Toni tips: Protect your socks and clean them effectively

Good morning again. It's your neighborhood friendly nightmare here with some extra cleaning tips.

Disappearing socks

We all know that there is a portal on the back of every dryer that sucks at least one sock per pair into your vacuum cleaner on each cycle.

I don't know enough about sorcery to teach you how to close this portal, but I have a trick to counteract its effects.

I had known for years that after countless losses I had to buy a laundry bag for my delicate clothes: fragile clothes, tangled and torn by the reckless whirls of the washer and dryer. I finally bought a bunch recently and that's when this tip came to me.

Instead of throwing my socks in the laundry basket at the end of the day, I now put them straight into a laundry bag. They are all washed and dried together, then sorted and stored.

It sounds so simple, but it was a game changer.

Do you have any tips on using laundry bags? Do you hate laundry bags? They hate me. Send anything you want to tpennello@timesleader.com.

Order of operations

Here is one that can attract the wrath of skilled cleaners.

Not because it's a bad system, but because it's pretty obvious. It took me some time to figure it out on my own so it's not as obvious as it sounds or it takes me a particularly long time to figure things out. Who knows? Either way, here's the kicker.

In what order do you clean?

You may think it doesn't matter. But the correct order can make cleaning up a lot easier and with better results.

• Clean from top to bottom . You don't want to sweep the floor until you've cleaned the table because everything on the table will go to the floor and you will only have to sweep one more time. And, for God's sake, don't mop the floor until you're absolutely sure you're done with everything else. There is nothing more conceited than to find that there are a lot of crumbs stuck to your wet floor.

• It is also important to choose and adhere to a horizontal cleaning direction. It doesn't matter if you go clockwise or counterclockwise, but choose what works for you and get used to it. You run a lot fewer errands and can more easily focus on the surfaces within reach.

• Remove dust from the surface to be cleaned before adding liquid detergent. Once the dust gets wet and the surface is cleaned, it begins to form and becomes more difficult to remove.

• This is pretty obvious, but always sweep before wiping. For the same reason, it's a good idea to dust off before using any liquids.

• I have a gas stove so it is a little difficult to clean. Sometimes I let it go too long (I know, I know) and I end up with a lot of oily, burnt and other crumbs. I always tried to pick up dirt when cleaning the oven and that was a problem. Then I started sweeping everything on the floor and then cleaning both (why did I do that?). Now I've hit it with a relatively inexpensive handheld vacuum cleaner. It works like a thousand miracles. Bonus points if you can scratch stuck objects with the accessories. Be careful not to suck up a lot of other things as it will likely get quite greasy. I use this vacuum cleaner to vacuum up stubborn cat litter because I don't want to do that with my main vacuum cleaner either.

What have I missed? Let me know by emailing tpennello@timesleader.com.

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