In our previous article on cleaning hacks, we covered three different ways to use everyday items for quicker and easier cleaning. Tricks like these are great for tackling cleaning problems that have annoying or preventative attributes. Also, they are great for saving money on the different recommended cleaning tools available on the market. These tricks for cleaning are popular so we thought we would go over a few more of the unique ones that we have found. There is a mix of cleaning hacks that not only get the job done but also provide a little bit of safety and health consciousness as well. In this article, we go over some more of our favorite alternative uses of everyday items for cleaning your home.
Smell is a big one in any home. We spend tons of money every year on candles, scents, sprays, and scented cleaners to keep our homes smelling and feeling fresh. Sometimes these traditional cleaners and scent makers don’t seem to be enough. There are a couple of cases where some homebrew solutions continue to work even in the modern day. The first everyday item we go over is lemons. When life gives you lemons, well save them because they are great for cleaning and deodorizing around the home. Places like the bathroom and kitchen are ripe for using lemons to help your regular cleaning routine. Leftover lemons can be used to take out any bad smells coming from garbage disposal in the sink as one example. Another great example is using salt and lemon to clean off cutting boards or other surfaces. The acidic and pleasant-smelling nature of lemon makes it a great everyday household item to use for cleaning.
Speaking of foods used for cleaning, the kitchen has a couple of other secret weapons as well. Some of the more unique uses for common food items are things like ketchup for cleaning silver or jewelry. Between the micro-abrasive nature of the sugars and the acidic nature of tomato, ketchup is said to have a keen edge on easy cleaning for silver and jewelry. Other examples include olive oil to polish stainless steel or cooking spray to quiet a squeaky door. By far the most popular and common item that can be used is salt. Abrasive and anti-microbial, salt can be used some different ways to help bolster cleaning solutions and help a dull brush get some extra edge on grime.
Daily salt use down a drain after doing the dishes can help lengthen the life of your plumbing. Cleaning drains, faucets and the other ceramics in your bathroom can be annoying. The toilet especially is an area of cleaning concern. No one likes cleaning the bathroom, and the toilet is probably the worst of it. Fortunately, there’s a simple and very common household item that can help freshen and clean your toilet bowl. Alka-Seltzer tablets do an excellent job of cleaning up rings and stains in a toilet. A couplet of tablets for about 20 minutes with some flushes will do the trick just fine.
Finding new ways to subvert the traditional cleaning paradigms can be fun and engaging. These hacks also help teach you about the fundamentals of what new and innovative products are trying to do. Using tricks like these to help highlight the core mechanisms of action when it comes to cleaning the right way. There are still many more cleaning hacks to be discovered and breakdown. Our research has led us to a plethora of examples that we will continue to revisit in the future.
