Let’s face it: cleaning is a chore.
In fact, cleaning bathrooms and kitchens is such a big chore that talker.com did a study asking Americans what they would give up in order to have a bathroom that magically cleaned itself, and the results were shocking:
“The survey of 2,000 U.S. adults found that other sacrifices they’d make to never have to clean their bathroom again are giving up eating out or takeout (25%), their favorite show or series (23%) and a year’s worth of internet access (22%).”
During its Modern Love and Household Responsibilities Survey, Yelp asked 2,000 couples all across the United States about the chores that could have a negative impact on their relationship.
80% of the couples said that chores caused problems in their relationships, leading to arguments about when to clean, how to clean, and who should be doing the cleaning.
Can you guess what chore was listed as the #1 reason that leads to an argument?
Washing the dishes!
So it’s reasonable to say that many people hate cleaning their bathrooms and kitchens and that, for couples living together, cleaning these two rooms in their house leads to arguments and relationship stress.
Do these numbers worry you? Are you dreading doing the cleaning, or worried about getting into an argument with your partner about who should do the cleaning?
Don’t worry! We’re here to help with this list of the Best Cleaning Hacks!
Cleaning Hacks for Kitchens
Since washing the dishes appears to lead many couples to start arguing with each other, let’s start off with those pesky, but necessary, staples of the home.
Hack #1: Use a Dryer Sheet to Clear Gunk
This is one of the best and least known cleaning tips and hacks.
When you’re washing the dishes, you’ll always find a pan, casserole dish, or plate full of gunk and greasy or burnt food residue.
You might find that this gunk is too tough to remove using a regular sponge, but you might have the perfect tool hidden away in your laundry room.
For this hack, run the pan, dish, or plate and splash some hot water on it. Let it soak for a bit, then throw a dryer sheet onto the plate or dish.
After five minutes, throw the water and dryer sheet away, and you’ll find that the gunk is much easier to clean! That’s because the dryer sheet will absorb a lot of the greasy components of the gunk, stopping it from sticking to the plate.
Hack #2: Refresh Your Dishwasher with Baking Soda and Vinegar!
Now, if you’re anything like us, your dishwasher gets a regular workout. After using it for a while, you may have noticed that your dishwasher has a certain smell, one that blasts you in the face every time you open its door.
Congratulations, your dishwasher has a bit of funk.
But you can get rid of it with one of the best cleaning tips we’ve heard!
It comes in two steps, and has to be done from one day to the next.
The first step is simple: measure 1 cup of baking soda and then toss it around the bottom of your dishwasher. Now, let it sit there overnight.
The second step comes the morning after. Now, without removing the baking soda, run the hottest cycle available on your dishwasher but…here’s the trick!
Put vinegar into the detergent receptacle!
Once the cycle is complete, you’ll discover a clean dishwasher without any funk!
Hack #3 : Get Rid of Microwave Smell with a Bowl of Lemon Juice!
Ready for one of the best DIY cleaning hacks?
If you’ve ever microwaved something particularly smelly, like tuna or buttered popcorn, you know that foods with certain ingredients can leave a lasting (and stinky) presence long after they’ve left your microwave.
But luckily, you can bust those lingering smells with one simple trick!
Squeeze out the juice of several lemons into a bowl and fill the rest of the bowl with water. Then, microwave the bowl of lemon juice for 3 minutes, until the water gets a little steamy.
Leave it in the microwave for a while to cool down, then remove it wearing oven mitts (just in case).
Now your microwave should smell citrusy and fresh, without the use of bleach or other harmful chemicals that could get into your food!
Hack #4: Keep a Bowl of Water Nearby!
This is one of the best kitchen cleaning tips because it helps prevent cleaning in the first place!
If you’re cooking a meal that requires a lot of different kitchen utensils to make, like spoons, stirrers, or the like, you should keep a bowl of water next to your stove!
One of the most common cooking blunders that people make is to stir something, like spaghetti sauce for example, and then put the sauce-covered spoon on their kitchen counter.
Now you’ve got two messes to clean: the spoon and the counter! Over time, doing this in the same spot can even lead to stains or other damage.
So let’s prevent this mess instead! If you’re using a whisk or spoon, take it out of the sauce or soap and then put it in a bowl of water instead.
Next time you need to use it, you can just dip it back without worrying about leaving a trail of sauce on your countertop!
Cleaning Hacks for Bathrooms
Hack #5: Unclog Your Toilet with Dish Soap!
This isn’t just a great bit of hack cleaning, but for any time your toilet is clogged. As a neat side effect though, using this hack will also make your toilet bowl smooth, which makes for easy scrubbing!
If your toilet is clogged, simply squirt a healthy helping of liquid dish soap into it, then use a plunger to spread it around until you see it foam start to rise.
Let the soap sit in the water for ten minutes, then try to flush the toilet once again.
Most of the time (if the clog isn’t so serious it requires a visit from the plumber) the dish soap will do the trick!
This hack works because liquid dish soap was specifically designed to fight and break down grease. It will start to break down the clogged waste and balled up toilet paper, and it will also make the bowl and the pipes beyond it much smoother, allowing the blockage to move through!
Hack #6: Unclog Your Showerhead with Vinegar!
While we’re on the subject of unclogging things, did you know that your showerhead can also get clogged?
If you’ve noticed that your shower head’s spray has more than a few gaps in its stream, or that it’s sputtering, then you’ve got a clogged showerhead!
This typically happens because tap water (and shower water) is full of mineral deposits and isn’t 100% pure. Over time, these tiny mineral particles build up in the holes of your showerhead, where the water pours out from. Eventually, this buildup becomes so big that it actually blocks the water from pouring out, creating a solid barrier that prevents even the strongest setting on your showerhead from getting through.
But luckily, we’ve got the best way to combat this!
If your shower head is removable, then unscrew it and dip it into a bowl filled with water and white vinegar, and then let it soak overnight.
If your shower head doesn’t come off, then fill a plastic bag with water and white vinegar, place it around your shower head until it sits underneath the surface of the vinegar mixture, then wrap the opening of the bag with several rubber bands to hold it in place overnight.
The next morning, simply toss the white vinegar mixture and voila! Your showerhead should now shoot a steady stream of water!
Hack #7: Invest in an Electric Spin Scrubber!
If this were like other cleaning hack lists on the internet, we’d have an enormous section dedicated to the best sponges to use for grout cleaning, or the best brushes to use on your shower…
But we’ve discovered one of the best bathroom cleaning hacks. This one cleaning gadget does pretty much everything you need to do to keep your bathroom floors, shower walls and floor, and tiled walls clean, and it does it all without the need to get down on your knees and scrub with your hands!
Electric spin scrubbers are quickly becoming one of the most popular innovations in home cleaning.
These amazing tools take all the stress and aches out of bathroom cleaning, but how do they do it?
Electric spin scrubbers are usually topped off with a sponge or brush that spins very quickly. The idea is that you can put a cleaning product on a tile floor or other bathroom surface, and then have the spin scrubber clean, wipe, and scrub away all the gunk out of the shower floor, sink basin, or the grouts between tiles.
Electric spin scrubbers are the best shower cleaning hack, as you can really get into the hard to reach, tile corners and clean out all the gunk and grout without hurting your hands!
The best electric spin scrubbers come with different attachments, including replaceable handles to make them longer, allowing you to clean even the tightest corners without having to bend your knees or your back.
These scrubbers can also be used with soap, vinegar, or other cleaning products, and their speed settings allow for gentler cleaning – which means you can even use them on the most delicate surfaces like glass walls, mirrors, or the metallic components of your sink without fear of damaging them.
We recommend the amazing Dovety, one of the most innovative electric spin scrubbers on the market. It has several different head attachments, even sponges and heads made specifically to clean leather seats and the exterior of your car – without scratching it!
Dovety is one of the best bathroom cleaning hacks you can achieve, as it’s chock full of amazing features, settings, and attachments, and can do everything we mentioned and more!
So throw out your old bathroom cleaning brush, and get yourself a Dovety!
Cleaning Hacks for the Home
Now let’s move out of the kitchen and bathroom for some general, easy home cleaning hacks!
Hack #8: Buy Cotton Gloves!
If you own lots of shiny ornaments, then you need to get yourself a pair of cotton gloves.
Now, these gloves don't have to be anything fancy, they can be simple gardening gloves, but the important thing is that they don’t contain rubber elements.
If you own glass tables, glass or metallic ornaments, or anything with a shiny surface that can get fingerprints on it even while cleaning, then this hack is for you!
Cotton gloves allow you to pick any shiny ornament up, wipe it down to remove fingerprints or hand grease, and then put it back down without worrying about leaving new fingerprints or hand grease behind!
Say goodbye to picking up an ornament again and again to make sure it’s spotless!
Hack #9: Use Coffee Filters!
Coffee filters are made from cellulose fibers that are packed tightly together, and are perfect for picking up small particles without leaving smudges behind.
This makes coffee filters perfect for dusting, especially when it comes to electronics like your TV or monitor screen. You can move the filter over the screen gently, and the tiny fibers will pick up the dust and debris without ever scratching the delicate screen!
Conclusion
Now you’ve got more than enough cleaning hacks to be a home cleaning expert!
Next time you have to clean your home, you’ll be able to put some of these tips to good use.
Remember, cleaning may be a chore, but it doesn’t have to be a bore! These hacks will turn cleaning into a fun experiment.
