Photo: Chasing Foxes

These unexpected items can really help you clean your house. To discuss further, here are some tried and tested cleaning hacks you can do immediately.

1. Clean with Lemon

Lemon is very beneficial when to the body. But unknown to many, it has a lot of cleaning potentials. With the help of a lemon, you can effectively clean your microwave by just squeezing a lemon and microwaving it. Also, there are other more uses to lemon like cleaning wood items such as cutting boards, making an all-purpose cleaner that smells really good, copper polishes, deodorizing plastic containers, and cleaning the blender.

2. Clean with Vodka

If you have just finished a party or a get-together and you have few drops of Vodka left, you can do a lot of things with it. You can refresh the smell of your room with a signature scent by mixing vodka with your favorite essential oils. You can also make diffusers out of it by combining it with essential and mineral oils and water. Vodka can be a good deodorizer. You can put few ounces of it in a spray bottle and spray some on your mattress.

3. Clean with Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has a countless number of uses. Commonly, it is a very good alternative for people who do not like dairy products and many people also use it for their health and beauty benefits. Being said that, coconut oil can also help you with your household chores. Some of its uses are preventing dirt from sticking to your garden tools, polishing your furniture, cleaning your bath tub and shower, moisturizing leather, and much more.

4. Clean with Toothpaste

Toothpaste doesn’t only clean your teeth and mouth, it can be also used to clean some of your things at home as well. For instance, you can use toothpaste to remove stains off of your carpet. It can also help get rid of crayon marks on your wall and it can clean different kinds of items like baby bottles, containers, and even piano keys. Toothpaste can be even used to polish and clean chromes, remove the markings on your leather shoes, remove watermark from furniture and freshen your car interior and car lights.

5. Clean with Baking Soda

Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate commonly just sits in your fridge. But it can actually do many things to help you clean your house. With the help of a baking soda, you can scrub markings off your wall, it can even clean and unclog your sink, and it can make your grouts look like new again. Additionally, you can clean your oven and carpets using it. Lastly, what people don’t know is you can make a noticeable difference in your laundry by putting one cup of baking soda.

6. Clean with Vinegar

Your vinegar will not only make your food taste better, it can also make your house cleaner. You just have to know how to utilize vinegar properly. Vinegar has a wide array of benefits for your home and it is one of the most useful household items in this list. You can make the cleaning of your windows and blinds easier with vinegar. It is also an effective grass killer and it can keep newly cut flowers fresh. It can also clean and sanitize a number of home items like dishes and glasses, coffee maker, microwave, showers, coppers, carpets and much more.

7. Clean with Salt

Salt has been in every household since the old times because of its usefulness. Besides being used for cooking, it has used for cleaning the house. You can remove the mess from spills from pans, pots, oven, and burners. It can also remove wine stains from your clothes and make your refrigerator smell better.

8. Clean with Dish Soap

If you are thinking that dish soaps are only for dishes, think again. It is one of the most flexible cleaners that you can use. For example, it can be a very good floor cleaner. It can easily remove oil stains on your clothes as well. Mild dish soaps can clean your countertops, baseboards, and other surfaces very well. Window blinds can also be a tough one to clean, but with the help of dish soaps, your task can be a lot easier. You can use it to wash and clean many parts of your home like your appliances, kitchen cabinets, and glasses.

9. Clean with Hair Spray

Other than holding your hair, hair spray can do a lot of things for you that you may never know. Hair spray can preserve several things and to extend their lives. Things like drapes, flowers, your kids’ artworks, and flowers. It is also an effective way of removing ink marks on your garments

Aside from this useful hacks, you can improve your house’ appearance by decluttering or removing your unnecessary things. Even if your house is clean it will still look dirty if it is cluttered. A good way to dispose of some of your things is by selling it in a garage sale or putting it up for sale online through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Here are some references that you can use on putting up for sale online:

• A Beginner’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses
• 50 Ways to Make Your First Sale
• Small Business Blueprint to Marketing on Twitter
• Facebook Advertising for Ecommerce Entrepreneurs

These are just some ways to do when you are cleaning your house. These tips can not only help you clean your place, it can also let you save money as most of these things are just sitting in your kitchen cabinet, fridge, or cupboards. Do you have any other ideas? Drop it in the comments below

A simple spray cleaner and some wiping up isn’t going to cut it, so we’ve scourged the web to find out exactly how we can clean our appliances the right way. Here are some of our tricks that can prolong the life of your appliances and make them look and work their best.

Cleaning Your Fridge

FRIDGE / FRANCOIS SCHNELL / CC BY

This is one of the most used large appliances in your home, which should be cleaned every 4 months. Make sure to unplug your fridge before you move on with any cleaning. Remove all food and racks out of your freezer and using mild dishwashing liquid, scrub the whole interior and exterior of your fridge. Rinse with a damp cloth and then place a box of baking soda on the shelf to deodorize your fridge.

How to Clean Your Dishwasher

Even though the main purpose of your dishwasher is to clean your dishes, it can surprisingly still get dirty and even clogged with old food. To clean the exterior and interior is easy, just dip a damp cloth into a box of baking soda and scrub away! The baking soda is abrasive, it disinfects and deodorizes, making it the perfect cleaner for your dishwasher. To get rid of odors, just sprinkle a few tablespoons of baking soda at the bottom of your dishwasher overnight. The baking soda will kill any smelly odors and will eventually be washed away the next time you turn on your machine.

DISHWASHER / BRYAN BIRDWELL / CCBY

Cleaning Your Microwave

Even though I am not a huge fan of microwaves, they still come in handy for warming up food and defrosting. The microwave is definitely one appliance that can easily get greasy, splattered with sauce, and dirty. To freshen it up, simply use a mixture of dishwashing detergent and baking soda to scrub the whole interior and exterior. Use a damp cloth to rinse and wipe away, and you are good to go!

Cleaning the Oven

Cleaning your oven is one hard task! Tough grease stains, dried up food, and splatters can make this job seem like a nightmare. Thankfully there are self-cleaning ovens on the market today that use pyrolytic or high heat systems that basically cremate anything left in the oven, creating a powdery ash that’s easy to clean up. If you don’t have a self-cleaning oven, there are tons of strong oven cleaners you can use. However, these cleaners are often dangerous when they come into contact with skin or your eyes. Make sure to wear rubber cloves, and protective eyeglasses while cleaning. Also don’t breathe the spray mist or the fumes – it can be deadly!

OVEN / OSSEOUS / CCBY

Make Your Washing Machine Sparkle

To get your washing machine back in its newest condition, set your washer to run on hot water with the largest load setting. Add 4 cups of white vinegar and ½ cup of baking soda to the water. Allow the machine to run again and mix the baking soda, then pause the cycle and let it sit for about half hour. This will kill any stinky smells, mildew, and gunk inside the washer.

NEW WASHING MACHINE / JIM212JIM / CCBY

Meanwhile the vinegar and baking soda are working their magic, using a damp cloth dipped in vinegar, wipe down your whole washer. Use a toothbrush to get into any tight areas around knobs or buttons. Then, set your washer to drain out all the water. Your washing machine is now good as new!