Life: Cleaning continued - Glass Stop Top

When I moved in the stove already had dark rings around the burner area. Like the smaller one in the picture below:

Over time, it became like the one you see in the larger burner. I have a pan that is larger than the burner thus the larger circle. I tried to keep it clean by using a sponge and water but the burn marks just become larger and dark. In the picture is about a year's worth of cooking prior to my attempt to clean with baking soda.

In the picture you can see on the left side that it is already partially cleaned and some white streaks. That is because I already started testing with the baking soda. The white residue appears much clearer with flash which I cannot see as clearly with my eyes.

Below you can see that I am already half done with the burner.

If you do this on a somewhat regular basis, you can probably remove the grime with just a sponge. Mine is rather caked onto the top, so I used a screwdriver. I did not have a razor like one of the videos below, but the screwdriver worked very nicely still. I was very careful not to scratch the surface. The scratch marks you see in the picture was already there just from regular cooking.

I had used baking soda and let it sit on it overnight. This made it easier to scrape the grime off. I tried the same method on an area I didn't apply baking soda and it barely removed anything. I also tried to reuse the baking soda, but it was much less effective.

I may have been able to just use a sponge over multiple days because the baking soda does get dirty. It would have take many days for me because you can barely see the difference with just manual force.

Reference

Mike Gandy (with a razor blade) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L83W1vv6lk
 - I like this video the most because this was more similar to my situation. The grime in the other videos were much simpler to remove.
Simone Smith (her attempt with some humor, also not a glass stove top) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OmHC8LuYeE
Bella Peters - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrCxp3Twuyc
Clean My Space (where I learn a lot of cleaning tips) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjVxtKgy8gI

Life: Cleaning Around the Washer's Door - Second Attempt

I spent quite some time watching videos on cleaning. One of the techniques that I tried to replicate was cleaning using baking soda and vinegar. Baking soda has made cleaning much easier on the tougher stuff that were greasy especially the range hood.

So, I tried this on the washer door again. I had attempted this once and was not very successful (see post link below). As you can see in the pictures, I was only able to clean certain areas where I can rub it down with a paper towel.

This time I tried to use baking soda on the right side. I used fantastik Scrubbing Bubbles bleach 5-in-1 all purpose clean on the left. I let both sit there for about 30 minutes. I tried to use paper towel to wipe it down but did not appear to be any easier.

The next day, an idea suddenly dawned on me to try to use a screwdriver. I did not even have to scratch all the mess out. I am not sure if it was because of cleaning agents or if it was usually that easy to remove since it was equally easy near the left and right hinge, as well as the part in between which was not exposed to either agents. (I felt pretty stupid not having thought of this earlier)

Once I was able to remove the stuff (which was incredibly disgusting), I noticed it was just a wet chunk of lint and probably some other stuff. Even knowing that, I still did not want to touch it even with my gloves on. But, the washer now looks much cleaner.

You can kind of see that it is much cleaner across the top.

Here you can see that it much cleaner than the similar picture from the other post. I used the fantastik Scrubbing Bubbles.

Here you can also see that it is much cleaner than last time. I used ordinary baking soda with water (soaked for 30 minutes).

This view is not great to see that it is cleaner around the hinge, but you can see door itself is much cleaner. I used fantastik on the door to clean. It does not look as dirty before but I had to use several paper towels to clean the door.

Same as the previous picture, this view does not show how much cleaner it became. Also same as the previous picture, the door is much cleaner.

I am not exactly sure how to clean around the corners or edges. The left side is a little dirtier which I think is more because I am right handed so was difficult to get around the gaps. I also found that cleaning every week also removes some stains that was not easy to remove in the past. While some stains just slowly clear up over time. Somehow, this keeps me to stay cleaner. 

I just noticed today that my hands are much drier than usual because my hands used to not be dry at all. I have only used gloves since using baking soda and fantastik. I have been cleaning with just paper towels and Kaboom with the power of Oxi Clean before. I do not know if that is the cause. I'll have to note as I continue to use the gloves because it may just be because I wash my hands way more frequently than I did in the past too. 

The next project is to figure out how to remove the stains from the bottom of the toilet seats. I tried baking soda and both all purpose cleaners. None seems to fade the stain.

Most of these were leftover from the owner prior to my renting the unit so I am not sure what caused some of these uncleanliness. I am sure these are things that were accumulated over several years. I plan to have my own place eventually and figured to use this opportunity how clean certain appliances... just in-case I somehow screw something up. I find that it is just easier to clean things on a weekly or every two weeks (maybe once a month). Weekly is easiest to maintain the habit though. 

Reference:
http://douglastclee.blogspot.com/2014/01/life-cleaning-around-washers-door.html

Life: Cleaning and Gutting a Fish

Today, I accidentally bought a fish that was not scaled nor gutted. I had a general idea on how to do this by watching others (mostly my mother). Take a knife and rub against the direction of the scales. Cut the bottom of the fish, and take out the innards.

What you don't learn from watching is how slippery the fish is, how far the scales will pop if you haven't done it before, and wondering if I'm bruising the fish because I am grabbing it pretty hard. When taking out the innards, I didn't know what from what so I just removed everything that was removable and not familiar from eating whole fish before.

The whole ordeal probably took my about 30-40 minutes including reading an article on how to clean, scale, and gut a fish.

Most places will do this for you. I'm not sure if the place I bought the fish did it because typically they have already been scaled and gutted or they do it before giving it to you or they ask if you want them to do it... hence I didn't give it a second though.


Reference
http://fishcooking.about.com/od/wholefishrecipes/ss/gut_and_scale.htm

Fish
Bronzini fish

Life: Cleaning Around the Washer's Door?

In my attempt to be cleaner, I reached my washer and dryer. There is a lot of dirty stuff between the washer's door and where it connects to the rest of the washer. I am unable to reach in the opening with a paper towel which requires a lot of scrubbing. I've already cleaned most of the front which took quite a lot of force to clean off.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find something helpful on google (not sure if I'm using the right keywords like washer vs washing machine). I'm going to try slowly scrub away at it over time and hope that helps (which seems to help with the stove).