If you are near a dollar store, they have bottle brushes with a big brush on one end and a tiny brush on the other - good item to have in the house - I use mine all the time! This will clean out your thermos.

For the decanter, since it is most likely glass, perhaps soak it with hot water and ammonia. Other than that, perhaps a corner of a dish towel, perhaps a square 4"x4", secured to a dowel rod or stiff wire would work.

a bit of bleach water...and some popcorn or rice...
They work as a bit of an abrasor (Shake or swirl)..and the bleach water helps get rid of any molds or stains.

That is if you don't have a bottle brush handy..

Sometime if the neck gives me a bit of room..I stuff my dish rag in there..and use a long skewer or chopstick to "push the rag" around.

I used to always clean mine when with baking soda and water.
The fizzing cleans it right out.

Do you have a dishwasher?

Can you soak for a while then put in dishwasher.

You could do the stainless steel, but doubtful with the glass one.

Denture cleaners like "efferdent" sometimes work well.

Hot water, a little dish soap and some dried beans. Put the lid on and shake your bootie :-) The denture cleaner would most likely take the wine stains out if there are any. They're also good to drop in the toilet to clean it.

whatever u do,do NOT use bleach in the Thermos.

use the baking soda and the rice,shake and wait..the items will come clean that way

I agree with using denture cleanser tablets. I own a baby bottle brush. I use it often.

DH cleans the inside of bottles with water and sand...a soupy mixture...he swishes it around and the sand scrubs very nicely.

I"ve always used Mean Green Cleaner and had great results!

Bottle brushes aren't expensive.

Buy one and use it. It isn't going to cost more than rice, baking soda, denture tablets, etc.

Scrub the bottle with the brush. Done.

Pour a fair amount of salt in the thermos and then add a few ice cubes. Shake around and presto its clean. I do it in my coffee pot. Learned it when I worked at a cafe years ago. Salt is abrasive so will clean well.

Moni, I'm sure you don't have denture cleaner, unless there happened to be some in the old medicine cabinet. LOL

I haven't tried it, but why not put some dishwasher detergent in each of them and add hot water. Let them soak until it seems to be coming off. Might take a whole day. Then add something to do the scrubbing, like rice or popcorn and shake it good. Oh, I think a glass thermos can break easily, so it shouldn't be shaken hard.

I hope the cleaning is working out real well.

Definitely the denture cleaner! I had a refrigerator drink container that looked like an enclosed 13 x 9 pan with a spigot on it. The only way to clean it was denture cleaner! Works great. Dollar store or dollar general store for that will be cheapest. Also used the denture cleaner on DS's retainer after his braces.

Tami

I clean my stainless steel thermos as well as my thermal coffee pot with dishwasher detergent and boiling water.
Just add about a quarter to a half cup each, fill to top with the water and let sit for a few hours. They come clean just like new, very little if any scrubbing...

OK, got the thermos' clean. The wine decanter is a different story. The bottle brush is 8 inches from the top to the very bottom bristle. The decanter is 11 inches tall. No help there.

I know about sand and water for cleaning, just don't have any handy, and didn't think of it at the time. Will get me a small container when I go to the other house on Friday.

Thanks for all the ideas.

Moni

Be very careful with a glass thermos interior. This glass is thin and fragile- easily broken. If you do use a brush, be gentle. A brush made with twisted wire is probably asking for trouble. A sharp rap or poke of the metal part may shatter the glass. For this reason, try chemical cleaning agents first.

In addition to the hints in the above posts, try vinegar. (Vinegar has 4% acetic acid. This is the main cleaning agent). Vinegar is very good for disolving calcium and hard water deposits. Fill the thermos about 1/5 to 1/4 full of vinegar and then add warm to hot water until full. Do not cap and let sit for a couple of hours, and then pour it out and immediately rinse.

Caution: Do not mix vinegar with amonia. Vinegar is an acid and amonia a base. These could react violently, and since they react with each other, a new compound is formed and the cleaning power of both are diminshed or neutralized.

Put some arm&hammer baking soda ,water put lid on and shake good

I purchased some 15" brushes at TUESDAYS.(6 to a package)
They are labeled FULLER Drain/Cleaning Tube Brush.
They are very slim and very stiff and fit into those cross divided sink drains.
The twisted wire is very stiff and the bottom end is quite hard, so one should be careful of ramming forcefully into a delicate item. The bristles are very stiff.

I wasn't searching for them, just ran across them, but I have used them often.

baking soda or borax in the decanter... I also used
lemon juice and water for a ring around a glass vase
that I couldn't get out and it worked. I soaked it
overnight, maybe even for 2!