9 Genius Cleaning Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

Quick and Dirty Tips
by Quick and Dirty Tips
These nine tips might make you hate cleaning a little less.
Flickr//Carpet Cleaning Atlanta
I don’t know many people who really enjoy cleaning their homes. There are a few people out there who use their cleaning time to clear their head, but for the most part, people see cleaning their home as a must-do activity rather than a let’s-do activity.


To make cleaning your home easier, here’s a list of nine cleaning hacks that will cut your cleaning time and make the jobs easier each time you clean.
Flickr//Andru Petterson
1.) Vacuum Your Blinds Before Dusting


Whether you have 2” faux-wood blinds, metal mini blinds, or wooden shutters, they can be a beast to keep clean. Dust loves to settle on the blinds, and with all the little pieces they can be a pain to clean. My advice? Close them, vacuum them, then give them a quick wipe down.


Grab your vacuum and its brush attachment, then close your blinds so they are in the “down” position. You should be able to run your hand from top to bottom over the blinds easily in this position. Start at the top and use the brush attachment on your vacuum to move across the slats to suck up the majority of the dust. Then grab a very lightly damp rag and wipe from top to bottom again to get the finer dust removed.


What you will notice is that most of the blind slats look pretty clean, but they each have a strip of dust where they were overlapped. To easily fix this, turn your blinds to the “up” position and wipe them from top to bottom on the BACK side (the side the faces the window). In just a few minutes, you’ll have removed nearly all, if not all the dust from your blinds.
Flickr//Alaina
2.) Use a Pillowcase to Clean Ceiling Fans


This is one of my favorite cleaning hacks. I used to use an extendable duster to clean my ceiling fans, but it would drive me nuts when I’d see the dust falling on to my floors and furniture. Now, instead of a duster, I grab an old pillowcase and a step ladder and use them to clean my ceiling fans instead.


It’s so easy. Just carefully climb up on your step ladder, put the pillowcase over one blade of the ceiling fan, and then wipe the top and bottom of the blade from where it attaches to the mechanism out to the end of the blade. The dust will magically fall into the pillowcase, never to touch your floors or furniture. When you’re done with all your fans, you can take the pillowcase outside to shake it, then toss it in the next load of laundry.
Flickr//melvislives4ever
3.) Line Fridge Shelves with Press ‘N Seal


It seems like no matter how hard you try to keep them clean, fridge shelves accumulate drips and sticky stuff that requires a bunch of scrubbing to clean. To prevent the gunk from gathering on your fridge shelves, line them with Press ‘N Seal after you wipe them down the next time. That way, when you notice they are starting to get messy, you can easily lift away the dirty liner and replace it with new, clean liner. It’s super easy, and will save you oodles of time cleaning your fridge.
Flickr//Mr. Fili Fili
4.) Use Citrus to Clean Water Stains


If your bathroom and kitchen fixtures have been collecting hard water build-up, there’s an easy way to clean them. Simply grab a piece of citrus, cut it in half, and rub it on the hard water stains. Lemons work well for most jobs, but limes can add a little extra punch if you have stubborn stains. When using citrus to clean, just be sure to test an inconspicuous area first, and always keep the acidity away from natural stone.
Flickr//Jorge Cardim
5.) Use a Vacuum and Pantyhose to Find Small Items


If you’ve lost small items in your carpet or under furniture, it can be difficult to get them out. If you have an idea of where the item is, or just have a hunch that your little ones have been stashing small toys in hard to reach areas, there is a fairly simple way to find them.


Using your vacuum hose, the foot of a pair of old pantyhose or knee highs, and a rubber band, you can make a trap to suck out the tiny items. Put the foot over the end of the vacuum hose, secure it with a strong rubber band, turn on the vacuum, and run the end of the hose over the floor where you suspect the little things can be found. The suction from the vacuum will grab all the small stuff, and the pantyhose will hold the items in place until you can grab them with your fingers.
Flickr//Ivana Stamenic
6.) Steam Your Microwave Clean


This is one of my all time favorite cleaning hacks. I HATE to scrub the inside of my microwave, especially if someone exploded something and conveniently forgot to clean it off. If you have a bunch of baked food in your microwave, you don’t have to waste time and effort trying to scrape and scrub it clean. You can easily remove the gunk by steaming it first.


Fill a small glass bowl or microwavable cup with water and a little lemon juice and place it in your microwave. Set the microwave to run for 3-5 minutes, enough to get the water bubbly and steaming. The steam will moisten the dried on food which means you’ll be able to easily wipe it clean with a paper towel or rag.
Flickr//Haha06
7.) Use Alka Seltzer to Clean Toilet Rings


Hate scrubbing your toilet? Who doesn’t? Luckily, there’s an easy way to clean the ring from your toilet, and it requires very little time and effort on your part!


Grab a box of Alka Seltzer and toss 3-4 of them in to your toilet. Let them do their fizzing and popping while you go work on other things for 20 minutes. Then, when you return, do a quick swish around the inside of the bowl with the toilet brush. The citric acid and fizzing action do the hard work so you don’t have to.


Bonus tip: Denture cleaner tablets can do the same thing!
Flickr//sandwich
8.) Keep Wet Wipes Near Toilets


You know that saying, “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie”? Well, it’s much easier to wipe the seatie if you have something close by to use to wipe it! Personally, I keep flushable wet wipes near my toilet because they can be used for cleaning the toilet and bums, but I know others who prefer to keep a container of disinfecting wipes near the toilet because they prefer the thought of a stronger cleaning agent.


Whether the drips are on the toilet itself, or on the floor around the toilet, you can teach everyone in your home to be a sweetie and wipe up any messes they may before leaving the bathroom. This way you’ll have to deal with any dried urine, and the stench that comes with it, on a much less frequent basis!
Flickr//Linda McLachlan
9.) Use an Old Toothbrush to Clean Paneled Doors


Paneled doors are a great upgrade to a home. They provide a more contemporary look to a space by giving a design to the interior doors and cabinet doors. The challenge with paneled doors is that dust and dirt accumulates on the tiny ledges and crevices. A rag can be used to clean the flat surfaces of the door, but often dirt sticks in the corners.


To more easily clean the tricky spots on the doors and cabinets, use an old toothbrush. You can spray a bit of surface cleaner directly onto the door, then use the toothbrush to work the dirt and dust out. Wipe down the entire surface with a clean rag, and your doors will look good as new!
Flickr//Johanna Flohr
That’s the complete list of my favorite cleaning hacks. Implement one or all of them to make your cleaning sessions easier each week. If you have any additional tips, I’d love to hear them as well. Post them in the comment section below, or on my Facebook page.


Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.
Originally posted here: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/house-home/housekeeping/9-genius-cleaning-hacks-to-make-your-life-easier?page=2
Quick and Dirty Tips
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