It seems like every place I’ve ever lived in as an adult has had at least one nasty rust stain somewhere, usually a reddish column running from the overflow drain into the basin of the bathroom sink or tub. You may think this reveals something negative about the general level of cleanliness in my home, but actually I’m kind of neurotic about cleaning. In fact, I’ve spent a lot of time scrubbing at those rust stains, and several times I’ve even committed, in desperation, what I now know is the cardinal sin of rust removal: I tried using chlorine bleach. So it wasn’t a lack of fastidiousness that doomed me to years of rust-stained bathrooms; it was a lack of knowledge. Now I know. And what I know is that cleaning rust isn’t so hard after all. Since I’m not the kind of girl who keeps things to herself, I wrote an article about how to clean rust. So now you know.
Archive for September, 2008
As I have written in my article, the term mildew is actually plant mold, but popular usage of the term now refers to mold growing in moisture-prone areas of the home like bathrooms and basements. In my place, it was the bathroom. The mildew was present in the shower the day we bought the house, but other projects always seemed more dire. As I tried to get clean in the mornings, I would always wonder how I was going to clean the mildew. One such morning, the rubber lining around my shower fell onto my shoulders like a dead boa constrictor. That was my Pearl Harbor; war was finally declared. I turned to the tried and true staples in my green cleaning arsenal, and now I wonder why I just didn’t clean the mildew sooner. Well, it has excited my gag reflex for the last time. Read my latest article on how to clean mildew without resorting to products containing depleted uranium, as well as how to prevent mildew and deal with other mildew-related issues.
