Not to gross you out excessively, but coffee makers are the perfect environment for mold – lots of hot water and darkness. You must be diligent and clean yours at least once a month. Here's how to do it:

• Mix a cup of white vinegar with two cups of distilled water.
• Fill the coffee maker water tank with the mixture.
• Run the device until the mixture works itself through your machine.
• Do another run with just water to avoid the taste of vinegar in your next pot of coffee.

Once a year, you should mix a small amount of bleach with water and run it through the coffee maker as well. The bleach will kill off any bacteria hiding in recesses you can't see. Make sure to run a couple of pots of water immediately after this to make sure all the bleach is removed. Ingesting high levels of bleach can kill you, so do not skip this step.

Have you had an ember fly out of the fireplace and leave a burn mark on your carpet? No problem. While you can't clean the mark per se, you can hide it. Grab a pair of scissors and sharpen them. Now cut out the tops of the burned fibers so the burned material is removed.

Now we get sneaky.

Head into your closet or some other area nobody will see. Cut out strands of carpet along the back corner wall. Just the hairs, not the pad. Go back to the burn and glue the strands into the burned area. Think of it as a carpet toupee!

Well, there you go. Three quick hitting suggestions anyone can use to clean a homemade mess. For the rest of your cleaning needs, try The Maids of New Hampshire in North Hampton, which detail clean in every room down to the gaps and hidden areas.