# Hosekeeping Stuff Your Mother Never Taught You **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168 "2006-03-20T18:12:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/61 "2006-03-22T06:15:00Z")
There ya go - we just need to invent meat flavoured spray for walls, and the dogs will clean them for us. Brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/62 "2006-03-22T07:50:05Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > There ya go - we just need to invent meat flavoured spray for walls, and the dogs will clean them for us. Brilliant! Hey, it works for the kitchen floor. My dogs hover around me while I’m cooking, poised to spring should anything fall.\* They’re quite thoughough with it, sniffing and licking even long after the splotch of food has been gulped. They’re also experts at getting potato chip crumbs off of upholstery. I’m also relatively sure that my dog Polaris would keep my shower clean for me if I would let her. She dearly loves to jump in there after I get done showering and lick up the water. \*They all know and obey “leave it!” if the food is hot. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/63 "2006-03-22T12:34:41Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > I’m also relatively sure that my dog Polaris would keep my shower clean for me if I would let her. She dearly loves to jump in there after I get done showering and lick up the water. I have cats that do that. ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/64 "2006-03-22T13:21:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Besides these, you should Change the Air Filters in your House\* a bare minimum of once a year. Heh. I found out about this the hard way. After living in our first house for a year, our air conditioner wasn’t working quite right. My father-in-law suggested I check the air filter. I replied, “What air filter?” 😕 :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/65 "2006-03-22T15:16:31Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > I have cats that do that. Cats can also be very useful for fishing clogs out of drains. You just have to monitor them to make sure they don’t eat it (Mmmm, strange, smelly, gooey hair-thing - must nibble…) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/66 "2006-03-22T17:01:54Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > There ya go - we just need to invent meat flavoured spray for walls, and the dogs will clean them for us. Brilliant! Try this one. [http://60gp.ovh.net/~cleanyou/](http://60gp.ovh.net/~cleanyou/) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/67 "2006-03-22T21:58:02Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > Try this one. [http://60gp.ovh.net/~cleanyou/](http://60gp.ovh.net/~cleanyou/) Link is broken-- I just get a blank page. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/68 "2006-03-22T22:06:54Z")
That’s because the dogs have already licked it clean. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/69 "2006-03-22T22:23:05Z")
My little quirk, which beats even the most anal excesses of my mother’s obsessive approach to housework, is that when I place washed up cutlery in the drying rack the knives and scissors have to point down and everything else has to be placed pointing up. Am I alone? Thought not. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/70 "2006-03-22T23:11:50Z")
If you turn on the oven and your smoke alarm goes off, it’s time to clean the oven. Either that or your housemate left greasy foil in the broiler tray. The instructions that come with window air conditioners advise washing the air filters. It’s quicker to vacuum the dust off; takes seconds to do and there’s no waiting for the filter to try. Maxi pads are great for mopping up really nasty liquid spills, such as when the toilet overflows, or someone has bled all over the place. They absorb a lot of liquid, don’t shred, and can be thrown away. They’d probably work for vomit too, if it wasn’t too chunky. There is no substance on earth that tea can’t stain. If there is, I’ve never handled it. (Obviously this does not apply to things that are already brown.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/71 "2006-03-22T23:54:44Z")
For ovens, there’s this thing Mom calls a “cocotte”… It’s just a covered ceramic pot that closes real well and also transfers heat real well. Roasting in them takes exactly the same time as doing it in an uncovered tray, but no grease escapes those cuties. Since neither of us uses temperature-based recipes (it’s always either “so many minutes” or “until it smells good”), there’s no need to open the pot in the oven. You take it out with the cover and then shuffle the cover a bit to let the steam inside escape, before taking it to the table to serve. We got them about 8 years ago. Cleaning the oven has moved from being something you did every time there was roast chicken to “once every year, during spring cleaning, because c’mon, there _has_ to be some dirt in there”, and I only need one or two wipe rags. When we need to use a bigger recipient, it’s a large ceramic tray with high sides and we cover it with aluminum foil. One of those things that leave you wondering “why the heck didn’t I think of this sooner?” ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/72 "2006-03-23T03:38:48Z")
We had a nasty clogging issue with the drains (two long haired people, one of whom is fighting that male-pattern B word thing and failing to prevail) to the point where our own snake broke and we had to call the plumber to get it all moving again. The guy suggested we put a gallon of bleach down the drains once a month or so and it works great–haven’t had a clog in years. The great cleaning related thing is that if you pour the bleach down the walls of the shower on the way to the drain it pretty much removes the need to scrub the thing. Bleach is the bomb–cheap, fairly nontoxic and cleans everything. Whoever invented all the Swiffer stuff deserves a Nobel prize or something–talk about making the world a better place to live! Especially the wet jet thingy, because mopping floors sucks more ass than you’d ever think possible. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/73 "2006-03-23T04:21:05Z")
> [@Martha](#): > > My little quirk, which beats even the most anal excesses of my mother’s obsessive approach to housework, is that when I place washed up cutlery in the drying rack the knives and scissors have to point down and everything else has to be placed pointing up. > > Am I alone? > > Thought not. Of course you put the knives point-down. You get poked if you don’t. Everything else just gets tossed in any-which-way. My quirk is that all of the towels in the linen cabinet have to be placed inside with their folded edges facing outwards. Ditto for handtowels and washcloths. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/74 "2006-03-23T05:29:28Z")
I point the business end of all flatware and such towards the bottom of the dishwasher. I figure that the handles need less direct attention from the jets than the dirty parts do. Things that can’t go in that way, obviously don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/75 "2006-03-23T12:27:08Z")
When you set up your own house, get furniture that is light wood. You will see less dust. Trust me on this as I have mostly light wood furniture in the house and one antique dark wood peice. The antique just shouts out " I am being severely neglected and attacked by dust bunnies!" While the rest of the furniture quietly ignores the Drama Queen in the corner. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/76 "2006-03-23T12:28:20Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > That’s because the dogs have already licked it clean. The dog around here is referred to as the Prewash Cycle for the dishwasher. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/77 "2006-03-23T19:17:19Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Cats can also be very useful for fishing clogs out of drains. Interesting, I never realised you wore them in the shower. Are you of Dutch heritage? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168/78 "2006-03-24T15:12:41Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Interesting, I never realised you wore them in the shower. Are you of Dutch heritage? Why, yes, I am; thanks for asking. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hosekeeping-stuff-your-mother-never-taught-you/349168.md?page=3)