Unfuck Your Habitat

Nice! Yeah, denture tablets work wonders on cups and water bottles and stuff like that.

Sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda at the bottom of the pan and let it sit. After an hour or so, give it a good scrub, but don’t rinse the baking soda. Fill the pot with water to cover the burned area, put it on the stove, and bring it to a boil. Let it cool, scrub again, and wash as usual.

You can also try vinegar, dish soap, or a plastic scouring pad. Not all at once.

Couple of things you can try:

• Full the tub with hot water and cleaner. Let it sit for an hour, then drain it, scrub with a stiff brush and rinse.
• Comet. Rinse the tub first so it’s a little damp, them sprinkle Comet (the old-school stuff in the green can) over it to make a sort of paste. Let it sit, then scrub with a stiff brush. use gloves.
• Magic Eraser. I know I’m almost a parody of myself with this, but these things are freaking sorcery!

Get out the shredder! The NY Times had a good piece on how long to keep stuff.

Also, if you have a lot of stuff to shred and no shredder (or a wimpy one), places like Office Max offer shredding by the pound, and banks and other organizations often have free community shred events, where you can bring your stuff. Just Google “community document shred [your area]” and it’ll tell you if anything’s coming up.

Yeah, chuck ‘em in the wash with regular detergent and a little bleach or vinegar (but not both). When you dry towels, remember not to use fabric softener, as it makes the towels less absorbent. As far as preventing mildewy washcloths, the only thing that will do that is to get it out of the damp environment. Try keeping it on your regular towel bar to dry and just grabbing it before you step in the shower. Either that, or buy a few extras and switch them out every day or two.

Diluted bleach and let it dry out in the sun. Test first if you’re worried about the color fading.

Here’s my thing about once-worn clothing: if it’s clean enough to put back on your body, it’s clean enough to put back in your closet or drawers. If you’re really skeeved, but not skeeved enough to wash the stuff, consider one of those hanging fabric shelf things you can put in your closet, so you can fold the stuff up and keep it neat before its next wearing.

Excellent tip!

When I am queen of the world, carpeting in bathrooms will be outlawed, under penalty of death. Ew.

Anyway, chances are years of high humidity have trapped all sorts of moisture, leading to mustiness, but hopefully not mold. Since you’re renting, we’ll try to keep the solutions cheap and easy (although, depending on your relationship with your landlord, it may be worth asking if you can rip it up if you’re planning to be there for a while). Ventilation and air flow is pretty key here. If the bathroom doesn’t have an exhaust fan, you should be running a freestanding fan as much as possible. You can try covering the carpet with a fairly substantial layer of baking soda, letting it sit, then vacuuming it up.

Truth time, though: carpets in bathrooms are a BAD idea, and because they’re constantly damp, the musty smell is next to impossible to get rid of. Pester your landlord if you’re planning on staying there for more than a year.

Make sure all of your burners are off. If they’re the type that can be removed, remove them. Spray the stovetop with some vinegar (or a multipurpose cleaner), or sprinkle on some Bar Keepers Friend. Walk away. Take a sponge or Magic Eraser that has been wet with really hot water (wear gloves if you have to), and start scrubbing. Repeat as necessary.

Great idea!

Drop a denture tablet in there.

Sheets once a week is fine for most people, and maybe get an extra set of towels so that you aren’t using the same ones for more than a few days (especially hand towels and washcloths).