The Month of Smells, Week 4: Garbage Disposal

This is the appliance that probably gets the least amount of cleaning, because you never know when to clean it until it is in desperate need. Luckily cleaning it is a piece of cake! Here's the best tips:

• Put citrus peels down the disposal. 
• Plink - a garbage disposal cleaner 
• Don't overload it. Give it stuff it can handle.
• Baking soda and white vinegar 

The Month of Smells, Week 3: Oven

The last 2 weeks have chiefly dealt with appliances that include a water aspect. However, this week's is different; no water included. When cooking in an oven, some smells can linger and can affect future meals cooked in it. There's some very quick and easy ways to try to get those smells to no longer linger.

• Fill a baking dish with an inch of water and put vanilla extract in it and turn your oven on low heat, while checking on it periodically
• Bake a citrus peel (orange, lemon, lime, etc)
• Fill a baking dish with lemon juice and turn your oven on low heat, while checking on it periodically
• Fill a baking dish with white vinegar and turn your oven on low heat, while checking on it periodically
• Scrub everything with a mixture of baking soda and white vinegar

The Month of Smells, Week 2: Dishwasher

When you pull your dishes out of the dishwasher, you expect them to be rather smell-free or even have a slight pleasent scent. However, if your dishwasher is in need of cleaning, you may be assaulted by a wave smells from mold and/or mildew. Luckily there are some tell-tale places that these smells come from that are easy to clean!

The screen

In the bottom of the dishwasher there should be a cylindrical screen, and it may or may not have a cap on it. Remove this and clean any gunk out of it.

The arms

The thing that spins around and sprays water - that's what we're focused on. Food particles may get stuck on, in, or around the arms. Give these a good scrub!

The seal

Food bits can get stuck under the seal of the door. Wipe these down, but be careful not to break it!

The Month of Smells, Week 1: Washing Machine

Washing machines deal with 3 things:

1. Dirty clothes
2. Soap
3. Water

Its no surprise that things can end up smelling weird. An unfortunate truth is that there may be build up, mildew, or even mold causing these smells. Luckily, they can be very easy to get rid of! We even have a couple of different methods:

Method 1: Natural

Run your washer on a large load with the hottest water possible *with no clothes or soap*. pour 3-4 cups of white vinegar the the water. The white vinegar acts as a disinfectant and kills the mildew and mold.

Let your washer mix the vinegar into the water for a minute and stop it again. Add in about 1/2 cup of baking soda. Let it run again to mix the baking soda in, and then stop it again. Let it sit for 30-60 minutes. After that let it finish the cycle. Run one more cycle with nothing in it to get any more residue, and repeat the process as needed.

Method 2: Chemical

This method is almost identical to the natural route, but we just use bleach instead. When the washer is filled with water, pour in 1 cup of bleach. Let it run the rest of the cycle, and then run one after that's just water to get any left over bleach washed away. Make sure that there is lots of air movement when working with bleach!

Furnaces

75% of furnaces producing no heat during the winter are due to a lack of maintenance. If you've procrastinated having your furnace maintained, now is the time to do it. Its starting to get cold, and before you know it, we'll have snow on the ground. Give us a call today at 208-344-6700