Holiday cleaning tips

With the holidays just around the corner, lots of people are planning to entertain or have houseguests. You want your home to look its best. To that end, we offer some of our favorite cleaning tips to help you get through the season with a bit less stress and your home no worse for the wear.

Candle wax cleanups

At this time of year, folks use lots of candles. Their glow is warm, festive and romantic, but candle wax is a pain to get out when it drips on your carpet.

If that happens, you have two options: Chill it with an ice cube and scrape it off with the edge of a butter knife, or cover it with a paper towel or brown paper bag and gently run a warm iron over it. Start with a fairly low temperature and keep checking and increasing as you go along.

Ovens that self-clean

Part of the "good life" is having appliances that do the work for you, like self-cleaning ovens. Sometimes people want to give them a little help with a commercial oven cleaner and a good hand-scrubbing, but it's not the right thing to do.

Chemicals can pit and ruin the porcelain surface, and when the oven reaches 850 or 900 degrees during the high-heat self-cleaning cycle, chunks of porcelain as big as 6 inches across can start popping off the oven walls.

Put away the cleaner and rubber gloves and relax while your oven self-cleans. Once it's done what it's supposed to do, wipe up the carbon ash residue with a damp cloth. It's less work, more fun and won't damage your oven.

Removing white rings

It never fails. Sooner or later during a holiday party or large gathering, somebody is going to set a wet glass on your fine furniture and leave it there long enough to create a nasty white ring.

First, remember the stain is in the waxed finish, not the wood. Here's how to get it out. Make sure the surface is clean and dry, then place a small amount of mayonnaise directly on the ring. Cover the area with a piece of plastic wrap and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

Remove the wrap and lightly rub the mayo into the finish using a nylon scouring pad, working with the grain. Then wipe up the remaining mayo with a soft cloth and restore luster to the area with some lemon oil or paste wax. The white ring will be gone.

These cleaning tips have not been tested by Southeast Missourian staff.