I always struggle at the beginning of a new year. A.) January is kind of the worst. B.) I am always exhausted after the holidays and it takes a bit to get back into the swing of things. I usually take a week to deep clean after taking down the Christmas decor. After I tackled my house, I headed over to my mom's. I had noticed her fireplace was pretty sooty so I decided to sneak over while she was gone one day and freshened it up! It is not a very fun job, but I found a way to make it less crappy. Here is the best way to clean a fireplace!
This post is sponsored by HomeRight, but all opinions and ideas are 100% my own. This post contains an affiliate link.
The Best Way To Clean A Fireplace
#1 -Vacuum
I used my shop vac to clean out all of the ashes. I also went over the bricks to get as much loose soot as possible. The more you can vacuum out, the less scrubbing you'll have to do and the less rags you will go through.
#2-Steam
I love using my SteamMachine Elite to deep clean. Using a steamer is the best way to clean a fireplace! I used a plastic brush attachment at first. Most of the soot was easily steamed off. It literally ran down as I was steaming.
I went over the stone with the plastic brush and then used the wire brush to get the deeper stains. Be careful not to scrub too hard with the wire brush so that it doesn't damage the stone or brick.
The best way to clean a fireplace!
#3-Wipe
Make sure you have plenty of rags handy. I grabbed a stack of my shop rags so that I could wipe the soot as it ran down. Most of the rags were used for the inside. It was so black! In fact, I went straight for the wire brush.
Now it is all clean and ready for the next fire!
GIVEAWAY!
HomeRight is offering one lucky reader a SteamMachine Elite! Enter to win using the widget below :)
You must be at least 18 years old to enter. You must be a resident of the USA to enter. The giveaway will go from January 19, 2021 until January 26, 2021. A winner will be chosen by random.org and will be notified by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be chosen. The shipping of the prize is the responsibility of the company, in this case, HomeRight.
For more ideas on how you can use your SteamMachine, I wrote a post with all the things I use mine for!
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WOW! That is one of the more impressive before/afters I've seen! Very nice!
well my fridge and wax on carpet i hate cause i cant get it out any suggestions and i have cleaning in the cracks of the car i found fries money and all kinds of things and i hate cleaning my steps o darn i hate cleaning mold and behind the toilet ok I'm done ahah
You did a great job, we have fireplace and I leave it for as long as possible before sweeping it out
I hate cleaning tile grout but it has to be done!!
I hate taking down curtains and washing them and putting them back up, it's so much work and the cushion covers on the couch and the bathroom and the greasy stove top. I just wish there was a button I could press and poof! the whole house is sparkling clean
Beautiful job! I need to clean mine too. Thanks for the good idea and the giveaway.
WOW that is quite the transformation! I truly hate cleaning grout...now I see the steam machine would make it easier work.
THe refridgerator
Fireplaces are the literal worst to clean so I just don’t! Maybe if I win a steam cleaner I would enjoy it more!
Wow, that actually really got off all the soot and just from steam! I'm amazed. I hate cleaning grout in the bathroom.
That seems like such an awesome product, I love that you included the before/ after! I really hate cleaning out the refrigerator and the freezer.
I really hate scrubbing the shower
I would love to clean my windows with a steamer.
I have a fireplace that looks like your "before" picture. The steam cleaner would be great for cleaning it!
One place I don't enjoy cleaning is along the baseboards and the trim on cabinet doors.
I absolutely HATE cleaning the bath tub!
What a difference! I can think of so many places this would come in handy around the house.
I hate steam cleaning my couches.
I hate cleaning the bathroom.
The thing I most hate cleaning is toilets in my boy's bathrooms!
I hate cleaning the shower!
I hate cleaning my bathroom tile grout.
This steam cleaner would be amazing to have and use!
Bathrooms! They are the worst!
By far the worst thing to clean is a toilet. This steamer would make it easier and probably cleaner in the end.
Definitely the fridge! Our fireplaces are on my need-to-be cleaned list too right now.
I hate cleaning the shower!
No fireplace but lots of things that could use a good steam cleaning. Thanks for the opportunity to enter the giveaway!
My least favorite thing to clean is my OLD gas oven. It's 50 years old and only has 1 burner knob plus the oven knob. The other 3 broke off and I can't find replacements. The oven knob has been cleaned so many times, the numbers from 325 and up are gone. Plus the oven light is burned out, which is a good thing because I can't really see how ugly it is in there. Maybe one of these would help get that gunk out of there!
OH my Gosh. I just did this last week with a fireplace that had sit over 15 years.
What a mess it was. This steam cleaner would have been awesome.
One thing I hate is the green moss on all our decks under the trees. It takes several days. Just to prep.
I hate cleaning my kitchen floors! They always get so dirty so quickly, sometimes I have to mop multiple times a day!
I hate cleaning out my refrigerator. It is just so messy.
I hate cleaning floors! My husband was always in charge of them. He's been gone for 23 years now and I still haven't learned to like cleaning the floors.
What a wonderful Daughter you are! Can't believe how clean you got it. I bet your Mother was so happy.
I hate cleaning the refrigerator and bathrooms!
I hate cleaning period!! 😄 Thank you for the chance -- this is such a great tool to clean many things, maybe even the deck?
I hate cleaning the shower so much!
Your fireplace looks amazing! I can think of a thousands things I could use that SteamMachine at my house!
I never thought a steamer could clean a fireplace like that! I need one now. I can never get the brick clean.
I hate to clean grout, bathrooms or kitchen, doesn't matter.
Wow! That is an amazing difference. I always dread cleaning baseboards!
Your fireplace looks amazing! What a transformation!
My husband and I were just trying to figure out the best way to clean the soot off our fireplace!
I hate cleaning my shower walls. I bet this would make it better!
I hate cleaning toilets!
Looks great. I painted the inside of my fireplace with heat safe paint so I could at least fake that it was clean!
Never thought to clean my fireplace with a steam machine! Definitely going to try it. Thanks for this post
You did a nice job! I hate cleaning my refrigerator most.
That looks amazing! I have a 50 yr old shower with 1" tiles on the floor and it's a pain to clean!
I hate cleaning my toilets. And unfortunately my 11 month old thinks that they are toys I should let him play with! Most of all I hate cleaning mold (I don't seem to be very good at it and I'm quite allergic.) Thanks for sharing this timely tip about fireplaces as we get ready to relocate rental homes. Now I can hopefully leave this fireplace better than we found it!
I hate cleaning the tub! Thank you for the giveaway!
My fireplace needs a good cleaning. Your fireplace is very nice. Love it.
My kitchen and bathrooms all have tile counters. I feel like they are gross no matter what I do.
The fireplace turned out amazing! I truly dislike cleaning the bathroom grout. It's so tedious and difficult.
I love to cook but I dislike cleaning kitchen countertops and second toilets.
Fireplaces are quite difficult to keep clean so I'm truly amazed at how it turned out. My most hated thing to clean are the shower doors and tile/grout in our house.
Hate cleaning the bathrooms.
The fireplace turned out gorgeous. I love how different it looks. I detest cleaning the bathroom (tub, tile and grout together).
That’s impressive! I think of lots of ways I could use this in my home!
Ohhh the things I would to clean around my house! I have some brick around my fireplace that could use cleaning, bathrooms, a sofa. It might even make cleaning fun!
I hate cleaning the mess in the kitchen (especially the grease!) after a big meal!
What a difference! This is really good to know. I would love to try steam cleaning.
I hate cleaning faucets and shower heads. Too much hard water, I guess! Thanks for the giveaway.
I hate cleaning my bathroom tile floors. The grout still looks dirty even after it's cleaned. I bet a steam cleaner would make a big difference!
What a difference! You did a great job. I cleaned a fireplace last year that was pretty bad. UCK!! I wish I would have had this post then. I will be saving the post for future use.
I hate cleaning the bathtub most but I've noticed the older I get the less I hate cleaning.
I hate cleaning bathrooms but especially old tile with old grout!
I hate cleaning the countertop oven.
Impressive before and after! We have two large dogs so a steam cleaner would be very helpful on my kitchen floors.
I hate cleaning the oven.
I dislike cleaning my bathroom, the tile is old and grout never seems to come clean for long.
The one thing I hate to clean? The bathroom floors!
The oven and/or toaster oven.
all of it. I hate ALL of the cleaning.
Great job on the fireplace, it looks beautiful! My least favorite cleaning job is the grill and grout.
I hate cleaning our garage. We have outdoor parties a lot and like to put the food and things in the garage in case of rain (we live in Forks, as in Twilight ...'nough said about the rain!) I HATE cleaning out all the oil and dirt and grime from the floor ....
When our kids were younger, we splurged on a before the park opened breakfast with the characters at Disneyland. When I took my daughter to the restroom, a crew was finishing up before opening, and I watched as two women used powerful steam cleaners throughout the space...walls, ceiling and fixtures. It was such an eye opener!
I’m happy to see commercial steam cleaning technology scaled to residential. A much better, and healthier way to clean!
Thanks for the opportunity!
i hate cleaning my stove, it always take a LOT of elbow grease.
I hate cleaning tile floors!
Cleaning the tile in between the floors.