I really gotta clean this apartment, and there are three things I’d like some advice on:
Linoleum floors. I’d been mopping the ones in the kitchen and bathroom, but perhaps not enough, and not with the right thing (Clorox Ready Mop). As such, the one in the kitchen is dirty and the one in the bathroom is kinda dingy/yellowish, and it seems that said Ready Mop isn’t doing much to either.
Venetian blinds. There’s a reason the renovated apartments don’t have them. Even when I try to pinch them in a cloth/paper towel, they bend too much to really get wiping traction.
Clorox Ready Mop, if you’re using the concentration recommended, oughta be strong enough to do what needs to be done. All you can add is mechanical power. Have you gotten down on your hands and knees and washed it that way? Maybe with a scrub brush? I assume a Clorox product has some kind of bleach in it for the yellowish bathroom, but maybe try a solution of Oxyclean too, just for giggles.
A tough one. There are tools to clean them that are like a big sponge with lots of slots on a handle. I’d try turning them flat and rubbing at them with your vacuum’s brush attachment before I tried to hunt down one of those tools. Perhaps you could find a way to hang a folded blanket behind them, for support so you could really rub.
My husband has solved this with muriatic acid and green scrubby pads. Before you get so hands-on, make sure your toilet cleaner has bleach in it, some of them don’t.
PS–your linoleum floors (are they really linoleum, or vinyl?) are probably intended to take a coat of wax. A quick Google search reveals that if they aren’t protected with wax (and it sounds like it may have been allowed to wear down and not be replaced years ago) UV can yellow them.
If they do still have a good coat of wax on them, you can fix all ills by buffing the wax off and re-applying. If you’re into that.
We usually take ours off and wash them in the shower and use a soft brush on them. I think they make suction hooks so that you can hang them on the shower wall and get some traction to scrub them.
For your floors I would recomend going over them once in a while with a regular mop and just plain ol’ hot water with 2 cups or so of white vinegar mixed in. I started doing this years ago and now I rarely use anything else.
When I do use the Swiffer mop I can tell that it leaves a residue behind. Since I am a barefoot kinda gal it drives me crazy. Started using the vinegar and noticed right away how much cleaner the floor felt.
Warning: Too much vinegar can strip the floors of the shiny. Just be sure to dilute it. Also - your house will smell like pickles. It doesn’t last long, though.
I doubt that the OP has real linoleum, as that’s not very common nowadays. And I think most vinyl flooring is unwaxed but has a permanent shiny surface. Personally, I use a Swiffer mop with a premoistened pad (as opposed to the sort of Swiffer mop with the bottle of cleaning liquid). Sometime I need to get down on my hands and knees with a scrub sponge to get something stubborn, or to get the corners of the room. I used to use a regular mop with a bucket until my mother suggested the Swiffer mop as being easier. (Although the idea of using a disposable cleaning pad does bother me a little.)
I asked about the wax because we have vinyl tile that looks like what I’d call “linoleum”. A solid colored background with little streaks of other colors in it. It needs to be stripped and waxed occasionally. It’s the same stuff used in public buildings everywhere.
Swiffer’s cleaning solutions aren’t safe for waxed floors, btw. They sort of melt the wax.
For the toilet ring - either Lime-a-way, or CLR. I like CLR because it’s more versatile and can be used for more things. Works great, apply, let sit, use toilet brush, almost no effort.
I have found that putting a great deal of toilet cleaner (with bleach) in there and letting it sit for a half hour makes most rings just scrub away with the brush.
There was one student house I moved into where this didn’t work. I turned off the water to the toilet and scrubbed it off with a toothbrush. It took awhile but once it was clean I kept it that way.