Who Likes It Dirty? Rethinking What Clean Really Means

Let's Clear Something Up

The Fizz Is Not the Cleaning

Two children lean over a small plastic container, watching a baking soda and vinegar reaction

There may be no cleaning combination with better public relations than vinegar and baking soda. Pour one on top of the other and your sink suddenly puts on a show. It fizzes. It foams. It hisses. Something is very clearly happening.

View Post

A grey heron stands at the edge of the water, waiting.

View Post

How People Actually Do This

The Hardest Part of Cleaning Is Waiting

One of the hardest things to do while cleaning is nothing. Spray the shower wall and wait. Spray the stovetop and wait. Put cleaner in the toilet and walk away.

View Post

A white painted baseboard where it meets a dark wood floor

View Post

Let's Clear Something Up

Why Do Houses Have Baseboards?

I think about baseboards all the time, but mostly because of cleaning. They collect dust. They get scuffed. Vacuums bang into them. A room can look clean until you notice…

View Post

A cut glass bowl of faded potpourri on a painted surface

View Post

Let's Clear Something Up

Whatever Happened to Potpourri?

There was a time when a perfectly respectable bowl in a perfectly respectable living room might contain pinecones, wood shavings, dried rosebuds, curls of orange peel and several other things…

View Post

Pale bleach marks on a gray towel where the color has changed

View Post

Let's Clear Something Up

Bleach Makes Things Disappear

By Robin Murphy Bleach has a reputation. I’ve had plenty of people ask whether we use it, and the question usually comes up when they’re talking about something they consider…

View Post

Black glove floating in a bathtub of clear water, seen from above

View Post

Let's Clear Something Up

Your Bathroom Gets Dirty Because You Get Clean

Soap and water went into the shower to get you clean. Together they made something that wasn't there before. A lot of bathroom dirt isn't tracked in. It's manufactured on site.

View Post

A vintage Brillo box advertising a new lemon scent

View Post

The House Has a Mood

How Lemon Became the Smell of Clean

Clean didn’t always smell like lemons. So how did a fruit become shorthand for a freshly cleaned house? The answer is hiding in the cleaning aisle.

View Post

View Post

The House Has a Mood

Why Clean Sheets Feel So Good

The room looks almost exactly the same. But getting into a bed with freshly washed sheets feels completely different. Few household jobs deliver so much pleasure for something nobody else can even see.

View Post