on my walls there is a printout in each room of what is considered "clean." I can randomly ask a kid to get a room up to standard, they can go down the list quickly and get it there. (My lists are actually broken into Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Standards, but I mostly focus on Daily.)

[mathnerd]

Next time, when you boil something in a stainless pan and the bottom of the liquid burns and sticks to the pan and you know that the gunk sticking to the pan is of such thickness and strength that no amount of elbow grease will make the pan shine again, do this: Do not scrub or use any soap on it. Instead fill the pan with the hottest water from your sink, drop in a tablet of Finish Powerball dishwasher tablet, close the pan with a plate or lid and set it aside for 24 hours. In 24 hours, the enzymes in Finish will eat at the black gunk in the pan and it will slide off the bottom of the pan! I have not tried any other brand of dishwasher tablet, but Finish works for me every time I burn soup or milk in my saucepan :)

[fdrinca]

Two habits that make the tidy-up easier, especially if you have lots of littles and are easily distracted:

 

1. Take one thing with you: each time you leave a room, take something with you to put away. A mug from the office desk to the kitchen sink, scissors randomly in the bathroom back with the art supplies, and sloppily discarded socks into the hamper - all easily put away, rather than hanging around and mocking you by their out-of-place existence.

 

2. Finish the job: this means PUT THE LAUNDRY AWAY after you fold it; PUT THE BOOKS ON SHELF IN ORDER after you bring them to the school room; and all of those other jobs that you just can't quite finish. Laundry does me in.

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I actually could probably get away with this now that we have city water. I literally tore up two Magic Erasers trying to deal with the chemical shell on my tub. I could not believe it, but the thing was literally tearing apart as I scrubbed. 

 

However, I would say that for pencil marks on the walls, Magic Eraser is your best friend.

 

That's my thing with them.  Sure they work, but I think I'd need about three to get through one tub.  They just disintegrate as soon as I start using them.

 

My favorite tub/shower cleaner is Softscrub. 

[frugalmamatx]

Try a steamer? I love the Shark handheld one for kitchen grime. It works better than chemicals and you just steam the grimy loose, then wipe.

 

I actually tried a steamer on it a while back and while it took some off, it didn't work on the worst spots. 

 

I've also tried the whole dawn, baking soda and either ammonia / vinegar paste. That worked the best of anything but still didn't get it all. 

[rocassie]

Tip #1: I spray my shower first thing in the morning on my bathroom cleaning day with a vinegar/Dawn solution.  Then when I get in to take a shower that day (I generally exercise first thing in the morning), I sponge/scrub down the shower before showering myself.

 

Tip #2: While the kids were in the bath (this was when they were toddlers so I don't do it anymore), I would clean that bathroom.

 

Secret #1 :  Get my kids involved in the housecleaning.  It's more work up front, but more than pays for itself with time.  My oldest is 9 and my youngest is 5.  They clean the bathrooms, do their own laundry, pick up, sweep, help put away dishes, clean the cat's litter box, and a few other random things that come up.

 

Thanks for all the tips ladies!  There are areas of the housekeeping that I just loathe doing, get out of hand, or I'm just plain to lazy to do.  Some of your tips and tricks will come in handy.

 

 

[Katy]

I actually tried a steamer on it a while back and while it took some off, it didn't work on the worst spots. 

 

I've also tried the whole dawn, baking soda and either ammonia / vinegar paste. That worked the best of anything but still didn't get it all. 

 

There's a special sponge for glass top stoves, I think ScotchBrite makes it.  I got it at target.  It got some burnt-on stuff off a glass cooktop that had been burnt on for at least 3 years (before we bought the house).  It came off so easily with that stupid sponge I was cursing myself for never having tried it before.  I bet it would work on a regular stove too.

[frugalmamatx]

I've conquered the Stove!!!!

 

I couldn't stand it anymore, so I tried something new. Straight ammonia, let soak, then scrub with one of those green scratchy kitchen scrubbing pads. It took multiple attempts, but after about 3 hours it's CLEAN except for a few small areas that are burnt on terribly bad. 

[Vida Winter]

Ok, here's mine - you know how one of your kitchen gloves always develops a hole in it -- for me it's always the right-handed glove, so I am left with no right handed glove and a perfectly good left-handed glove. Save the extra lefties and turn them inside out. Now you have extra right-handed gloves.

[Katy]

Next time, when you boil something in a stainless pan and the bottom of the liquid burns and sticks to the pan and you know that the gunk sticking to the pan is of such thickness and strength that no amount of elbow grease will make the pan shine again, do this: Do not scrub or use any soap on it. Instead fill the pan with the hottest water from your sink, drop in a tablet of Finish Powerball dishwasher tablet, close the pan with a plate or lid and set it aside for 24 hours. In 24 hours, the enzymes in Finish will eat at the black gunk in the pan and it will slide off the bottom of the pan! I have not tried any other brand of dishwasher tablet, but Finish works for me every time I burn soup or milk in my saucepan :)

 

 

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :iagree:

I just came back to say I tried this last night.  My Instant Pot had burnt on gunk on the bottom (after attempting to make fiesta lime chicken in the pot, with cheese - big mistake!).  None of my usual tricks (hot vinegar or bar keepers friend) worked.  I scraped most of it off with a razor blade but couldn't get the burnt on stuff off the outside because of the curve in the pan.  I even tried bar keepers friend paste, scrubbed once an hour.  It got off some but not all of it after all day.  I asked DH to bring home finish dishwasher packs, dumped the pan, filled it with only about an inch of hot water, dropped the pack in, and put it on the back of the stove overnight.  8 hours later, all the burnt junk came out just by dumping the water.

[Stacia]

I love the smell of Lysol in the morning. It smells like... victory.

 

:smilielol5:  Audrey, aka, Robert Duvall. So do you wear the hat & neck scarf when cleaning? ;) :lol:

 

Washing windows is like crack for me. I look forward to it all week and feel like a million bucks afterwards (or whatever crack goes for these days). :lol:

 

You need to read Narconomics. (Fascinating book & funny in a few parts too because of the author's British sense of humor.)

 

Re: the cleaning front. I'm not sure I know anything special I can add. One thing that helped me tame laundry years ago is to make sure wherever you store your stuff that you wash is empty enough for stuff to fit. So, clean out the clothes closets, the linen closets, dresser drawers, etc... I've never minded doing laundry, but always hated putting stuff away. When I realized it was a pain to put stuff away because drawers, hanging racks, etc... were too full, I got rid of a bunch. Now it's easy to finish laundry all the way (meaning stuff is back where it belongs) because it is easy to fit it back into its place. (Same applies to using the dishwasher. Make sure your cabinets are empty/cleaned out enough that it easy to put the clean stuff back into the cabinet.)

 

My main mantra is that if it cannot be cleaned in the washing machine or dishwasher, I don't want to own it. :thumbup1:  (Also remember you can do a load of light fixture globes in your dishwasher.)

Edited February 1, 2017 by Stacia

[mathnerd]

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :iagree:

I just came back to say I tried this last night.  My Instant Pot had burnt on gunk on the bottom (after attempting to make fiesta lime chicken in the pot, with cheese - big mistake!).  None of my usual tricks (hot vinegar or bar keepers friend) worked.  I scraped most of it off with a razor blade but couldn't get the burnt on stuff off the outside because of the curve in the pan.  I even tried bar keepers friend paste, scrubbed once an hour.  It got off some but not all of it after all day.  I asked DH to bring home finish dishwasher packs, dumped the pan, filled it with only about an inch of hot water, dropped the pack in, and put it on the back of the stove overnight.  8 hours later, all the burnt junk came out just by dumping the water.

:hurray: Glad you saved your IP pot. I cannot tell you how many times I have burnt milk in my AllClad saucepans while making homemade yoghurt. Milk that is highly burnt (black coating) is the hardest thing to scrub off. I use the Finish Powerball dishwasher tablets overnight - sometimes most of the gunk comes out, but some stubborn stuff is left. I repeat the same thing for 24 hours more and every last burnt scrape of gunk slides off. I have saved a dozen expensive pans because of this method.

Edited February 1, 2017 by mathnerd

[mommyoffive]

Tip #1: I spray my shower first thing in the morning on my bathroom cleaning day with a vinegar/Dawn solution.  Then when I get in to take a shower that day (I generally exercise first thing in the morning), I sponge/scrub down the shower before showering myself.

 

Tip #2: While the kids were in the bath (this was when they were toddlers so I don't do it anymore), I would clean that bathroom.

 

Secret #1 :  Get my kids involved in the housecleaning.  It's more work up front, but more than pays for itself with time.  My oldest is 9 and my youngest is 5.  They clean the bathrooms, do their own laundry, pick up, sweep, help put away dishes, clean the cat's litter box, and a few other random things that come up.

 

Thanks for all the tips ladies!  There are areas of the housekeeping that I just loathe doing, get out of hand, or I'm just plain to lazy to do.  Some of your tips and tricks will come in handy.

 

what is the vinegar dawn solution?

[Katy]

what is the vinegar dawn solution?

 

It's a Pinterest hack where you mix hot vinegar 50/50 with original Dawn dish detergent.  Put it in a spray bottle, saturate your tub or shower, set a timer for 20 minutes, then walk away.  When you come back use a bath towel or three to wipe out the tub - NO WATER.  The grime comes off with the soap, and a thin film of soap remains on the walls & tub and prevents future build up from sticking.  If you have a lot of kids and let it go a month without scrubbing, you might have to do this twice to get all the soap scum off.  The best part is no scrubbing.

[mommyoffive]

It's a Pinterest hack where you mix hot vinegar 50/50 with original Dawn dish detergent.  Put it in a spray bottle, saturate your tub or shower, set a timer for 20 minutes, then walk away.  When you come back use a bath towel or three to wipe out the tub - NO WATER.  The grime comes off with the soap, and a thin film of soap remains on the walls & tub and prevents future build up from sticking.  If you have a lot of kids and let it go a month without scrubbing, you might have to do this twice to get all the soap scum off.  The best part is no scrubbing.

 

Oh thanks.  I am going to give it a try. 

[idnib]

Next time, when you boil something in a stainless pan and the bottom of the liquid burns and sticks to the pan and you know that the gunk sticking to the pan is of such thickness and strength that no amount of elbow grease will make the pan shine again, do this: Do not scrub or use any soap on it. Instead fill the pan with the hottest water from your sink, drop in a tablet of Finish Powerball dishwasher tablet, close the pan with a plate or lid and set it aside for 24 hours. In 24 hours, the enzymes in Finish will eat at the black gunk in the pan and it will slide off the bottom of the pan! I have not tried any other brand of dishwasher tablet, but Finish works for me every time I burn soup or milk in my saucepan :)

 

Dryer sheets work too. I'm not sure why, but they do.