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About Jeff Bredenberg
Jeff Bredenberg is the most lovable guy in rubber gloves you’ll ever meet. He spent the first two decades of his publishing career working for newspapers, primarily writing and editing in features departments in Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and four other cities. He is now an independent writer and editor specializing in how-to and health topics. He has written, edited, or contributed to more than 20 books, including three on the subject of housecleaning. He is a frequent contributor to home-oriented magazines as well.
His How to Cheat at Cleaning research laboratory appears to be—to the untrained eye—a conventional house in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He shares this laboratory with his wife, two sons, three cats, and a woeful number of cat boxes.
Learn more about Jeff
How To Cheat Books
Jeff Bredenberg shares advice about cleaning in America Online’s "Coaching" section, where experts provide advice on a broad range of lifestyle matters. See Jeff’s photo gallery of tricks for hard-to-clean appliances.
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Websites for Non-Cheaters
Cleaning and Stain Removal
Removing tough, hard to clean stains is what this section is all about on Do It Yourself.com. Now you can win the war against stains caused by foods, beverages,
inks, dyes and adhesives.
LifeTips: Cleaning
Browse almost 100,000 tips that make your life better and more fun. Save your favorites. Open a free account and become a TipSaver in our community, and send them to your friends or feed them to your personal page. Compile your favorites in an eBook that you can download for free. We’ll even print and send you a paperback book of tips with your name and a personal message on the cover.
Professional Cleaning Tips
Clean like a pro using these housecleaning tips from House Cleaning Professionals at Mrs. Clean.
Non-Toxic Home Cleaning
Find solutions for non-toxic home cleaners including homemade substitutions and formulas.
CleaningTips.com
CleaningTips.com is comprised of many people who are fanatical about cleaning. Here you can submit cleaning tips, start your own free cleaning blog, discover other cleaning websites, and be a part of a cleaning forum where you can get opinions from others.
Housekeeping Channel
Provides articles, hints, tips, reviews on products, related books and videos, and resources for tools that you need to get the job done. HousekeepingChannel.com exists to help you clean, protect and enhance your home environment using proven processes and practices from cleaning experts, professional cleaning services, environmental service professionals, and organizational and time-management consultants.
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About How to Cheat at Cleaning
Time-slashing Techniques to Cut Corners and Restore Your Sanity
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Part how-to bible and part liberating manifesto, Jeff Bredenberg's How to Cheat at Cleaning rewrites housekeeping rules.
Excerpts from the Book :
Introduction
Perfectionism Is So Overrated
Chapter 1:
Rewriting the Rules Your Mother Taught You
Chapter 4:
Spouse, Kids, Friends, and Hired Professionals
Chapter 5:
Sanitation and Sanity: Kitchens and Bathrooms
A Note from Your Laundry Fairy:
Print this out and post it now!
In How to Cheat at Cleaning, you’ll learn:
• How to clean your kitchen and bathroom in 7 minutes each.
• How to de-clutter even the worst desk in 5 minutes.
• 10 things you can quit cleaning right now.
• About self-cleaning cat boxes and odor-eating light bulbs.
• How to kill germs that lurk in surprising places.
• Why you should quit making the bed—doctor’s orders!
• The awful truth about the 5-Second Rule.
• Why spring cleaning is a bunch of hooey.
• How to quick-fold laundry.
• How to get other people (even your spouse!) to clean instead of you.
Buy It Now: Amazon
Other Books by Jeff Bredenberg |
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• Don't dust anything taller than your tallest friend.
• If you can clean only one room before company arrives, tackle the bathroom. This is the only room where people spend time solo and may have the time and tendency to notice a mess.
• I follow two good tips: Time will fly if you listen to great music, and enlist your family's help.
• My vacuum attachment doesn't work on cloth lamp shades, so I dust the shades with a lint roller.
• My priority is to be a good mom, not to have the perfect house. I picked up a friend's motto: "If you want to see me, come on over. If you want to see my house, call ahead."
• During the week, the rooms that matter most to you are the ones to keep neat. If you worry about all the rooms all the time, you'll spread yourself thin.
Submit your own tips to Jeff.
Homemade Bleach Solution (As discussed in the show!)
Use the following method to disinfect hard, nonporous surfaces at home:
1. Create bleach solution using ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach per gallon of water.
2. Wash, wipe or rinse items/area with water, then apply solution.
3. Let stand 5 minutes.
4. Rinse thoroughly and air dry.
Please note: Do not use Clorox® Regular-Bleach full strength for cleaning surfaces. Always dilute strictly in accordance with label directions. Wear gloves when cleaning for prolonged periods.
Bleach solutions need to be made fresh daily. Once diluted, bleach breaks down quickly-mainly into salt and water. (Ding! Ding! Ding! The answer we were looking for!)
Source: Clorox®
Winner of the Strangest Tip
Make your own furniture polish: take a slab of Spam and
rub it on your wood. Wipe with pantyhose.
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