Perfect Clean Home

Ever wonder how to clean a coffee maker the right way? Drip coffee makers need to be cleaned at least once a month to keep your coffee tasting good.

Cleaning your coffee maker takes away hard water mineral deposits, old oils from previously brewed pots and other impurities that can make your coffee taste bad.

Clean Home

A mixture of 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water is the best way to clean a drip coffee maker. Mix a full pot of the vinegar and water mixture, pour it in your water reservoir and turn the coffee maker on.

Once the mixture has run completely through, it's important to turn the drip coffee maker off and let it cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

Pour the vinegar and water mixture down the drain. If you are cleaning a coffee maker that hasn't been cleaned regularly, repeat this step again with a fresh vinegar and water mixture.

Next, rinse the pot out thoroughly with warm, plain water. Then, fill the water reservoir again with clean water and turn the coffee maker on to start the rinsing process.

To make sure all of the vinegar and water solution is completely gone repeat the rinsing process one more time after letting the pot cool for 15 to 20 minutes.

This is how to clean a coffee maker the right way. Cleaning your drip coffee maker on a monthly basis will make it last longer and keep your coffee tasting the best it can possibly be.

Copyright © 2005 Best-Coffee-Makers-Online.com. All Rights Reserved.

This article is supplied by Best Coffee Makers where you can easily shop and compare coffee makers so you can purchase exactly what you’re looking for at great values.

Hard wood, laminate and tile flooring has returned, as home sellers look for ways to provide more appeal to their homes, as well as increasing the resell value. Others who are simply looking for remodeling projects, are resorting to removing the old wall to wall carpeting and replacing it with alternative flooring. However, for comfort, added colors and textures to home decor, the area rugs have made a come back with pizazz.

The newer rugs are made with an array of colors, textures, styles and fibers. The choice of fibers, should be taken into consideration for comfort, as well as durability. Although, more costly, the best choice for durability is the natural fibers such as wool, cotton, silk and leather. The synthetic materials are hypoallergenic, easy to clean, stain resistant, as well as colorfast. The primary concern should be the area where the new floor covering will be used. High traffic areas should be easy to clean, moisture resistant, as well as slip resistant. The 6 x 9 rug is perfect for use in the bedroom, bath, or as a welcome mat. The 6x9 rugs, with the the variety of pop and contemporary designs, add to the decor as a wall hanging.

Clean Home

The braided and oriental types are made with synthetic and natural fibers, providing a decorative touch. Choosing the cotton fibers is a great choice for the family room, making it more comfortable to lie on. The braided style is not longer a rug consisting of a few intertwined colors. The braided style of rug continues to have the authentic country look, while manufactures have incorporated designs to accommodate the more contemporary look, which will fit with any decor.

The choices of wool types are unlimited. Wool requires a little bit more attention than synthetic materials. A daily vacuuming will suffice for preventing the dust and dirt from becoming embedded. There are spray carpet cleaning foams which work well. Household cleaners, and bleach should not be used on wool, as they may damage the colors and fibers. Although the oriental and Persian tpes are made of wool, they also come in synthetic materials. For a soft plushness, consider those made from New Zealand or Persian wool, which are normally handmade. Regardless of size or fiber, the assortments of rugs will certainly add comfort, and style to any room in the home.

If you are looking for more great info on rugs Dave Gorski recommends: http://www.freshrugs.com

* Easily Scratched!

First we have to understand a little bit of background about LCD screens to know why we should be careful when cleaning. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display; which has crystal molecules sandwiched under layers of polarized panels. These panels are usually made of "plastic-like" polymer materials, and like any plastics they can be easily scratched or gouged, even by just your fingernails! That's why cleaning LCDs requires special care while cleaning compared to the old glass CRT monitors!

Clean Home

* What You'll Need

- rubbing alcohol (aka isopropyl alcohol)

- distilled water (not tap water!)

- A soft cloth (lint-free)

* Steps

1. Dilute the rubbing alcohol into a mix with about 50% alcohol and the rest distilled water.

2. Pour this solution into a spray bottle. Old Windex bottles are good as they spray in a mist pattern with just the right amount to get good coverage on your screen. The spray bottles that squirt a single stream tend to drip solution all over the place.

3. Spray the mix onto a soft lint-free cloth. Old t-shirts and microfiber car wash cloths are both good choices. Large cloths are better since it helps to reduce the risk of leaving streaks on the screen from too much pressure.

4. Gently wipe the cloth on the screen in a circular consistent motion. Apply even pressure to the cloth and be careful not to push too hard, or scrape the screen with your fingernails!

* Suggestions

- Costly products that you buy at the "computer screen cleaning" aisle of your local computer store contain the same basic ingredients of alcohol and water! Some even contain other harmful chemicals such as ethylene glycol, which may be ok on older glass CRT monitors, but should NOT be used on LCD screens! Some of the extra chemicals can also be harmful to the environment and to your health.

- Be sure to use Mineral water! Not tap water; you don't want hard mineral spots on your screen.

- Don't use tissue paper; they will leave lint and spots of paper stuck to your monitor. Also they're too thin, risking damage from your fingernails poking through.

- Don't apply too much solution. If you do, just wipe it off with the cloth and use less.

- You can also use lint-free lens wipes from photography stores, but they're thinner so be careful about your fingernails poking through.

- For a cheap ready-made solution from the store, you can also use CD/DVD cleaner, It's already designed to be plastic-safe, and is a simple solution of about 50% isopropyl alcohol.

* Some Precautions

- Don't use Windex or other glass cleaners! These contain ammonia, which is ok for glass, but WILL hurt your LCD screen!

- Try not to use the really cheap paper towels, like the tough brown ones in public washrooms. They can scratch your screen.

- Be sure to shut down your computer and your monitor, then unplug from the wall. This reduces the risk of electric damage in case you spill some of the solution on components.

- Don't drink isopropyl alcohol! It's toxic!

- If you aren't sure, you can test a small corner of the screen first.

Follow the steps and suggestions above, and your trusty LCD monitor should give you years of clean, clear, trouble-free service.

Johnny Waymire is an entrepreneurial enthusiast that has branched into the internet arena with web sites dedicated to helping consumers make wise decisions when purchasing kitchen appliances and flat panel TVs.

When you think of cooking blue crabs you usually think of heaping them into a huge pot and steaming them alive. Even though I worked in a Crab House for years and that is the method we used to cook the crabs, I still come back to cooking them the way I learned growing up. We would clean them while they were alive and then cook them.

Now, to clean a blue crab while it is still alive you have to be very careful that they do not chomp down on your finger with their claws. To avoid this there are two methods that you can use to slow their reflexes.

Clean Home

1. You can place them in very hot water

2. You can ice them down real good

These two methods will allow you to pick up the crab and not have to worry about being bit.

Cleaning a live blue crab

Once you have them sedated you will need a knife, running water, a huge trash bag and a place to put the clean crabs. Follow these steps to clean the live crab.

1. Lay crab on its back and using the knife remove the apron/abdomen of the crab.

2. Take the knife and insert it through the opening where the apron once was and remove the shell of the crab disposing of it in the trash bag.

3. While rinsing under running water, remove the dead men gills and any guts that were left in the crab, being very careful not to remove any of the white flesh/meat.

4. Usually the face of the crab will come off with the shell but if not be sure to remove the crabs face as well.

5. Do one final rinse under the water and place clean crabs in a bowl and set aside.

With your crabs now clean it is time to cook them.

Cooking blue crabs

Since you know longer have the shell on the crab it takes a lot less time for you to cook the crabs then it normally would. Add water and seasoning (we use J.O. Spice #2 ) to the bottom of the pan and stir. Place lid on the pot and bring it to a boil. Once it starts to boil, place about 10 crabs face down in the juices, cover and let cook for exactly 10 minutes. I like to move them around half way through cooking them to ensure that the juices soak into all the crab's meat.

There you have it! After all that hard work, melt you some butter, get you some vinegar and enjoy your blue crabs.

Audrey grew up on the Chesapeake Bay where her love for Blue Crabs began. Her entire family spends summers together where they clean bushels of crabs and cook them for their annual family "Crab Feast." She has recently taken her love for blue crabs online and you can follow her post, videos, advice and recipes at http://blue-crabs.blogspot.com/

Nobody wants to be taking a shower or a bath, cleaning themselves up, only to look up and see a dirty, scummy shower curtain. Unfortunately, your shower curtain is going to get dirty. Being in such damp conditions and with such soap scum build up - well, you're going to have a dirty shower curtain on your hands. Luckily, there are some things that you can do to clean up your shower curtain.

You can wash your shower curtain in your basic everyday clothes washer. Just use about 1 cup of vinegar and 1 cup of bleach. Then add white towels and a regular amount of your normal laundry detergent and run the machine. Also use some liquid fabric softener. Do not run your machine on hot - plastic shower curtains could melt.

Clean Home

When you're done washing your shower curtain, do not place it in the dryer (again, it could melt). Instead, simply hang it up in its regular place on the shower rod and let it drip dry.

No matter what your shower curtain is made out of, fabric, vinyl, or plastic, you can stick it in the washing machine with a cup of baking soda instead of bleach and vinegar. It is also a good idea to read the label on your shower curtain to check for any warnings or suggestions.

If you soak your shower curtain in salt water, it will prevent mildew (although, it could leave small crystals on your curtain if you use too much salt). Before hanging shower curtains, soak in vinegar or salt water solutions to prevent mold and mildew. To remove mold and mildew, wash in hot soapy water with a little bit of bleach. For plastic curtains, clean with laundry pre-wash spray. Spray along the top, letting it run down to cover the curtain. Allow it to sit for a few minutes, then rinse it off.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and home decor. Her background includes teaching and gardening. For more of her articles on bathroom decor and cleaning tips, please visit Shower Curtains.

Dust seems to be everywhere, especially when you hate to dust. It accumulates in a home at an amazing pace.

Obviously, dusting has to be done. Here's how to keep dusting time down to the bare minimum.

Clean Home

First, always remember to dust top-down. You should always start with cobwebs on the ceiling, then move to fixtures, then high shelves, then tables and furniture, then finally chairs.

The next thing to do in your battle against dust is to break out the vacuum. The floor is your next surface. It seems weird to think of dusting a floor, but when you vacuum that's pretty much what you are doing. When you dust surfaces, all of the dust you remove that doesn't cling to your duster or cloth ends up on the floor. If you vacuum after you dust, you'll keep the dust from resettling on the surfaces in your home.

Another important thing to remember is that dry dust cloths don't do a very good job. In general, they just move the dust around, rather than removing any of it. You should be using a wet dust cloth, not a dry one, so that dust will cling.

When you wet your cloth, wring it back out. The goal is that it will be wet and dust will cling to it. You don't want it sopping wet and making the dust into mud! If the cloth gets too dirty, you may need to change it out or clean it before continuing.

The best idea is to try to cut down the amount of dust that is going to accumulate in your house in the first place. A good air filter will really help cut down on the dust you'll see in your home, as will not smoking in your home. And remember to air out the home every so often. Open your windows and let air flow through, this really helps.

If you are still finding yourself spending a lot of time dusting, or looking at everything you have to dust and giving up, ask yourself if you have a clutter or knickknack issue. If you can't stay on top of your dusting because of too many knickknacks, get rid of some of them. Knickknacks have become clutter when they are hard to maintain and just collecting dust.

In addition to the information on fad diets, read articles on the sugar glider cages and rabbit cage on my blog.

If you are getting ready to sell your home and you want to make it look great and improve the value of your home at the same time, you should look into grout cleaning. Often, grout cleaning is something that is overlooked when people are getting ready to sell their homes, but the payoff is great it they take the time to have grout cleaning done. Tile can look very good or very bad depending on the grout that is between the tiles, so in order to make your tile look great you will want to have grout cleaning performed in your home.

Better Looks:

Clean Home

One reason that grout cleaning can help you add value to your home is because of the way it looks. When people are looking at your home and they see tile that has grout that is moldy or that looks very dirty, they will probably think that the tile is quite old, even if it is not. On the other hand, grout that is clean and looking great can make the tile look newer and make people think that it is worth more. If you want the grout in your home to look its best, you need to have grout cleaning done to make it look great to those who will be viewing your home.

Bad Grout Cleaning Can Cost You:

If you want to add value to your home, you will want to make sure that your grout cleaning is done by a professional in grout cleaning that knows what he or she is doing. You may be tempted to use some do-it-yourself methods on your grout or to use some method of grout cleaning that you heard about on TV. It is important to note that if you mess up when you are grout cleaning, it will probably cost you money. Doing grout cleaning by yourself can lead to ruining the grout or making it look even worse. If you ruin the grout, you may have to have it fixed, which can cost you a great deal of money. If you want to cash in on the benefits of grout cleaning, you should let a professional do the job.

Cleanliness Lets People Know You Care:

Another reason that grout cleaning can add value to your home is that when people see that you care about keeping things clean, they know that you have cared for the home and are more willing to pay more money for it. If a home looks like no one has cared about keeping it clean, even a home of great value can go for a much cheaper price. A home that is kept clean and looks like it has been cared for can get a great deal more money on the market, and grout cleaning is a great way to make your home look clean and cared for. Even if your home is clean, grout that is dirty can make the rest of your home look dirty as well. Grout cleaning is a simple way to help your whole home look clean and cared

Carpet Cleaning of Dallas performs grout cleaning in the Dallas Texas area. http://www.dfwcarpetcleaning.com

If even the thought of cleaning your home is so overwhelming that you put off household cleaning at all. This tutorial is for you.

Is your house in such a mess that you don't invite anyone to come to your house because there is no place to sit and the floor is full of clutter so there is no clear path.

Clean Home

Let's see where should we start? Well, where do your guests first enter your home? What is the first area they see? Probably the living room, so lets start there. First you will need to gather trash bags, storage bins, and a strong need to get this household clean and neat.

Are you still with me? How do we tackle this living room, I see no empty corner anywhere, no sitting surface is empty, and no horizontal tops are clear of clutter. What do you think we should do first?

Yes, you are right. Lets start with trash bag in hand and throw away all the trash. Yes, I see that wrapper sitting on the floor, and that empty chip bag. Be ruthless, pick up every thing that is obviously trash,. Oh yes, take that what do you call it for the thingy that you don't have anymore. Out with it.

Now line up your storage containers or bags or whatever you are using: Mark one for each room of the house, mark one for donations, and possibly one for yard sale. Yes, you may have one container for things that you must keep but don't know what to do with it, one container that's it. You are now ready. Any item that does not belong in the living room goes into one of the bags or containers-yes everything. Remember we already started a trash bag. Starting from the exterior door to interior door leading to the hall or next room. Make fast decisions, the more you think about each item the harder it is to rid yourself of it.

All right we have spent 15 minutes picking things up and what a difference it has made. Now take each container to the proper room, the trash bag goes to the dumpster, the donation bag can go out to shed or car port for now. The room is navigational now, meaning you can actually walk through the room. Great, get out the vacuum and the accessories and start with the top of room and dust the ceiling coming down the walls and dust the tops of the furniture and all the upholstered furniture also. Thirty minutes and you have one room clean and comfortable. The deep cleaning needs to wait a while. The household needed surfaced cleaning before we spend a lot of time in any one room.

Before we go to the next room. Sit down in your favorite chair, and look around you. Looks great doesn't it, feels great too. This is your reward and incentive to move to the next room.

Next lets tackle the bathroom, we will follow the same procedure: trash out first, items that belong in other rooms go there, anything that is not being used is out. Dirty towels and laundry don't belong in the bathroom, unless this is your central dirty laundry collection point, and even then all laundry is in a hamper, not the floor or door knobs, or over the tub. It is looking good, Use your all-purpose cleaning spray and spray down the tub, toilet, and sink, spray the toilet cleaner under the rim, shut the lid. Now get your vacuum and starting at the ceiling work down. Sweep or vacuum the floor being sure to pick up throw rugs first. By now your cleaner has had time to work, wipe out the tub, sink, and outside of the toilet. No real scrubbing needed because your cleaner had time to soften up all the gunk. All that is left is use the toilet brush to swish out the toilet and flush. Use a window cleaner or better use a soft rag with some rubbing alcohol on it and clean the mirror. Two rooms down.

Next the kitchen, collect all dirty dishes and put them in the dishwasher if you have one, if not fill a dish pan with hot soapy water and put the dishes in. Now we will do the same thing as we have done with the other rooms, throw away, put away, give away, or place in the one container to go through later. so far we have about one hour invested and well on the way of having 3 clean rooms. We will continue to work through the house this way until each room is comfortable.

In the bedrooms again we will gather all the trash and pick up any items that do not belong in the bedroom. Next make the bed, pick up any dirty laundry and hang up any clothes that needs hanging in the closet or folded and placed in the drawers. Vacuum and/or sweep the floors.

Maintaining the house is no longer an overwhelming task, true it is not thoroughly and properly cleaned. We have made a great start and now need to schedule your deep cleaning, and make a daily household schedule to keep up what you accomplished today. Once the house is presentable it is so much easier to keep it that way. Clean as you go, and your home will not get out of control and household cleaning is then a manageable skill.

Patricia M. Hines invites you to visit her website at Http://ezhousecleaning.com. This website is about housecleaning, housekeeping, and tips to keep your home, clean and comfortable. Please come and leave any suggestions, tips or comments on the site. Hope to see you soon. Thank You!