Cleaning is a necessary evil. You'd like to live in a home that looks and smells nice, but spending endless hours scrubbing and cleaning can be exhausting and a little dreary. Instead of wasting that beautiful Saturday scouring pans or the inside of your oven, try a few of these cleaning hacks instead.
These tips make some of those cleaning jobs just a little easier and more effective — and perhaps with a little less effort!
The Kitchen
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Use stove-top liners: These are absolutely genius. Instead of scrubbing away at the flecks of food baked solid onto your stovetop, just replace the liners.
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Clean your cutting board: Wood cutting boards are fantastic, but they can be germy. Properly clean the board by coating it with kosher salt and using a lemon half to scrub the board. Lightly rinse, and then dry well.
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Clean your dishwasher with a lemon Kool-Aid packet: Empty out your dishwasher and run it using a packet of lemon Kool-Aid. The citrus helps fight stains.
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Foil your glass: Need to scrub stuck-on debris from your glass cookware? Try using tin foil!
The Bathroom
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Clean up your dirty sinks the natural way: Don't let dirty sinks get you down. Cut a lemon in half, and pour some baking soda into a small dish. Next, sprinkle the baking soda all over your sink, and then squeeze the fresh lemon juice over the baking soda. Use the other half of the lemon as a "sponge," and scrub the mess in the sink. Finally, turn on the faucet and rinse the away the residue. You are good to go!
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Clean up nasty tile buildup in the shower: Use shower gel instead of soap. The fats and oils contained in bars of soap contribute to that yucky buildup on your shower tiles. Shower gels, on the other hand, are more like a detergent.
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Clean the bathroom fan: If you want to clean that bathroom fan without taking it apart (though you should tackle that task at least twice a year), use a can of compressed air. Turn the fan on, and then hit it with a blast of canned air. You'll need to dust the bathroom afterward.
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Give the loo a proper scrub: Your toilet might need a little more TLC than you're giving it. When cleaning the bowl, remember to scrub under the rim. You should also remove your toilet seat a few times a year to get all of the crevices. (This is particularly true if you're potty-training boys!)
Laundry
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Wash your clothes in pepper: Toss a teaspoon of pepper (yes, the pepper you use to season your chicken) into the wash. The pepper prevents clothes from bleeding and helps keeps colors staying bright for longer.
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Chalk it off: If you accidentally splatter grease on your clothes while cooking dinner, grab a bit of chalk and rub the chalk on the spot.
Disaster Cleanup
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Candle wax: If you were to accidentally spill candle wax all over the carpet and needed to get rid of it quick (because, say, you weren't supposed to have a candle warmer in your dorm room), this hack is a lifesaver.
