70 Cleaning Vocabulary Words Expand Your English Vocabulary
Hi. I’m Vanessa with SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you like cleaning? Let’s talk about it.
Do you love cleaning? Is it your dream to
do the dishes and take out the trash? Okay,
probably not, but these are necessary parts
of daily life. Today you’re going to learn
how to explain over 30 common household chores.
The word chore means a necessary cleaning
activity. Maybe when you were a kid your parents
made a chore chart and you had to check off
the various chores whenever you finished them,
or maybe they just said, “Doing chores is
a necessary part of daily life, so do them.”
Now that you’re an adult, they definitely
are. You’re invited to my mother-in-law’s
house to clean. Today I’m going to be showing
you around her house and we’re going to be
cleaning around it using these important expressions.
All right. Let’s get started with some daily
household chores. Good morning. It’s time
to make the bed. Maybe I’ll put the pillows
here at the top. I got to pull up the sheets,
pull up the comforter, put some decorative
pillows up. Looks pretty good.
Now it’s time to change the sheets. All right.
I’ll probably take the pillowcases off. Got
to wash the pillowcases. Take the comforter
off. Take the flat sheet, take that off the
bed. Take the fitted sheet off the bed, and
I got to put some new sheets the bed after
that.
Next, I got to scrub down the tub and the
shower. I’ll probably use a rag, maybe some
kind of cleaning solution, and scrub the walls,
scrub the tub, get around the bottom of the
drain. The drain is where the water goes down.
Maybe I’ll clean the shower head, I’ll clean
the faucet. All of these are important parts
when you’re cleaning out your tub.
Next is everyone’s favorite thing, cleaning
the toilet. We could use the verb scrub, just
like we used with the tub and the shower.
You might first start by lifting the lid,
then taking a scrub brush, scrubbing around
a little bit, and then you might pour some
kind of cleaning solution into the toilet
bowl, letting it sit for a little while, scrubbing
it out. You might scrub around the toilet
bowl. Maybe you’ll scrub behind the toilet
bowl, making sure that everything is clean.
We have so much laundry in our hamper. It’s
time to do the laundry. The first step is
to take your dirty clothes, take them out
of the hamper. The hamper is usually that
thing that you use to carry your dirty laundry
in your bedroom, or maybe in your bathroom.
We got to load the laundry into the washing
machine.
Now, we can use two different verbs for this.
We could just simply say, “Put laundry into
the washing machine.” Put. Or, we could say,
“Load the washing machine. I need to load
the washing machine.” It means you’re putting
stuff in, so I’m loading things in. What do
you think happens when it’s all done? Let’s
imagine it’s finished washing. Well, you need
to unload, unload the washing machine. Great.
There’s a couple items that we use. This is
washing detergent. Usually we use the word
detergent to talk about the soap that you
put into the washing machine. You put the
soap into the washing machine.
Then, when it’s done you have two different
options. One option is you might hang it on
a clothesline. A clothesline is a rope, and
you might hang it on the rope to dry usually
outside, or you might have a clothes rack.
This is just one piece of metal or wood that
you hang your wet clothes on to dry.
Here in the U.S. it’s most common to have
a dryer. It’s pretty interesting why some
other countries don’t use dryers. I’m curious
in your country do you have a dryer? Do you
use a dryer often? In the U.S. it’s often
used. It’s used almost every single time.
As you can see, these are huge machines. These
are not small. I know other countries I’ve
lived in you have a small washer. Maybe it’s
a washer dryer combo together, but in the
U.S. they’re pretty big.
Then, we’ll take the clothes, we’ll unload
the washer, and we’ll put them into the dryer.
Here we have a front-loading dryer. That means
you load the dryer from the front, so if you
need to buy a dryer or washer in the U.S.
you’ll definitely hear these terms, front-loading
dryer. Maybe you have a front-loading washer,
but this is a top-loading washer. Those are
just some very specific terms about washers
and dryers.
There’s a couple of other items that some
people use when they’re drying things in the
dyer. You might use dryer sheets. These are
just little sheets. They’re supposed to help
your clothes get softer. Dan and I … I don’t
think we’ve ever used these. Some people feel
like it’s essential. We don’t use them, but
it’s just personal preference.
What happens after the laundry is finished
drying? You need to fold the laundry, or fold
the clothes and put them maybe in a drawer
or put them in the laundry basket. Then we
can take that to the bedroom or where you’re
going to put them away. We say fold the laundry
or fold the clothes, and then put it away.
It’s a great phrasal verb for cleaning. Put
it away.
Whose job it is it in your house to prepare
the meals? We might say “Prepare the meals,”
or before you prepare a meal you might need
to make a meal plan. Some people do this.
It means that you write down Monday through
Sunday and you decide what am I going to eat
on Monday? I’m going to eat spaghetti. What
am I going to eat on Tuesday? Tuesday I’m
going to eat fish tacos.
Then, you write down each day so that when
you go grocery shopping, which is another
chore, you can easily decide all of the things
that you need to buy and you don’t need to
keep going back.
I’m curious, do you make a meal plan? Who
prepares the meals at your house? After you’ve
finished preparing the meal, maybe after you
finished eating your meal, you need to wipe
down the counters, or we could say the kitchen
counters.
This is a kitchen counter, so we need to wipe
it down. This phrasal verb, wipe down, is
useful for almost any room. You can wipe down
the kitchen counter, you can wipe down the
bathroom counter. You could wipe down the
kitchen table. You can wipe down a lot of
surfaces. It just means you have a wet cloth
and you are wiping that surface.
What do you have to do after you cook? You
got to wash the dishes. You might use a rag,
like this, or you might use some kind of steel
wool, depending on how tough the dishes are.
Or, you might use a scrub brush or you might
use a sponge. My mother-in-law doesn’t have
a sponge here, but you might use a sponge.
You might use a rag like this.
After you wash them with some soap, or some
dish soap we could call it, you have a couple
options. You might air dry them, so we could
put them on the drying rack. Put them on the
drying rack means you just set the things
here to dry and let the air dry them, or,
if you’re extra lucky you might have a dishwasher.
It’s true, my mother-in-law has a dishwasher,
so you can load the dishwasher. It’s the same
verb that we use for the clothes in the washer
in the dishwasher. We don’t call this simply
the washer. We always call it the dishwasher,
because the washer is for clothes and the
dishwasher is for dishes, for things that
you use for eating.
You might put them on the top shelf, maybe
the bottom shelf. Maybe you put them in the
silverware rack at the bottom, and you load
up the soap, the detergent in here, and turn
it on and it’s done. So easy. If you don’t
have a dishwasher you have to wash them by
hand and you need to set them in the drying
rack. You’ve got two options. What do you
use at your house?
Whose job is it in your house to take out
of the trash? Maybe this is something that
you do every day, maybe it’s something that
you do weekly. If I can figure out how to
get my mother-in-law’s trash, aha. I did it,
open. Maybe it’s something that you need to
do weekly. Maybe it’s something that you need
to do daily. You need to take the trash bag
out of the trash can. Maybe you put it in
a dumpster, maybe you put in a bin outside,
but you need to take the trash bag out.
If you’re already taking out the trash you
should probably take out the recycling, too.
This is another great phrasal verb. We use
phrasal verbs a lot for household chores.
Take out the trash, take the trash out, or
take the recycling out, take out the recycling.
What about your refrigerator? Or, we can call
it just a fridge. There might be a couple
things that you do. The first simple step
might be to simply wipe down, using that great
phrasal verb, wipe down the fridge.
It means inside you’re just wiping the surfaces,
but maybe you’ve got a lot of food in your
fridge. My mother-in-law has a lot of food
in her fridge, which is always exciting whenever
we come to visit. You might find some food
at is expired, or maybe it’s old, so you need
to go through the fridge and clean out the
fridge. Clean out the fridge means you’re
taking things that are old or expired and
throwing them away, so you need to clean out
the fridge.
Or, there’s another great clean word we might
use. We might say, “I need to deep clean the
freezer and the fridge.” Deep cleans mean
you take everything out, you scrub down the
surfaces, you make sure that it’s spotless,
it’s clean, and then you put things back that
are not expired. You put the things back that
you want to.
Maybe this happens once a year, I deep clean
the fridge. For me, that isn’t really happening
on a schedule. I think the last time that
we deep cleaned our fridge was when I was
pregnant and every smell was so terrible.
I told Dan, “Our kitchen smells so terrible.
I can’t go in the kitchen,” but really I was
just pregnant. It didn’t smell terrible, so
I asked him, “Please, can you deep clean our
fridge and freezer? There’s something that
smells terrible in there.”
Really, nothing smelled terrible. It was just
my nose because I was pregnant, but thankfully
Dan deep cleaned our fridge, and it was good
for our fridge. It didn’t really help me because
everything still smelled terrible, but for
this moment you can deep clean if you want
to really scrub and make sure it’s spotless.
If you have any hardwood floors or linoleum
floors in your house you need to arm yourself
with a broom. You need to sweep the floor
probably daily if you have a small child like
me, or maybe a dog. You need to sweep three
times a day. But, you will definitely need
a broom.
Something that’s really common and easy to
use if you have hardwood floors is a Swiffer.
Swiffer is actually the brand, but in English
we say, “I’m going to swiffer the floor.”
We use it as a verb, or, I’m going to get
the Swiffer, which is this device. Usually
there’s a little cloth that is the Swiffer
brand cloth. You put it over top. It’s a disposable
thing. It might be dry. It kind of picks up
some cat hair or dust, or it might be wet
and you can kind of easily mop the floor.
If you don’t have one of these you might need
a mop, or maybe two mops. My mother-in-law
has two mops. We have a part at the bottom
that collects the liquid, the moisture. You
might dip it into a bucket, or maybe you pour
some water on the floor. That’s usually what
Dan does when he mops. He just pours some
water on the floor and mops around it.
You might mop the floor with your mop, an
important activity for hardwood floors. After
you’re done, you might dry it up with some
kind of sponge, or maybe you have a rag and
you just dry it up with that.
Here you saw that I used another phrasal verb,
to dry up something. You could say, “I’m going
to dry the floor with a rag,” but it’s much
more natural to use the phrasal verb. I’m
going to dry up liquid on the floor with a
rag. I’m going to dry it up.
I can’t remember the last time I used one
of these, but if you have some little knickknacks
around your house you might want to use a
duster to dust around the knickknacks. You
might say, “I need to dust,” or, “I can’t
find my duster.” This is what this is called.
“I need a duster to dust on the mantle, or
maybe on some shelves around your things.”
Of course, don’t forget to water the plants.
This is not a watering can. This is just our
tea kettle, but I couldn’t find my mother-in-law’s
watering can. You can imagine you need to
water the plants with a watering can, unless
you’re me and I always forget to water my
plants.
If you saw my other video about household
words you know that all the plants in my house
have suffered a terrible fate. They’re not
living, but she has a green thumb, so all
of her plants look beautiful. Probably because
she has remembered to water them.
If you have any windows at some point you’ll
need to wash the windows. You might use a
device like this, which has some kind of pad
on it so that you can get the window wet.
Then, it has a little thing here, a little
strip at the top that’s usually rubberized.
That’s called a squeegee. A squeegee, so you
can kind of do it like that, and then all
of the water flows off of the window and it’s
nice and clean.
This is a perfect device for this. I don’t
have one of these things, that’s why I came
here to film this video, but you might need
to wash the windows, and then squeegee the
windows.
You might notice that a lot of these words
that we’re using for household chores are
nouns and they’re also verbs. This is a squeegee,
but I can also say, “I’m squeegeeing the window.”
I’m using it as a verb, so there’s a lot of
interchangeableness. This is great for your
vocabulary. You learn one word, you can use
it in two ways. It’s kind of a two-for-one
deal.
Of course at some point you’ll need to clean
up or tidy up. Tidy up means you’re putting
things in their proper place. If you have
a kid, you’re probably constantly tidying
up, hopefully teaching them to tidy up after
themselves. You’ll probably be tidying up
at least once a day. It’s a good rule of thumb,
so here I’m tidying up, or just generally
cleaning up, putting things in their proper
place.
Another thing that you might do infrequently
is to wipe off, wipe off, the baseboards.
These are called the baseboards, or the molding.
Molding is this similar type of wood, but
maybe it’s around a door frame or it’s on
the wall somewhere, maybe around the windows
is … There’s some molding. You might just
wipe down the molding.
You might have some clothes that need to be
ironed. This is an iron, and we’re ironing
the clothes. I’m using this as a noun and
as a verb. This is an iron, I’m ironing the
clothes, and I’m ironing it on an ironing
board.
Honestly, I can’t remember the last time that
I actually used an iron. Maybe 15 years ago.
This isn’t really something obviously that
is necessary in my life these days, and don’t
be fooled, it’s not even plugged in. I’m not
even using it now. It’s just for show.
If you have a carpet you might not need a
broom or a mop, but you will probably need
a vacuum. You will need a vacuum because you
will need to vacuum the floor. You need to
vacuum the carpet, or maybe you have a rug.
A rug is one that comes up. You can move it,
you can remove it. You might need to vacuum
the rug or vacuum the carpet, or vacuum both.
If you have a garage where you put your car
at some point you’ll probably need to clean
out the garage. Clean out means, like we said
with the fridge, take everything out and make
sure that what you have in there is only essential.
This is a big task, so it might only happen
once every five years, once every 10 years,
but at some point you’ll need to clean out
the garage.
You also might just want to clean up the garage.
You want to go inside and make sure that things
are in the boxes that they should be in. A
lot of people use a garage for storage. Of
course you put your car here, but they might
have some boxes of Christmas supplies or things
that they don’t use that often. At some point
you might just want to clean up the garage.
That was a lot of cleaning. I’m ready to relax
now. I want to know what is the chore that
you hate the most? For me, that’s laundry,
but thankfully my husband Dan is Dan the laundry
man. He’s been doing the laundry for the last
eight years, so I’m a lucky woman. I want
to know which chore do you hate the most?
Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll
see you again the next time for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel next channel. Bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker. You’ll learn what you need to do
to speak confidently and fluently. Don’t forget
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free lessons. Thanks so much. Bye.