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Smart Housekeeping and Cleaning Hacks

Cleaning your house is something you can’t escape, and the pressure of housekeeping keeps mounting with time. Depending on your lifestyle and availability of housekeeping services at home, you may need to clean your house daily, alternate day, or weekly.

Weekends are meant for relaxation rather than getting your hands dirty with dust and grime. The cleaning hacks allow you to keep your house sparkling clean by investing minimal time and effort. Most hacks involve using commonly available ingredients at home.

This article delves into the top cleaning and housekeeping hacks that can be completed within five minutes. But, of course, that’s the time you can afford every day.

Using Dishwasher for Cleaning Objects Other Than Dishes

If you are using your dishwasher for cleaning only your dishes, you are undermining its potential. Would you believe your dishwasher can clean a wide array of objects, including hairbrushes, plastic toys, rubber flip-flops, etc.?

It’s a great way to clean lots of dirty stuff lying around your house with minimal effort. Some things that you can wash safely in the dishwasher include contacts lens case, hairbrushes and combs, canvas sneakers, baseball caps, mouth guards, and makeup brushes.

Moreover, you can also clean refrigerator shelves, non-electrical plastic and rubber toys, showerheads, metal and plastic garden tools; by putting them on your dishwasher shelves.

Polish Surfaces With Olive Oil

The nutritional benefits of olive oil are well-known; however, it can also be used for cleaning any dirty spots on various surfaces.

Take a piece of a soft cloth and pour a few drops of olive oil over it. Now use this cloth piece for polishing the targeted areas in circular motions. Use it for cleaning spots on stainless steel appliances like pots and pans.

Remove Foul Odour By Sprinkling Baking Soda

Spray a bit of baking soda on your mattress, carpets, and other upholstered furniture. Let it perform its de-stinking work for 15 minutes on the surfaces. Now vacuum the sprayed areas and surfaces for creating pleasantly smelling and refreshing surfaces instantly.

Baking soda works great as a stovetop scrub. Simply pour baking soda on the stovetop and sprinkle it with water. Allow it to sit and act for one hour, and then wipe it to leave your stovetop looking sparkling clean.

Remove Pet Hair Quickly With Rubber Gloves

You need a pair of damp rubber dish gloves to remove fur and pet hair from your bed sheet, pillow, or armchair. It works effectively in eliminating pet’s hair as compared to your standard vacuum cleaner.

Simply wear your rubber gloves and rub down the target areas that need cleaning. This action produces friction between the rubber and fabric; it generates elasticity for gathering remaining pet hair.

Once you are done rubbing the areas, rinse the gloves under running water for removing the attached hair.

Eliminate Foul Odours From Upholstery

Your furniture and upholstery are responsible for spreading persistent unpleasant smells in your home. Prepare a cleaning mix comprising essential oil, vinegar, and water to eliminate foul odours and pet smell from upholstery.

Spray this mix on your upholstery and vacuum the targeted area once dried. You may also pretest this mix on any insignificant place and then use it on the rest of the upholstery.

Use Lemon for Cleaning the Greasy Pan

While lemon is one of the essentials of your daily cooking, you can also use it for cleaning greasy surfaces like the pan. Rub the remnants of a cut lemon all over a greasy pan filled with grime. The acid present in the lemon softens the grime, and it gets easy to wipe away.

Once you have loosened the tough grease and grime, wash your pan the usual way. You can use the other half of the lemon for garnishing your meals or preparing lemonade.

Clean Bathroom Mirror With Your Morning Tea 

How about using your morning black tea for cleaning your bathroom mirror. Save the last few drops of your black tea and pour it over a clean cloth. Use this cloth for wiping the mirror. The tanning acid present in the black tea cleans the mirror instantly.

Soak Up Wine Spills Using Salt 

Don’t worry if you have spilt wine over your favourite rug while partying? Because you need not spend hours scrubbing red wine as you can simply sprinkle some salt on the spilt areas. Allow the salt to suck up the wine stains out of your rug for a few hours.

Once the red wine is absorbed into the salt, vacuum the targeted areas and wipe away the excess salt.

Use Parchment Papers for Lining Your Refrigerator Shelves

It gets very tedious and unpleasant to clean the sticky leftovers or food spills within your refrigerator. However, you can save time cleaning your dirty and stinky fridge by lining your refrigerator’s shelves with parchment papers.

Use Dentures for Cleaning Your Toilet

Avoid scrubbing the toilet with a toilet brush for cleaning it. Instead, use the fizzing denture cleansing tablets for removing tough and dirty bowl stains and rust. You need to drop just one denture tablet in your toilet, allow it to do the cleaning and then flush the toilet.

Clean With Your Socks

Yes, you have read it correctly as you can use your old socks for cleaning your floors and dusting window blinds. Wear your microfiber socks and roam around your house for capturing dirt and dust from your floors. Later throw these dirty socks in your laundry.

The window blinds feature multiple sides and shapes, and hence they are difficult to clean. To clean them, prepare a mixture of 50/50 vinegar and water. Soak your old soak in it, and use it for swiping sections of blinds to see the embedded dirt and dust coming off them.

Use Vodka for Eliminating Carpet Stains

Rubbing alcohol such as vodka helps in cleaning hardened stains on your carpets or mattresses. To do so, blot the stain and then pour or rub the vodka, white wine, or alcohol onto the stain. It loosens the hard stains that can be easily removed.

Use Coffee Filters for Dusting Electronics

Coffee filters are useful in your kitchen and help clean your living room and office.

Use them for dusting electronic items like computer monitors, TV screens, and any other screens in your home. Unlike towels, coffee filters do the cleaning without leaving any fibres behind.

In this era of robot vacuums and fancy dishwashers, the timeless housekeeping secrets of your granny still rule the roost. So let’s discuss some housekeeping secrets that you should follow to keep your home clean and tidy.

Always Keep White Vinegar By Your Side

As a natural cleaning solution, white vinegar is ideal for a wide range of household chores. You can remove the tough stains by mixing white vinegar with a bit of baking soda.

Moreover, you can use it alone to refresh your windows, clean your refrigerator, and remove marker stains.

Ensure to Do Your Laundry Carefully

No matter how late you are, always ensure to do your laundry carefully. One such way is to turn your pocketed pants and shorts inside out to avoid washing undesirable objects, like currency notes, tissues, receipts, and pens.

Use a lint roller for picking the white pieces of paper from dark clothes. Avoid wringing sweaters and woollens after washing them. Instead, you can lay them on a flat towel and roll the towel for absorbing water. Then lay them flat for drying.

Iron Your Clothes Well

Learn to iron your clothes well, as wearing a wrinkled shirt or dress creates a wrong impression on others. Master the basics of ironing your clothes, including where to crease, when to starch, etc. You should ensure to sort clothes by colour and fabrics. Learn to decode clothing labels.

Add Pleasing Scents Everywhere in Your Home

To gain freshness and add awesome scents to your clothing, linens, and towels, fill paper tea bags with dried lavender or other flavours, and then iron the closed packets. Keep these packets into small muslin bags and store them directly into the dryer.

Use Toothpaste for Cleaning Marks

If you are using toothpaste only for your cavities, you are limiting its potential. However, it can be used for cleaning marks on the floor and walls. Moreover, you can also use it as a quick cleaning fix for cleaning small pieces of jewellery like silver.

You can keep a spare toothbrush attached around the toothpaste using a rubber band so that you can easily clean difficult-to-reach spots.

Save Time While Cleaning Drapes

Taking the curtains off the rod or hooks for cleaning is a time-consuming task. So instead, you can vacuum your drapes. Also, cover the head of the vacuum cleaner attachment using an old nylon stocking so that it doesn’t suck the curtains.

Ensure to Dust Your Lightbulbs

How often do you dust your lightbulbs? They are usually forgotten, and they accumulate lots of dirt and dust over time. The dusty bulbs are less energy-efficient and produce dim light. Use a soft cloth for cleaning light bulbs when they are switched off and cool to touch.