Best Life Hacks for Cleaning Your Home

Keeping your home clean doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. There are many clever life hacks and tricks you can use to get your house spotless with minimal effort.

In this blog post, I’ll share my top life hacks for efficient and effective cleaning around your home. F

rom quick kitchen cleaning to scrubbing bathrooms and decluttering messes, these tips will transform how you clean and make your home sparkle.

Kitchen Cleaning Hacks

1. Use Lemon Juice to Remove Stains and Odors
   Lemon juice is an all-natural cleaner that cuts through grease and leaves surfaces streak-free. For smelly cutting boards, rub a lemon half over the surface and let sit for 30 minutes before rinsing. Lemon juice also removes stains from plastic containers – just let containers soak in a lemon juice solution for an hour. The acid in the lemons lifts stains and deodorizes.
2. Clean Your Microwave with Vinegar
   Microwaves get grimy quickly but are a pain to scrub. For easy cleaning, just put 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup water in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Steam from the vinegar solution softens caked-on food. Then just wipe the microwave clean with a towel – no scrubbing necessary!
3. Use Aluminum Foil to Clean Pans
   Prevent pans from getting dirty in the first place by laying aluminum foil in the bottom before cooking with sauce or oil. After cooking, just remove and discard the foil instead of having to scrub burnt on residue from the pan. Aluminum foil in pans also catches drips from baked goods.

Bathroom Cleaning Tips

With just a few ingredients, you can make your bathroom shine. Here are my go-to bathroom cleaning life hacks:

Use Baking Soda and Vinegar to Clean Drains

Pour 1 cup baking soda down the drain followed by 1 cup white vinegar. Cover the drain and let bubble for 10-15 minutes. The chemical reaction breaks down gunk, hair, and grime. Then flush with hot water. Repeat weekly to prevent clogged drains.

Clean Toilet Bowls with Coke

Pour a can of Coca Cola into the toilet bowl and let sit for 1 hour. The carbonic and phosphoric acid in Coke remove rust, limescale and stains without scrubbing or chemicals. Flush clean.

Shine Fixtures with Baby Oil

Buff stainless steel and chrome bathroom fixtures with baby oil using a soft cloth. The mineral oil in baby oil removes water spots, streaks and smudges while adding shine. It also prevents soap buildup.

Decluttering Hacks

1. Categorize Clutter By Room
   Go room by room and sort clutter into “Keep”, “Toss”, “Donate” and “Storage” piles. This method prevents you from getting overwhelmed sorting the entire house at once. Set a timer for 15-20 minutes per room to power through decisively.
2. Use Red Tape Method for Paperwork
   Place red tape strips on paper items you must act on like bills to pay or forms to file. The red tape serves as a visual reminder when the papers are buried in a pile. Once you’ve dealt with the paperwork, remove the tape.
3. Create Mail Sorting Station
   Install wall hooks near your front door and add 3 bins or crates labeled “Junk”, “File”, and “Pay”. As soon as you grab your daily mail, stand at your sorting station flipping through and filing bills and junk mail immediately. This habit keeps paperwork from piling up.

Laundry and Linens Tricks

1. Add Vinegar to Wash and Dryer
   Pour 1⁄2 cup white vinegar into washer rinse cycle and 1⁄2 cup into clothes dryer along with damp laundry. Vinegar softens fabrics and reduces wrinkling and static cling without fabric softener. Plus it cleans the washer drum and kills odor causing mildew.
2. Make Lint Roller with Tape
   Can’t find the lint roller when you notice pet hair and fuzz on clothes? Cover a roll of masking tape or painter’s tape with the sticky side facing out and roll over fabric to lift lint, hair and debris. The tape works like a reusable lint roller!
3. Store off Season Linens Inside Pillowcases
   Instead of cramming bulky comforters and quilts into containers under beds where they get heavy and misshapen, neatly fold into pillowcases for easy accessible storage. Label each pillowcase with contents and store flat until next season.

Final Thoughts

Following even just a few of these creative cleaning hacks can save you significant time and energy every time you tidy up. By using common pantry staples in new ways along with organizational systems that prevent messes in the first place, keeping your home neat doesn’t have to mean hours of labor intensive scrubbing each week. Try out some of these unconventional cleaning methods for faster, easier housework.