Lemon juice or vinegar will remove stains, mildew and grease streaks. Spray or pour the lemon juice or vinegar on the porcelain or tile area, let stand a few minutes and scrub off with a stiff brush. If you would like to disinfect your kitchen or bathroom and do not wish to use bleach, there is an alternative. You can make your own disinfect by combining two cups of water, three tablespoons of liquid soap with twenty or thirty drops of tea tree oil. It’s easy, it works and it will save you money on expensive brand name disinfectants.

Kitchen counters, where food is prepared, stored and enjoyed requires careful cleaning. Spills, splatters and crumbs can build up and collect in places that are not easily noticed. This could encourage harmful bacteria to grow. A great, simple cleaner for your food preparation area is baking soda and water. Sprinkle the soda on your counters and wipe up with a wet cloth or sponge. For stubborn stains, you can make a paste of baking soda and water to soak the stain away. This same paste can be used on stainless steel sinks, food containers, cutting boards and appliances.

Advertising is bombarded with antibacterial this and antibacterial that. Studies have shown that these antibacterial products and hand cleaners do not work any better than plain old soap and water. Antibacterial products can actually increase the risk of spreading bacteria.

There are so many green, money saving products you already have in your home. Here is a tip for cleaning windows without using the window cleaning products you purchase at the store. Try mixing two tablespoons of white vinegar with a gallon of water. Lemon juice or club soda can be substituted for vinegar. Pour the mixture into a spray bottle for easy use. Spray the mixture onto windows and wipe dry with a newspaper. If you don’t like getting newsprint on your hands, you can use packing paper. It is newspaper without the ink and can be purchased inexpensively at storage facilities or moving companies.

Vinegar and baking soda can be used to clean almost anything. Mix either item with a little warm water to make an all-purpose cleaner. With the green scene becoming more and more popular, companies are coming up with products you can purchase instead of making your own at home. Many of these products are non-toxic, biodegradable, and made from renewable resources that do not use petroleum. Whether you mix your own or purchase green products, you will still be using cleaning products without chemicals or toxins.

First, take a look around your home. Determine what areas need addressing and what areas need extra attention. You likely have a ‘catch all’ area where everything from bills to pocket change gets dumped and the kitchen and bathroom probably need some TLC. It is a good idea to prioritize your cleaning goals at this time. In most cases, you will want to focus on the kitchen and bathroom first, followed by living area’s that guests may see and finishing with bedrooms or other private area’s of the home

Next, do a clutter sweep. Walk through each room and remove everything that doesn’t belong. You may be surprised at what a difference this simple step can make. From sweaters left on the couch during movie night, to glasses of water on the bed side table, simply removing all that extra stuff and putting it back in its place is likely to have an impact on how your home looks.

There is no way around the final step of the plan – cleaning. It is during this phase that the dusting, vacuuming, sweeping and mopping will get done. With a little bit of planning, you can clean ‘smart’ and accomplish a lot in just a short amount of time. Here are a few tips:

1. Start a load of laundry and load and start the dishwasher first. These tasks take the longest, and by starting them first, and continuing to address them throughout the cleaning period, there is a pretty good chance you will have a stack of clean laundry and a cupboard full of clean dishes when you finish.
2. Vacuum before dusting –that sounds odd, but the vacuum will actually kick up some extra dust…. which will then settle on to the furniture, so save yourself from having to redust by vacuuming first.
3. Let your cleaning products do their job. If your bath or shower has mold or mildew, spray an appropriate cleaner (be sure to carefully follow directions) at the start of your cleaning session and let the product take care of the mold for you. The same thing goes for oven cleaners and toilet bowl cleansers.
4. Move from room to room – since you have already prioritized which rooms are to be finished, follow your plan and complete each room in turn. Carry your supplies, brooms, mops, buckets and other equipment with you, so as you leave a room, it is completely finished.
5. Carry a garbage bag – it may surprise you just how much garbage you find, even if you regularly clean your house. Keep a large garbage bag with you as you clean to empty small trashcans into and dispose of any other garbage.

Cleaning a house is hard work, so be prepared to put in a little bit of elbow grease. Once you are done, reward yourself with a favorite snack or carryout meal and don’t forget to put all that clean laundry away.

Mustiness often happens in poorly ventilated bathrooms. Even bathrooms with proper intake and outtake vents get very damp and develop musty smells. In bathrooms that have windows, keeping a window open before and after showers can help reduce the humidity in bathrooms that leads to musty odors. If there is no window, consider a small desk fan that can be set on the floor or on the counter area (always use caution using electrical equipment near water sources!). A fan can help circulate and cool air in a humid room and will reduce mustiness. This can also serve as a preventative measure, as once musty odors sink into bathroom counters made of wood, it can become much harder to remove that smell.

Sometimes bathroom odors stem from mildew that occurs naturally in a damp, warm environment. There are many cleaners on the market that are made specifically to combat mildew in bathrooms. Be sure to clean carefully in corners of showers and along grout lines to remove all the mildew from the bath and shower area. Even a small amount can create that musty odor. Keep the toilet clean as well. Though mildew is not a common toilet problem, an unclean toilet can only contribute to an odor problem. All kinds of cleaners for toilets crowd the shelves, including some disposable and flushable items.

If you notice mildew in your bathroom, check to make sure it has not spread to items like your shower curtain. If it has, launder the shower curtain, or clean it to manufacturer specifications. Washable shower liners are helpful, especially if you have a vinyl shower curtain where mildew can be harder to remove. The shower liner stands between the bathtub and the shower curtain and can be easily washed. Some are inexpensive enough to dispose of and replace if mildew develops. Even better, many shower curtains and shower liners come pre-treated to combat certain types of bacteria that can cause mildew. Investing in one of these types of curtains can help reduce musty smells in your bathroom.

Sometimes the musty smell can get into towels, which can be an aggravating problem. White towels can be laundered in hot water with bleach, following product recommendations, and this often removes the smell. Colored towels are trickier, but many have found that when colored towels are laundered in hot water with a cup of white vinegar added along with laundry detergent, it knocks the smell right out of colored towels. Vinegar also has the added benefit of removing detergent build up not only in the towels but in the washing machine itself. Removing that build up will get towels cleaner and the cleaner they are, the less musty they will smell.

The best solution is the simplest — don’t let your shower door get dirty. Wipe it down every day. The easiest way to make sure this happens is to keep a plastic squeegee inside the shower door. Some of them even come with little suction cups so you can hang them up.

Make it part of your daily routine to use that squeegee after your shower. It just takes a second, and it really pays off. Then, when you get out of the shower, leave the shower door open a crack. This will let air circulate and keep away the mildew.

Even with the daily wipe-down, you should clean the shower (including the door) once a week. A regular glass cleaner should work just fine, if you’ve followed this simple daily routine. If the door has a metal rim, it can be cleaned using a mild detergent and water. Lemon oil, if used afterwards, can add a real sparkle; just remember that a tiny drop goes a long, long way.

Also, remember to check the caulk while you’re cleaning the door. If any of it has broken away or developed cracks, it needs to be replaced quickly before any water damage occurs.

Fortunately, with the new squeezable caulk-containers, it’s easy to reapply; just squeeze it out like toothpaste, then go over it with a plastic spoon to smooth it.

Now, if you didn’t quite follow a basic maintenance routine… here are a few suggestions for dealing with the (often ugly!) results.

Does your shower door have built-up soap scum? There’s a simple solution for that which you probably already have in your pantry… white vinegar! It works very well on soap scum due to its high acidity.

Apply, let it sit for a few minutes, and then give it a scrub. Just ensure that you rinse it all away after you’re done.

Another great option to try on soap scum is adding just a touch of liquid fabric softener to water and applying that onto the soap scum. Let it sit for a minute and then scrub and rinse.

If the gunk on your shower door is extremely built up and you’d like to use some kind of a mild abrasive, tooth paste works surprisingly well. Remember, you’re working with glass, so you don’t want to use the same kind of harsh abrasive that would be okay in the tub or on the tile floor.

In any of these cases, remember that just because a cleanser can be used on glass doesn’t mean it should be left on the metal rim of the door or the tile floor of the shower. Ensure that you rinse well, in any case, and treat your shower door with care.

Precautions that must be taken
The first thing that you should do for precaution is identify the places where mold and mildew are most likely to grow. These places would be the ones mentioned earlier in the article. Now that you already know what those places are, you have to do your best to keep them dry and clean most of the time. You have to keep in mind that molds grow everywhere but that mildew only flourishes in environments that contain warm temperatures and high humidity levels. Therefore it is important to keep these places dry. You need to keep these places clean because soil and dirty articles are food supply for mildew creating its growth. You don’t want to be feeding your own enemy without knowing it. In your kitchen make sure you clean all greasy stains on the wall because those stains contain nutrients for mildew and molds. You must keep all these places in your home spotless so that you don’t invite these unpleasant visitors.

The Basics
From the beginning, I have said that in a home there will not be any mold or mildew if there is no source of moisture. That brings us to the basic rule of mildew prevention which is to always seek areas that are too moist. If you seek these moist areas and keep them dry you will not have mold or mildew problems. Many basements are continually wet from leaking so you will be obligated to replace the defective mortar and make sure that the outside drainage is proper. If you have a dryer in your basement and it is equipped with a vent make sure it is exhausted to the outside so that it removes all the moist air. Do the best you can in removing all the dampness out of your house by heating for a small amount of time. Also always open the windows and doors to let out the humidity in the air. When preventing mildew, an exhaust fan would be very helpful as well.

A properly installed air-conditioning system will cool the air and extract the moisture in warm air. This system would take the warm air and circulate with cool air creating dry air into the room. If you were to attach a humidistat on to the thermostat to control humidity, it will work together with the air-conditioning system to remove moisture effectively and efficiently. Sometimes, just opening your doors and windows is not enough and that’s when you have to get an electric fan or an air-conditioning system to remove the moisture from your house. It’s the only way to prevent mildew and mold from growing.

Mildew Odor
Once you smell musty odors in your home you already know there is either mildew or mold growing in your house. When the mold or mildew is not noticeable you can look for it by smelling bad odors. Try getting rid of the bad odor as soon as possible so that mildew or mold won’t flourish any faster with the Aroma Pill from Method Products. The aroma pill is installed in a socket and in a few minutes the odor will be gone and it also kills any germs or bacteria in the air. If perhaps the bad odor does not go away with the aroma pill then you will have to call a professional.

Be smart and take precautions before you have mold or mildew living in your house with you. It’s better to be prepared for the unexpected.