Cleaning Hacks from Wirecutter Experts

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Wirecutter Show - "Cleaning Hacks from Wirecutter Experts"

Release Date: April 2, 2025
Hosts: Christine Cyr Clisette and Kyra Blackwell
Producer: Rosie Guerin

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Cleaning Hacks from Wirecutter Experts," co-hosts Christine Cyr Clisette and Kyra Blackwell delve into a comprehensive discussion on effective cleaning strategies and tips, drawing from the extensive expertise of Wirecutter's journalists. Despite producer Rosie Guerin's absence due to illness, the two hosts maintain an engaging and informative dialogue, ensuring listeners receive valuable insights on spring cleaning and beyond.

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The Essence of Spring Cleaning

Christine kicks off the conversation by redefining the concept of spring cleaning. She emphasizes that while spring may be the traditional time for a deep clean, maintaining a clean home is a year-round endeavor.

Christine Cyr Clisette [03:32]: "Spring cleaning can be marketed at this time of year, but you don't have to do it right now. You could choose to clean at a different time of year or do little things over the course of the year."

Kyra adds that seasonal transitions often prompt people to refresh their living spaces, such as switching out clothing and outdoor furniture, which naturally leads to cleaning tasks.

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Breaking Down the Cleaning Process

Christine advocates for a piecemeal approach to tackling cleaning projects, focusing on one area at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Christine Cyr Clisette [04:15]: "Personally, I kind of focus on one area of my home at a time... My best advice is to tackle it in pieces."

Kyra inquires about the logistics of this method, to which Christine responds by suggesting allocating specific weekends or setting aside dedicated time blocks to ensure consistent progress.

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Overcoming Procrastination

When addressing procrastination, Christine shares effective strategies to kickstart the cleaning process:

1. Scheduling: Committing to cleaning sessions by marking them on the calendar.
2. Support System: Involving household members to share the workload.
3. Time Management: Breaking tasks into smaller time frames, such as 15-minute intervals.

Christine Cyr Clisette [05:11]: "Putting it on your calendar, like committing to the time that you're gonna do it... setting aside the time, making sure everyone knows that this is the time we're doing it and going for it."

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Essential Cleaning Tools and Supplies

Christine outlines a condensed list of essential cleaning tools and supplies that facilitate effective cleaning without overcomplicating the process:

• Tools:
  • Good Vacuum: Essential for various cleaning tasks.
  • Microfiber Cloths: Ideal for dusting and polishing surfaces.
  • Old Toothbrushes: Perfect for detail work and scrubbing hard-to-reach areas.
  • Broom, Mop, and Bucket: Fundamental for floor cleaning.
  • Safety Gear: Masks (e.g., KN95) and safety glasses to protect against dust and debris.

Christine Cyr Clisette [08:05]: "One thing to know about cleaning your walls is that you want to take a very, very gentle approach... avoid anything abrasive like magic erasers unless you've tested them first."

• Supplies:
  • All-Purpose Cleaner: For general cleaning needs.
  • Bleach-Based Cleaner: For disinfecting and killing pathogens.
  • Vinegar and Dish Soap: Versatile for multiple cleaning applications.
  • Mild Abrasives: Such as baking soda and Bar Keeper's Friend for tougher stains.

Christine Cyr Clisette [08:26]: "You can make your own window cleaner with vinegar and water or you can just get Windex."

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Expert Tips on Specific Appliances

1. Cleaning Coffee Makers

Doug Mahoney, an editorial director at Wirecutter, emphasizes the importance of regular maintenance to ensure optimal coffee flavor and machine longevity.

Doug Mahoney [13:09]: "Coffee is a very oily substance. It's gonna leave this kind of oily residue... which will give your coffee this kind of like musty old coffee flavor that you don't want."

Cleaning Steps:

• Daily: Rinse the filter basket and coffee pot after each use.
• Weekly: Wash removable parts with dish soap or place them in the dishwasher.
• Monthly: Descale the machine using a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water, running two cycles. Follow with several cycles of plain hot water to eliminate vinegar residue.

Doug Mahoney [14:24]: "Your kitchen will smell like vinegar, but it'll get rid of that scale. Best to do that cycle like twice."

2. Maintaining Ovens and Microwaves

Rachel Wharton, a senior writer at Wirecutter, shares strategies to keep these kitchen appliances clean and functional.

Rachel Wharton [17:05]: "You should clean your microwave because it's really disgusting if you don't. Nobody wants to see that."

Microwave Cleaning Tips:

• After Each Use: Wipe out the interior while it's still steamy to prevent splatter buildup.
• Preventative Measures: Place a bowl of water inside and heat it for a few minutes to loosen grime before wiping.

Oven Cleaning Tips:

• Routine Wiping: After each use, when the oven is warm, wipe the interior with a damp sponge.
• Deep Cleaning: Once a month, spray a 50/50 solution of water and dish soap inside, let it sit for 40 minutes, then heat the oven on low to help loosen grime. Wipe clean and use a mild abrasive like Bar Keeper's Friend on stubborn stains.

Rachel Wharton [21:29]: "Fill up a little spray bottle with a solution of half water, half dish soap, and then lightly mist the entire inside of your oven."

Christine adds that dish soap is a surprisingly effective and non-toxic cleaner for various applications, including ovens.

Christine Cyr Clisette [23:42]: "Dish soap is not toxic, you've got it on hand, it's easy peasy."

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Addressing Overlooked Cleaning Areas

1. Walls

Doug Mahoney advises a gentle approach to prevent damaging paint surfaces.

Doug Mahoney [17:05]: "You want to take a very, very gentle approach. The main concern is that you could damage the paint that's on the walls."

Cleaning Steps:

• Basic Cleaning: Use water and a sponge for light dirt.
• Stubborn Stains: Add a bit of dish soap, but avoid abrasive tools unless tested in inconspicuous areas.
• Baseboards: Regularly dust with a damp microfiber cloth to maintain cleanliness.

2. Humidifiers

Tom Dunn, a staff writer on home improvements, highlights the health risks of neglecting humidifier maintenance.

Tom Dunn [26:10]: "Cleaning your humidifier is a crucial part of simply owning a humidifier... you can develop something that is called humidifier lung."

Cleaning Steps:

• Weekly: Empty the water, scrub the interior with a sponge, and allow it to air dry.
• Monthly Deep Clean: Use a hydrogen peroxide or bleach solution to kill lingering microbes, followed by thorough rinsing to remove any chemical residue.

Tom Dunn [28:21]: "Fill the humidifier up with your solution of hydrogen peroxide and water and let it sit so it kills all the stuff in there."

3. Outdoor Furniture

Harry Sawyers, a senior editor, shares best practices for maintaining patio furniture, particularly made from durable materials like Sunbrella.

Harry Sawyers [29:53]: "Sunbrella... I've come to believe they are nearly indestructible."

Cleaning Steps:

• Initial Cleanup: Use a leaf blower to remove loose debris.
• Surface Cleaning: Apply a dish soap and water mixture or an Oxiclean slurry for tougher stains.
• Detail Work: Utilize old toothbrushes for crevices and hard-to-reach areas.
• Protective Measures: Avoid using a hose directly; instead, spot clean to preserve material integrity.

Harry Sawyers [30:21]: "If you need to step it up a little, I'll make what I call an Oxiclean slurry... that has a kind of oxidizing bleach action too."

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Additional Cleaning Insights

Christine and Kyra extend their discussion to other often-overlooked cleaning tasks, such as:

• Gutters: Especially after winter rains, to prevent flooding.
• Shower Curtains: Instead of replacing them, wash plastic liners and fabric curtains in the washing machine to remove mildew and stains.

Christine Cyr Clisette [34:31]: "You can actually wash these things in a washing machine... they'll look pretty much new oftentimes after you've washed them."

• Medicine Cabinets: Regularly check expiration dates on medications and cosmetics to discard outdated products.

Christine Cyr Clisette [34:39]: "Check expiration dates on medicine. Check that your makeup isn't super old. Get rid of the things that are old."

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a reinforcement of the "less is more" philosophy in cleaning. Christine and Kyra stress the importance of maintaining essential cleaning supplies, adopting manageable cleaning routines, and addressing often-overlooked areas to ensure a thoroughly clean and healthy living environment.

Christine Cyr Clisette [24:25]: "Less is more. Dish soap is a wonderful multi-purpose cleaning tool. It's cheap and you always have it on hand."

Listeners are encouraged to explore more detailed guides and subscribe to Wirecutter's "Clean Everything" newsletter for ongoing tips and product recommendations.

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Notable Quotes

• Christine Cyr Clisette [03:32]: "Spring cleaning can be marketed at this time of year, but you don't have to do it right now."
• Doug Mahoney [13:09]: "Coffee is a very oily substance. It's gonna leave this kind of oily residue... which will give your coffee this kind of like musty old coffee flavor that you don't want."
• Rachel Wharton [17:05]: "You should clean your microwave because it's really disgusting if you don't."
• Tom Dunn [26:10]: "Cleaning your humidifier is a crucial part of simply owning a humidifier... you can develop something that is called humidifier lung."
• Christine Cyr Clisette [24:25]: "Less is more. Dish soap is a wonderful multi-purpose cleaning tool. It's cheap and you always have it on hand."

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Final Thoughts

"Cleaning Hacks from Wirecutter Experts" serves as an invaluable resource for listeners seeking practical, expert-backed advice to enhance their home maintenance routines. By breaking down tasks, prioritizing essential tools, and addressing commonly neglected areas, Christine and Kyra provide a roadmap to achieving a cleaner, healthier living space with ease and efficiency.

Transcript

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

This podcast is supported by Sierra.

[Kyra Blackwell]

We've all been there. Your flight was canceled and everyone is trying to rebook at the same time.

[Rosie Garant]

Please hold. Estimated wait time is 25 minutes.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Sierra is different. We build AI agents that talk directly to your customers so you can say goodbye to hold times and chatbots. Always friendly, always helpful, always ready. Visit Sierra AI to learn more. That's Sierra AI.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

It'S kind of like brightening your teeth. You don't want to, like, brighten them. Halfway. Just go halfway.

[Rosie Garant]

Are you sure?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Just don't never go halfway. Yeah. I'm Christine Cyr Clisette.

[Rosie Garant]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I'm Rosie Garant and you're listening to the Wirecutter Show.

[Rosie Garant]

This episode is called Cleaning Hacks from Wirecutter Experts. Hi, Christine.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Hey, Kyra.

[Rosie Garant]

Oh, my God, it's just the two of us today.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

It's the two of us. I feel very strange, like we're missing a limb or something.

[Rosie Garant]

I know.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Rosie is out sick today, poor thing.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah, I know. This is it. It's our last episode on spring cleaning. We made it to the end.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

We have five weeks of cleaning. It's been a cleaning bonanza here at the pod.

[Rosie Garant]

We really wanted to round it out with our best advice for the season. So here at Wirecutter, we do do a ton of cleaning coverage, like almost everything we recommend. We also tell you how to clean it.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Really, when we recommend a product, we want you to understand kind of how to clean and maintain it because it will make it last longer. And that's always been a part of our coverage. We even have a newsletter about cleaning. It's called Clean Everything. And if you don't already subscribe to it, you can just go to our show Notes. We'll have a link there.

[Rosie Garant]

It's so good.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

It's super good. And it's wildly, wildly popular with our readers.

[Rosie Garant]

And, Christine, you happen to be working on a very super secret special project that's all about cleaning.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

And it's true, it's true. It's top secret. But because of this, I have been reading a ton of our cleaning coverage and been editing a lot of it. And man, we have so much coverage on the site. Everything from, you know, like how to clean your hairbrush to how to clean your shoes to how to clean your car. There's just a ton of stuff that our writers have given their expert advice on.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah, and now that you've gone through everything, you are now an expert, which is why you're gonna be one of our guests.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

On this episode, I'm gonna be on the hot seat. It's my turn.

[Rosie Garant]

It is. And you have some real firsthand experience, right, with cleaning?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I actually do. Before becoming a journalist, I was a housekeeper for a hot minute, and it was such a hard job. I really respect anyone who does that kind of work, but it taught me a ton about cleaning. I can't unsee dirt now when I go into somebody's house, when I see kind of like dusty baseboards or a dirty bathroom, it's kind of rude, but I am kind of judgy. Wow.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay. You're never invited to my house. Today we're going to start with some questions for you. We're going to talk to you about the best advice to tackle spring cleaning. And then later, we're going to hear some tips from other wirecutter staffers about cleaning things that we often overlook.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I love it.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah. So let's get into it. Let's talk about spring cleaning. What do you think people need to know about tackling the project of cleaning their homes?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

You know, I think spring cleaning can be. You're kind of everybody's marketed spring cleaning at this time of year. You don't have to spring clean. You don't have to do this right now. You could choose to clean at a different time of year. You could choose to do little things over the course of the year. I think the advice we're going to talk about in this episode is really applicable to any time of year.

[Rosie Garant]

Totally.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

But I do think that there's a reason why people focus on this in the spring. You know, you've been stuck inside all winter and your home is maybe a little bit dingy, a little bit dirty. It could use a refresh. It's also kind of when you're maybe turning over seasonal things in your home, you're turning over your clothing, you're bringing out your patio furniture, you're going to think about grilling all these things that you're going to be using again that maybe need a clean. And then there's things that you may need to retire for the season.

[Rosie Garant]

Right.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

So, you know, I think there's a lot of methodologies around how people approach this type of thing when they're thinking about, like, big holistic cleaning of their home. And personally, I kind of focus on one area of my home at a time. If I'm really thinking about tackling, you know, cleaning my apartment, I'll, you know, I'll focus on my laundry room, I'll focus on my kids rooms. I'll focus on my room and not try to take it all on in in one go. My best advice is to tackle it in pieces.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

And do you spread it out over a day, over a few weeks? Like, what's your method for that?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Personally, I will take a few weekends. My apartment is not huge, so I can actually clean it pretty well in a couple of weekends.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Just figuring out how to break it up for yourself so it makes sense. With the time that you have and maybe the attention you have, I can.

[Rosie Garant]

Kind of see, you know, when people are dragging their feet. What is your advice for just getting started? Like, sometimes the hardest part really is just doing it.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Well, this is true. True. I think that one strategy is, I think, putting it on your calendar, like, committing to the time that you're gonna do it. Right. I think also having a supportive group of people around you is helpful. So, you know, I'll let my husband know. Hey, we gotta. We gotta focus on doing this project in our home this weekend. And he's super supportive and on board, and we'll do it. So I think that if you've got the people in your life, whether you have roommates, whether you have a partner, if they can kind of lend a hand at the same time, like, I get my kids involved, they do not like it, but they do it. And so I think just setting aside the time, making sure everyone knows that this is the time we're doing it and going for it, you know, that works for. For me personally.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

That's not going to work for everyone, obviously.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah. I can't tell my cat to, like, get it together this weekend, but, you.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Know, yeah, if you're. If you're on your own, you know, maybe that's a little bit simpler. You just are accountable to yourself. I also know people who found it very helpful to even break down cleaning projects into shorter periods of time. Right. So clean for 15 minutes or something like that. You, like, set a timer and you go cle as much as you can in 15 minutes. That might be a solution that works for some people.

[Rosie Garant]

Amazing. And what do you think are some things that you really want to make sure you have on hand when you are tackling spring cleaning?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

The supplies and tools that you have in your home do matter. I think. At Wirecutter, we obviously think that having good stuff makes things easier, but I don't think you have to overcomplicate cleaning. You don't need to have every tool and gadget under the sun to do a good job. I will say that there's really just a condensed list of things that we recommend that you have. And so good vacuum is paramount. That is something that is going to help you clean all sorts of things. Microfiber cloths are really, really helpful. They are great for dusting. They, they grab onto dust. They are great for doing even simple things like shining up stainless steel surfaces where if you were using just like a cotton rag, it might not buff or shine things up the way a microfiber cloth would. Having some old toothbrushes on hand is really helpful for doing little like, you know, detail work and scrubbing things. You'll also want a broom, a mop, a bucket. A lot of people already have those. And then also something that I really don't think a lot of people realize is that it's really great to have a few safety items on hand when you're cleaning, having a mask, a KN95 or something like that, especially when you're dusting. If you're working in a really dusty environment where there's a lot of particulate matter, you should be wearing a mask. I see. The same is true of safety glasses. If you're cleaning something above your head, things can fall into your eyes. One of our editors actually told me a story about his mother was cleaning an overhead fan and it was the type that had a lamp attached to it and she accidentally broke the glass and that could fall into your eye. Right? So like just wearing $3, you know, safety glasses from Amazon or something. That is a really smart thing to do when you're, when you're doing certain types of tasks.

[Rosie Garant]

So you really want to get suited up to do the job.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I mean, you don't have to be totally suited up. But I do think that for certain tasks it can be really helpful.

[Rosie Garant]

What about the cleaners themselves? Like, I know I always just have a random mosh posh just hiding under my bathroom sink. And it's always a surprise what I reach in and get. You know, like, maybe it's bleach, maybe it's Lysol. Is one better than the other?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Well, there are certain cleaners that are certainly better for certain tasks. So I would say that what you're going to want to have is some kind of all purpose cleaner that does have bleach in it. You can actually make a bleach solution that will disinfect, but you know, for ease of use, you might just want to get something like a Lysol that has some bleach in it that will help you disinfect certain surfaces. And kill pathogens. You don't need that kind of a heavy hitter cleaner for everything if you're just doing some maintenance where you don't need disinfecting. You can also have an all purpose cleaner without bleach, which is very helpful. So think like you know, the Mrs. Meyers type sprays or something like that. I see. It's also helpful to have some kind of mild abrasive. So I would say baking soda is really helpful. Bar keeper's friend is really helpful. These are really great for buffing up, shining up the surfaces of like a stainless steel sink or really getting the gunk off of maybe soap scum or something like that. So those are really great to have in your toolkit. We often recommend using dish soap for a lot of things. Like we recommend washing your floors with a very mild dish soap solution. You don't really need to go get a store bought solution. You can really just use a few drops of dish soap in water. Oh, and we also recommend, I think later today we're going to, in this episode we're going to talk about cleaning your oven. We recommend using dish soap for that.

[Rosie Garant]

That's what's wild.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

There's a million things you can do with dish soap. It's not toxic, it's, you've got it on hand, it's easy peasy. Some kind of window cleaner is a good one. You can make your own window cleaner with vinegar and water or you can just get Windex and also just keeping vinegar on hand. It's also very helpful for cleaning things like limescale or deodorizing things. So that's, that's a nice one to have. And then you might want to have something like rubbing alcohol in your toolkit that is helpful for cleaning electronics. And if you have pets, like an enzymatic cleaner for your upholstery, that's really helpful.

[Rosie Garant]

That is good. I need that note. Okay, so for tools you're gonna want a vacuum, microfiber, cloths, mop, broom and a bucket. Maybe some old toothbrushes hanging around and a mask and goggles. And then for supplies, we're looking at basic all purpose cleaner. A product with bleach for disinfecting and then some vinegar and some dish soap and an abrasive like barkeeper's friend. Pretty straightforward.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I would just say just don't overcomplicate it. Yeah, don't need to get all the things that you're marketed. Most things can just be cleaned with this simple list of items.

[Rosie Garant]

I love that so we're going to take a quick break and then when we're back, we'll get into some of our staff experts. Best cleaning advice. We're going to focus on a couple of cleaning tips for things in your home that are kind of hidden in plain sight. You might not think about cleaning them, but that probably means that they need it. Be right back.

[Marguerite Preston]

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[Jonathan Swan]

I'm Jonathan Swan. I'm a White House reporter for the New York Times. I have a pretty unsentimental view of what we do. Our job as reporters is to dig out information that powerful people don't want published to take you into rooms that you would not otherwise have access to to understand how some of the big decisions shaping our country are being made. And then painstakingly to go back and check with sources, check with public documents, make sure the information is correct. This is not something you can outsource to AI. There's no robot that can go and talk to someone who was in the Situation room and find out what was really said in order to get actually original information that's not public, that requires human sources. We actually need journalists to do that. So as you may have gathered from this long riff, I'm asking you to consider subscribing to the New York Times. Independent journalism is important, and without you, we simply can't do it.

[Rosie Garant]

Welcome back. Now it's time to consult some of the great minds here at Wirecutter about how to clean and why we should clean some often overlooked items in our homes. So we've asked a few of our colleagues to give us their best tips on things that they think we are not cleaning enough. First up, a kitchen item. Let's hear it.

[Doug Mahoney]

I am Marguerite Preston. I'm an editorial director at Wirecutter. My spring cleaning hack for the year is that you really should be cleaning your coffee maker regularly. There's a couple reasons and there's a couple things that will build up in your coffee maker. First is just straight up flavor. Coffee is a very oily substance. It's gonna leave this kind of oily residue on like the filter basket, on all the little parts that are touching the beans that you're brewing. And if you leave that on there, it's gonna just give your coffee this kind of like musty old coffee flavor that you don't want. Over time, minerals from the water that you're using will build up in the machine. So you also need to descale it regularly to get rid of those mineral deposits. And it's important to get rid of those mineral deposits because they're, they're gonna slow down your machine. It's gonna be harder for water to get through all those little tubes and pipes that can long term cause your machine to just break. If you notice that your coffee machine is taking a long time to brew. If the temperature is like too low, it probably is time to descale the coffee machine. So to clean your coffee maker, you know, it's a good idea every time you use your coffee machine to at least like kind of rinse out the filter basket, rinse out the coffee pot after you use it. I'm not going to tell you to like scrub all those pieces every day because nobody's going to do that. But once a week or so you probably should pull them out and either wash them by hand with just, just dish soap and water or a lot of those pieces are also dishwasher safe. To descale your coffee machine, which how often you want to descale your coffee machine really depends on how hard your water is. Once every three to six months, depending on how hard your water is, descale the machine to descale it, fill the water reservoir all the way with 50% white vinegar, 50% water, and just run a cycle. Your kitchen will smell like vinegar, but it'll get rid of that scale. Best to do that cycle like twice. And then after that cycle, run just a plain hot water cycle several times just to get rid of that vinegar smell. You can also use. There are commercial descalers that you can buy like in powdered form. The advantages of buying that and using that are a, it doesn't stink, it's a little more effective. So you don't need to run it more than once. You can just do it once and be done. And you don't need to do a bunch of rinse cycles. But if you don't want to buy that, you can use vinegar.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay. I have to know, are you taking care of your baby? The mocha?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah, my mocha master. I was about to say I think I need to descale my mocha master. That's a. That's a lot of. Of work that you need to do for your coffee maker. But I feel that it is worth it. If you love your coffee maker like I love my coffee maker, it's worth it.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

One other thing I think that people might want to do when they're thinking about cleaning out their coffee maker is to take a look on the inside of their coffee mugs or their tea mugs and see if there are any stains inside. It's actually really easy to clean those. In fact, Michael Sullivan, who is one of our kitchen experts who was on the show a couple months back, he shared a really great tip with me, which is basically, all you have to do is fill your mug with one part bleach and three parts water and let it sit overnight. You can do this in a teapot, you can do this in a mu. And then rinse it out in the morning, and those stains should be gone. You just wanna make sure to fill whatever the receptacle is up to the top. Because if you don't. If the. If you've only let the water line be lower, it'll be discolored. Yeah, it'll be discolored above that. So it's kind of like brightening your teeth. You don't wanna, like, brighten them halfway. Halfway? Yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

Are you sure?

[Doug Mahoney]

I think that's a start.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Never go halfway. Yeah, so that. That's. That. I think that's a really great tip to do along with this descaling.

[Rosie Garant]

That honestly sounds awesome. And way easier than descaling, so. All right, well, next we've got some advice on cleaning your walls. And this is some advice that everybody could use, right? Yeah.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

This is a common issue people have.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah. So let's hear it.

[Rachel Wharton]

My name is Doug Mahoney. I'm a senior writer at Wirecutter Cleaning. A painted wall is not very complicated. For the most part, you can keep them clean just by dusting them. But if it starts to get a little messier than that, if you start to notice fingerprints, if you start to notice smudges, if somebody dropped a plate of food nearby and there's something splattered on it, then you should just stick to the basics, which is just water and a sponge. If it's a stain that's really stuck on there, you can add a little bit of dish soap. The one thing to know about cleaning your walls is that you want to take a very, very gentle approach. The main concern here is that you could damage the paint that's on the walls. You could change the sheen on the part of the wall that you're working on. So if you're sort of rubbing with something, like, even the rough side of a K sponge could be enough to just change the paint sheen in that one area. And if you do end up using anything abrasive, like a magic eraser or something like that, which we don't generally recommend, but if there's a very difficult stain, we would definitely recommend testing, like, a magic eraser in an area, maybe down by the baseboard in a corner, so you can see if it will actually change the sheen of your paint.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I have to tell you, Kyra, that this magic eraser. Not using the magic eraser on the wall, is a big takeaway for me from Doug. He and I talked about this at length because I had always been using magic erasers on my walls.

[Rosie Garant]

Same.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

And it was kind of news to me, like, don't do that. And I then went back and looked at my walls where I had used the magic eraser, and I could see where I had used the magic eraser.

[Rachel Wharton]

No way.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Really? Yes.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I still use one every once in a while if it's, like, a really bad stain. And I. With kids, I have, like, a line. It's almost like a flood happened. Like, there's a line on my wall where the children have, like, dragged their hands. Just dragged their hands. It's just like an oily wall everywhere in my apartment. So. Yeah. And my husband and I tend to try to kind of repaint some of that stuff every year. Because sometimes the cleaning. You can only clean so much. Sometimes you do end up having to kind of repaint a wall if it looks really dingy.

[Rosie Garant]

You're a great tenant.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Oh, I am, like, really great.

[Rosie Garant]

I'm like, this isn't my house.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

It's more like I. Bright walls. It's kind of one of those things, like an oversized delivery. When you have clean walls, dingy walls can really make your place look dingy pretty quickly. I also think that a great little cleaning thing to do when you're looking at your walls and thinking about cleaning your walls is to look down, look at your baseboards. Do they need to be dusted? Take a little microfiber cloth, a little dampened microfiber cloth, and just pick up that dust.

[Rosie Garant]

That's a good note. Well, now it's time for some tips on cleaning. One of the things that, if I'm being honest, I absolutely.

[Tom Dunn]

My name is Rachel Wharton. And I cover large kitchen appliances for wirecutter, which is your stoves, your fridges, your microwaves, your range hoods. And I'm going to tell you today about why you should clean your microwave and your oven. You should clean your microwave because it's really disgusting if you don't. It is right at eye level. You open it up, there's splatter in there. Nobody wants to see that. You put your foot in there. That's gross. The easiest way to clean your microwave is to clean it after every single time you use it. It's all humid and steamy in there. You can just wipe it out. That is the easiest way. Second easiest way is to try to avoid splatter in the first place, because splatter is the gross stuff. If it gets splattery, which it will, we know it will, then the best thing to do is put, like, a bowl of water inside your microwave, put it on High for 5, 10 minutes so that the microwave gets all steamy, and then you wipe it out. You should clean your oven because if you don't, it can catch on fire. All the grease in there, it can smoke. Smoking is what happens more often than it catching on fire. And smoke is not any fun either. The smoke gets in your food, then you really have to clean it. Usually the smoke is a sign that you are way too late to clean your oven. Just like a microwave, you should really be doing it every time you use your oven. None of us ever do this. I did not do this until I tagged along with some house cleaners throughout Brooklyn and watched them clean ovens. And they told me that you really should be cleaning, like, wiping your oven down after you use it every time, just like your stovetop. And that had never occurred to me. And it's because, like, the stains and the spills and everything's still warm. All you have to do is wipe it out, and it prevents all those gross, sticky stains that start to build up in your oven. So now I actually wipe my oven out with just.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I use.

[Tom Dunn]

Just use a damp sponge when it cools down to just warm. I just wipe it out every time I use it, which makes me seem probably fastidious and crazy. But it's really nice. It works. To clean your oven, the first thing you want to do is fill up a little spray bottle with a solution of half water, half dish soap, and then lightly mist the entire inside of your oven. And then you let it sit for 40 minutes. So it kind of rehydrates all the crusty food in There, all the stains in there. And then you turn the oven on really low, 200, 250 degrees for about an hour or two so that it's all like rehydrated and warm. And then you go in there, hopefully with a microfiber cloth, and wipe it all down. And then the window, which will probably have some of those brown stains that make you wish you could get a new oven, then you take barkeeper's friend, sprinkle it across the surface, and use a scrubby pad on the glass part of the window to get rid of that.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Kyra, I know your face right now. You're like, I don't want to have to wipe out my oven every time. Are you serious?

[Rosie Garant]

God, I.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Okay, so I remember editing this piece on how to clean your oven and I was very dubious. I was like, really? You're just using dish soap and water? Because when I was a housekeeper, I would use oven cleaner and I personally hate the smell of oven cleaner, so it's gross, it's strong. It, it leaves this really chemically smell in the kitchen. So I did. This was one of the guides where I tried it at home and I, I used Rachel's advice and I was shocked. It worked. It was great. And it takes a little bit longer to your oven this way than if you were to use one of these like high powered chemical cleaners. But the plus side is that it didn't leave a weird odor in my kitchen. It actually really did clean my oven and I found it a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. The other thing is, is this same technique works well for a toaster oven. So if you've got a, you know, a countertop toaster oven, you can use basically the same method. You just want to be careful not to spray the heating elements or the metal guards that encase them. And if you have a convection toaster oven, you don't want to spray it on the fan because you don't want water getting in there. And you definitely don't want water to pool on the bottom of the toaster oven and also for the regular oven. So you're not going crazy here with the spray. You're just spraying enough to coat the walls and the surfaces.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay. Okay. So what I'm getting from this episode so far is that less is more. Dish soap is a wonderful.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

A winner. Yes.

[Rosie Garant]

Multi purpose cleaning tool. And I love that because it's cheap and you always have it on hand.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Y and I would also just add like a non scented dish soap. Is great to have on hand especially for that oven hack. You don't want to turn your oven on and then start smelling perfume. So unscented non scented is the way to go.

[Rosie Garant]

Then you can use it on your floor, your oven, you know, dishes.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

And if you, if you're the type of person who likes to have some kind of odor while you're. You're cleaning, maybe you like the smell of, of mint or lemongrass or something like that. You could always have an essential oil on hand to add to your cleaner for your floor or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

I really like. I also got that people need to be cleaning their coffee pots. For me, it's probably my electric kettle, actually. I don't think I've cleaned that in a minute. But same idea. You know, you just want to take a cleaner like vinegar and water and just run it with that and then rinse it out. I'm also hearing that to touch up your walls, you need to be really gentle with it.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah. Again, less is more there.

[Rosie Garant]

Less is more. And you know, tackle the problem if you see it right away.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

That's right. It's always going to make it easier. Easier.

[Tom Dunn]

Okay.

[Rosie Garant]

So coming up, did you know that a dirty humidifier can actually make you sick? We'll hear more about that and how often you need to clean yours. It might be more than you think. Be right back.

[Harry Sawyers]

The New York Times app has all this stuff that you may not have seen.

[Rosie Garant]

The way the tabs are at the.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Top with all of the different sections, I can immediately navigate to something that.

[J]

Matches what I'm feeling, play wordle or.

[Rosie Garant]

Connections and then swipe over to read today's headlines.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

There's an article next to a recipe next to games and it's just easy to get everything in one place.

[J]

This app is essential.

[Rosie Garant]

The New York Times app. All of the times all in one place.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Download it [e-mail] app.

[Rosie Garant]

We'Re back. And now we're talking about all those overlooked tasks on our spring cleaning lists. Let's get back into some tips from Wirecutter staffers. Next up, we've got the lowdown on how often you should actually be cleaning an appliance that I did not know was so full of gunk humidifiers.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Oof. Yes, this is a tricky one.

[Harry Sawyers]

My name is Tom Dunn and I'm a staff writer on the home improvements team here at Wirecutter. I do most the H Vac stuff on heating, cooling, humidity. Humidity. Cleaning your humidifier is a crucial part of simply owning A humidifier, because what humidifiers do is they pump moisture out into the air. And water is a wonderful thing. But also, water helps things to grow, including gross little microbes and other nasty things. So you need to make sure you're cleaning your humidifier on a very regular cadence. Otherwise, all those teeny, microscopic things that love the water just as much as we do, do they start to fester and grow, and then you start to breathe them in, you can develop something that is called humidifier lung. This is an actual sickness. It has a much more complicated scientific name, but essentially, it's all that bacteria gets into your lungs and it gives you pneumonia. So once or twice a week, you will want to take out your humidifier, empty out all the water, maybe take a sponge, clean the inside of the tank, tank, look around the corners, rinse the whole thing off, and let it air dry. We try to recommend models that are simple to clean, that don't have too many weird crevices and corners, that are hard to navigate around, but they all have some nooks and crannies. So even if you are keeping up twice a week over time, there's still stuff you're not going to hit, and that stuff can still fester and grow. Usually we say do this about once a month for a deeper clean clean, but when it gets dank, it's time for a deeper clean. To do that, you can make a solution with your water, with hydrogen peroxide or bleach, fill the humidifier up with your solution of hydrogen peroxide and water and let it sit so it kills all the stuff in there. Then empty it out, rinse it out with water, rinse it out again, make sure there's nothing, none of those chemicals are left inside, and then once again, let it air dry. You want to make sure that all that hydrogen peroxide or bleach or whatever you want to use to kill off the germs, you want to make sure it's all gone before you use the humidifier again.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Humidifier lung. Oh, my gosh.

[Rosie Garant]

This just makes me not want to ever get a humidifier.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I think of all small appliances, humidifiers are ready for disruption. Come on. Can we please get some companies to make humidifiers that don't have these problems? I mean, it's. It's, like, so annoying.

[Rosie Garant]

That's, like, wild.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah, I mean, I have three humidifiers. I do try to clean them twice a week. Well, no, I gotta say no. I mean, we've reached sort of the end of humidifier season for my home at least. But I do think this tip that he has about cleaning it out really well, whether it's with bleach or hydrogen peroxide, is a really good one for the end of season, like making sure your humidifier is clean before you're putting it away for the season. So Tom is also a wealth of advice on cleaning other appliances in the home. He's our writer for air conditioners and for fans. And a tip that I love that he introduced me to is for how to clean an overhead fan. So you take an old pillowcase, you spray the inside of it with some, you know, all purpose cleaner, and then you gently put the pillowcase over the fan blade and pull off the dust that way so none of the dust falls onto the floor. I love this tip. I have used it. I think it's a really great hack.

[Rosie Garant]

Genius.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yes. Thank you, Tom, for that one.

[Rosie Garant]

Love it. All right, next up is something that if you live somewhere with seasons, you might be starting to think about outdoor furniture. Let's hear if keeping this stuff clean is as challenging as it seems.

[J]

My name is Harry Sawyers. I'm a senior editor at Wirecutter. My tips are all about how to clean outdoor patio furniture, which is a love hate relationship that I have have. So the first step is to take the COVID off the chairs and see what surprises are underneath. It's like opening the worst present you've ever gotten. Cat fur, bird stuff just finds its way inside. So the first thing I do usually is a quick leaf blower to just kind of blow off most of the loose stuff that has just accumulated up under them even while they're covered. After the leaf blower, I will treat them a little bit like a floor or like a rug the entire time I'm cleaning them. I will sweep them if needed and then I will vacuum it. And that gets most of it. I will often, for stains, just go at it with a scrub brush. You can get in there with an old toothbrush on the little crevices and things that'll work it out. All of our picks in the outdoor patio Furniture Guide are Sunbrella. And if you look at the cleaning instructions on Sunbrella, they recommend some of the harshest stuff you could imagine. This is no wool sweater out here. It's woven poly plastic fibers. And having cleaned some of the worst stains off of them that you could possibly imagine, I've come to believe they are nearly indestructible. I actually don't use a hose on it. I've been able to treat whatever I have on the surface just by kind of working on it on the spot spot. And I usually will start with just a, like a dish soap and water mix just to kind of get things going. And that will take care of most of it. But if I need to step it up a little, I'll make what I call an Oxiclean slurry, which is like a little bit of Oxiclean, maybe a teaspoon in just like a bowl of water. And you just stir it up and you make this just, you know, super concentrated detergent water that has a kind of oxidizing bleach action too. And that'll take care of it, whatever's left.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Oh, poor Harry. That sounds terrible. You know, Harry lives in la and I know from visiting friends in LA how there are so many beautiful flowers and plants that droop and drop things on the patio furniture. Oh, poor them. But it's true, like, I think because there is so much outdoor living happening there that people are truly like kidding out their backyards like almost like a living room. Whereas here in New York I, I think it's less of an issue for a lot of people. But I think that an addition to this, this guidance that Harry gives us about how to clean the cushions is, you know, how to clean the frame. So I think there's many ways to, to clean the frame. You don't have to go with just one way. I would always look at what the manufacturer says for your particular patio furniture. But we at Wirecutter, we love a good power washer. We love getting out there with a power washer. It's very, very satisfying. We actually have a piece about this. And if you do have a power washer, it can be a really easy way to quickly clean your furniture.

[Rosie Garant]

It seems really satisfying. Okay, I think we just reached the end of our Wirecutter expert tips. Christine, do you think anything might have slipped our experts minds?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Oh, well, I mean, honestly Kyra, we could have talked to dozens of more people at Wirecutter just because we have so much guidance. I think this is a really great time to think about cleaning. Your appliances often think about cleaning things like their washer and dryer, their dishwasher, their fridge, but these are things that need to be cleaned and maintained. And you know, this time of year it can be a good time to tackle those. I think a few other things that are helpful this time of year. If you live in a house, remember your gutters need to be cleaned, especially this time of year where you've got a lot of leaves from the winter that fell into your gutters. We get a lot of rain in the spring and summer, and if you're dealing with that and your gutters are full of junk, then you're may end up with some flooding issues. So it's just a great time to just think, oh, yeah, I need to go clean out those gutters. We, we also have a guide on the site by Doug Mahoney on how to do that. This is a great time to clean that shower curtain, to maybe just assess your. Your. Your bathroom in general.

[Rosie Garant]

Did you just say clean my shower curtain?

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yes, clean your shower curtain. Have you ever noticed, like, kind of like a pink gunk or like staining.

[Rosie Garant]

When I throw it out and buy more?

[Doug Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

No, you don't need to do that. You can actually wash these things in a washing machine. Yeah. You can wash either a plastic liner or a fabric and. And certainly the outside curtain. You can wash those things and. And they'll look pretty much new oftentimes after you've washed them.

[Rosie Garant]

I had no idea you could put plastic liners in the washing machine.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have a guide on the site for how to do that.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

And then this is just a great time to kind of go through your medicine cabinet. Check expiration dates on medicine. Check that your makeup isn't super old. Get rid of the things that are old.

[Rosie Garant]

I just found a BB cream that I've been using for the past, like, three years. Expired eight years ago.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah. Look at those expiration dates. You're going to want to get rid of them, that stuff. And you don't have to tackle all this stuff at the same time. You know, maybe make a list and just like, get to it incrementally over the course of a few months.

[Rosie Garant]

All right, so maybe don't buy a humidifier. If you do have one, you need to be cleaning it way more than you probably are. And when it comes to outdoor furniture, you know, it doesn't have to be that hard. I. I like the idea of just kind of sweeping it off and maybe spot cleaning a few areas if you read the manufacturer's instructions. And maybe you can even just take a power washer to it.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

That's right.

[Rosie Garant]

Solve all your problems at once.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I mean, it might not work for the cushions, but, you know.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah, it's fine.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

If you want to find out more about any of Wirecutter's cleaning coverage, go to our website or you can find a link in the show Notes. You can also subscribe to the Clean everything [e-mail] newsletters and if if you like the Wirecutter show, give us a follow. It helps new folks find the show and make sure you don't miss a new episode. That's it for us.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Bye. The Wirecutter show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Matty Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson, original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia Ba? Itup and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher and interim general manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor in chief. I'm Christine Cyrclassette.

[Rosie Garant]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Thanks for listening. Rosie's out sick.

[Rosie Garant]

Poor her.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

Yeah, spring sicknesses are real.

[Rosie Garant]

I know. That's why she probably should take some time to also clean while she's home.

[Christine Cyr Clisette]

I hope she's just resting. Honestly.