You learn a lot from Grandma—from how to make her famous recipes to the importance of hand-written letters. Grandmas also have some of the best ideas for keeping things tidy. Here are some cleaning tips we learned from Grandma.
Lemon Works as a Natural Whitener
Forget the bleach! To make your linens whiter, try using lemon-like Grandma would. Just squeeze the juice of one lemon into a gallon of hot water and let your laundry soak for up to two hours. Then run the item through a rinse cycle and hang it out to dry.
Clean with a Pillow Case
When it comes time to clean those dusty ceiling fan blades, reach for an old pillow case. Grandma would slip the pillow case over the fan blade and slide it down the blade to collect the dust inside the pillow case. Just be sure to wash it before using it on your pillow!
Go Old School
There’s a reason you can still find the cleaning products Grandma used to use—it’s because they work! Borax can be used to clean tile, sinks and greasy cabinets. Old English works great to dust furniture. Use Bar Keepers Friend to polish stainless steel.
Credit Card Scraper
Grandma used an old, expired credit card to scrape food off pots and pans. Just keep a card next to the kitchen sink to help clean pans without scratching them.
Clean Milk Stains from Clothes
It seems unusual that a dark cola could remove a milk stain but the claim exists. After letting the milk stain soak in Coca-Cola for around five minutes, just throw it in the wash.
Remove Tough Grime With Less Scrubbing
Whether it’s built-up soap scum on the shower walls, ground-in dirt on the floor tile or dried toothpaste on the vanity top, a Magic Eraser sponge (or other brands) will make short work of it. Just dampen it and rub it on the offending mess. In most cases, the mess will come right off. These sponges are especially useful for removing ground-in dirt from porous floor tile and getting those pesky nonslip strips in the bottom of your tub clean. Magic Eraser sponges clean bathroom showers well and are available at grocery stores, hardware stores, and wherever cleaning supplies are sold. Unlike regular sponges, they wear out pretty fast, so stock up.
Baking Soda for Carpets
Baking soda can help deodorize carpets. Just sprinkle some on the carpet before vacuuming.
Keep Garbage Bags Handy
How many times have you gone to toss something in the trash only to find whoever took the trash out last didn’t replace the bag? Grandma would keep new bags at the bottom of the bin so there was never a reason to not replace the old ones.
Invest in Tea Towels
Instead of buying paper towels, just stock up on tea towels. Since they are 100-percent cotton, you can use them to dry glasses, let dishes dry on them and wipe down the kitchen counters and stove.
Use Salt for Stains
If you spill juice or coffee on your favorite shirt, take Grandma’s lead and reach for the salt. While the stain is fresh, pour some table salt on it and let it sit. The salt will help soak up some of the stain and make it easier to get out.
Burned-On Foods
Getting burnt food off cookware is no easy feat. But here’s a clever trick: put a new dryer sheet at the bottom of the dirty pan, add water and let it soak overnight. The next day, wipe out the pan and you’re good to go.
Polish Your Metal
No matter how careful you are with your stainless-steel pots, those nice steak knives or that fancy coffee travel mug, sometimes they get small rust spots due to residual water. Next time you notice a small rust spot on your metal kitchen tools, use lemon juice and a sponge. Simply squeeze a little lemon juice into a sponge and rub it on the surface. Do you have scratches in your stainless steel appliances?
Clean Your Microwave
There’s no scrubbing required here! You can get a squeaky-clean microwave without using harsh chemicals. Just squeeze some lemon juice into a bowl of warm water, add the lemon rinds and microwave for 5 minutes. The water will start to boil and the steam will loosen the dried bits of food. When the timer goes off, carefully remove the hot bowl and use a clean towel to wipe everything clean.
Get rid of rust with lemonade mix
Want to rid your metal tools or outdoor furniture of pesky rust? All it takes is some lemonade powder and a little elbow grease.
“Rub the mixture on the surface and the citric acid from the drink powder will eat away the rust,” says Brunette.
Erase scuff marks on your walls with cucumber
That mark where the back of your chair hit the wall doesn’t have to become a permanent eyesore. In fact, one of the easiest cleaning tips for your home requires looking no further than your crisper drawer.
“Use the outside of the [cucumber] peel to remove scuffs on tables and walls around the house,” says Brunette. Simply rub the peel on the offending mark and it’ll be gone before you know it.
Use salt and lime to remove stuck-on grease
If you’ve got a layer of grease covering your stove or microwave, your favorite tequila shot accouterments are the perfect way to get it off.
“Salt acts as an abrasive for the gunk and the acids in the lime help to break it down and clean it easily,”. Simply rub the lime over the surface and massage in the salt, then wipe away with a water-dampened cloth for a flawless clean.
Pick up broken glass with a piece of bread
Anyone who’s ever dropped a water glass or shattered a lightbulb can attest to the fact that glass is notoriously hard to pick up. And before the days of Dysons, folks used a surprising method for getting those shards off the ground: bread.
Clean your mirrors with black tea
That grimy mirror is no match for a spot of tea. Brew a strong cup of black tea, transfer it to a spray bottle, and “let tea’s tannic acid do the work you don’t want to,” .
Remove scratches on your windows with toothpaste
Those little scratches on glass are easy to remove with a staple in virtually every bathroom: toothpaste! Simply “apply a dab of toothpaste to a soft cloth, then scrub in a circular motion,”. Wipe it away with a damp cloth, followed by a dry one. Just make sure you’re doing this with a traditional toothpaste and not a gel one, which doesn’t have the abrasive properties necessary to get those scratches out for good.
Remove stains on your cooking utensils or cutting boards with lemon.
Whether you’ve stained your cutting board chopping berries or discolored a wooden spoon by leaving it in your homemade tomato sauce for too long, there’s a simple fix right there in your kitchen.
Clean your dirty pans with baking soda
Your usual detergent may not do much to lift that caked-on grime from your pots and pans, but another kitchen staple will: baking soda. This common fridge deodorizer and baking ingredient “works as fine sandpaper,”. Use a scrub brush or toothbrush to apply the baking soda to the pan and you can easily scrub those messes away in seconds.
Use white vinegar in place of fabric softener
Is your laundry feeling a little less than clean when you get it from the dryer? Instead of using fabric softener, add some white vinegar to your next load of laundry. “White vinegar will strip all of the detergent build-ups from your fabrics, making towels fluffy and soft again,” who notes that that pungent vinegar scent won’t be noticeable once the wash cycle is complete.
Soak your clothes in detergent and water before washing them
Today, there are a dozen stain pre-treatment products on the shelves at your local big-box store. But 50 years ago, if you wanted to get out a tough clothing stain, you took a different approach: giving those garments a nice, long pre-soak.
Soaking a stained garment in a mixture of detergent and water for a few hours prior to popping it in the washing machine means the stain will lift out easily, who claims that “this works 100 percent of the time.”
Remove stains from clothing with glycerin
Once used for everything from dry skin to diaper rash, glycerin also happens to be a great way to get tough stains out of clothing. Schulhof says you just “rub it on the stain, allow it to sit for an hour or more, then blot with a damp cleaning cloth until the stain is gone.”
Keep mildew from forming with a spritz of white vinegar
That mildew in your bathroom is no match for the vinegar in your cabinet. Rodriguez recommends combining one part white vinegar with three parts water, putting the mixture into a spray bottle, and applying it to areas where you typically encounter mildew issues. Just don’t do this on porous stone, as the vinegar’s acidity can erode it.
Use vinegar and water to clean your silver jewelry
Removing tarnish from your silver jewelry doesn’t require fancy chemical dips or ultrasonic jewelry cleaners. Instead, “soak your silver items in a solution of half a cup vinegar and water,”. After a few hours, “you can scrub them with an old toothbrush” and dry them with a soft cloth, she notes. Just don’t use this technique on pearls, turquoise, or other porous stones, as it can wear them down over time.
