When you think of your favorite things to do, home cleaning doesn’t leap to the top of the list for most of us. These tips may not make home cleaning a good time, but they’ll certainly make it simpler, more organized, cheaper, and less toxic for children and pets.From the living room, to the kitchen, to the laundry and playroom, here are more than 30 cleaning tips to meet your household cleaning challenges in new and sometimes surprising ways.
Living Room
1.Clean your ceiling fan with a pillowcase
If you are like most of us, you don’t clean your hard-to-reach ceiling fans as often as you do the rest of the house—which means more dust and grime when you do dig out the ladder. Slipping a pillowcase over the blade and using the inside of the case to wipe it clean means dirt stays inside the case rather than falling to the floor or worse, onto you!
2.Keep rugs and carpets fresh with homemade dry carpet cleaner
Mix together baking soda, cornstarch, cornmeal, bay leaves, cloves, and borax in a blender to grind all ingredients to a powder. Pour into sprinkle-top container and shake powder into carpets and rugs to set for at least two hours. Vacuum up and know that this powder is safe for kids and pets.
3.Clean Air Vents Easily
A quick and very easy way to clean those dusty air vents around the house, is using a knife and a regular cleaning rag. Spray some cleaner on it and those air vents are cleaned in no time.
4.Clean your blinds with a sock
Cleaning blinds may be one of the most hated household chores ever. Using an old sock dipped in a vinegar and warm water solution to quickly clean dirt and grime way will get you past this unpleasant task as fast as possible.
5.Remove Pet Hair with a Rubber Glove
Clean any pet hair by simply putting on a rubber glove. Rub the glove a few times on the upholstery and it will trap the pet hair. Works very well, especially when you are in a hurry.
6.Clean your TV or computer screen with a coffee filter
Microfiber clothes are expensive and paper towels leave lint behind when cleaning electronic devices like TV and computer screens. Coffee filters are an inexpensive and lint-free way to keep your TV and computer monitors clear and dust-free.
7.Restore scratched wood with vinegar and olive oil
Sometimes even expensive furniture oils can’t restore a severely scuffed piece of wood furniture. But mixing one part vinegar and three parts olive oil creates an effective furniture repair solution. Use a rag to rub into any wooden furniture surface with scuffs and scratches to clean and restore to its original glory.
Kitchen Cleaning Tips
1.Clean gunk off the stove with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide
If you have ever lifted the burner drip pans on your stove and discovered a cooked-on greasy mess, this tip is for you. It can take hours to scrub off baked on oils and food, but using a past of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide with a scrubbing sponge vastly reduces the amount of scrubbing and effort required to make your stove-top sparkle
2.Scrub-free way to stove burners
Stove burners can be impossible to clean, even with diligent scrubbing.
But, a ¼ cup of ammonia in a large zip-lock bag will dissolve that impossible grease overnight (best left outside to avoid unpleasant ammonia fumes), leaving your stove burners easy to wipe clean with a sponge.
3.Keep that stainless-steel clean and shiny with olive oil
Stainless steel polish is pricey and full of chemicals. But olive oil offers a simple, inexpensive way to clean and polish your stainless-steel appliances, removing food stains, watermarks, and finger prints. Wipe down your appliance with a wet cloth to remove dried on food. Then use about one tablespoon of olive oil with a soft cloth to buff away fingerprints and streaks.
4.Steam clean your microwave
Nobody likes to clean a dirty microwave. When cooked-on food is spattered everywhere, it seems like an impossible scrubbing nightmare. But, with a little water and some lemon juice you can steam-clean the grime right off. Heat lemon water for five minutes and everything should wipe clean with a sponge.
5.Lemon-vinegar ice cleans and deodorizes your kitchen disposal
If you’ve noticed an unpleasant odor coming from your sink drain, it’s time to clean it out. Cut up some lemon pieces and place one piece in each section of an ice tray. Fill the tray with vinegar and freeze. Toss a few cubes down the drain and turn on the disposal. The ice helps clear out any leftover food bits and the vinegar and lemon mix leaves the drain smelling fresh and clean.
6.Clean Your Oven Naturally
A fantastic way to get our oven clean, by using baking soda and vinegar. Cleans the oven in no time and without any poisonous harsh chemicals. A must-know for all of us who still do no have an auto-cleaning oven.
7.Clean your coffee grinder with rice
If your coffee grinder does double duty grinding coffee as well as spices, you’ll love this simple cleaning method for removing leftover debris, oils, and odors. All you need is about half a cup of uncooked rice. Fill the grinder with rice and turn it on for about 30 seconds. The rice absorbs anything left in the grinder and helps clear it out when you empty the ground rice into the trash.
8.Clean and deodorize your cutting board with salt and lemon
Wood cutting boards do not respond well to soaking in bleach or running through the dishwasher, but cleaning them well is still important. Use half a lemon dipped in coarse salt to scrub down your cutting board. Wipe clean with a paper towel (damp if needed). You can protect your unfinished wood board with an application of food-grade oil.
Bathroom Cleaning Tips
1.Scrub grout clean with just vinegar, salt and baking soda
Rather than spend money on harsh, specialized grout cleaners, use a mix of equal parts vinegar, salt, and baking soda to clean bathroom grout and tile. Apply with a small scrub brush and allow it to soak for twenty minutes. Dirt and gunk should scrub off and after rinsing, your grout be as good as new.
2.Unclog the bathroom sink with seltzer tablets
Use three Alka-Seltzer (or any generic equivalent) tablets with half a cup of vinegar to clear out clogs and deodorize your bathroom sink. After letting the tablets and vinegar bubble and work their magic, run hot water down the sink for five minutes and your drain should be clear and fresh.
3.Cleaning your Makeup Brushes with Shampoo
Clean your makeup brushes with a good brush shampoo or use baby shampoo. Rinsed in lukewarm water and those expensive makeup brushes are like new. It works like a charm and doing it regularly keeps the brush soft much longer.
4.Clean your shower head with baking soda and vinegar in a baggie.
Hard water deposits leave your shower head looking dirty and blocked. Pour one cup of vinegar into a quart-sized plastic baggie. Add one-third cup baking soda and position the baggie over the shower head so it’s completely submerged. Secure it with a twist tie and let the shower head soak for several hours (overnight for best results).
5.Baking soda and vinegar make a cheap, safe toilet bowl cleaner
Instead of buying a harsh toilet bowl cleaner, pour a ½ cup of vinegar and half a cup of baking soda into your toilet bowl. Don’t be surprised when it fizzes and bubbles up—that a reaction between the two that releases oxygen. Let this soak for at least ten minutes (or up to several hours for tough stains) then scrub with your toilet brush and you’re done!
6.Clean up hairspray residue with borax
If you or your teenagers do your hair daily in the bathroom, you may find the floors and counter-tops covered in a layer of hairspray goop. It’s easy to remove this caked-on crud with a mix of one or two tablespoons of borax and three or four cups of hot water.
7.Use nail polish to prevent rust rings
Painting the bottoms of shaving cream cans and other metal containers that sit on wet surfaces (like the side of your bathtub) with clear nail polish will prevent unsightly rust rings.
8.Clean Your Bathroom Exhaust Fan Easily
The exhaust fan is one of the most dusty places in your bathroom. Very difficult to clean with a sponge. Use a blast of canned air and spray into the ceiling grill of the exhaust fan. Cleans it in no time.
Playroom/Nursery
1.Wash Lego’s in the washing machine
Lego’s tend to live their lives on the floor along with dirt, dropped food, and germs of all kinds. Keep them sparkling and goo-free by tossing them in a large laundry bag and into the washing machine. Lay them out to dry on a sweater rack or an old towel.
2.Take crayon off the walls with baking soda
Anybody who has a toddler likely has had to tackle removing knee-level artwork from the walls. The challenge is trying to find a cleaning method that doesn’t remove as much paint as crayon. Try making a paste with baking soda and warm water, and then gently scrubbing with a non-abrasive sponge. This should remove crayon without damaging paint.
3.Remove permanent marker from the wall with hairspray or toothpaste
The only thing worse to remove from your walls than crayon is permanent marker. The name even implies that the only solution is to paint over the work of art left behind by your kids. But, with a little hairspray or toothpaste and some light scrubbing, even permanent marker doesn’t have to stick around forever.
4.Clean and disinfect toys in the dishwasher
If you cringe at the idea of spraying down toys with Lysol or bleaching items that often end up inside your kid’s mouth, load your kids’ plastic toys, tub toys, binkies, hairbrushes, and more into the dishwasher instead. Limit this solution to toys made without fabric or wood, and that don’t use batteries. Be sure to put small or removable pieces into the silverware holder.
Laundry Cleaning Tips
1.Clean your washing machine with vinegar
You’d think the machine responsible for cleaning your clothes would also be able to keep itself clean, but of course, some of what comes off your clothes ends up depositing itself on the walls of your washer. This can be easily remedied by filling the washer with water and adding two cups of vinegar. Let this soak for an hour and then run the machine through a complete wash cycle. Any leftover grime should be easily cleaned with a vinegar-soaked sponge.
2.Clean your iron with salt
How to restore your iron to its clean, shiny finish can be a puzzle. Wet cleaning methods are not an option, but a little heat and salt will clean it right up. Sprinkle salt onto your ironing board and turn the iron on at the highest setting. Use the steam setting as you run the iron over salt to remove dirt and grime.
3.Battle grass stains with vinegar and a toothbrush
Even the toughest ground-in grass stains can be tackled with this method. Pretreat the stain with a solution of one-part vinegar and two-parts water and scrub with an old toothbrush. Let this soak for an hour before laundering with an enzyme-based laundry detergent.
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