A mix of vinegar and baking soda is a popular DIY cleaner – but it’s really inefficient. A chemist explains why you should reconsider using this fizzy mixture.
Who does what chore can be a major source of tension in many households. Our survey of same-sex couples and their routines revealed four key strategies that can help lighten the load for everyone.
Smoke can get in around windows and doors.
AP Photo/Reed Saxon
Wildfire smoke, even from fires far away, carries potentially harmful gases that, once inside, tend to stick around. An air quality specialist offers an easy, cheap, effective way to deal with it.
Long-term tidiness can require a consistent approach to keeping chaos at bay. But your possessions don’t have to control your life. New research is showing how tidy people maintain their homes.
Yep, when you’ve finished, both of those need to go in the wash.
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UV lights come in a variety of different wavelengths, but not all are equally effective at disinfection. Researchers tested a number of commercially available lights to find the best.
Carey Wilson, The University of Melbourne and Thibault Renoir, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Early reports suggested an apparent increase in OCD relapse rates and symptom severity during the pandemic. But a year on, we’re learning this may not be the case.
A deep clean involves cleaning objects or surfaces that may not be routinely cleaned, such as walls, ventilation ducts, curtains, carpets, and hard-to-reach places.
The outsourcing of domestic work contributes to the race, class and gender stereotypes of domestic work. It has neither elevated the status nor improved the working conditions of domestic workers.
What once looked like obsessive-compulsive disorder has become normal when faced with a deadly pandemic.
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Many of our cleaners have neither the time nor the resources to do the job properly, yet some do the job really well. The difference points to a way forward.
How many times a day do you use soap?
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With hand-washing top of mind, soap is an integral part of keeping clean. But people through the ages relied on earlier forms of soap more for cleaning objects than for personal hygiene.
Sunlight, ventilation and relative humidity all affect the microbiome of indoor spaces.
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We spend 90% of our lives indoors, and every building has its own indoor microbiome. Can we learn to manage them in ways that support helpful microbes and suppress harmful ones?