Cleaning can be a real a pain. How does all this stuff even get so dirty, and so quickly? Didn’t you just wash the dishes? And while you can clean, scrub, vacuum, polish, and sweep, there are always those difficult, ornery items that seem impossible to clean. Maybe they’re hard to reach, or perhaps they have tiny pieces that are hard to get to. Or maybe the grime is just so ingrained it seems like it will never go anywhere.
With these cleaning tips, most of which involve materials you probably already own, you can achieve some serious cleaning results with ease.
1. Scrub out a burnt pan with a science experiment.
Of course there’s going to be baking soda and vinegar on this list! What do you think this is?
Boil a cup of vinegar in about an inch of water in a burnt pan. When it boils, remove it from the heat, add two tablespoons of baking soda, and watch the fizz. Dump everything out and scrub the pan. It’ll take a bit of work, but far less than just attempting it with soap.
2. Restore you copper pots to their former glory.
Salt, vinegar, and a scouring pad will make your copper pots rosy and glowing like the day you bought them. You’ll see the color change immediately, which is really cool, too.
3. Clean between layers of glass in an oven window with a contraption.
You can get between the layers of glass in an oven door using a cleaning wipe affixed to a bent hanger. Then, you just need a few minutes of awkward scrubbing. Each stove is going to be different, but you can get the general idea from this tutorial.
4. Clean a stained porcelain sink using a three-step wash.
Start with regular dishwashing detergent, then wash with bleach, and then give it a final once-over with Bar Keepers Friend cleanser. Stains and discolorations will disappear!
5. Clean up oily residue with oil.
Sounds counterintuitive, but it really works. Scrubbing at oily buildup on a stove with a sponge or dry cloth is just going to smear it around and make it look worse. Simply blot a bit of mineral oil onto a paper towel and run it over the greasy areas. It’ll pick everything up. Then wipe it dry with a paper towel. That remaining thin layer of oil will make future messes even easier to clean up. You can also use vegetable oil, but it’ll get yellow and sticky over time, which is exactly what you were cleaning up.
6. Clean stove vent filters with baking soda.
Everyone hates cleaning stove vent filters because it’s near impossible — but only near. Using a stainless steel pot, bring some water to a boil. Add baking soda (slowly, so it doesn’t fizz out everywhere) and then simply stick the filters into the boiling mixture. It should fizz. If not, add more baking soda. Let the filters sit about a minute. The grease will come off, so you’ll have to clean out the pot afterwards.
7. Deep clean your stove with more baking soda.
The space under the burners can get super greasy, so coat with baking soda, then cover with damp rags. Leave for about 15 minutes, then start scrubbing.
8. White vinegar, lemon juice, and dish soap remove hard water stains.
Spray it all over the stains and let it sit for half an hour. Then scrub and rinse, and the stains will be gone! Metal sinks and fixtures will be especially bright and shiny.
9. Vinegar in the coffee maker?
Vinegar can be run through pretty much any machine to clean it, and your coffee maker is no exception. Run the brewing cycle with vinegar, then just with water to clear out the vinegar smell and taste. Vinegar as a cleaner is good, but vinegary coffee is gross.
10. Clean burners with ammonia.
Put your burner grates in a plastic bag (be careful not to poke holes) and add two or three tablespoons of ammonia (be careful with this, as it’s toxic). Let sit overnight in a pan just in case there’s a leak. In the morning, remove the grate from the bag over the sink, and rinse and wipe the grates. The gunk should come right off.
11. Add fluff to your towels.
Towels can actually hang onto residues of soaps and detergents, which makes them less absorbent and targets for mildew. You can combat this by washing them twice: once with vinegar instead of soap, and once with baking soda instead of soap. Wash them on a very hot cycle.
12. Use vinegar to clean your washing machine.
Do not use a cat, but do use two cups of white vinegar instead of detergent, and run an empty machine on a hot cycle. The vinegar will kill any bacteria that might cause funky smells in the machine. You can also use vinegar to scrub down the surfaces, soap dispensers, rubber seals, and other places that get grimy.
13. Wash your vinyl shower curtain liners in the washing machine.
Mildewy shower liners are gross, but a wash with two (bleachable) towels in the machine will clean it off. The towels will act as buffers against the metal of the machine and provide a gentle scrub, and the bleach will kill mildew and bad-smelling bacteria.
14. Get yellow stains out of pillows by washing them in the machine.
15. “Refinish” wooden furniture with salt, olive oil, and tea.
Make a thick paste out of olive oil and salt. Rub it into the wood to remove water stains; the salt will draw out remaining moisture and the oil will condition the wood. Deeper scratches and scrapes can be dyed back to the right shade using black tea.
16. Clean a stained mattress with three tablespoons baking soda, eight ounces hydrogen peroxide, and a drop of dish soap.
Mix well until the baking soda is dissolved, and spray onto a stained mattress. No scrubbing required. Just let it dry and brush off any baking soda residue. It bleaches out sweat, urine, and blood, and also lifts out the odor.
17. Get oily stains out of leather with baby powder.
Dump baby or talcum powder directly on the stain and let sit for at least a few hours. Wipe the powder away with a dry cloth and see how it soaked up the oil.
18. Cleaning high walls is easier than you think.
No step ladder required! Just spray the walls with the cleaner of your choice (make sure it’s safe for your paint or wallpaper, or just use everyone’s favorite: diluted vinegar). Use a flat pad mop to mop the walls.
19. Use a buffer to tackle really bad soap scum on glass.
Polishing compound from the auto parts store and an automatic buffer (see if you can borrow one) cleans up a scummy glass shower door when nothing else does. This is a heavy duty cleaning trick, but if your glass is cloudy and gross enough, it’s worth it.
20. Use a bleach soak on tough mold.
Moldy caulk in the bathroom is gross and hard to remove, so soak it off with cotton coil or a row of cotton balls soaked in bleach. Wear gloves while handling the bleach. Press the cotton against the caulk and let sit overnight. Wipe up the mold and enjoy a clean tub.
21. Use a 50/50 mixture of dish soap and white vinegar to de-grime a bathtub.
Mix it up, spray it all over the inside of your tub, and leave it on for an hour. Then wipe it away and watch it take the gray grime with it. No scrubbing at all. Rumor has it that any dish soap works, but the blue Dawn supposedly works the best.
22. Use cream of tartar and/or pumice to remove rust stains.
Dampen the area. Then mix cream of tartar and lemon juice into a thick paste. Scrub it into rusty spots with an old toothbrush and let set for about two hours. You can also scrub it with a pumice stone, but this will rough up your ceramic a little bit and require more care in the future.
Now that you know how to combat the worst offenders in your house, aren’t you excited for cleaning? No? Well, that makes sense, too. But remember these tricks the next time you’re scrubbing, and help yourself have a cleaner house and more time to yourself.
