October 12, 2024
Make household cleaning a breeze and more effective with these tips.
Our tips should make your cleaning of the house easier and more effective. Take the hassle out of a daily chore.
Control Clutter
When it’s time to clean quickly tidy your paperwork into piles, toss shoes into closets, and put small objects into baskets for later organization. That way, you can clean your surfaces and floors properly. Then, pick a different day for cutting your clutter.
Start at the top
In each room, start at the highest point, such as dusting ceiling fans or wiping high shelves. Work your way down, sweeping any crumbs or dust onto the floor. Go ahead and knock dust and debris loose from curtains, lampshades, throw pillows, and other soft surfaces. As you work your way down, all the dust, pet hair, and debris will land on the floor to be vacuumed up at the end.
Follow a cleaning path: top to bottom, back to front, and in slices from left to right. By following the path systematically, you reduce the time you spend looking around and deciding what to clean next. Instead, you just keep moving ahead on the path and you never have to go back to an area.
Simplify your cleaning products
You don’t really need a cabinet bursting with a different product for each cleaning task. Many basic cleaning products can be used in a wide range of situations. For example, vinegar is an inexpensive, natural solution that can be used to cut grease, disinfect surfaces, shine glass, clear drains, clean toilets, remove stains, and even polish furniture. Cleaning experts rely on these products:
To bring back the shine to sterling silver, make up a paste (three parts bicarb to one part water) and apply with a lint-free cloth (not a paper towel, which can scratch), then rinse.
You burnt the pan
There are a few ways to rescue burnt pans but the most effective is to drop a dishwasher tablet into the pan, fill it with hot water from the tap and then bring the water to the boil on the hob. Occasionally stir the water and wait until the burnt material has been loosened from the pan surface. You can then wash as normal or repeat if necessary.
Dish soap is a decent alternative if you don’t have a dishwasher tablet to hand. Another alternative is simply boil some water in the pot in question, with a few stalks of rhubarb in it. After 3-4 minutes take the pot off the heats and leave to cool, before grabbing a sponge to give it a quick wipe and your pots will be as good as new.
Don’t just move dust around
Using a dry dusting rag or feather duster often just moves dust and dirt around your home rather than picking it up. A slightly damp cloth will work better as dust is more likely to adhere, but a microfibre or antistatic cloth is the way to go.
These types of cleaning cloths are positively charged, so dust and dirt – which is negatively charged – are attracted to them. This means that they can be used effectively without water or cleaning chemicals.
Control your dust
What better way to tackle dust than before it settles on surfaces? While it’s not possible to make any home completely dust-free, an air purifier will help. By circulating air around the room and trapping dust particles in the unit’s HEPA filter before they have a chance to settle, the amount of dust accumulating on your countertops, furniture and floor surfaces is reduced.
This is also great news for allergy sufferers, as dust is composed of things like dead skin cells, mould spores, insect by-products and pet dander – all of which can cause or aggravate allergies.
Easy way to clean a food blender or mixer
Half fill your dirty blender or food mixer with hot water, add a bit of dish soap and run it for about 10-15 seconds. Empty and rinse.
Job done!
Because this process is so quick you can do it immediately after using your appliance, before the remnants of smoothie or pureed soup dry and become difficult to remove.
Clean the kettle or coffee maker
Kettles and coffee makers can really suffer from the build-up of mineral deposits if you live in a hard water area. Not only does limescale look unsightly, it can damage small appliances and reduce performance.
Denture tabs contain our favourite cleaning hack – baking or bicarbonate soda, as well as a mild bleach and citric acid (think lemon juice).
Drop a couple tabs into your kettle and fill with water, leave for a few hours and then follow up with a thorough scrub. Rinse to ensure all mineral deposits and any remnants of the denture tabs have been removed, and your kettle should be like new.
To clean your coffee maker, add two tablets to the tank and fill with water. Run the coffee maker without coffee, pouring away the pot of water, before repeating the process a couple times without tablets. This will thoroughly rinse the system so that no nasty stuff gets in your coffee. Once complete, you’ve just extended the life of the machine, improved its performance and no doubt improved the taste of your coffee.
Sock it to the blind
Venetian blinds can be frustrating to clean and are easy to damage if you’re not careful. Some vacuums have brush attachments that are ideal for the job, but an even more effective method is to place an old sock on your hand so you can easily get in between the slats.
Make sure you clean or swap out the sock regularly so you’re not just moving dust around. A little dish soap can help if the blinds are in your kitchen and have accumulated kitchen grease.
Cleaning the oven
For a deep clean, pre-heat your oven to 200 degree C, fill an oven-safe bowl with water, place inside with the door closed and leave for 45 minutes. Allow your oven to cool and wipe away the loosened dirt with a clean cloth.
Shelves can be cleaned by dissolving 250g of soda crystals in hot water, soaking the shelves and scrubbing them with a kitchen foil ball.
Cleaning the microwave
Are you tired of getting halfway into your microwave to scrub off the residue of yesterday’s ready meal? Try putting a few lemons in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes on full power. Watch the lemon release the grease and simply wipe clean with a cloth, no scrubbing required.
Tech clean
Shared tech such as the TV remote and computer keyboards can be microbe-magnets. Use a damp microfibre cloth to clear grime and dust, then a clean cloth spritzed with a disinfectant solution to tackle germs and viruses.
For those hard-to-reach spaces on your keyboard, turn the whole thing upside down and tap gently. Tease out stubborn dirt with a sticky note folded in two (sticky side out). Always wash your hands regularly if you are sharing the workstation.
Grout Grime
Make a paste of bicarb and water and work it into the grout between your tiles using an old toothbrush. Then, fill a spray bottle with vinegar and spray it over the bicarb mix. It should start bubbling up into a thick mixture that is perfect for tackling grout.
Use the brush to scrub away the grime or if you have an old head for your electric toothbrush, try that – it will save you elbow-grease! Rinse tiles well with water afterwards.
Enemy of limescale
It’s surprising how grimy showerheads can get. Every six to eight months, pour a solution of distilled white vinegar into a plastic bag and fasten it over the showerhead using an elastic band so the holes are immersed in the liquid. After an hour, remove the bag and run the shower on hot to flush the showerhead through.
For a build-up of limescale on taps, wrap a cloth soaked in vinegar solution around the tap and leave overnight. Use an old toothbrush soaked in the solution to work away any remaining residue. Don’t use vinegar on plated taps, particularly gold ones, because the acid can damage the finish.
Sparkling windows
Number one rule: don’t clean them on a very sunny day, the heat will make the glass dry too quickly and cause smears, undoing all your hard work.
Spray on a solution of one part distilled white vinegar to nine parts water and wipe round with a lint-free cloth, then a chamois leather or glass polishing microfibre cloth to buff them to a brilliant shine.
Cola shine
Tough toilet stains? Grab a bottle of Coca Cola and pour it around the rim of the toilet bowl, leave it for around an hour then give it a scrub with a toilet brush to remove any stubborn stains. Cheaper than most toilet cleaners and does a better job!
Wood stains
Take some olive oil and table salt, and then combine the two to make a paste. Apply the paste to the affected areas and leave for around an hour then wipe clean. Don’t be disheartened if the stains don’t go immediately; check back in a day or two and coffee table gate will all be a distant memory.
Carpet Ironing
No amount of rug rearranging can cover some carpet stains. Forget expensive carpet cleaners, grab your iron and a damp cloth, place the damp cloth over the stain and press with your iron on a high setting. The steam from the iron will lift the stain and once your carpet is dry, the stain will be no more.
You probably have cleaning tips of your own and it would be great if you shared them with us.
There are exercise benefits associated with cleaning so read our post Mopping Up The Calories
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