As snow turns to rain and rain to sunshine, the season change reminds us that it's time once again to begin our spring attack on the unsightly mess that invariably builds up each year during our homes' annual winter in captivity. You know the kind of yuck were talking about - the fireplace soot, kitchen grease and bathroom mildew that build up when your home's windows and doors are kept closed. When your home is closed up for long periods of time, much-needed fresh air is locked outside and prevented from helping to maintain indoor freshness.

Long black streaks seem to grow out of nowhere near furnaces and at heat registers. And what about the soot at the fireplace face? Didn't you have it professionally cleaned just last season? And then there's the grease that builds up on the kitchen ceiling during holiday meal preparation and the mildew that thrives on the wet grout in the shower when it's too cold outside to open a window. These illustrate the importance of fresh air in helping us keep our homes clean.

The dark dirty appearance that soot and mildew create and the bad odors associated with both make them the top two cleaning targets.

We have a one-two punch that will make light work of both of these cleaning problems. Our famous fungus formula will help with even the toughest mildew problem, and a cleaner we discovered over a decade ago will eliminate soot and make even the dirtiest fireplace face look brand new.

In the '80s we were hired to enlarge a family room for a customer in a nearby community. During one of our regular visits to the project, we noticed that our client had what appeared to be a new fireplace face. We were kind of hurt that she hadn't asked us to bid on the work, and asked her why. She smiled and told us that she had merely cleaned her fireplace face. It hadn't been replaced. We were amazed at how clean and new it looked.

We asked what she had done to get it that way. The product, found under her sink, was called Advanage (Advantage without the "t"). We contacted the manufacturer and they sent us 100 sample bottles so that we could do a consumer test using our radio program audience. Ninety-nine out of 100 listeners raved about the concentrated cleaning product. The one nay-sayer couldn't get the soot off her fireplace because, we discovered, she had varnished over it the year before.

Ever since that time we have recommended this cleaner for removal of soot on fireplaces. We used to use muratic acid for this job, but unfortunately, it will cook your lungs if you breathe it, and if it splashes on an adjacent wall or floor surface you can count on serious damage. As we get older we look more and more for safer cleaning solutions. Advanage is a concentrate and is diluted to varying strengths for other cleaning tasks such as greasy kitchen ceilings.

For mildew you will want to try our fungus-removal formula. We copped it from the U.S. Government Department of Forestry. It consists of a third of a cup of powdered laundry detergent, 1 quart of liquid chlorine bleach. Any brands will do. You will also need 3 quarts of warm water. Add the bleach to the water and then the detergent and mix thoroughly. Although this concoction is mild, you should use rubber gloves and eye protection. Spray the formula onto the affected surface, and when the black mildew turns white, it's dead. Rinse the area with fresh water and towel dry. Although the formula can be used on painted surfaces, it is a good idea to test an obscure area first.

Commercial mildew cleaners contain two active ingredients: sodium hypochlorite and sodium carbonate. The former is bleach, the latter is the primary active ingredient in most laundry detergents. Our formula costs about one-fifth the price of store-bought mildew cleaners and works just as well.