OK, this is an embarrassing question.

[AspieChris]

I forgot this one: baking soda and plain white vinegar. Put the vinegar in a spray bottle. Sprinkle baking soda heavily on the worst stuck on crap and spray with vinegar. The vinegar reacts with the baking soda and bubbles. Let it soak for 20 minutes. Scrub with a plastic sponge. The vinegar loosens the food and the baking soda works like liquid sand paper.

Vinegar is absolutely awesome at getting hard water spots off the faucets, windows, chrome, etc. Wet a paper towel with vinegar and cover the area with it. Wait 30 - 60 minutes and poof! Water marks are gone. For heavier water spots, go back and spray again every hour. Even leave it overnight, covered with plastic wrap. The fumes from the vinegar penetrate the mineral deposits and dissolve them.

 

[Judge]

Vinegar is absolutely awesome at getting hard water spots off the faucets, windows, chrome, etc.

And particularly stubborn water spots on car windshields and bodies.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Washing out narrow necked glasses, bottles, or vases requires the use of a baby bottle brush. The best kinds have a sponge on top of the bristles.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Do not ever use bleach and vinegar during the same cleaning.

 

[AspieChris]

Do not ever use bleach and vinegar during the same cleaning.

I did that once in my bathroom. I’m not kidding when I say I almost died. The window was closed and the fumes made me almost pass out. My bathroom was unusable for about 24 hours.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I did that once in my bathroom. I’m not kidding when I say I almost died. The window was closed and the fumes made me almost pass out. My bathroom was unusable for about 24 hours.

I am glad that you are okay.

 

[AspieChris]

There’s product called “KleenKing” for stainless steel pots. It’s basically powered sandpaper. With a little elbow grease, it makes stained pots and pans look brand new.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

At times, I have used a bar of ivory soap for dishwashing. It works superbly. Old ladies used it back in the old days for household cleaning. You can suds up a dishpan by running the bar under the water, and then cleaning each item is as easy as rubbing a little ivory soap on the washcloth and then scrubbing.

I like to have, at the sink: A washcloth, a scratcher pad, a scrub brush, and a baby bottle brush.

Don't forget, after doing dishes, to scrub your sink out, and wash your counters.

When washing your sink out, please pay attention to your drain. Food, grease, and mold adhere in thick layers to the inside of your sink drain, and around the garbage disposal. It's quite disgusting. And once you discover the filth, you'll want to keep the drain clean. Scrub the drain out like you would any other dish.

Generic Dollar Tree toothpaste works quite well for scrubbing out drains, and cleaning faucets, and stainless steel.

It also creates an unbeatable shine in your toilet bowl. And the bathtub will never be cleaner or shinier, than if you scrub it out with toothpaste and a bristle brush.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

For those of you who do own a dishwasher: You don't need to buy dishwashing liquid. Simply add 1/2 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax into the detergent cup.

Vinegar is an excellent rinse aid.

 

[Aspychata]

Ummm. Today my pipe sprung a leak, seemly similar to the area supposedly fixed by the other repair company, not calling them back. So since the water is off, my few dishes l had in sink are hidden in the microwave until l can turn my water on again.

 

[AspieChris]

I can’t believe I didn’t remember to say this;

Don’t pour grease down the drain. It’s ok to wash a greasy dish or pan, but any kind of oil or greease that would harden in the refrigerator (like bacon grease) will do the same in the pipes and cause a serious blockage. And it’s pretty difficult to clear when it happens.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Ummm. Today my pipe sprung a leak, seemly similar to the area supposedly fixed by the other repair company, not calling them back. So since the water is off, my few dishes l had in sink are hidden in the microwave until l can turn my water on again.

If it's warm enough out, take a dishpan and a gallon jug of 99 cent bottled water outside to the back porch.

Do your dishes out back, and let them sun dry on a rack. Probably would feel nice to have your hands in the cool water, in the sunshine.

 

[AspieChris]

If it's warm enough out, take a dishpan and a gallon jug of 99 cent bottled water outside to the back porch.

Do your dishes out back, and let them sun dry on a rack. Probably would feel nice to have your hands in the cool water, in the sunshine.

I always take the biggest and nastiest pots outside and wash them in the grass with the hose. We recycle all of our clothes washing machine water for 20 years now, bleach and all. My front yard has beautiful grass and we never turn on the sprinklers.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I always take the biggest and nastiest pots outside and wash them in the grass with the hose. We recycle all of our clothes washing machine water for 20 years now, bleach and all. My front yard has beautiful grass and we never turn on the sprinklers.

That's awesome! I love recycling greywater. I wish I still lived in a place that I could do more like that.

For your greywater, unless you've got a person working in the medical field, or someone immunocompromised in the household, I'm gonna double dog dare you to use washing soda, borax, or Oxyclean, instead of bleach. Dioxins don't break down very well in the environment. All things run downhill.

 

[Crossbreed]

Also, for hard-to-clean pans, we have used oven cleaner to do the heavy lifting.

 

[foliodoe]

Dishwashers have never made sense to me. You need to clean them off a little first, right? And sometimes you still need to wipe them down or scrape off dried stuff after they're done in machine? Those two steps are basically the entire process of handwashing dishes.

I may be the wrong person to ask, though. Washing dishes by hand is part of my nightly routine and I love the whole thing from start to finish, but it's not something I've optimized or do efficiently.

My process goes like this;
1) add water and soap to the sponge
2) scrub and rinse pots, then bowls, then plates, then cups, then silverware
3) dry with a towel and put everything away or leave it on the rack to dry overnight

 

[Progster]

Dishwashers have never made sense to me. You need to clean them off a little first, right? And sometimes you still need to wipe them down or scrape off dried stuff after they're done in machine?

I agree with this. They are supposed to be time-saving devices, but by the time you've rinsed off the dirt, loaded it, added detergent, run the program, unloaded it, you could have just washed the dishes. Plus it consumes a lot of power.