Sparkly Clean: A Kintsugi 'How Do I Clean This' Thread

Question: when bleaching down some whites, can i cover the bowl with a lid meant to be airtight, or do i need to leave a bit open else explosion?

 

Open and well ventilated so you don't inhale concentrated bleach fumes when you open it is my gut instinct as a chemist

 

I can put it on the balkony. The instructions do say to cover it with a weighted plate, i just don´t own a plate that big. just the lid to the bowl.

 

submerge in a bag of vinegar and tie the opening shut around it

I used a seam ripper and some pliers

I don't think vinegar would work because it's acidic just like the coffee, try something basic like a baking soda solution. YOu can also try soaking it in hot water overnight

 

I think the lid should work, but check up on it maybe half an hour after you set it up to see if anything is going wrong, like the lid bulging because of built up fumes. It shouldn't explode so long as you keep it away from heat or flame, the lid just may pop off, but not violently

 

I mean, that works for some things, but see "vertical on shower wall." Can't exactly get a bag around this:

(I was vaguely considering trying a paste of vinegar and flour.)

 

You could try soaking a washcloth or paper towels in vinegar and molding them around the thing? You might need to re-apply it pretty frequently but at least the towels would keep the vinegar in constant contact with the deposits.

 

Yeah I'd try taping soaked towels at that point, see if that can help pull some layers off.

 

so I've scrubbed at stuff like that with vinegar and it helped a bit
another thing I might suggest is like coating it with vinegar then ceranwrapping it?

 

I'd do a vinegar-salt or vinegar-sugar scrub, personally, because you'll probably need a bit of abrasive. You can also do a paste of baking soda and water - rub on in circles - leave it on for ten to twenty minutes, then pour some vinegar over to rinse. That's essentially what I do to all my kitchen fixtures when they get grody.

Edit: you can leave the baking soda paste on longer if you like, it's not gonna damage the metal, that's just about the amount of time it takes to start to dry out ime.

 

I don't think leaving the baking soda on will do anything because it's just there as an abrasive. What has built looks like layers of calcium carbonate from hard water deposits which is basic so you'll need something acidic to neutralize it and make it easier to take off. A vinegar flour paste or some towels put on it then covered in saran wrap sound plausible to work!

 

Frankly, I'd get some CLR (in a spray bottle, if possible) and use that if it's at all an option. It's specifically meant for dealing with hard water deposits and the like, and it'll be less physical effort. Soaking down some paper towels in it and applying those to the fixture might also be a good idea.
The problem with hard water deposits is, a lot of the advice is probably going to be geared towards "if it's seriously built up, remove the thing and soak it in CLR or vinegar or w/ev" because the idea that someone would let the deposits build up that much on vertical fixtures isn't likely to occur to online advice-givers.

 

once you've gotten off what you can with vinegar, etc. a cleaning pumice stone thing can help get rid of some of the stubborn crud bits.

 

I got a quilted blanket for christmas that came from a fire sale, and it still smells smokey. If I throw some other things into the washing machine with it, are they likely to come out also smelling of smoke? Also is there anything special I should do to get rid of a smoke smell?

 

You could try sprinkling the blanket with bicarb of soda, which will absorb odour; a half cup of white vinegar in your wash will also help neutralise smells.

 

If anyone lives in a hard water area and has problems with scale buildup in the steam holes of the soleplate of your laundry iron, and the subsequent stains it can leave on fabric - an interdental pick cleans these out super well. I used a metal free Oral B pick in size medium on a cold iron, and wiped down the soleplate with a very clean microfibre cloth to pick up any shards of yuck afterwards. Repeat weekly if in a very hard water area.

 

The inside of my bathroom air vent is filthy but I don't know how to remove the cover to get to it - it doesn't appear to be screwed on.

 

check, but ours has little clips just on the inside of the plastic that hold it in place, if you gently tug on it you can see them. Yours might be similar. You can also try a brush with thick bristles to remove the dust if you can't get to it.

Here's a guide I found, though it looks like it might be for a nicer vent than what we have.

 

I've reached the level of clutter where I can apparently only have one tidy room at a time. Any tips for getting stuff organised properly to take care of that?

 

Unfortunately the only thing that’s worked for me is getting fed up and going through my room with a big garbage bag, and that relies on being able to get upset in the moment

I guess I’d say, if you’re trying to throw a bunch of stuff out, don’t sweat the details. Don’t, for example, try to separate out trash from recycling. Try to donate usable stuff but if you can’t figure out how, it’s okay to throw it away or just leave it on the curb. Your goal is to Get It Out and getting caught on how exactly to dispose of each item drains both energy and momentum. This approach used to be really hard for me until I worked in a grocery store deli, and saw how the amount of stuff we threw away every day was more than the amount of crap I’d accumulated in more than ten years.