I have the same dog situation. I don't even want to stop them, they have so much fun running up and down the stairs to retrieve their toys. I also have that exact red Dirt Devil hand vac, but I never use it for stairs because it won't get NEAR the corners and edges. Not too great anywhere else either. The worst thing is I don't even have an outlet anywhere near the stairs. I actually tried sweeping them, yes, with a broom, and that worked OK. It's deep-pile carpet, so I had to sweep vigorously. This only makes them look clean, it doesn't suction any dirt out, but since the carpet is old and soon to be replaced, I don't care. It's a quick way to clean them up. Otherwise, I get an extension cord and use the attachment in my Miele canister, which is AWESOME. It gets deep into any crevice and grabs everything. It's the tool with little red felt lint-grabber strips.

In the old days --- uh-oh, there's the chronic old fart warning klaxon -- we used to heat the oven to warm (about 200F), shut it off, put in a bowl with a cup of ammonia, and leave it sit over-night. Then, toss the ammonia down the sink, and scrub the walls etc. with a scrubby and dish detergent. There were commercial (i.e., restaurant and institutional grade) oven cleaners but they were incredibly caustic and a big problem for anything that was not stainless steel. (Old fashioned Lutefisk might have smelled worse, but it was a pretty close call!) The instructions for my NXR say not to use "commerciaL" oven cleaners and I'm pretty sure (and have been told) that this means the actual "commercial" products not the residential grade stuff like Fume-free Easy Off, I've used the latter several times with no apparent ill effects (basically after the massive cooking marathons of Thanksgiving and Christmas). "No ill effects" means that I have not stripped the shine off the oven lining. As I understand it it, the warnings about not using "commercial" oven cleaners refer to the restaurant/insitutional grade products, not the "residential" products like Easy Off. (Do be aware, however, that some Easy-Off products are pretty d@*& strong. So, during your stove's warranty period, you want to use the "gentler" stuff like Fume Free rather than the Extra-Strength. What I do most of the time is a modified version of what Whirlpool calls "Acqua-lift."Basically, I get the oven very hot and let a bunch of water vapor in. (Typically, by putting a CI pan of water in the bottom of the oven when I'm baking bread.) Once the oven walls have cooled past the too-hot-to-touch stage, I scrub the walls using Dawn and blue scrubbie. That usually takes care of the problem. When it does not, I use the Fume Free Easy-Off. This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 23:48

We have the wolf 36" open burner range top with charbroiler. I had a Wolf repairman out for an oven problem--he said that the best way to clean the black enamel burner pan is (as djlankpl said) to use Easy-Off non-fume oven cleaner. For regular cleaning I usually use a non-abrasive scrubber with soapy water and finish with a microfiber cloth. I have also developed a tolerance for a less-than-perfect look. I rarely clean the grates as they sort of self-clean with enough heat.

I don't have a tea kettle but I would assume that if you had a tea kettle with just a little bit of water sitting on the stove when not in use, bacteria, dust and other items present in the air will fall in the kettle and can create a slime factory over time if not cleaned. I personally use an electric tea kettle (British upbringing) and now graduated to a Japanese Airpot. I love my airpot. When I used an electric kettle, I never left water in it and washed it out weekly. I have filtered water and never had a problem with the tea kettles. I clean my airpot out weekly when I have no water left in it. Good luck!