Really hot water. For areas, Jif (Ajax) and lots of it. Also, it's easier for me to clean something where it's making a visible difference -- if it's basically clean and I'm wiping, I'll do it half-heartedly, if it's actually dirty I can see the change and it motivates me.

The best one though is never to do it for more than 30 minutes. It's amazing how much I can do in thirty minutes -- and I time myself, and I stop. I'll do another thirty minutes later if necessary. I think this is partly to do with sustaining attention, and partly psychological -- it's only half an hour, I can do that. Because otherwise cleaning can be infinite.

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Thanks, but could you talk about your process for making sure the area is covered? I can believe that the time limit helps, but what do you actually do in that 30 minutes?

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It depends what it is.

Those metal meat pans, as mentioned below, are really awful for this because there's stuff that doesn't show up wet that shows when it dries. But if I had one of those, I'd fill it with really hot water and washing up liquid and leave it on the side of the sink while I washed other things, and if there was time then at the end (or if not, I'd change the water the next time and do it then, at the end) I'd tip all the water out and put it into the bowl and scrub it really intensively with the scratchy side of the sponge while singing "Baking tray! All my troubles seemed so far away!" to the tune of "Yesterday".* And I'd do one half at a time and switch them around. And maybe I'd soak it some more unless I needed it again right away. So I'd be spending five minutes on it (maybe more than once) after twenty-five minutes of washing glasses and plates and cutlery. And if I found when I came to put it away that there was stuff that showed up dry, I wouldn't wash it again right then (unless I needed it that instant, which is unlikely) I'd put it to soak again.

(Pyrex is a lot easier to clean. Also, you can see through it so it doesn't have that problem. I usually use pyrex unless I have to have something with a lid or something really huge. I wash pyrex baking dishes most days, but the metal one only once a month or so.)

But if I was cleaning an area like the top of the dryer or skirting boards or something like that, I'd have a sponge with Jif on it and hot water in a bowl, and I'd just go along it in smooth progression. I can see the dust or the grime just coming off at each swipe, and there's real contrast between what's done and what isn't.

I'm actually much worse at tidying than I am at straight up cleaning.

But the thing with the thirty minutes that I didn't say, is that thirty minutes doing dishes or cleaning is thirty good minutes well done that I get to feel good about. It's not "Oh, so much still to do and I left that meatpan on the side!", it's "Well, that was a good session..." After really big parties I sometimes have four sessions of thirty minutes of dishes, but normal days one, plus a bit incidental to making dinner, does pretty much everything. But I don't feel guilty about what's left -- I did thirty minutes, that's achieved, accomplished -- and it was only half an hour.

* I've just realised I've been singing this song every time I scrub a baking tray for the last twenty-seven years, though I've long lost touch with the person who taught it to me.

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I am not a super housecleaner. The only strategy I have that has worked for me at all in any way is to decide which chores make me feel like my house is clean, and do those every day. So I do the dishes and clean the stainless steel sink, and make the bed, and that sort of thing. Nothing big. If you identify what makes the house feel cleaner to you, and do those things, the effort feels worth it. It is, after all, your house.

I mainly posted to link you to this nice post from Hanne Blank about her favorite housecleaning products. I have had good success with Bar Keeper's Friend myself--it gets the crud off of the bottoms of pans.

I think the main reason it seems like you don't get things clean the first time is that they get dirty again anyway. Unless you store everything you own in impregnable plastic bags when it comes home from the store, that's what happens.

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No, I mean that I have something (those metal things for roasting that have grooves and holes that you cover a foil-covered pan with and put a piece of meat on top of are especially pernicious), and I soak it and then I go after it with soap and water (possibly not hot enough) and one of those curly metal scrubbies. I think I've cleaned it or section of it, and then I look at it again and there are dirty spots in the area I think I've cleaned.

This may be a problem you've never had, so you have trouble assimilating what I've written.

Edited at 2011-10-19 01:50 pm (UTC)

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Oh, you aren't asking for general cleaning advice, you want to get baked-on crud off of something metal.

Well, then, the cleanser I recommended is good, but of course you have to wear gloves. The curly metal scrubby may not work as well as steel wool or a green scrubby, even though that's counter-intuitive. Put on some music for motivation. This is similar to cleaning the oven racks before Passover, so I do have experience with it. (You have to use steel wool for those because nothing else molds around the spokes.)

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Green scrubbies are good - they get in where the curly metal thing won't. Also, schemingreader mentions Bar Keeper's Friend. I have a similar powder thing, Bon Ami, and I have a moist version with a lemon scent that I got as a stocking-stuffer from my sis-in-law the minister's wife. Put any of that stuff on your green scrubby and it will be even better.

SOS pads are best for really horribly baked-on crud on metal items. You can get the mini-size ones - that way if you don't have enough crud for a full-sized one, you don't have a leftover piece of soapy steel wool going rusty under your sink.

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Bon Ami is supposed to be better than things like Comet, because it won't scratch.

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Very, very hot water and a soak with lots of dish soap while doing other dishes (soak the rack in the pan). Then dump that out when other dishes are clean, rinse it with more very hot water, and then scrub first with Barkeeper's Friend and a green scrubber, rinse well (and rinse the scrubber, too), and scrub it with hot water and dish soap. I definitely recommend wearing gloves unless you can stand your hands being in very hot water for a long time. Also, I scrub underwater if I'm tackling that kind of thing, just because it tends to show slightly better where I've missed to me--the distortion of the water makes the bumps of stuck-on bits clearer to my eyes.

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I actually have thought about this, partly because I seem to do a good job the first time and Supergee doesn't. (By "first time" I mean before I stop; it may involve going back over the same areas repeatedly.)

Some of this is tactile: a smooth surface gives less resistance than a chunky one or even one of smooth particles or grease. Some is visual.

If it's a small thing, I do it all at once; a big thing, like a floor, I do part at a time, mentally marking off the area. For a floor, it's usually a square 18" on each side, for a wall bigger--essentially, a square all within my reach. With pans, I often do the outside first, then the inside. (Note, easier first, but I get it all.)

Then be methodical. Start in one corner or at one end, and work to the other corner, end, not skipping any areas. Then do a visual inspection and go back over it--not necessarily every spot, but in the same order. This is usually good enough, so the second inspection can be the final one, but if not, repeat.

It could be you're doing the same thing, just considering yourself done before the inspection and re-do, so you think you "should" be done when you're not. Also, it would be frustrating to have to g back over a whole wall or floor; it's better, I think, to inspect and re-do a bit at a time.

I agree with Papersky about hot enough water, even if that means using gloves. (I don't like gloves--just realized they interfere with the tactile feedback. My mother was famous for her tolerance of hot water, and I emulated that macho approach.) For pans, the metal wool scrubbers are OK, but I like the soap-plus-steel-wool, like S.O.S., although they rust very quickly.

If you use a sponge, cloth, or mop, be sure to rinse them out very often, or you're just spreading old dirt around. Yes, very, very often.

Has this been helpful?

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I have the same problem Nancy does. I think I'm being methodical, like you say, and then I look back and find I haven't gotten everything. WTF? I thought I'd done that.

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Tactile feedback. Non-clean areas should feel different to clean ones -- a slight roughness, resistance to a scrubber, etc. I generally go over something once, rinse, and then do a second pass in the opposite direction (for large areas, such as a shower), or work in small areas until I am satisfied, then move to the next small area (eg saucepans, sink cleaning).

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For meat-pans: soaking in hot soapy water overnight tends to help loosen crusted on drippings. It won't stay hot all night, obviously. It helps if you set the pan to soaking as soon as the food is removed from it. Also if you wipe a thin layer of olive oil on the bottom of the tray prior to using it in the first place, it makes it easier to clean.

I use a double-sided sponge for cleaning of this type - one side is a yellow sponge and the other is a green scrubby. I remove the worst of the crud with the yellow side, and then rinse the pan and the sponge under hot water. This lets me see where the more stubborn spots are so I can focus on them. More soap, more hot water, and a lot of elbow grease work wonders.

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