Awesome Hacks for a Sparkling Home
We all want a lovely clean home. Well, most of us. Some people don’t care about letting the mess pile up, don’t worry about leaving rubbish around and dirty plates in the sink, and don’t think about how their homes untidiness might be affecting their health, mood and own hygiene. Most of us try our best to stick to a cleaning schedule and do smaller jobs like washing up every day. But it’s tough.
If you live in a large house, or you’ve got kids and pets, keeping your home clean can seem impossible. You might have a full-time job, or spend your time taking care of your children, and finding time to clean, with so much else going on can be a struggle.
But, as soon as you start to let things slide, it can begin to get on top of you. Just skipping days washing up can mean that there’s a massive pile when you do get round to it. Skip laundry for a few days, and suddenly there’s a giant clothes mountain to get through, and you’ve got no clean underwear. The mess can start to mount, mold and mildew quickly grow in damp areas, and your home can very quickly become unhygienic. Then, once things are damp, dusty and untidy, things start to get worse much faster.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the option to work less in order to commit more time to look after our homes. At the same time, you might not want to give up some of the more fun elements of your life to instead spend your evenings at home scrubbing your bathrooms. Which is why we all need the odd cleaning hacks to make it easier, allowing us to get more done in less time and keeping our homes shiny and sparkling without anywhere near as much effort and elbow grease.
Invest in Quality
If you’ve got kids, or pets, (or a small budget), you might think that it’s more cost effective to buy cheaper furniture, linens, and surfaces, because they are going to get ruined and need replacing soon anyway. But, this can be a mistake. Investing in higher quality furniture, like wooden tables, leather sofas, and heavy shelving, as well as solid worktops and other surfaces, can mean that they last longer, they damage less easily, they look newer for longer and that they are much easier to clean.
It might mean that you have to save for longer before shopping, and it’s often worth investing in specific cleaning products for your materials, keep your countertops clean granite cleaner for example, but long-term, you can save money, your home will look better, and you’ll need to spend less time trying to make it clean.
Use What is in Your Cupboards
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Your kitchen cupboards and fridge are probably full of natural cleaning products. Some examples include:
– Vinegar and baking soda to unclog your drain
– Lemon to clean chrome and stainless steel surfaces and bathroom fixtures
– Cream of tartar and water paste to clean greasy and sticky surfaces in your kitchen
– Vinegar on white hard water stains
– Lemons and water to clean your microwave
– Baking soda to take stains off porcelain
– Polish Chrome with wax paper
When it comes to cleaning your home, some surfaces, like stone and granite, need a specialist cleaning product. But, many others come just as clean, if not cleaner with natural products and store cupboard essentials.
Clean the Shower While You are in It
Sure, cleaning the shower is only a ten-minute job, but skip it one week, and suddenly it takes a lot longer. Save time by taking a cloth and squeegee in with you and cleaning the shower while you clean yourself, the steam from your shower will also make it much easier to get rid of dirt and stains.
Steam Clean
Talking of steam, it’s a handy tool when it comes to cleaning many different areas of your home. Home steam cleaners can be bought relatively cheaply and could save you hours of scrubbing all over the house. Use your steam cleaner to clean rugs, carpets, hard floors, windows, showers, toilets, sinks, chairs, any hard to reach areas that you can’t scrub, the oven, your fridge and freezer (which it can also help you to defrost), cupboards and many other areas. But, don’t use it on wallpaper or painted walls, as the steam may remove the paper or paint. It could also damage plastered walls.
It’s also worth noting that steam alone won’t clean everything, and for hard stains, you might need to add detergent. Steam cleaner detergent can be expensive, so try a few drops of your regular laundry detergent before splashing out.
Clean Your Cleaners
Whether it’s a vacuum cleaner, a duster, a cloth, your washing machine, dishwasher or any other cleaning tool that you use, it won’t be able to work it’s best if it’s dirty. You can’t expect a dirty cloth to clean a surface. It might just move dirt around and could even add its own dirt and bacteria. So, take care of your cleaning tools. Clean them regularly, empty filters and repair them when it’s needed.
Use Chalk On Grease
Grease spots are the worst. Most of us have spent hours of our lives trying to scrub grease off kitchen surfaces, get grease stains out of our clothes, or take greasy marks off painted walls, without removing the paint itself. Chalk makes the task easier, faster and more effective. Rub a little chalk on the stain, leave for a few minutes, before either wiping off or putting on a wash cycle.
Use Laundry Bags in the Dishwasher
Laundry bags are great at looking after your delicates in the wash. But, they can also be useful in the dishwasher. Add all those tiny little parts and pieces that fall out of trays and get lost to a laundry bag to protect them as they clean.
Stick to a Routine
When it comes to cleaning, however you do it, it’s a good idea to get into a routine. Either have a day where you do everything or spread your jobs out over the week. Stick to your routine, and it never seems daunting.
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