Tiffany Raiford
House cleaning hacks provided by Houston pressure washing are available left and right; they’re on the internet courtesy of articles like this one, they’re in books and they’re on Pinterest. And we all know that if something is on Pinterest, it must be true. House cleaning is something we all have to do, and few of us love to do it. If you are like me, you have your own house cleaning hacks and you have mastered them like a science. For me, in particular, a clean house is very important. Perhaps it’s because I have four small kids and there’s not much that I can control in my house but cleanliness. I can’t control when they wake up, their mood, their desire to cooperate or how many dirty diapers the twins make each day.
I just can’t. What I can control, however, is how clean my house is. Even with four small kids, I think that people are usually shocked how clean my house is at all times (though I believe they think it’s only like that because we’re having guests). My husband can attest to my obsession with cleanliness, and he can tell you that it’s something I long for. With that said, I’ve got plenty of house cleaning hacks that will make your life easier, your house cleaner and your stress level lower.
Teach the Kids Young
The best house cleaning hack in the world is this one; teach the kids to clean up after themselves. We have four kids, and even our 20-month-old twins are good about picking up when they are done. It’s just habit. When we finish playing, we put our toys away and sing a fun song. They love to help, and it takes all of 30 seconds.
Make it a Habit
When cleaning becomes a habit to you, it becomes a habit to everyone in your home, and that’s a house cleaning hack I cannot stress to you as being of the utmost importance. For example, I get antsy and distracted if my house is not in order, and I find that I cannot be productive doing anything else. SO, what I like to do is make sure that as we go, we clean up. I have a system in the mornings that allows me to wipe down the counters after the kids eat, throw the laundry from pajamas and day before in the wash and straighten up anything that goes awry when the kids are getting ready. I take them to school and get to come home to a clean house. If you still need help (especially if you’re too busy), please contact a house cleaning service.
Use Vinegar for all your Cleaning Needs
I’m not an all-natural kind of gal by any means (I’m honestly just too busy to make time to go through ingredients and whatnot), but I know that one of the best house cleaning hacks in the world is vinegar. You can put it in a plastic baggie and tie it around your shower head to soak and clean the built up grime. You can boil it with water in a pan that you’ve accidentally burned (and I do this all the time by turning water on to boil to make pasta for my kids and promptly forgetting that I turned the stove on until I smell the burn of a pot that has no more water in it) to remove the burn marks and make it clean again. There are, quite literally, at least 3 dozen ways to use vinegar to clean your house.
Use Furniture Polish on Stainless Steel
It seems almost like a non-house cleaning hack to have a cabinet filled with cleaning materials that you know you have to use throughout your house. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one bottle of cleaner you can use on anything? Try Pledge furniture polish; it’s my favorite house cleaning hack. We use it on our granite counter tops, our stainless appliances and all our wood furniture. It’s amazing – and really simple. Just make sure you get the kind in the blue bottle (did I mention it smells fabulous?).
Use Dryer Sheets on Baseboards
One of my biggest flaws is that dusty baseboards kill me. Really and actually; we have a lot of square footage, and they get dusty and I can actually feel a little piece of myself die on the inside as I see the dust. I used to spend entirely too long running a baby wipe over them and getting the dust off. That’s when I learned that I can affix some dryer sheets to the bottom of my swiffer sweeper and run that thing right over the top of my baseboards in seconds to remove every ounce of dust that even thought about hanging out there. It’s one of those house cleaning hacks that makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Clean the Garbage Disposal with a Lemon
If there is one house cleaning hack everyone needs, it’s this one. Your garbage disposal is the best thing that ever happened to your cooking, but it’s also pretty gross. We like to keep smells from permeating by sticking lemon slices in the disposal. It won’t cut them up, so they can sit in there for a few days at a time making everything smell fresh and gorgeous without any issues. Take it out every few days and replace it with a new one to keep your sink smelling amazing.
Erase Permanent Marker with Dry Erase Markers
Our four-year-old is a little bit of an artist. She recently ran out of paper and could not find anymore. My husband and I were in the middle of a conversation with a contractor about some changes we are making to our home, so we asked her to please wait while we finished our conversation and then we would help her. Since she got the hint we didn’t want to be interrupted, she took it upon herself to find a black sharpie in my desk and then draw all over her very, very expensive white bunk bed/dresser/storage unit deal that we thought would be amazing for her, her Pottery Barn Kids pink kitchen and her white closet doors, her white bedroom door and her very light lilac walls.
She wrote, “Ava” all over all of it practicing writing her name. When we found her, she merely shrugged and said it would wipe right off. Apparently, she has used her washable markers a time or two to color when she couldn’t find any more paper in her room and then she cleans it off the walls with a baby wipe – and without our knowledge.
What she failed to realize is that sharpie doesn’t come off. We panicked; thousands and thousands of dollars worth of ruined furniture and doors that would require replacement and walls that would have to be repainted. And then a teacher friend told us the best house cleaning hack of all; cover all the sharpie with a dry erase marker, wait a few moments, and wipe it off.
It was amazing; and it cleaned every bit of her mess. You are welcome.
Hairspray for Pen Marks
I don’t know how many times it happens that my husband sticks a pen in his pocket while he’s in his office and then comes home with it in his pockets. He then washes it with his laundry and ends up with pen marks on everything. Frustrating and annoying, yes it is. We recently discovered that you can take a can of aerosol hairspray (bad for the environment but great for pen marks) and spray it on pen and it comes right out of everything. Furniture, leather, clothes; everything. This is one of those house cleaning hacks that makes life so much more amazing in every sense of the word.
Clean as You Go
Go ahead and tell me that this is not something you consider common sense. I know it is, but do you do it? You’d be surprised how many people do not. For example, when we host holiday dinners and my parents and in-laws come over, I’m always shocked at the state of my kitchen when they get to work since they do not clean as they go. They let everything pile up and make a huge mess. I, on the other hand, clean as I go. When I make dinner, I put a dish I’m finished with immediately into the dishwasher.
I clean up trash by putting a bag on the counter and filling it as I go, and I wipe up as I go. It takes no time at all, and it leaves me with a finished meal and a clean kitchen. Since few things are as annoying as the enjoyment of a beautiful meal followed by the sudden lack of enjoyment now that you have to clean said meal, this works well for me; it’s a house cleaning hack that works for everyone.
Clean Grout with Baking Soda and Bleach
If you have a combination of these two items, you can change your entire life. By merely mixing equal amounts baking soda and bleach, you can take your dirty, nasty grout and turn it into something that looks fresh and brand new all over again. It’s a genius way to enjoy the rest of your tile, and it can transform your entire house into something really amazing.
Photo by Getty Images
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