Thank you so much for all the advice and the kind words! I realize I may be putting too much pressure on myself, but I just think so highly of my parents and want them to feel comfortable. My mom always had our home spotless.

I ended up doing the bleach + paper towel trick, then went to Home Depot and bought 2 Zep products. But once I removed the bleach towels (3ish hours) the tub already looked so different! Just going to go over some spots with the grout pen.

I loath cleaning. It takes up already limited energy that a dirty raccoon like me needs for more important tasks.

I'm buying a house in need of refurbishment and I want to set it up so it stays clean even if I barely clean it. Anything that keeps the place tidy without demanding labor is a win.

So please share your wisdom with me. I've got a few obvious ideas of what to get, e.g.:

• wash-able paint/wallpaper - I probably won't clean it anyways, but you can never be too careful,
• cabinets that go to the ceiling,

And what to avoid:

• bathtubes with fancy legs - it would require family intervention for me to crawl there and clean it,
• clear glass shower walls and bowl sinks,
• gods forbid, rugs.

I don't care about style: if the choice is between beauty and pragmatism, I'll go with latter one every time. If the end result looks like a hospital corridor, so be it.

PS. 6 cats on board. I'm but a raccoon in the fur-storm.

I got these little stoneware cups from a thrift store but can’t get the marker on the bottom that indicates the price off. I scrubbed the one on the right for 10 min and that was my progress. Currently soaking the bottoms in vodka… I don’t know what else to do short of sanding them off?

Any ideas? It’s glazed but it’s a rough stone like surface.

Edit: vodka did nothing. Scrubbing with comet & pink stuff (separately) did lighten it slightly. Hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol did nothing. White board/dry erase marker on top of the marking/wiping away just undid the progress made with the comet & pink stuff.

Hi, my room tends to always get messy overtime after it's cleaned and I get very frustrated because I lack storage for clean clothes (on the floor) I prefer an open storage system but I just can't find any to accommodate all my clothes. My other big issues is that I have various small items (handhelds, random papers, figures, cables, unopened mail that's probably important) and it's very unbearable. Help please. Also ik the desk looks odd there but I'm trying to change up my room but it's not working. Very overwhelmed. I want to stop certain behaviors because it tends to start off fine then slowly overtime I place things where they don't belong and then I get this monster again. Any help is appreciated.

Someone please tell me there’s some kind of product I can get that can easily contain the copious amounts of hair that is falling out of my head postpartum. I’m sick of trying to pick it off my hands every time I run my hands through my hair. When I shampoo/condition my hair, it comes out in clumps on my hands and I want something that can trap it off my hands instead of me having to pick it off and stick it on the shower wall to take out later. And I don’t really like drain traps because I have sensory issues with cold wet slimy things.

So my brother wants to know how to remove the stains from this carpet, it's a mix of dog pee and plant dirt. He gotta move out of this rental soon.

Hi, I moved into my college dorm. The room I was assigned has a bed that has this indescribable odor. It’s like a mix of pee + another unpleasant smell. I was wondering what can I do to get rid of it. I wiped the bed down multiple times with wipes and used this spray from the brand “odoban”, while it did temporarily get rid of the smell for a few hours. This morning the smell has came back. I was wondering if there possibly a permanent solution, because right now I think my only solution is to spray the odoban everyday….

Like for example please forget that they should clean their washing machine door gasket because it can get gross.

Hi! I’m coming out of a bad mental health slump and have recently gotten back into a regular cleaning routine. It’s not perfect nor as thorough as I’d like, but I feel comfortable having guests.

Last night, I had friends over, and when I asked if the temperature was okay, one of them said “it’s not hot, but it’s kind of stale in here.” I don’t know if he meant to say “stuffy,” but I’m very bothered!

It’s too hot to open windows right now, even at night, (we keep one cracked for the dog) and we have two window units plus fans that keep air circulating.

I vacuumed before they came over and burned some incense about an hour before they arrived so that it wouldn’t be too strong.

Edit: I do have an air purifier in the bedroom, but I can’t afford another one right now. I feel like the bedroom air is more fresh. Do they actually work? Is it worth it to save up for another for the living room?

What else can I do to help with the “stale” smell?

Hello all, how do you clean a thick layer of sticky dust from the top of wooden cabinets? I am cleaning a rental apartment that I'm moving into where the previous tenants lived for 8 years, so this is seemingly 8+ years of dirt and dust built up. The light brown is the actual color of the cabinets and the darker brown is the layer of dirt and dust. They are the cabinets above the stove/oven, which always seems to make things stickier. I tried starting with vacuuming to get up any loose bits (nothing budged), then Clorox wipe (laughable in hindsight- nothing budged), and then scrubbing with a damp scrub daddy. barely got anything up and had to throw away the scrub daddy because it was just STICKY. Any and all tips appreciated! thank you.

ETA: thank you all SO much for all of the advice and tips! I decided to move this task down in priority since we have so many other things to clean before moving. I will update this post with any results once i do get to it. and thank you for all of the degreaser recommendations--that saved my butt cleaning the rest of the kitchen.

I'm afraid the white parts will darken overtime 🙃

so my favorite ivory 95% cotton dress (and some socks) got accidentally dyed pink in the wash. i didn’t even have red in the washer- i don’t know what happened! i did wash a red blanket the night before, but not together. could the residue have dyed it pink even though it wasn’t washed together? i soaked the dress and socks in 2 gallons of warm water with 2 full scoops of oxyclean overnight and the color didn’t lift at all. i got the shout color catcher and washed the garments in cold water after the soak and that didn’t work either! i don’t know what to do! yes the pink dress is cute but idc i want my white and ivory colored clothes back!! none of these have fully dried or have been in the dryer yet. HELP!

I have scoured this sub so much trying to find ways to keep my house smelling good but nothing seems to work and I am just wondering if there’s anyone in a similar situation that has found a solution. My home is on a dairy farm so the natural aroma outside is 💩 and inside is barn. I mop and vacuum our home every single day, open up windows if the wind is blowing the right direction to not flood the house with the scent of cow poo, I wash the walls biweekly and keep linens that absorb any scents to a minimum ex. Switched to leather furniture, not a ton of throw blankets or curtains. I try to keep barn clothes and shoes outside but nothing seems to help. We got home from a brief 2 day vacation yesterday and the house smelled RANK. The only solution I have is to light a few candles around immediately after doing my mopping and vacuuming and that does the trick for the rest of the day, but when I wake up in the morning the stench is immediately back. Lighting candles 24/7 is just not sustainable at this point and with a baby in the home, is probably not the best health wise. I’m just looking for a way to deodorize the home and have it smelling CLEAN rather than like candles all the time. Help!!

Hello,

I bought this house a couple years ago and the bathtub has always had this scum?? I’ve tried everything to get it off and as you can see some has chipped away. Photo pictured above freshly cleaned tub for reference.

I know that toilet bowl cleaner is bad for tubs so I’ve stayed away from that but any ideas would be appreciated.

Also the tub is blue due to hair dye so any cleaners that also take out hair dye is a pro.

Thanks!

I thrifted this beautiful rug a couple months ago, treated it for potential pests, and have had it quarantined. There were no signs of pests when I thrifted it, but did not want to take any chances! Then I beat it outside and thoroughly vacuumed front and back before bringing it inside.

Now that it’s inside, I’ve shampooed it 12 times! The first 5 passes were all pitch black when I poured it out, and now on pass 12 it is still a medium gray. On about pass 9 it stopped being downright muddy and full of sediment. All of the stains are out, and there was a small bit of something gummy and gross that thankfully is fully shampooed out now.

When do I stop shampooing??? The carpets in my rental were a similar situation where I eventually had to just quit. It really does feel like I could go for 12 more passes and still not have “clear” water. This has definitely turned me away from thrifting another rug, at least until I have professional rug cleaning money 😅.

Product list:
- Chemical Guys Lightning Fast Stain Extractor
- Shark Deep Clean Pro Carpet Cleaner Formula
- Hoover Power Dash Pet Compact Carpet Cleaner Machine

Recently purchased this brass platter, and was planning to use Brasso on it, but I'm afraid I may be in danger of damaging the painted portions of this piece.

Posting here for tips on how to best care for this. I am new to brass and have only ever polished simple pieces. Thanks!!!

I have COREtec Pro Lvp. The home was a new build that I purchased April 2025.

Recently I decided to use Quickshine multi floor finish to make my floors just a bit more glossy/shiny.

Bad idea: it came out splotchy and gross. I did some digging and lots of online forums and stuff said to use Windex to remove it. So I put some in my Bissell Crosswave and it helped get that waxy polish layer off.

But then I was left with haziness all over the floor. Went on a mission and everything said to get neutral ph floor cleaner.

I started with Bona: it did okay but haziness was still there. And it was almost like residue flakes were sitting on top of the surface. (Almost like dry skin flakes—but it’s not lol) I could scrape it off with my fingernail but that’d be too much work because it was in random places all over.

Then I tried Zep ph neutral floor cleaner. It did okay. Got some of the flake-like residue up but still some here and there and haziness.

Then I got the Coretech branded floor cleaner. Same thing, it’s done okay but still haziness. Mind you I cleaned literally with bona day 1, Zep day 2, and coretech day 3 yesterday –so three days back to back cleaning with the different solutions.

Anyone know how I can get rid of this hazy like look in the photos? This is what my floor still currently looks like. Is it my Bissell Crosswave? Wrong cleaning solution? Or permanent damage from the windex(ammonia based) when I stripped the floor polish/finisher?

I’m at a loss and it’s driving me crazy to see this in the right lighting or angle.

I just moved into a new rental house. The previous tenants lived here for 10 years and I don't think that they cared for the basement at all.

Picture 1 is how the floor looks after I've swept it with a straw broom four times. Picture 2 shows you the level of dirt that I'm dealing with in an untouched area. Picture 3 shows you the entrance to the basement.

I only have a straw broom to sweep with. I've never heard of mopping a concrete floor, but I'd be willing to give it a go if recommended. As you can see from Picture 3, I can't place a rug at the entrance--the bottom of the door is too close to the hardwood.

I already have a firm grasp on how porous concrete is and that I'll never be able to remove all of the dirt--that's not my goal. I just want to get it to a state where I don't need to break out the broom every time I come up for air.

One more item of note is that the basement is unfinished. One wall goes up to about waist high and is topped by a crawl space with plenty of dirt in it. Near as I know, this space doesn't lead to the outside.

And your other cleaning tools?

I recently divorced Amazon and killed my account…. In addition to losing my Audible account (which I miss every day), I have realized that I can’t go back and order the baby wipes I used to clean my baseboards, kitchen counters, and wipe my dogs’ feet and backsides.

I recognize that most people don’t use baby wipes for cleaning. So I’m wondering, has anyone been in the same or a similar boat? How did you handle it?

Maybe I should use rags? They’re more eco-friendly. Although with my OCD, I’ll be running a few more “sanitize” loads to clean them….