Unless you are a real-life Shrek, a decent layer of dust, grease, mold, and stains in your house doesn’t add any charm. But cleaning your home doesn’t mean you will have to spend the day climbing to hard-to-reach places or rubbing your fingers raw trying to clean your cooktop. It’s all way easier than you think, all you need is some savvy, for example, a simple bar of soap can be a great air freshener for your drawers!
Keep your dishwasher clean
Dishwashers also need to be cleaned from time to time. Bits of food, grease, and soap scum can create harmful bacteria in them, make them look and smell bad, and decrease their efficiency. White vinegar and baking soda will wash away the grease, and sanitize and deodorize your dishwasher.
What to do:
- Pull the bottom rack of your dishwasher out, check out the drain area, and remove hard chunks of food, if there are some.
- Fill a dishwasher-safe bowl with white vinegar and place it on the top rack of your dishwasher. Use the hottest water setting and run it through a cycle.
- After the cycle is finished, sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda around the bottom and run it through a short cycle (with hot water).
- If there is mold in your dishwasher, add 1 cup of bleach around the bottom and run it through a short cycle (with hot water).
Important: If your dishwasher has a stainless steel interior, don’t use bleach. Bleach can corrode it!
Remove hard water stains on your faucet using vinegar.
Hard water stains on a faucet breed bacteria and look ugly. Here’s what you need to do to clean them.
What to do:
- Soak a paper towel in vinegar.
- Wrap it around the faucet.
- Let it soak for 30 — 60 minutes.
Remove a tough stain from carpet using an iron
You will need: ammonia, hot water, a spray bottle, a stack of clean and color-safe towels, an iron
What to do:
- Preheat your iron;
- Mix one part ammonia and one part hot water.
- Spray the mixture onto the carpet stain and put a clean towel on top of it.
- Place the hot iron on the towel and move it around slowly (this is done to avoid singeing the carpet).
- Spray more of the mixture on the stain and repeat the process. You might need a few more towels, depending on how hard the stain is to remove.
Whiten your old yellow pillows easily
Yellow pillows look gross and no one wants to sleep on them. Luckily, there is a method you can use to save them. You will need powdered laundry detergent, powdered dishwasher detergent, and borax.
What to do:
- Check to see if your pillow is washable, then remove the pillow case or the pillow protector.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil, stir in 1 cup of powdered laundry detergent, 1 cup of powdered dishwasher detergent, and 1/2 cup of borax. Stir until everything dissolves.
- Pour this mixture into a container large enough for you to soak your pillows in and 1 cup of bleach. Let your pillows soak in this mixture for 30 minutes. Don’t forget to flip them half-way through.
- Then run the pillows through a full wash cycle in a washing machine.
Use frozen vinegar-lemon cubes to remove the smell from your garbage disposal
These ice cubes will keep the blades of your garbage disposal sharp, clean, and will help to remove any unpleasant odor.
What to do:
Place a small chunk of lemon into each ice cube mold, then fill them with white vinegar and freeze.
Drop a few of the frozen cubes into your running garbage disposal.
Whiten your clothes without using bleach
Do your whites look grey or yellow, but you don’t like using bleach? Well, there is an alternative. You will need water, lemon juice, and hydrogen peroxide.
What to do:
- Mix 12 cups of water, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide in a large container.
- Add 2 cups of the mixture to each load of laundry.
Give your showerhead a vinegar bath
For regular cleaning, attach a plastic bag with vinegar to a showerhead and let it soak for 30-60 minutes.
Twice a year, disassemble the shower head and soak all the parts in vinegar to disinfect and remove bacteria.
Clean a glass cooktop with minimal scrubbing
Scared to damage your glass cooktop while cleaning it? Then baking soda will save your day! You will need a bowl of hot water, liquid dish soap, baking soda, and a cleaning rag.
What to do:
- Fill a bowl with hot tap water and mix it with some dish soap, then soak the rag in the bowl.
- Apply generous amount of baking soda all over the cooktop.
- Squeeze half the water out of your hot soapy rag and put it on top of the cooktop with the baking soda. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
- Gently scrub away in circles.
This method is useful for any glass surface and you can use it to clean a glass oven door too.
Get your stove burners spotlessly clean
For this you will need a gallon-size Ziploc bag and ammonia, nothing more.
What to do:
- Pour some ammonia into the Ziploc bag, place a stove part in there, and seal it. Repeat with the other dirty parts.
- Let the bags sit overnight. The next morning you will notice that the gunk from the parts is floating in the bag!
- Remove the parts from the bag and wash them with a soapy sponge.
Use paper towels and white vinegar to clean the rim of the toilet bowl
The rim of your toilet bowl can sometimes be really hard to clean! Here’s a solution that will make it easier. You will need white vinegar and paper towels.
What to do:
Soak the paper towels in vinegar.
Tuck the towels up under the rim of your toilet bowl.
Let them soak for a few hours, then remove the paper towels, and scrub the rim clean.
Remove stains from your cutting board with lemon juice and sunshine
Stains on cutting boards can look ugly, but there is a smart tip to remove them. You will just need a lemon and a sunny place.
What to do:
Squeeze some juice from a lemon and use the lemon peel to spread it all around the stain on the cutting board surface.
Take this board outside and set it somewhere that it can soak up the sun! Leave it to soak for several hours, then wash the cutting board with soap.
If there is no sun outside, don’t despair! Get a lemon, cut it in 2, sprinkle some coarse salt on your cutting board, and rub it with the inside of the lemon.
Steam clean your microwave
Over time, microwaves start to smell, but white vinegar will save the day!
What to do:
Heat a 1:1 mixture of vinegar and water until it steams.
Wipe the microwave down with paper towels.
Remove sweat stains from your white shirts
Don’t hurry to throw away a nice shirt because it has an ugly yellow sweat stain on it. Just prepare a solution of dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda.
What to do:
Combine a 1:2 ratio of dish soap and hydrogen peroxide in a bowl.
Apply this paste to the stain, and sprinkle a little bit of baking soda on top.
Get a laundry scrub brush (an old toothbrush will also work) to work the soap, peroxide, and baking soda into the fibers of the shirt.
After this, let your shirt sit for at least an hour or so, and then launder it normally.
Use car wax to clean your stainless steel fridge
A stainless steel fridge might be a bit tricky to clean, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! For this method you will need car wax (sounds crazy, but it works!)
What to do:
Apply a light coat of car wax to the surface, and buff with a microfiber cloth to clean and repel smudges.
This tip might come in handy when you are planning a party and want everything to be perfect. White vinegar will save you!
What to do:
Put a small bowl of white vinegar on the top rack of your dishwasher (you can also put it in your rinse-aid dispenser). Voila, no more water stains!
