Monthly Cleaning of House and Heart

There are several things around the house you should clean once a month. Sure, some might do this more than once a month. Many (myself included before now) don’t think about cleaning these areas until a problem arises. I challenge you to be proactive and maintain them rather than deal with them when there is a problem. You use the same cleaning materials (water, distilled white vinegar, baking soda and assorted scrubbing cloths/brushes) for each area, so it makes it easy to do in conjunction with one another.

  

Here is my monthly cleaning routine:

Dishwasher

To clean your dishwasher once a month first take the racks out and inspect all the nooks and crannys. Use an old toothbrush or scour pad to clean around the door hinges, around the filter, in the filter and anywhere else you see visible grime. Reference your manual if you are not sure how to get at the filter. Once you have de-gunked, put it all back together and pour 1 cup of vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher Then run the dishwasher on it's highest heat cycle with nothing in it other than the vinegar. Some sites say you can also add a little sugar-free lemonade powder to give it a good lemony smell. That’s it! Easy!

Washing Machine

I never thought about cleaning the washing machine before. Because it always smells so good, I don’t associate it with dirtiness, but it makes sense. The machine gets all the dirt and grime off your clothes, and how can little particles not get left behind? We have a front load washer so this is how I cleaned that style of washer. I opened our detergent dispenser and inspected it and was disgusted at how bad it had gotten. 

Yuck!

First I took out the detergent drawer. Again, look in your manual how to do this correctly so you don't break it! Then soak the drawer in a mixture of about 3 parts water to one part vinegar and about 1/4 cup of baking soda for about 15 minutes. After it has soaked and I used a scour pad, Q-tips, an old toothbrush and some elbow grease to scrub out the black stains and slimy parts. Rinse with water, then put it back in. 

I'm embarrassed to show this, but it's for the better good of society :) See the black grime?

While the drawer is soaking, check out inside the detergent dispenser. As I said, I hadn’t ever thought to look at this before, so I’m guess everyone else that lived here, and the landlords never thought about it either. Here is an after picture with using nothing but paper towels and elbow grease.

Like new!

Drains

It is important to keep the insides of your sinks clean to keep water flowing well and just for general health of your home and mold protection.

For bathrooms I recommend monthly to open up all drains and first de-clog any superficial issues (hair). It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it! Next pour a pot of boiling water down the sink. Follow that with ½ cup of baking soda. Let the baking soda sit for about 5 min then add 1 cup hot white distilled vinegar. If able, close the drain over that mixture to let it bubble below the surface. Visually inspect the drain with a flashlight and if there is remaining grime in the top part of the drain, try using a bottlebrush to dis-lodge it. After about 10-15 minutes flush another pot of boiling water down the drain and you’re done! This helps get any grime pushed through without having to use harsh chemicals like Drain-O, or if you don’t have access to good chemicals.

Use a rag or bottle brush to clean the top part of the inside of the drain

The garbage disposal can be another killer. No matter what I do, I always seem to have a stinky garbage disposal. I tried this a few weeks ago and it has actually seemed to work well and I haven’t noticed it being stinky! This is similar to the bathroom drains. Run very hot water down the drain for about 1 minute. Add ½ cup baking soda. Flick on the disposal for just a second or two to distribute the baking soda. Let that sit for about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup very hot vinegar and again let it bubble. Wait about 10 minutes then flush with very hot water. In between cleanings, make sure you flush it with hot water and run the disposal at least once a day to make sure no food sits in ready to rot and wipe out the top part with a rag to reduce slime once a week. Also, you can throw in some eggs shells or ice cubes to sharpen the blades when you do your monthly cleaning. One site even said to make ice cubes out of vinegar. Haven’t tried that yet, but sounds cool!

You'll see some bubbling. Bubbles= clean :)

Another practical Bible application is looming :) Psalm 51:10

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Pray that while you are working hard doing some deep cleansing for your home and your family, that God cleanses your/your family’s hearts of any troubles and renews your faith in the Lord our God.