One of the principles of efficient cleaning is to tailor your effort to where it's needed. Sometimes breaking down a task into it's parts helps accomplish this. Take cleaning steel sinks as an example. The really gunked up stuff tends to be on the bottom with the sides more a matter of spatters. So it's easier and quicker to use cleanser on the bottom (I like Bon Ami) and use a spray cleaner for the sides. Rinse and wipe. Easy peasy!

When you're cleaning the oven, what's the best way to get those pesky oven racks. One way is to leave the racks in as you spray the oven with oven cleaner. This will get the top of the rack spindles cleaner but may take repeated attempts, and the undersides of the spindles will not get clean this way.

Here is a more thorough method is to take the racks out. Leave the racks in for as long as you are spraying the oven. But when that is completed, take them out and use a soft wire brush to get the gunk that remains on the spindles. Test an area, but a wire brush should not damage the chrome. 

Here's a site that has a lot of useful information about waxing your old wood pieces. The lead article talks about using beeswax for the task. 

​https://www.sandbergantiques.com/post/you-know-those-collectibles-you-got-from-your-grandmother-well-they-might-be-worth-something

Here's a clever technique for dusting artificial flower arrangements. Take some salt (not Kosher salt) and put it in a large bag. Put the artificial flowers in the bag, tie up the bag and give it some shakes. The salt will wipe off the dust without hurting the flowers!

Happy new year! This is a time when we like to clear out old files and perhaps other accumulations from the year. Here is an organizing tip to start the year off right. One problem many people have is that the amount of mail and other miscellaneous information that comes into one's home is too much to deal with at the time so it starts creating little piles that get bigger and bigger as the year progresses. One antidote is to have bins in the areas where you typically toss your unread mail and other kinds of information and put those items that you aren't ready to read yet but don't want to throw away into them. On 12/31/21, go through the bins and then toss things out that you're now ready to. Chances are that will be most of what you've collected!