SPRING CLEANING: Some recommended items. First, Barkeeper’s Friend. I love this stuff — it cleans almost everything well, and in particular I go over our stoneware with it every now and then to remove knife marks and make it look like new. It’ll even get the carbon buildup off of chrome exhaust tips.

Also, the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is so awesome that when I mentioned it at the BlogNashville conference I got spontaneous applause. Good for baseboards, nasty messes — when the InstaDaughter was young, it got dried red nailpolish off of white bathroom cabinet doors without hurting the finish of the doors — and all kinds of other stuff. It’s good for cleaning creosote off glass fireplace screens, cuts the scum off of shower curtains and bathtubs, and, really, does a great job on almost everything.

And our Bissell carpet spotcleaner has paid for itself several times over, to the great sorrow of the folks at Stanley Steemer. Recently, some workmen in our house left ground-in dirt that the InstaWife was sure had ruined the carpet, but I had it out in minutes. We had a Hoover SteamVac some years ago, but this thing cleans much better — I don’t know if it’s the gadget, or the cleaning solution, but whatever it is, it’s impressive.