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The best way to help a family member or friend declutter their home is to hire a professional organizer or cleaner to do it for them. However, you can also help them make a plan to tackle the clutter. Sit down with them and sort through the items, making piles of what to keep, toss, and donate. Focus on one area at a time to avoid overwhelming them. If they have trouble letting go of some items, ask them when they last used each item, what its purpose is, and whether it has sentimental value. The answers to these questions can help you advise them on handling clutter.

You can use dish soap mixed with warm water to clean just about any type of flooring, and while vinegar is a great addition to some floor cleaners, it’s not a good idea to use it on wood flooring or engineered wood flooring. Vinegar is very acidic, and it can gradually eat away at the protective finish on wood floors. If you’re cleaning laminate, tile, concrete, or vinyl floors, feel free to use vinegar and water in a 1-to-1 ratio with a few drops of dish soap. For wood floors, substitute the vinegar for olive oil.

If it’s been a while between cleanings, then further elbow grease is needed. To help with caked- on stains, create a solution of distilled vinegar and water, then soak the rough side of the sponge and scrub.

Most washing machines will not remove gum. In fact, running an item with gum on it through a washing machine will make the matter worse. The combination of water, movement, and detergent can cause the gum to break down. Instead of it remaining in one piece, the gum can spread and stick to other items during the wash cycle. If you’re lucky, the gum will stay in the pocket it was left in, so you only have one item to fix.