There are about 120 million households in the U.S. alone. Every single one of those households shares at least a few common elements. The most frustrating of those shared elements for many people is that homes require cleaning.
Granted, there is a part of the population that loves cleaning and having an extremely tidy house. For everyone else, though, cleaning is something that they must force themselves to do in the evening or block out time for on their precious days off.
If you’re in the latter group, keep reading for five cleaning life hacks that will make your life a little easier.
1. Baking Soda and Vinegar
Look around in almost anyone’s kitchen cabinets and you’ll eventually come up with some baking soda and white vinegar. They’re products that most people grow up seeing in their parents’ kitchens, so they get them as well.
You may even already think of them individually as cleaning assistants. Baking soda is great for killing odors in a fridge. White vinegar does a bang-up job of keeping your coffee maker in good working order.
It turns out, you can use them together with a bit of dish soap and work some minor miracles in your bathroom and kitchen. A mix of about one cup white vinegar, half a cup of baking soda, a teaspoon or two of dishsoap, and a half cup of hot water makes you a mighty cleaning solution.
You can pour that around in your tub or toilet and it’ll take off most mildew and soap scum. Plus, it’ll leave your toilet looking sparkling clean.
You can also use it for general cleaning and deodorizing in and around your sink.
2. Steam Clean Your Microwave
Most electrical devices don’t cope very well with steam. The microwave, fortunately, is one of the exceptions to that rule. After all, you reheat coffee or warm up water for tea in it on a regular basis.
Many people even steam vegetables in their microwaves as a quick fix when they got dinner started late. The point is that your microwave will endure steam without shorting out or giving you a hard time.
That’s good news because steam cleaning your microwave is one of the most efficient methods of getting the job done. You don’t even need special tools or cleaning agents. All you need is a sponge and some water.
Dampen the sponge in advance. Then, toss it in the microwave for a minute or two on high. The steam will loosen up any food particles in the microwave, making it a snap to wipe them away.
Sadly, despite years of contrary advice, this isn’t an effective method for sanitizing your sponges.
3. Embrace the Lemons
Lemons are one food that shows up in a lot of homes but frequently ends up in the trash. People get them and then don’t know what to do with them. If you need an idea, lemon and poppy seed muffins are a great choice.
You can also use your aging lemons as a way to augment your cleaning supplies. For example, most people use their cheese graters occasionally for shredding soft cheeses. Of course, if that grater sits for any length of time, getting the residue of it becomes a nightmare.
Enter your lemons.
Cut one in half and then pass the cut side over the grater. It will loosen up the residue so you can finish the job with a sponge. Plus, it helps keeps your grater smelling clean and fresh.
One of the trickiest things to clean in your kitchen is a garbage disposal. Yet, if you don’t clean it occasionally, it can develop a very unpleasant odor.
All you need for that job is one lemon, cut into quarters. Turn on the water in the sink, followed by the disposal. Feed the lemon quarters in one at a time to clean and disinfect the disposal.
4. Coffee Filters to the Rescue
With so many screens in everyone’s homes these days, keeping them clean is an ongoing task you can’t avoid. Making matters worse, your average towel will leave a lot of fibers on your TV, computer, laptop, tablet, and phone screens.
No, you don’t need a fancy cloth for basic cleaning. You can just grab a coffee filter from your kitchen. Wipe it gently across your screens and it’ll lift the dust away with no muss or fuss.
5. Get Professional Assistance
Not every messy home got there through intentional neglect. Anyone with kids who also works full-time knows that the hours disappear in a hurry. People who run their own businesses often work even crazier hours, more than sixty hours a week in some cases.
If you’re in one of those categories, no amount of life hacks will make cleaning your home any easier. Doing a good job of it takes at least some time. If you don’t have that time to give, you’ll struggle to keep a clean home.
That’s where professional cleaning assistance comes in handy. You can find services that just come in once or twice a week to a do pass through your home and hit the big areas like vacuuming, dusting, and sanitizing your kitchen and bathroom.
You can also get services that will come in periodically and do a deep cleaning of your entire home. These services often come in handy during transitional periods, like right before school starts. It gives you a clean slate to start from before your kids’ activities get into full swing.
Cleaning Life Hacks and You
It’s a sad truth that you can’t escape cleaning around your home. The good news is that cleaning life hacks can make it a bit easier on you.
Common things you find around your house like white vinegar, baking soda, and dish soap can make bathroom cleaning a snap. Coffee filters make screen cleaning easy. Lemons make a great deodorizer for disposals and help keep cheese graters clean.
If you really can’t find the time, though, getting pro help is the way.
Kathleen’s Cleaning Service provides residential cleaning services. For more information to schedule services, contact Kathleen’s Cleaning Service today.