Four tips for home care, from vacuuming your mattress to … cleaning your dishwasher?

I am fairly tidy. I stay on top of vacuuming and laundry; I wipe down counters and sinks. But when it comes to appliances and structural issues at home, I don’t know a thing. If you told me my AC was run by a family of small penguins who blow cold air through the vents, I probably wouldn’t believe you, but nor would I have a better explanation.

Enter: Kyshawn Lane, the man behind the wildly popular Instagram account Weekly Home Check. Every week, Lane posts videos about how to care for your home and the things in it. In a calm, encouraging voice, he demonstrates how to weather-strip your doors or label your electrical circuit breaker box.

Lane knows that most of this information is not intuitive. He bought his first home, a 100-year-old house, in 2021. Lane’s family had rented when he was growing up, so he wasn’t used to all the maintenance that comes with owning a house.

“I didn’t have much training in how to care for a home,” he says. “I just knocked on the super’s door when something went wrong.”

Lane decided to teach himself how to care for his new property. He read books on the topic and attended what he called “YouTube University” (ie watching a lot of home-maintenance videos) and realized these skills could save him from paying contractor fees.

Lane and his partner drew up a 52-week checklist for home maintenance. They found it so helpful that they started sharing tips on Instagram. The first video, in June 2023, was about the importance of having a fire extinguisher in the house. Six months later, they had over a million followers.

“The content resonated with so many people, whether you were a renter or a seasoned homeowner or a first-time homeowner,” he says. “If you treat your home well, it will repay you in so much love and care and comfort.”

I wanted to treat my home well. I wanted love and comfort, and for my appliances to work properly – and to appear as calm and competent as Lane. Over the phone, he outlined four basic-home maintenance tasks I could start with.

Flush your drains

The drain in my bathroom sink hasn’t been working properly. Maybe it was the earring I lost in there, the hair I always seem to be shedding or the multiple birth control and SSRI pills I have accidentally dropped into its depths.

To address this, I need two very basic ingredients. As I will come to find out, there’s almost nothing they can’t do. “Vinegar and baking soda in a home will change your life,” Lane says.

According to Lane’s video, I should pour ½ cup of baking soda down the drain, followed by about ¼ cup of vinegar, and cover the drain opening with a wet towel to trap the reaction. After 10-15 minutes, flush everything out with boiling water. Lane suggests repeating this every two to three months to clear out any grease and hair that accumulates.

One afternoon, I set a small pot of water on the stove to boil, grab baking soda, vinegar, measuring cups and a towel and head to the bathroom.

I pour the mixture down the drain and let it sit, and then I return with the boiling water. I remove the towel and pour the water into the sink, but to my horror, it just sits there. The baking soda and vinegar have not cleared the drain; they seem to have further clogged it. I wonder how I’m going to break it to my partner and to my beloved building maintenance team. I pace nervously. After several minutes, I hear loud gurgling and gulping sounds from the bathroom. I rush to the sink, which is now empty, the water sucked down into the pipes. I run more water, which rushes quickly and smoothly away.

I brag to my partner about the unclogged drain, and leave out the part where I thought I had ruined our pipes.

Film everything you own

Lane’s next tip was to film a home-inventory video. This is important for both homeowners and renters, he explains: in the case of a major disaster, like flooding or a fire, having a record of your possessions can help when filing claims with both homeowner’s and renter’s insurance. (Insurers have different requirements for claims, so it’s important to talk to your insurance company before making your inventory.)

I take my phone and dutifully film my whole apartment, opening every closet, cabinet and drawer. My cat follows me around, captivated, and climbs into every closet, cabinet and drawer, making it almost impossible to see their contents. My video is six minutes long, and the only thing I can prove I own is a camera-thirsty black cat.

Rotate and clean your mattress

In his week eight video, Lane recommends mattress maintenance: specifically, rotating it 180 degrees to prevent sagging, and vacuuming the mattress to remove the dust, dead skin and allergens that can accumulate on its surface. He suggests doing this twice a year.

I strip the bed, rotate the mattress, vacuum it, and report my progress to my partner, who is at work. “Sick,” he texts back. I thump down onto the newly primped mattress. It feels the same, but I enjoy knowing I’m not stretched across a bunch of dead skin. Also, it forced me to wash my sheets.

Deep-clean your dishwasher

“People don’t know how much maintenance goes into appliances,” Lane tells me. “People don’t know dishwashers need to be cleaned!”

“Wow,” I say, having never once considered cleaning my dishwasher.

Lane breaks down the process in a video: take out the dishes, remove the dishwasher racks, spray arm and filters. One tip is to film yourself doing this so you don’t forget the order in which these all sit. Clean them all in the sink. Then, spray the inside of the washer with vinegar, and wipe it down with a damp microfiber towel. “Pay attention to the edges and the soap dispensers, as this is where a lot of the gunk and build-up happens,” he says in the video. Then replace all the parts, and run a normal cycle. Lane suggests repeating this every one to three months.

I hate this task the most. Taking out the racks, spray arm and filter is surprisingly easy. But I hate looking at the filter, and wish I could go back to not knowing it exists. The gunk on it looks like dryer lint, but wet. Gross. When I spray vinegar into the interior, it combines with the stale water to create a noxious bouquet that reminds me of a pubescent armpit. I wipe it down, replace the racks, and run a cycle.

Afterwards, I make my partner admire my work. “I don’t think you have to wash the dishwasher,” he says.

Will I repeat this in another month or three? Probably not. I like knowing that I can do it, though. And rotating my mattress and cleaning my drains is easy enough. Overall, I consider my home-maintenance experiment a success. I even have a lovely six-minute long video of my cat now.