Sharing is Caring, Especially When It Comes to Cleaning

How to Clean a Cutting Board

June 24 by

Keeping a clean cutting board is one of the most important steps to kitchen safety. Kitchen counters have a smooth surface that’s easy to clean, but cutting boards have lots of tiny places for germs to hide.

To keep a cutting board clean, you need to do more than just rinse it with a little bit of soap. Fortunately, white vinegar is a great disinfectant and is much safer than using chlorine bleach.

Just mix a little bit of white vinegar with water, and generously cover the cutting board in the mixture. Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes before rinsing the board and washing with soap and water.

Raw meat has lots of bacteria that can make your family sick, that’s why it’s a good idea to have a separate cutting board for meat. Unlike cutting boards that are only used for vegetables, meat cutting boards need to be sanitized after every use.

The same mixture of white vinegar and water will work to sanitize a meat cutting board, but make sure you also sanitize the counter area around where you’ve been cutting meat. Any invisible splatter could spread salmonella or e-coli.

A little extra effort to sanitize and clean your cutting boards will keep your family safe and your kitchen clean.

 

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Summer Laundry Tips

June 20 by

Laundry | Flat Rate Carpet BlogSummer is a busy time of the year, and all that activity leaves your laundry pile loaded with strange new stains. Don’t spend your summer scrubbing grass stains, remove summer’s most annoying stains with these simple stain removers.

Grass and other plant stains respond well to pretreating. Use a special prewash spray, or just dab on some detergent and let it sit on the stain for a few minutes before washing. Treat any remaining stain with rubbing alcohol, and wash in the hottest water possible.

No barbecue would be complete without a large blob of ketchup or barbecue sauce landing on someone’s outfit. Scrap (not wipe!) off any remaining sauce before letting the item soak in cold water for about half an hour. Pretreat the stain, and then wash with warm water. For fabrics that are 100% cotton you can treat the area with undiluted white vinegar.

When melted ice cream lands in your lap, soak the fabric in cold water until the stain is gone. Wash the clothing in warm water, and if anything is left over use a stain stick to treat the area before washing again.

If you have a super messy family, make sure to always pack a stain stick in your bag. Pretreating a stain is the best way to keep it from sticking around. Don’t let a few stains ruin your summer fun!

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How to Clean Mildew From Tile

June 7 by

Cleaning Gloves | Flat Rate Carpet BlogMildew, that gross, black smudge between the tiles in your bathroom, is a problem that every home faces. Mildew on your bathroom walls is unattractive, and is bad for your health. But don’t worry, with a little bleach and good old elbow grease, that mildew is as good as gone.

Start by scrubbing the mildew area with a tough brush with bristles. This loosens up the mildew from the walls.

Next mix a small amount of bleach with water in a spray bottle, a ratio of 10 parts water to one part bleach is good. Make sure the room is well ventilated, with doors and windows open and even the fan going. Then spray the bleach mixture on the walls and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

When you are done, rinse the walls with water and the mildew is gone.

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How to Get Rid of Ants Naturally

June 4 by

Ants | Flat Rate Carpet BlogGetting rid of ants can be a full time job. It seems like every time you get rid of one line of ants another one shows up. Bug repellents can work, but they also leave trails of poison all around your kitchen. Instead of buying expensive bug repellents, a few household items will help you get rid of your ant problem once and for all.

The number one top all purpose cleaner, white vinegar, also keeps away ants. Wiping down all surface areas with a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water wipes away the scent trails that ants use to get from place to place.

Another way to get rid of ants is to spread a line of baby powder, or plain talcum powder, where the ants are getting into your home. Theirs no fancy science behind this method, ants just hate talcum powder, and will stay away.

Certain spices and herbs have strong scents that repel ants. Leaving these spices in ant trouble spots will keep them from coming back. Some ant repelling spices are; cinnamon, chili, black and cayenne pepper, cloves, garlic and mint.

With these simple, all natural household items, you can win the war on ants.

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How to Remove a Coffee Stain

May 29 by

Coffee & Cookies | Flat Rate Carpet Blog

No matter how careful you are, the only way to prevent a coffee spill in your home is to avoid drinking coffee.

For the rest of us, coffee stains are inevitable. Knowing how to remove a coffee stain from fabric right away can keep a minor spill from becoming a major disaster.

Your first step is to, very gently, blot the stain with a white towel to soak up any leftover liquid.

Although the cleaning isles are full of stain removers and spray cleaners, the most important stain remover in your home is usually found in the food isle. White vinegar mixed with a some white water (mixture of 1 part vinegar and 2 parts water), is a safe, effective and inexpensive stain remover.

You can spray the mixture onto the stain and gently blot with a clean towel. If you don’t have an extra spray bottle handy, dampen a towel with the mixture and blot the stain.

If the stain is treated quickly enough, it should come up easily. For older stains, or stains that just won’t come out, call the professionals.

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