Earlier in the week we showed you how to how to clean up your Facebook app permissions as part of your normal spring cleaning process, and it's worth doing the same for Twitter. Plenty of apps and services may have their hooks into your Twitter account, and if you no longer use them, it's time to lose them. Here's how.

Here's how to see which apps have permission to access your Twitter account:

1. Visit Twitter. Click the profile drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the screen and select "Settings."
2. Click "Apps" in the sidebar on the left side of the screen to view all of the apps that have access to your Twitter account. (Or alternatively, click here to go right to app permissions.)
3. Review the list of apps and what permissions they have (read, write, and direct messages access, for example), and click "Revoke Access" for any applications or web services you no longer use, or used with your Twitter account once but never again after that.

That's all there is to it. The process is a bit easier than it is for our Facebook friends, but just as important to do, since most people don't think to check their Twitter app permissions with any regularity—and it's those one-and-done apps that all too often get hacked and take your Twitter account along with them. Cleaning them out is quick and easy, and worth the couple of minutes you'll spend doing it.

When's the last time you replaced your pillows? Or cleaned your keyboard? You're using things every day that are perfectly fine (where "fine" is defined as "functional"), but that, frankly, are absolutely gross. More practically, they're also likely to contribute to illness in small ways that add up over time, or make you feel worse when you finally do get sick. Here's a list of things lurking in your home or office that you may or may not know are secretly filthy and need to be cleaned or replaced, stat.

Your Pillows

Exactly how frequently you should replace your pillows is a hotly debated topic, but most people suggest that you swap out your pillows every couple of years to keep them free of dust and dead skin, dust mites, dust mite...leavings, dust mite remains, mold, and other nastiness. A 10 ounce pillow can double its weight in three years, with the added bulk being entirely dust mite remains and other grossness you don't want under your head. Photo by Sergio Martínez.

If you have cheap pillows and are thinking about replacing them, don't let us stop you, but if you love your pillows or have pricey ones, or aren't allergic to dust mites, you may not have to replace them. Regular washings with the rest of your bed linens (or hand-washings) and a tumble in a hot dryer will keep your pillows clean and eliminate the dust mite problem, and fluff them up nicely at the same time. Also, consider picking up zippered pillow covers that are machine washable and provide a protective barrier between your face and an old, dirty pillow. If you take off that cover to wash it one day and your pillow is a shade of yellow though, it might be time for a new one.

Your Keyboard

You keyboard is gross. Seriously, it's dirtier than a toilet seat, and while that bodes well for toilet seats everywhere, it definitely means you should clean your keyboard ASAP. We've shown you how, and I'm a big fan of a few light passes with a Magic Eraser (it's mildly abrasive, so careful not to rub off the letters) to keep it tidy. If it's been a really long time, you might want to up the ante with a good, thorough cleaning after removing the individual keys.

Your Toothbrush

When's the last time you replaced your toothbrush? Now, you don't need to replace your toothbrush every time you're sick, but dentists suggest you change your toothbrush every three months or so, but only about 9% of us actually do so. Photo by Dustin Tinney.

Part of the problem is that the longer you let your toothbrush sit around, the more it plays host to a world of bacteria and viruses that can make you sick. Now, most of those bacteria are harmless and live in your mouth anyway, but the longer you let your toothbrush stick around, the bigger those colonies get. Plus, over time the bristles get soft and frayed, and the toothbrush is overall less effective at cleaning your teeth. Consider replacing it, or picking up a toothbrush with replaceable brush heads.

Light Switches and Door Handles

These innocuous fixtures are everywhere, touched by everyone, and never, ever really cleaned—especially in public places. At home, the risk of illness is usually lessened by the fact that there are only a few people walking around your house at any point in time, but in public these two can be germ-ridden beasts waiting to hitch a ride on any passer-by. Think about how many people touch the doors to the bathroom in your office, both on the way in and out, regardless of whether they've washed their hands. Some people don't bother washing, others wash and hit the light switch or grab the doorknob with wet hands, which just adds moisture to the mix. At home, clean off your light switches and door handles when you clean the rest of your home—it doesn't need to be too often. At the office, wash your hands thoroughly, keep some hand sanitizer nearby, and on your way out of the bathroom, use the paper towel you're drying your hands with to open the door, then toss it in the trash next to the door on your way out.

Your Trash Cans

Taking out the trash is not the same as cleaning your trash can. It doesn't matter how well your aim is, your trash can lid and body are probably filthy, especially if you have a large outdoor unit that you drag to the curb every week for your city's garbage collectors to empty. Before you bring that nasty can back inside, or put a fresh bag in your kitchen trash can, spray it down with a little disinfectant. Every couple of weeks, give it a good scrub in the bathtub with a bleach-based solution to make sure it's nice, tidy, and doesn't have a small colony of bacteria growing on the lid. Doesn't hurt to wash your hands every time you take out the trash or replace the bag either, just for good measure.

Your Phone

Cell phones and traditional handsets are both filthy. Cell phones are especially bad, with one study concluding that an alarming number of them have fecal bacteria lurking on them. That's right, poop. That shouldn't be a surprise considering how many of us take them to the bathroom, but it does mean that we should spend more time cleaning them. Our desk and cordless phones may not come to the bathroom with us, but they're also covered in the germs left behind from our talking, sneezing, coughing, and more. Photo by Steve Jurvetson.

A few alcohol wipes will take care of your office or home phone, but your cell phone requires a little more love and care. A microfiber cloth will take care of the dirt and oils on your phone, but a 50/50 mix of water and white vinegar will handle the rest. We'd suggest you give your phone a good cleaning once every couple of weeks, and a wipe-down with a microfiber cloth every few days, especially if you have oily fingers.

Your Toilet Flusher

This won't surprise some of you, but the rationale is simple: most people, in public or in their homes, touch the toilet flusher switch or knob right after using the bathroom and prior to washing their hands. At the same time, most of us remember to clean this at home when we clean the toilet (we hope—don't just pay attention to the bowl!) and most cleaning crews in public places do the same, or their toilets have auto-flushers. Still, it's a good reminder to practice proper hand-washing whenever possible.

Your Remote Control

You may not guess it, but that remote control sitting on the couch in front of the TV is actually a hotbed for bacteria and viruses, and an object that most people almost never, ever clean. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona showed that remote controls in hospital rooms, hotel rooms, and homes had more bugs growing on them than toilet seats, door handles, the bedspread, and sink handles. Think about it: your remote gets dropped on the floor frequently, you may hold on to it while you're eating, it gets lost behind or under the couch, and most remotes have tiny spaces between buttons where dirt and gunk can check in, but never ever check out. Give your remote a good rub down with a lintless cloth and a little rubbing alcohol. Since it's next to impossible to take a remote apart, proper hand-washing is the key here to staying healthy and germ free. That and replacing your remote when it starts to collect a fine layer of cruft that no one wants to touch. Photo by espensorvik.

We're not saying you should live your life in constant fear of bacteria—in fact, the big takeaways here are that you should clean the things in your life that you use regularly that you may not remember are probably gross during your normal cleaning routines—and any other time, remember to wash your hands. A few simple, minor changes can go a long way towards making sure you—and the other people you come in contact with—stay healthy and well.

Any common places we missed that you'd suggest cleaning? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Title photo by Scott Gardner.

Spray bottles are great when they're full, but when they run low you're left jiggling, priming, and tilting them at odd angles just to spray an ever-weaker sputter of cleaner. Money blog Careful Cents suggests rather than struggle with near-empty cleaning supplies or waste the last of the bottle, just start using a new bottle, then top off the new bottle with the old one when there's room.

It's simple and kind of obvious, but it's also something most of us probably don't do. If you know what products work for you and buy the same things every time, there's no harm in combining bottles. Don't mix chemicals if you're not sure they're identical, but as long as you're mixing like with like, it's no problem. Old cleaning supplies don't go bad for the most part, which is one reason they're a safe bet to buy at the dollar store, and if you're low on space to keep extra bottles around, you can always mount a tension rod in one of your cabinets.

Careful Cents has a few more suggestions for saving money on your spring cleaning, including some of the household substitutions for cleaning products we've covered before, and a few coupon codes. Follow the link for more tips.

What do you do to streamline your house cleaning? Let us know in the comments.

Save Money on Spring Cleaning with These Six Tips | Careful Cents via The Consumerist

Photo by Shutterstock.

We're all decluttering our closets and basements in celebration of spring, but it's time for a break. Kick back on the couch, pull up your Android phone, and act like you're still being productive by giving it some spring cleaning of its own.

Reclaim Drive and SD Card Space

Most Android devices have two different storage spaces: your internal space (where apps are stored) and your SD card (where your music, photos, and many of your apps' settings are stored). The SD card is easy to clean up—just delete any music, photos, and videos you don't need. If you see any folders that look like settings for apps you've removed, you can delete those too. If you're rooted (which is really easy to do), you can even use an app like previously mentioned SD Maid to clean up all that cruft for you.

Cleaning up your internal storage is also pretty simple: just uninstall unnecessary apps. Chances are you have a few apps you don't use anymore, not to mention games you don't play—they'll take up the most space—and you can just uninstall them from the Play Store to free up that space and, hopefully, speed up your phone a little bit. If your phone is starved for internal storage and you can't spare any of your hard-earned apps, you can try moving them to your SD card instead. This will free up that internal space and speed up your phone, but keep all your apps close at hand. To do this, just head to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications. Select an app, and tap the "Move to SD Card" button to move it. Some apps won't have this ability, but you should find that lots of your space-hogging apps have no problem living on your SD card. You can read more about this process here.

Give It a Battery Boost

Android phones in particular are notorious for sucking the life out of your battery. If you haven't dug through your settings in awhile, this is a good time to make sure you're getting the most out of your battery as possible. This means turning the brightness down, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off when not in use, and turning off any eye candy (not to mention uninstalling apps that constantly use up your data). Tweak these settings yourself or automate them with a program like Tasker or JuiceDefender for an easy, hassle-free battery life boost. I'm always an advocate of getting a second battery, too—just keep it in your glove box or in your desk drawer for those emergencies where your phone is about to die.

Speed It Up with Some Settings Tweaks

If your phone is a bit older, or it's just feeling sluggish, there are a number of things you can do to make it feel a little smoother. Trying a new home screen launcher is always good for a bit of speed, as is lowering your number of home screens and ditching all those widgets. If you're rooted, you can even overclock or install a custom ROM for even more speed. And, if you really want to get technical, there are some advanced settings you can play with to eke every bit of speed out of your phone possible. Just don't use a Task Killer, whatever you do (unless you're on a really, really old version of Android—like, 1.6 old). For more info on how to speed up your phone, check out our in-depth guide.

Remove and Clean Your Case (If You Use One)

Of course, the inside of your phone isn't the only thing that needs cleaning. If your phone has gotten a bit dirty over the past year—which is even more likely if you have a dirt-trapping case on it—you might want to take it off and clean it up. The case shouldn't be too hard to clean, but make sure you don't clean your phone with anything that'll harm the screen. We've gone through how to safely clean and disinfect your gadgets before, so check out that guide for more info.

Unfortunately, Android devices are finicky, and can take a lot of maintenance to work well—especially the older ones. Be sure to check out our more in-depth guides above, and you should be able to get your phone running as optimally as possible. Got any maintenance tips we left out? Share them with us in the comments below.