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God, my trumpet is always clean. I use the Yamaha Pro. Polishing rag, it works so good its not even funny. But if you use it too much it'' rub the finish off sweatdrop (it happened before crying )

yeah... I can't stand those finger prints and water splotches all over it...

I often find that my flute's oily from my hands. gonk I mean, I wash my hands and all but there's still oil. O_o

I read through the ENTIRE thread and no one seems to know how to take care of a flute. (No offense to anyone, some of them are just commonly known WRONG things to do.)

You don't have to listen to anything I say since I've been playing my flute for only 3 years, but here's all my cleaning knowledge gathered up in one post. (I will use the actual names for the parts of the flute just so that you become aware of the fact that they actually have names.) Note: I don't know absolutely everything, so if you are sure that you know what you are talking about, then please feel free to fix me.

The Headjoint!

1. The thing with the cork and the screw at the top of your flute(Tuning Crown):
Someone asked if it is okay to take it out and check if it's dirty or not. NO it is not okay because as the name suggests, it is a TUNING crown and therefore should not be messed with unless you are ready to go through a MAJOR tuning session and getting used to the NEW adjustments of your lips and how far you push in the headjoint and that stuff AND MEMORIZING the new stuff! The crown should not fall out/slide easily out of the headjoint and if it does, go to a local music shop and get it firmed up! DO NOT MESS WITH THE TUNING CROWN!!!

2. The thing where you put your lips and blow on(Lip Plate):
Lip plate and the tone hole(the hole which you blow air over) should be kept with extra care if you don't want anything dirty in your mouth after each time you play your flute. The hole should not have anything attached to it and once in a while, you should get one of those brushes and brush gently the extra stuff off around the hole.

The Body & Footjoint!

3. Things that keep your keys in place(Springs), the things the keys are attached to(Rods), and the space near these things:
Do not attempt to clean these things! They bend easily and it's not a good idea to have bent springs and you will know why if you think about the resistance of a bent spring and in different positions. Rods should be oiled with key oil once in a while to keep your keys moving smoothly and the space near these springs and rods where all the yucky stuff comes and stays should be gently brushed until the dirt and stuff gets out.

4. Things that move when you play(Keys) and the things under those keys(Pads):
Do NOT apply strong force on the keys because that would bend them and result in a badly adjusted flute. When you put your flute somewhere flat, DO NOT PLACE THE FLUTE DOWN ON ITS KEYS! This is very important and if you don't think you can remember this, then go buy yourself a flute stand and put it there while you are taking a break from playing. A flute placed with the keys on the bottom will result in: possible out of adjustment keys, dents on the other side(if other people are not careful), and FAT pads because they soaked up all the condensation from your playing session! Once the pads blow up, there will be more leaks when you play and no, they will never flatten to their normal states, NEVER! For those of you with open-holed keys, clean the holes in the same manner as the tone hole: Gently brush around the inside of the hole. When your pads become sticky, DO NOT PLACE A DOLLAR BILL OR WHATEVER, HOLD IT DOWN AND PULL IT OUT! This is a common mistake which is believed to solve the problem with those pads, but it's NOT! Doing so will tear/wear out your pads! Instead, put that pad cleaning paper in there and gently press on the key repeatedly until the sticky noise goes away. OR go buy the special liquid that removes the yucky stuff off of your pads(I believe that this is better).

ETC!

5.Cleaning the inside of the flute:
Get a cleaning rod and a piece of soft cloth(best if purchased from the store since they are specifically designed for the purpose). Put a corner of the cloth through the hole, then flip the rest of the cloth over the tip of the rod to make sure that when you put it in your headjoint, is does not scratch anything. Run it through the body and the footjoint until all the water has dried up and then slide it up the headjoint and let it soak up all the water. After you are done with this, place a so-called Pad-Guard(the fuurry thing that goes in your body), inside the body and let it serve its purpose of keepint the pads DRY so that there will be no FAT pads as mentioned above. DO NOT POLISH THE INSIDE OF THE FLUTE!

6. Cleaning the outside of the flute
Buy a polishing cloth(someone called it blue cloth). If yours has two different colored cloths, the inner one is the one you polish with and the outer one is the one you do your finishing touches with. Polish your flute and DO NOT APPLY EXTREME PRESSURE! Avoid contact with pads as much as possible because the cloth will tear it up and when polishing keys, go over it from the side it is attached to the flute to the side where it is freely hanging. (PM me about this if you are confused.) Do not apply pressure on the keys, rods, and springs as I mentioned earlier. Do not rub too hard.

7. Putting the flute together:
Some people just slide everything into position when they need to play the flute. It hurts me when I see flutes being mistreated. So here's how you SHOULD put the flute together. When you put the headjoint into the body, hold the part under the lip plate on the headjoint and with the other hand, hold the part where usually is the company name, model number, and etc.. Twist the headjoint into the body in one direction (clockwise, or counterclockwise, whatever you feel comfortable with) and remember to put them together in that direction EACH time you put your flute together. When you put the footjoint on the body, hold the same part of the body(the part on the uppermost part of body with information on the flute) and hold the side opposite of the side with Eb, Db, C, B, B gizmo or whatever else is concentrated in which would be that little part with NO keys. Twist them together in clockwise or counterclockwise direction, does not matter. Again, what matters is that you put them together in the same direction EACH time you put your flute together. Here's an explanation of whey you should hold the places I told you to hold: If you hold any place with keys, you will apply pressure on them and therefore your keys might go out of adjustment. BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THE KEYS! You do NOT want to mess with them!

8. "Fixing" your flute:
If you have a student model flute, most of them have a screw near the keys. Experiment with the screws on the key that is out of adjustment(one way will make the key go up and the other way will make the key go down). DO NOT TIGHTEN ANY SCREW ALL THE WAY! This will bend the rods, keys, and springs because too much pressure is applied on them! If you have an intermediate model or a professional model(like mine), go take it to the repair shop please! Don't attempt to fix it. In most cases, it'll just make it worse! If you are a professional flute repair person, feel free to fix your own flute. Otherwise, DO NOT MESS WITH YOUR FLUTE MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE! AND DO NOT THINK THAT YOU CAN HANDLE MORE THAN YOU REALLY CAN! (which is pretty hard). Yes, it costs a lot of money to maintain a musical instrument in good shape. crying

Last Note: Take your flute to the repair shop about once a year to get a check-up! They will tighten/straighten your tubes, rods, and fix every problem you have on your flute for you! (Pray that they will...)

Off Topic: I had to go eat in the middle of writing this, so this might not be organized. I will add anything that I forgot about later.

Aha! i just remembered what else I was going to add. When you hold your flute when you are not playing, please hold the part of body where it meets the headjoint! Please DO NOT hold them by the keys, or just the headjoint because holding the headjoint is NOT SAFE and holding it by the keys will make the keys go crazy~~~
I did realize that the topic is 'cleaning' your instrument, but oh well there's my cleaning/maintaining your flute tips!

Windex and a cleaning cloth does it for me, and I use dishwashing soap on my mouthpiece and when I give my boner a major clean. It makes it all nice-smelling and shiny. biggrin

I agree and thank you for adding that tuning with cleaning rod part^^
I meant it as in get it cleaned at the annual check-up even though you can do it yourself if you really wanted to. And there IS a way to get it tighter^^(I've seen the repairmen do a lot of stuff to my marching flute.) Take it to a local shop and ask them to fix it for you because loose footjoint=teh ebil.