Many years ago I asked readers to give me their favourite cleaning tips. 220 of you did exactly that. These are the 4 reader submitted cleaning tips that I still use to this day.
Do you know how long it takes to read and test 220 cleaning tips? By tip number 175 I was ready to suffocate you all. No offence of course, but it's completely true. I even had my methods planned out.
Cleaning is fun 🤩
I've made that my mantra for the past decade. I repeat it over and over as I continue to generate mess after mess.
It hasn't stuck. Cleaning is not fun for me. Rearranging things? Ripping out things? Smashing things? Everyone knows, those are the fun things.
😻 Tidying is fun
Unless you have nowhere to put anything. As is the case in my house. Tidying is more of a move it from one place to another situation. After doing this 17-20 times I move them permanently into the loving arms of the garbageman or whoever happens to be walking past my house.
In a perfect home any items that aren't where they're supposed to be would either:
a) slowly migrate to their actual home on their own.
or
b) slowly start to disintegrate until they eventually just disappear.
Do I ever clean things? Yes. All the time. See below for proof. I just don't enjoy it.
I chose my 4 favourite tips based on my reaction to them. If my immediate thought was "That's brilliant!" they made the list.
I chose well. I still use these tips 10 years later.
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Table of Contents
The 4 Simple Cleaning Tips
1. After using the toilet brush rest it on the seat & put the lid down. It will dry so you don't drip dirty toilet water over your toilet seat and floor plus it prevents the toilet brush holder from getting that skanky puddle of toilet water in the bottom of it. ~ from Sylvie
2. Don't throw out used lemons. Squeeze the remaining juice into a bowl with a small amount of water and microwave on high for 1 minute. The lemon-infused steam will make cleaning the microwave easy & leave a lemony scent. ~ from Chris
3. Add enough hydrogen peroxide to a scoop of baking soda to make a paste. Add a few drops of Dawn dish soap. Spread paste on stains and let sit 1 hour. Hand scrub 2 minutes then wash ~ from Paula.
4. Use a lint roller to clean dusty fabric lampshades. ~ from Karen
My favourite thing for whitening whites is Oxiclean. I exthole the virtues of Oxiclean in this post so I won't reiterate it here. But I love Oxiclean.
So I naturally compared the Pinterest paste to Oxiclean. The first time I did the experiment the Pinterest paste performed marginally better at getting whites white.
The second time I did the experiment (just this week) the Oxiclean performed better. BOTH came out the same level of whiteness this time, but the gritty quality of the paste wore the (already very thin) fibres of the sock after scrubbing.
VERDICT? If you need to get something white and you don't have Oxiclean use the paste method. It works fantastically. Oxiclean is easier and faster for regular every day use, but it's more expensive than just buying a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide.
SO?
I know I'm going to regret this. Genuinely.
But do you have a brilliant cleaning tip? Let me know in the comments. The better the tip the less horrifying your imagined annihilation will be.
Read a book, watch a movie, plant a garden, learn to skateboard. Let's leave cleaning for another day.
Michelle
Whenever I have a sauce pan, skillet, or casserole dish with burnt-on, baked-on grime: I just plop a dishwasher tablet in it, fill it with hot water and leave it to soak overnight. The next morning it rinses clean, good as new. No scrubbing. It's my favorite trick and has saved me countless hours of scrubbing dirty skillets that my husband makes mash burgers in.
TucsonPatty
One of my cousins once told me she uses those dishes to send filled with a casserole or dessert, to a bereaved family. They always come back sparkling. It is funny, because she’s probably correct. Anyone helping do dishes needs the mind numbing task of scrubbing to help them cope. ❤️❤️
Karen
That's a fantastic tip! I'm adding it to my "to try" list. ~ karen!
Mary C
I do this with my crockpot too. Throw one in with hot water after dinner and in the morning everything comes off with a washcloth.
Katherine Furrer
Easy off oven spray (not the aerosol) to clean my gas cooktop. The chefs in my house are piggies but they cook so I clean. I cover the burner with foil, spray, leave for 10-15 min and wipe off the charred mess that even a magic sponge can’t touch.
Rozi
I forgot my best one. This is something my mom used to do. For greasy stains, no matter how old, lay the cloth on a flat surface, cover it generously with talc powder (cornstarch does not work), cover with paper, then cover with several heavy books. The heavier the better. Then wait several days. Then shake off the talc outside and wash with the rest of the laundry. Stain is gone. I love removing stains:)
Karen
That actually sounds like a fun one. ~ karen!
Alice
Oxiclean fan here! Discovered this by accident. Soak your range hood filter in oxiclean dissolved in hot water (large pan or kitchen sink.) Just let it sit there. Depending on how gnarly gross and full of grease the filter is will depend on how long you have to leave it. But they come out looking sparkling new. No scrubbing, just rinse. We do home-improvement/remodels and have had some older and unusual filters were not easily replaced. Wish I had discovered this sooner.
Karen
I might just try that today! ~ karen
Addie
I moved into a "new to me" house and the filter screen was GROSS! On a whim I put it in the dishwasher and it came out brand new!! No need to buy a new one!
Teresa Chandler
Put the toilet brush between the seat and the bowl instead of the lid. Drys faster and doesn’t touch the lid so no possibility of having to wipe it off.
Karen
Yes! Good point. I've balanced it on the wide part of the brush to keep it off the lid but I'll try under the seat as well. ~ karen!
Jan in Waterdown
I really really must remember to try the toilet brush drip drying trick since I was cleaning the glop out of the holder just yesterday and soaking it and the brush in bleach. My usual cleaning solution is to just buy new ones. Ikea carries quite decent ones for $1.99…. hard to beat eh?!
Debra Munroe..
Fair enough but then more stuff in landfill, unfortunately
Marie
I didn’t see anyone mention my cleaning tip - hire someone else to do it. Worth it :)
Karen
Someone did, lol! I said I tried it once and it didn't work out. ~ karen!
Ei
Instead of Oxyclean, buy Sodium Percarbonate powder in bulk from Amazon.
Sodium Percarbonate 99% Purity, Oxygen Bleach (9-lbs) Multi-use Oxygen Bleach for Laundry, Dishwasher, Deodorizing, Stain Removal and More, Sodium Percarbonate Powder https://amzn.to/3XnUKsx
When mixed with water it creates hydrogen peroxide. Fresh, and in the concentration you desire. (Liquid hydrogen peroxide loses its effectiveness if it sits too long. ) I use it especially to whiten vintage linens.
Karen
That sounds like something I'd like to do. ~ karen!
Katie
Horticultural vinegar (45% ascetic acid) mixed with water in a sprayer to kill plants in your walkways/driveway w/out extensive harm to other things/creatures (once it dries...bugs won't like getting sprayed directly with it). Avoids the wretched RoundUp.
M
Boiling water from the kettle works great on those driveway weeds too. Do this every year.
Lynda
Great tip. We use it on the farm to keep the animals safe.
Kristin fFerguson
My cleaning tip is more of a motivational tip for cleaning. I find I waste a great deal of time procrastinating when I have cleaning to do, and I often reach for my laptop or phone and fritter the morning away. But if I instead put in my AirPods and start a podcast, I have the motivation to get to work simply because my brain is entertained but my hands need something to do. I use this trick for everything: cooking, cleaning out the chicken coop, organizing the refrigerator, tiling the bathroom, exercising. Which I do not do enough of.
Karen
For me it's music. :) And a timer! ~ karen!
HTV9
all of that is exercising though?
MBirds
I repurposed a glass jar with holey metal top, intended for sprinkling Parmesan cheese on things, for holding baking soda. It’s convenient for cleaning. After spraying a vinegar/water mixture on surfaces I sprinkle them with the baking soda, and scrub.
AND: I store the jar in the fridge, since the holes in the lid allow the baking soda to absorb any odours in there. (But no, we don’t ever mistake it for cheese! Having never used the jar for Parmesan —ever— it isn’t an issue).
Karen
That's very clever. ~ karen!
Renee Ryz
If you use a canning jar, the green plastic lids from parm cheese fit them, and they have the snap closed lids
Tawny Lynn Stoddard
For oil / greasey food stains that have been set in or already thru the dryer. You can use good old WD-40 to get those out! Yes it's true...spray that spot with WD-40 to reactivate the stain, let it sit for approx 15-20 minutes, then blot, then apply some Dawn dish soap & rub it in to "de-grease" it. Launder the item in as high temp as you think the item can handle and it should wash right out! I have gotten out hydraulic motor oil from a prized skateboard hoodie ..... the son was estatic! LOL
Amber
2 tips
1) Don’t Look Down. At least, not during gardening season when you’ve got 12 yards of sheep manure to get through.
2) Simple Green around the foundation outside. An exterminator told me that mice widdle as they walk. The widdle leaves a trail of pheromones that will last TWO YEARS even outside in Vermont. SG breaks down those pheromones so you don’t have a neon highway pointing mice to your pantry.
Kelly Finigan
what is SG?
April
Simple green
Teresa Chandler
Simple Green
Nana Nata
Simple Green
Karen but definitely not the Karen who runs the blog
Thanks ! I will try Anything - I Hate mice . Any tips re the best way to catch/dispatch (kill) them ?
Amber
Keeping them out is favorite but you’ll have to find out how they get in. Try a 2 gallon bucket with 10cm water in it. Smear nut butter a few inches below the rim so they fall in and drown. Try it in different places, especially under the sink or near trash cabinets. If you catch them there wash the area with simple green and try to find the outside access points. You can dilute the simple green, it’ll still work well.
Karen
Wait. WHAT? I think that's the one and only mouse trap trick I haven't tried. I settled on electric traps which work great but are very expensive. ~ karen!
Irene
Our late beloved herb guru, Margaret Roberts (look her up) gave me great advice about politely getting mice to leave without hurting them; they hate Lavender!
So I lay fresh Lavender in the cupboard that was so appealing to mice, and I even wiped Lavender oil on the shelves; my kitchen smelt divinely old fashioned. :D
It worked!
Of course, not leaving temptation out goes a LONG way to getting them to move on.
I now repackage ALL my pantry groceries in sturdy plastic and tin containers, non of them bought. I just repurpose ice cream tubs and the like.
No mice, no ants.
Oh! And the honey jar rests in one of those ant proof pet dishes that have a moat around them, with water in the moat AND the dish, because ants seem to get into the thread of the most tightly closed honey container!
Allyson
Ok as a retired nurse I will share a great tip. If you have fresh (dried ok but not laundered) blood on any fabric just pour some hydrogen peroxide on and give it a rub. It will dissolve blood then just rinse with cold water. I have used this on clothes and upholstery with success.
Sheila Turchyn
My favourite cleaning tip of all time is this:
Take a Swiffer wet/dry mop and fasten a microfibre cloth to it by pressing the cloth into the holes that hold the Swiffer pads. Spray your windows with your favourite cleaner (mine is 1c vinegar, 1c water plus 1/2 tsp corn starch) Use the extended pole to clean windows that are high. This saves getting up and down from a ladder. It’s a time and energy saver! Also good for mirrors.
Karen
As it happens my house was originally built for an undersized hobbit so I will never need this tip, but it's a good one! ~ karen
Joni Peth
I have 2 for you: 1) clean your shower with a magic eraser while you are IN the shower (easy peasy) and 2) regular old Dawn dishwashing liquid works best for getting grease stains (even old ones) out of clothing; just use a little DIRECTLY on the spot and launder as usual.
Karen
I think as long as you have those two items you could probably clean everything from a prison to a diamond necklace. ~ karen!
Sandra Blackwell
A spray bottle of dawn and vinegar in the shower...give a spray now and again..soap scum and hard water marks wipe away easier. I use a hand crank mixer to beat egg whites for pancakes...best cleaning for that is to run it under the water right away...then no cleaning needed.
Leslie
Like Karen, I don't like to clean. At all. So many more interesting things to do. But unlike Karen I LOVE cleaning tips. All of these sound like something I'd try... if I ever clean.
Leslie
P.S. I can't figure out how to get greasy feel off the outside of my cherry cabinet doors. They are about 20 years old and look good, but the outside near handle is a bit sticky and gunky. I am afraid of ruining finish. Anyone have good tip on that?
Malinda
I used Dawn Powerwash Dish Spray on my cabinet that was covered in grease and dust. Seemed to work pretty well!
Carrie
Dawn does not clean the grease from my white cupboards. Next kitchen I will get handles, not knobs. If you have knobs, some companies make a metal plate that touches the wood, then you screw the knob on top of it, so the plate will cover most of the grease.
Helen
There is a product at hardware stores/Cdn Tire called MEAN GREEN. It's a cleaner/degreaser, available in the cleaning or laundry aisle. Works fabulous! I use it on hubby's filthy garage clothes, and on the kitchen cupboards all the time.
Mary C
I use 409, cuts through grease every time.
M Rey
Citric acid and hot water, either via paste or soultion, will take care of any hard water issue you throw at it.
Suzie
409 spray to remove awful stains in clothes. Blood, coffee, tomato(sauces), grease . Doesn’t hurt or bleach fabrics. Be smart, don’t breath it. Magic!