Spotless

A listener calls the Spotline with something she called a "Cleaning Horror Story." She was NOT exaggerating. Hanna and Andrew try to help her out, and they hear from someone with some pretty strong opinions about mattress covers.

Hanna and Andrew are gobsmacked to discover something about Andrew's beloved Pine-Sol, and a listener gets anxious when she finds out her husband is taking on a very messy project. Plus, cleaning with citric acid? Who knew?!?

Hanna and Andrew receive a very surprising solution to deodorant build-up on t-shirts by way of the auto-parts store. Hanna discovers the antiquated but fascinating "SHE System" for coordinating household tasks. And a listener needs some serious relationship advice after discovering a dirty stock pot.

Hanna and Andrew stumble on the official cleaning grades that landlords give their tenants...and the grade that Hanna's landlord gave her! Plus, the Scrub Jockeys share their incredibly colorful ways of creating to-do lists for themselves. 

This has been one hell of a week — and we've got the organized living spaces to show for it. Why do people clean when they're anxious, anyways? Plus, Hanna moved into a new place, which means lots of new cleaning opportunities.

A professional cleaner weighs-in on the smelliest bugs to avoid vacuuming up, Hanna's mom has a very aggressive remedy to finding a mystery smell in a stinky house, and a 4-year-old Scrub Jockey shares her cleaning-inspired songs. 

Hanna and Andrew try to solve the mystery surrounding a listener's new stinky house smell. Plus, a Scrub Jockey stumbles on her own leather-shoe cleaning lifehack, and Spotless' #2 fan has a very disturbing experience with her cat's water dish. 

The Scrub Jockeys offer all kinds of helpful advice this week, including how to build your own reusable kitchen rag dispenser and how to call into a podcast while riding your bike through the busy streets of Boston. Plus, Hanna's mom wants no part of a paper towel advertising campaign!   

What kind of cleaner are you? A Scrub Jockey's advertising project has Hanna and Andrew exploring the idea of "cleaning archetypes" -- from "The Perfectionist" to "The Putterer." They also learn that the New York Times is straight-up stealing their whole deal.

Listeners offer advice to those haunted by hard water stains, and a certified Tall Person solves her age-old problem with brooms that are too short for her. Plus, what happens when you use your favorite Mariah Carey perfume to cover up the smell of raw sewage? Unfortunately, we find out.

Hanna and Andrew wrestle over the idea of "Hygiene Theater" during the pandemic: Are all our deep-cleaning measures really necessary, asks one Atlantic  writer? Plus, Andrew has a container problem that's almost as big as he is, and Hanna has a very gross scene from The Office  that she wants to help clean up. 

Hanna and Andrew both faced uphill battles this week, one involving ants, the other involving some very bad dish-washing decisions. Plus, a listener asks for shower-cleaning help, but accidentally offers help instead. And "Rated C For Clean" returns in the form of a bloody cleanup scene from HBO's True Blood.

Andrew has had many household adventures since we last spoke, including a disgusting laundry room discovery, an even more disgusting vacuum situation, and an in-depth analysis of modern ice-trays. Plus, Hanna's been melting toothbrushes and raking carpets. 

Hanna and Andrew try to help a Scrub Jockey with her bathroom issues (um, her bathroom SINK issues.) We also hear a horror story about the dangers of keeping garbage in the freezer, and a listener remembers growing up with an old-fashioned wringer washer. 

Hanna helps a listener figure out what in the heck we can safely put into our garbage disposals, while Andrew tries to figure out what we're supposed to do with the stupid ice packs that come with meal delivery kits. 

Andrew is impressed with a new kitchen-cleaning gadget, but he and Hanna try to make it a little less sexist. Meanwhile, the Scrub Jockeys offer some critical insights into the Great Pink Slime Mystery, Andrew's ice dream turns into an ice nightmare, and Hanna tries to help a listener make a bidet more okay with the help of a....poop brush? Oh dear. 

Hanna and Andrew get all sciency as they try to figure out why Seattle is the Pink Slime Capitol Of The World...and what local Scrub Jockeys can do about it. They also learn about a cleaning product that promises not to explode when you use it. 

Hanna and Andrew try to help a Scrub Jockey reach Cleaning Nirvana with a little help from local libraries. Plus, we hear a washing machine horror story with a happy ending, and  Hanna's sister weighs-in on The Mystery Of The Weird Mr. Clean Spray Bottle . 

A listener has a flower-related cleaning problem that is much more common than Hanna and Andrew thought. Plus, Hanna tries to repair the relationship between a woman and her favorite laundry product, which may have betrayed her. And we turn to Webster's dictionary to uncover some sanitation secrets. 

Hanna and her family are ALL IN on a new type of towel (well, new to them anyway.) And Andrew looks for answers to the big questions of 2020, like "What is a 'deep clean', anyway?" and "Do we need to disinfect our groceries?"

What do you do when there are no more cleaning products left in the grocery store, except one weird-ass bottle of something you've never seen before? Well, you buy it, and then you call the Spot Line for help! Hanna and Andrew help listeners navigate this and other cleaning situations unique to the age of self-quarantine.

Hanna offers some helpful advice to a jittery nation that is suddenly obsessed with cleaning and sanitizing. We also hear an absolute horror story about a listener's inherited workspace. And Bob Villa (dot com) tries to help those cursed with bathroom carpeting. 

We hear stories of unclogging ducts, de-molding air conditioners, and fixing towels that have lost some of their absorption powers. Also, Andrew gives the AnyList app a spin around the grocery store and reports back with a full review. 

Hanna and Andrew get a lot of advice from the Scrub Jockeys today, including how to "vibe" into a grocery store and the best way to find tiny objects that have fallen to the floor. They also try to help  a listener get decades-old soot off of his fireplace mantel. And Hanna wants to form an indoor soccer team called The Seattle Suds. 

The Scrubjockeys SHOWED UP this week with advice on teaching kids to clean up, why its easy to live without a microwave, and some critical front-loading washer tips. And Hanna and Andrew are accused of ignoring a critical component in their cleaning routines.