Your washing machine cleans your clothes, therefore you should clean your washing machine. It’s a simple concept, but not one we think about too often. The washing machine doesn’t always strike me as ...

I hate cleaning my baseboards. For nearly every other cleaning task you can think of, I have a reminder set on my phone so I never forget to do it. Clean the bathroom? Check. Wash the comforter? Yup.

The pandemic inspired new vigilance about germs, including more frequent and thorough house cleaning—changes that stuck with many of us years later. But while cleanliness is a virtue, germ fixation is ...