How to Cut Cleaning Time In Half With 45 Everyday Supplies
By Farah J
Sure, you dust off your furniture, vacuum your carpets and wipe the floors with a wiper or a spare wet towel, but be honest here: how often do you deep clean your homes? Probably not very often. Perhaps you’re scared that chemicals might ruin your stuff even more than the daily wear and tear. Or maybe because most of us don’t have the time to deep clean on weekdays, and honestly, nobody feels like rubbing floors and scratching rust off of kitchen taps and bathroom drains on an off day! Especially when you don’t know any easier solutions to do that. Well, it’s all about chemistry! We know the simplest and easiest cleaning tips and hacks that can leave your house sparkling without needing you to sweat about it on a Sunday! All you need is some time in your day and easily available and cheap items – like salt and toothpaste – to make your home bright and shiny again.
Brand new dishes and pots
Pots and dishes are frequently used items that are washed several times a day. You might have noticed how your pots and pans start to go dull and lose their glint after some time. They may start to look older than they actually are.
Well, fret not; we already found you a perfect solution to keep your dishes look brand new again. All you need is baking soda and water! Make a paste with these two, scrub the dishes with it for a while, and wash them with hot water.
Food-safe cutting board cleanse
We have often observed people worrying about their cutting boards being so dirty and stinky even after rubbing them with chemicals, disinfectants, etc. It’s the food stuck in the crevices of the cutting board that is the source of the smell.
You don’t need to go to extra lengths here; you just need to take a lemon and some coarse salt. Sprinkle the salt all over the board and rub the piece of lemon over it. It’ll act as a natural disinfectant and also remove the stinking smell from the board!
Washing the washing machine
It is not a very efficient and effective way of doing laundry when your washing machine is filthy inside. It’ll only get your wardrobe dirtier or even ruin the fabrics. Well, don’t worry, we found a perfect and cheap solution for this hustle.
Vinegar and baking soda! Mix the two and make a paste by including some water. Use a soft scrub or sponge, dip it in the paste, and gently rub the drum until clean. Just be careful when you clean so that you don’t cause any damage.
Removing oven vent filth
Who knew oven vents could accumulate this amount of filth and dirt in just a couple of weeks? And honestly, even when we deep clean our house, we often forget the oven. Fortunately, we have an easy solution to clean it in just half an hour!
Take a large tub or bowl, big enough to fit oven vents. Add warm water and borax and dip the vents entirely in the solution. Leave them there for a good fifteen minutes, and rinse them carefully with water. Make sure to dry them before reinstallation!
The sink goes from gray to silver
It is quite unhealthy to have a dirty sink as it accumulates multiple types of bacteria if not cleaned regularly. Also, not to mention, water leaves ugly brown spots all over the sink, making it look dull, old, and gray instead of the original silvery steel.
So, take some baking soda and sprinkle some all over the sink. Let it sit for some time before you dip a sponge in hydrogen peroxide and rub the entire sink with it. After it is washed, a clean silver sink is yours!
Toothbrush and tiles’ crevices
Usually, we wipe the counter or the floor tiles with a mere wet mop or towel. But, even if it “cleans” the tiles, the dirt and food particles are left inside the gaps. This often leads to the buildup of smelly mold and mildew in there.
So, when deep cleaning your house, you need a toothbrush, water and some baking soda, and of course, gloves. Wet the brush and dip it in baking soda. Rub the crevices with it while adding baking soda from time to time.
Mop the walls
Your house may be clean at eye level, but what about the walls and top corners where dirt and webs are building up just because it is too far out of your reach. Especially the areas where no step ladder can go.
Well, here it is, yours truly, the mop! You can clean the walls up to the top – wet or dry, depending on the type of paint on your walls – and it can also get those darn webs out from the corners! Mop the floor, mop the walls!
Unblock car air vents
Breathing in the dusty air in your car isn’t a very great idea; it definitely isn’t healthy. Air vents in your car need to be cleaned very frequently because those things gather dust and filth way more easily and quickly than any other object.
We know how hard it is to dust off the vents every day, so we have a tip for you: waxing the vents! Take a small sponge, dip it in liquid wax, and apply it to the vents. Now you’ll have easy-clean, dust-free vents that’ll last longer.
Toothpaste to the grease
Plastic objects often get greasy, grimy, and dusty only after some time of use. And this grease gets so stubborn that no amount of rubbing and scratching does any good to us; it only tends to make us frustrated even more.
However, there is no need to get frustrated when there is an easy solution to all this: toothpaste! That’s right, the regular toothpaste that we use. All you need is a wet towel with a dab of toothpaste. Rub the plastic pots and utensils with them until they’re grease-free.
The solution to spotless mirror
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the dirtiest of them all? “Me,” says the mirror. Well, it would be because mirrors, especially bathroom mirrors, tend to get spotty and grimy way quicker than we like. Water splashes, fingerprints, dust, and steam leave their mark behind.
It ruins the look of the entire space. You need the right products to get it crystal clear, and it better stay that way for more than a few days. Make a solution of water and vinegar, spray it on the mirror, and clean it with a cloth or soft towel to avoid scratches.
Leather furniture repair DIY
It feels like a huge letdown when your beloved recliners and leather couches start to look dull and old within the first few months of buying them. Because of its daily usage, the leather may even start to deteriorate or get white spots on the most used part of the couch.
With a simple shoe polish of the same color as your leather furniture, you can polish it back to new whenever it starts to look old. This trick will help you to keep your beloved, and not to mention expensive, leather furniture that lasts for a long time without feeling the need to replace it.
Rice in a coffee grinder
This one is for coffee lovers. You might suffer from the smell in your coffee grinder that never seems to go away even if it is washed multiple times with fragrant dish soap. That stink even lingers in the next cup of coffee you make.
Stinky morning coffee isn’t a very motivational thing to start a new day with. So, we brought you a perfect solution for it: fill the coffee grinder halfway with rice, and grind it until it is crushed to powder. Then, clean the grinder with a damp cloth.
Bright and shiny faucets
Nice and shiny silver faucets are the aesthetics of a bathroom, and them going dull and ugly makes the bathroom feel filthy, no matter how clean everything else is. We don’t blame your cleaning habits for it, though. It’s the hard water that leaves the stains on the faucets.
If these stains are left uncleaned for a long while, they become too hard to get off. The only thing that can fight against hard water stains is vinegar! Dampen some paper towels with vinegar, or use a Ziploc bag filled with it, and leave the faucet covered with it for a bit.
Potato in the pot
Pots and pans are often covered in filth due to burnt food residue, grease and grime that can’t be washed off with dish soap, and even water stains that won’t go away. And scrubbing them too hard doesn’t do any good either as it only leaves scratches on the pans.
One of the easiest and cheapest solutions is with a raw potato and some coarse salt. Sprinkle the salt in the dirty pot, and rub the pan with the half-cut potato until the filth is gone. No rubbing, no scrubbing.
Carpet cleanse with vinegar
Do you know how useful vinegar can be in the cleaning process of your house? It has a wide range of applications when cleaning day comes around. For example, carpet and rug stains that seem impossible to come off can be tackled with vinegar.
To get rid of stubborn stains, take one-part vinegar and two parts water, and make a solution. Dampen a towel with it. Place the wet towel over the stain, and put a steam iron on the top of it for thirty seconds.
Snow white tubs
We make sure that our bathtubs are clean enough to take a shower. But we often forget to clean the corners and sides of the tub. Due to remaining damp for a long time, the sides grow mold and mildew and accumulate grease and dirt.
To make your whole bathtub snow-white again, you’ll need some bleach and cotton balls. Dip the cotton balls in the bleach and align them on the sides of the bathtub where there are stains and mold. Leave them overnight, and wash the tub with water.
Using lemon zests
We often throw away lemon peels after squeezing out the lemon juice. But who knew lemon zest could save hours of our life someday? This is the easiest and food-safe hack for coffee lovers, especially cafés that deal with coffee cups every day.
Coffee leaves brown stains on cups that are hard to rub with a sponge, especially after it dries up. You need lemon zest and salt to rub the brown coffee spots off your coffee mugs and cups. It also removes the lingering coffee smell.
Spotless microfiber furniture
Microfiber furniture, as pleasant as it looks in your lounge, requires extra care and cleaning to make sure it doesn’t look dirty and smudged. A regular cleaning towel or a piece of cloth barely removes the dirt off of them.
What you need is rubbing alcohol and a white sponge. Spray the alcohol on the smudge and rub it with a white sponge — it won’t transfer color to the couch as regular sponges will. Go over the same area with a brush or a stiff sponge, and let it dry to see the results.
Brand new and fresh furniture
Baking soda is a practical and versatile product that can be used for various cleaning purposes. We bet you know that by now. Well, we are here to tell you about another use of baking soda: cleaning and disinfecting furniture!
Sprinkle some baking soda all over the furniture piece, and leave it for half an hour to forty minutes. Now, take a brush and remove the excess powder. Next, the vacuum cleaner will hoover in all the remaining soda, dirt, and dried-up stains, leaving your furniture looking fresh and new!
Washing the washing machine #2
Putting your laundry load in the dirty washing machine isn’t very smart or sanitary. Not to mention, a dirty washing machine that is blocked with grime and filth damages the machine itself if not cleaned at least once a fortnight.
There are a few ways to solve this problem: a mixture of water with either bleach, vinegar, or citric acid. Choose one of those and pour it into the empty dry machine, and let it run on the hottest cycle. This will unclog pores and remove the grime, making the machine more efficient and smooth.
Eggshells for delicate vases
Did you know that most of the food scraps that we throw in the trash can actually be used to clean the house? Even eggshells! We are all fond of décor, but when it comes to cleaning long vases where a human hand can’t reach the bottom, it seems like an impossible task.
What you can do is break eggshells into smaller pieces, and put them in the vase along with water and dishwashing liquid. Swirl it till all the dirt at the bottom is gone. Now you can get your display pieces sparkling clean without worrying about breaking them.
Odor disposal from the garbage disposal
Do you have a smelly kitchen, but you can’t locate its source? Chances are, the lingering smell is coming from the food waste disposer in the sink. We often forget to clean the food and grease stuck in the disposer, thinking that water washed it away.
Oh boy, are we wrong! But there is a solution. Take an old toothbrush, add dishwashing liquid around the garbage disposal and scrub it with the brush until the rotten food residues and grease are out. Wash it with hot water at the end.
Iron soleplate cleanse
You may often find dirt accumulating on the soleplate of your clothes iron alongside burnt fabric residue. This may be very hard to scrape off. Unfortunately, metallic scrapers or chemicals may damage daily-use electronics forever. But we have an easy DIY remedy for that.
One solution, one word: vinegar. Dip a paper towel or cloth in vinegar and gently scrape the filth off of the iron plate. You can also use baking soda – rubbing it over the plate with a soft toothbrush – but you need to be careful here not to let it enter the steam holes!
Sparkly and shiny steel sink
Damage is where the hard water is. You may wash your steel sink every day, aiming to keep it silver and sparkling, but hard water’s got other plans. It may leave brown water stains on the sink that are very hard to remove, even with soaps and chemicals.
Chemicals, more often than not, may make your sink dull and gray instead of shiny. Here’s a better solution: wash your sink as usual and dry it. Sprinkle some flour all over the sink and let it sit for a few minutes. Wipe it off using a towel, and ta-da!
Onions as natural glass stain remover
Did you know that onions are the best natural window/glass cleaners? No chemicals can ever top onions and their versatility. All it takes is cutting the onion in half and rubbing it over the glass stains. Wipe the window with a soft towel or a piece of cloth.
You may be thinking about the odor that this will leave behind. We got you there, too. Just spray some lavender or lemon fragrance, and do a second wipe with a clean cloth. Now, you’re left with clear, stainless windows.
Stainless carpet
Who doesn’t love ice cream? We can’t get enough of it, and if you have kids, we’re betting that they’re pretty addicted, too. But what do you do when that chocolatey goodness melts…right onto your carpet? Don’t worry, we have an easy cleaning trick for you.
Use this easy and quick hack, and your guests will never know that there was a mishap at all! Make a diluted solution of hydrogen peroxide and soap in water. Spray it directly on the stain, and scrub with a soft brush or a toothbrush to remove the smudge in no time.
Clean blinds
One of the most frustrating things to clean is the window blinds. Every day, more and more dust gathers on top of each slat. Nothing gets dirty quicker than these thin slits. You can’t even ignore them because closed dusty blinds look unappealing.
What you need is a quicker and simpler solution to cleaning your blinds. Take your daily-use tongs, wrap a damp towel around both arms of the tongs and secure them with rubber bands. This way, you can easily swipe the wrapped tongs through each slat with ease.
Bleach the plastic cutting board
Tired of trying to get the food stains off of your plastic cutting board and thinking of tossing them in the trash and buying a new one solely because of the stain? Well, this is no smart solution to such a little problem. All you need is bleach and water!
Take your plastic cutting board and dip it in a solution of water and bleach. Let it rest in it for two to three hours, so bleach can dissolve the stains and disinfect the board from the bacteria. After, wash it with water and dish soap.
Unload dust from AC vents
AC vents are located at a place where you can’t reach easily, not without a step ladder at least. So, by the time and the amount of usage, the dust gets accumulated in the vents, making the air dusty and unhealthy to breathe.
So, whenever you’re deep cleaning your house, don’t forget the vents. They are easy to clean if you know the right trick. Just get a towel and a knife. Get a towel, dampen it with a cleaning solution, and dust off each slit of the vent by wrapping one layer of it around the knife.
Deep cleanse dive in the bathtub
The bathtub needs weekly cleaning, and you can’t call cleaners to do it for you every week. You can easily do this procedure yourself without spending extra money and it won’t even take ten minutes out of your day off.
You merely need to fill up the bathtub with normal water and add one big scoop of oxygen bleach. Take precautions with this; wear gloves and keep the ventilation going. Keep the mixture overnight, and drain it the next morning. Wash off any residue after.
Lemon in the microwave
The microwave oven is one of the most used electronic machines in our daily lives. But with frequent use comes the job of frequent cleaning. Some recommend at least three times a week if you don’t want any lingering stink or food splatters inside. Good news: cleaning it is simple and quick.
You can use this hack of lemon juice and water for dried-up stains! Take a microwave-safe bowl and make the solution in it. Run the microwave until it starts to boil – the steam will soften the stains, and you can easily wipe them off with a clean towel.
Un-grease the stove
Cooking is fun, but cleaning the kitchen stove afterward isn’t, especially when we leave the food and oil splatters, burnt food residue, and steam stains on it for so long that they are hard to come off with a mere wet towel.
But don’t lose hope; we’ve got you covered! Take mineral oil and a paper towel or a cloth. Pour a few drops of the oil on the cloth and rub it all over the stove. This will de-grease the stove, and cleaning it becomes easier.
Un-burn burnt stove-burner
Who doesn’t love kitchen hacks? We love it when we get some cheap product to do our cleaning job for us! Like, when we use the gas stove for cooking, food splatters on the stove burner get burnt due to heat and are impossible to scrub off.
Why would you damage your hands to scrub the burnt stains off the stove burner when you can easily make a baking soda plus dish soap paste? All you need to do is apply this thick paste on the burner evenly, wait a bit, then wipe it off with a damp cloth.
Cleanse the oven glass
Baking is a fun and enjoyable hobby, but what good is baking when you can’t even see your food through the oven glass when you need to check if it’s going smoothly or not? You can’t stop baking just because your oven is dirty.
Sprinkle baking soda on the glass and cover it with a cloth soaked in soap or an old tee. Let it sit for fifteen to twenty minutes. Wipe it with the same cloth afterward in gentle circular motions to avoid scratches or water streaks.
Un-grease the stove #2
There are several hacks you can use to clean your gas stove. It is a frequently used item that needs almost daily cleaning. These few easy hacks will not take much of your time, and you’ll be able to get a squeaky clean kitchen, too!
Make a paste of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and water. Apply it all over the stove, and let it do its job for fifteen minutes. Wipe with a clean, lightly damp cloth, and you’re left with a nice, shiny, stainless, silver stove!
Deep cleanse the oven
Heat sets the food splatters and spills and makes cleaning the oven more difficult. Whether it’s a microwave, a stove, or a full-sized oven, food spills are tough to scrape off from there. Deep cleaning an oven is as necessary as cleaning a stove.
Take baking soda, dish soap, and water, and make a thick paste similar to pancake batter’s consistency. Smear this mixture all over the oven evenly in a thick layer. Let it sit for half an hour, and wipe it dry with a soft cotton tee or cloth.
Stainless shower doors
A steamy hot shower in the bathtub is relaxing, but cleaning the shower glass doors is a huge hassle afterward. The relaxing shower doesn’t last long. But we can find you a better and easier solution for keeping your shower doors crystal clear.
Water stains don’t easily go away, and a squeegee isn’t much help. You need a stiff-bristled brush or a good window cleaner/wiper to remove all the steam stains. To get the best results, you should wipe the door before the water stains dry up.
Rust-rings free
Rust rings are mostly formed in damp areas, like the washroom or near the sink in the kitchen, when some metallic holder stays in one place for too long. We thought rust rings were impossible to get rid of, but this efficient hack proved us wrong.
Use lemon juice and cream of tartar paste on the affected rusty rings. Take an old toothbrush to get a better scrub when you’re scraping off the rust off the counter. A few minutes of your precious time is worth it.
Grime-free knobs and handles
Deep cleaning your house doesn’t only involve mopping floors and counters and cleaning fans, walls, and furniture. You shouldn’t overlook small things, like handles and knobs all around the house. These are one of the most touched objects in the house!
We can’t make them lose their shine by forgetting about cleaning them. Dirty fingerprints may leave them dull. Next time you clean, take some oil soap and dip an old toothbrush in it. Scrape off all the dust and stains on all handles. Wipe it dry with a cloth.
Filth off the granite
Granite countertops increase the look and the aesthetics of a kitchen. But only when they are kept clean and glossy. They lose their gloss and shine if the dust and stains are not wiped regularly. Maintain your kitchen’s aesthetics by using this hack!
Take two cups of water, one-fourth cup of rubbing alcohol, and six drops of dishwashing liquid, and mix them well. Take a paper towel and cleanse the granite countertops using this mixture. It acts as a stain remover and disinfectant and makes the tops shiny.
Polished faucets
As pretty as they may seem at the first installation, Chrome faucets lose their sparkle if not regularly cleaned. Dull chrome faucets ruin the bathroom’s allure, so this is the hack that you need to use if you haven’t tried it already!
What you need are baby oil and some cotton balls. Dampen the cotton ball with baby oil and rub the faucet with it all around. This will de-grease the faucet, leaving it stain-free and glossy. Now you don’t need to stress about cleaning the next time you host friends at your house.
Baking soda to the rescue
Washing burnt pans is its own level of frustration. Soaking them overnight won’t help; it’s not worth your time to try. Burnt food residues are almost impossible to come off with simple scrubbing. You need something more powerful than elbow grease: vinegar!
Add water and vinegar to the burnt pan and leave it to boil. Most of the burnt residue will easily scrape off afterward. To remove it completely, rub baking soda over the burnt areas of the pan with a damp sponge. This will leave your pan as shiny as ever.
Spotless TV and computer screens
Wiping TV or laptop screens can seem pretty stressful as you don’t want to leave the screen full of scratches. Damaging the screen gives us stress every time we use our computer. We need to be as careful and gentle with this as possible!
We have a better idea than using a bristled towel or cotton fabric: a coffee filter! The coffee filter will not only remove the dirt, it will leave no lint or remains, unlike cloth does, and will also make sure there are no scratches.
Easy with the lampshades
Lampshades can be pretty tricky to clean. They gather dust just like any other object on your nightstand. But it shouldn’t be ignored just because you can’t risk damaging it. There is an easy solution to this. You probably already have this tool in your home.
This hack includes a lint roller! The adhesive lint roller is easy, effective, and very efficient for cleaning smooth surfaces. It clears off all the dust without needing you to apply pressure! Now you can keep your cute lampshade looking good as new for years to come.
Lemon vs. rust
Once rust starts building upon a surface, it doesn’t stop until the damage is done. So, it’s better if you get it under control before your daily use items are ruined for good. Plus, it’s not a very appealing sight.
All you need is a lemon and some salt. Cut the lemon in half, and dip it in salt. Scrub the rusty surface with the lemon until the acidic lemon has removed all the rust for you! No hard scrubbing and chemicals involved!