Do you ever feel like the chores around your home never end? If you’re fed up with spending hours of your time scrubbing at messes with commercial products that don’t seem to work, we have a whole list of natural solutions to get through.Â
If you’re ready to learn how to deal with the most persistent and time-wasting cleaning problems, stay tuned!
1. Clean your chopping board with kosher salt and lemons
Chopping boards can accumulate bacteria, especially the thicker wooden ones. You can use a combination of kosher salt and lemons to clean your chopping board without leaving any chemical residue.
2. Clean your sofa with baking soda
Whether you’ve got a stain on your sofa or you just want to bring back its colour, baking soda can be a great solution for cleaning your sofa. Sprinkle on, leave for a couple of hours, then vacuum off.
3. Scrub your oven with baking soda and vinegar
There’s no need to spend hundreds of pounds on a professional oven clean when you can achieve the same results with products from your own kitchen cupboards. A mix of vinegar and baking soda is a great combo for cleaning your oven.
4. Use a razor to remove paint from clothes
If you’ve ever discovered dry, crusty paint on your clothes, you’ll know what an annoyance it is to get off. Next time you find a paint splatter, use a razor to quickly and cleanly remove it from your clothes.
5. Clean your blinds with vinegar
Blinds are particularly difficult to clean, but you don’t need a fancy formula to get the job done. Just whip up a 50-50 vinegar and water mixture and dip an old sock into the mixture. Then use the sock to scrub between the slats of the blinds.
6. Blowdry the water rings off your wooden surfaces
Unless you’re a complete neat freak, you’ve probably ended up with a pattern of water rings on your wooden tables over the years. Luckily, you can just use your hairdryer to remove these water rings from your surfaces, then give them a scrub with olive oil to finish.
7. Remove oil stains with baking soda
We’ve talked about how baking soda can be used to remove stains from your sofa, and it’s no different from your carpet. If you have an oil-stain disaster on your hands, these stains can be removed from the carpet with baking soda.
8. Get rid of faucet grime with a lemon
Whether you have a fresh lemon or some lemon juice to hand, lemons are very effective at removing stains from faucets. Just squeeze the lemon directly onto the faucet, making sure to cover the whole area, then let sit for five minutes before scrubbing off.
9. Create a natural paste for cleaning your bathtub
If you’re looking to give your bathtub a really deep clean, there’s no need to resort to cleaning chemicals. Just use one teaspoon of liquid soap, a few drops of antibacterial oils, and baking soda mixed with water to create a paste to clean the tub with.
10. Clean iron dishes with sea salt
Iron is a particularly difficult material to clean, especially if you want to scrub it without causing damage. A good natural cleaner to use is sea salt. Just sprinkle it over your iron dishes, leave for half an hour, then clean as you normally would.
11. Use your old toothbrush to clean your keyboard
There are many uses for an old toothbrush, but one of the handiest is for cleaning your keyboard. Just wash your toothbrush, let it dry until it’s only a tiny bit damp, and get scrubbing between those keys.
12. Use a toothbrush to clean your cabinet doors
For this toothbrush hack, you’ll need to dip your toothbrush into an equal mix of baking soda and vegetable oil, then use it to scrub between the cracks and crevices of your cabinet doors.
13. Remove nail varnish from the carpet with rubbing alcohol
If you’ve discovered a nail varnish stain on your carpet, don’t panic! There’s no need to strip the carpet and start again. Instead, grab some rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth and use them to remove nail polish from the carpet.
14. Clean your grater with raw potato
Graters are notoriously difficult to clean, as they tend to attack any sponge or cloth you use to wipe the bits away. A simpler solution is to grate a raw potato, which will clean your grater both inside and out without the need for scrubbing.
15. Clean coffee stains with baking soda
Coffee stains are a nightmare to get off your surfaces and furnishings, but they’re a breeze to clean with baking soda. Just sprinkle some baking soda onto the stain, wait an hour or two, then vacuum up for a job well done.
16. Scrub glass dishes with tin foil
Glass baking dishes are another piece of kitchenware that can take on a whole host of impossible-to-lift marks and stains. If you’ve tried everything to no avail, use a ball of tin foil with a bit of dish soap to scrub your glass baking dishes clean.
17. Remove glitter spillages with Play Dough
Glitter all over the carpet is pretty much every parents’ nightmare. Even when you tackle the spillage with a vacuum, you just can’t seem to get it all up. If those last bits of glitter won’t lift from the carpet, dab them with Play Dough to pick them all up.
18. Clean up your makeup brushes with baby shampoo
Makeup brushes need regular cleaning to prevent the build-up of bacteria, and there’s no need to buy an expensive product for doing this job. Opt for baby shampoo instead, a kind, safe cleaning formula, then hang your brushes to dry to avoid mould.
19. Use Coca Cola to clean oil stains off garage floors
This bizarre tip is probably a sign that we should all stop drinking Coca Cola immediately, as it really does have the power to clean oil stains from garage flooring. Just pour a bit of the beverage over the stain, leave overnight, and scrub away the next morning.
20. Get rid of coffee grinder odours with uncooked white rice
Coffee grinders have a very appealing smell to coffee-lovers, but over time, they start to lose their freshness. Simply grind a handful of uncooked white rice through your grinder to remove any build-up and get rid of any bad odours.
21. Use toothpaste to clean your jewellery
Toothpaste isn’t just good for cleaning your teeth – it can also be used to clean your silver and gold jewellery! Just dab toothbrush onto your jewellery, then wait ten minutes before wiping off with a tissue.
22. Clean your hairbrush with shampoo.
If you can’t remember the last time you cleaned your hairbrush, do it now – you only need some shampoo and some hot water, just like you use to wash your hair. Scrub the brush with shampoo, then rinse clean with hot water.
23. Hide furniture scratches with shoe polish
If you have any spare shoe polish lying around, you can use it to hide the scratches in leather furniture. Just make sure to use the right colour for the furniture in question, and rub off any excess polish well.
24. Clean grout with baking soda
Bathroom grout can quickly accumulate all sorts of unpleasant dirt and mould, but cleaning it doesn’t take two seconds with a baking soda paste. Just mix equal parts baking soda and water, then apply to your grout and leave for fifteen minutes before removing.
25. Clean your blender with dish soap
What’s simpler than taking your blender apart and putting it in the sink to clean? Cleaning it while it blends, of course! Just fill your blender with water, add a couple of drops of dish soap, blend for a few seconds, then rinse.
26. Pick up broken glass with bread
Broken glass can get everywhere, and even when you think you’ve picked it all up, chances are, you’ll find another piece a day later. The best way to pick up smaller shards of broken glass is to press a piece of bread onto the area and lift them away.
27. Use crumpled paper to dry your shoes
Paper is super absorbent, so it makes sense that you can stuff crumpled paper inside your wet shoes and dry them in double time. Just make sure the paper doesn’t have any ink on, which it could bleed into your shoes when wet.
28. Clean your microwave with dishwashing liquid
Like ovens, microwaves can quickly accumulate crusty, unsightly stains on their insides. An easy way to scrub these stains free is to first put a microwave-safe dish filled with water and dishwashing liquid into your microwave for one minute.Â
This will make it far less of a chore to wipe the stains away with a wet sponge.
29. Use lint rollers to tackle dusty lamps
Looking for a simple way to get the dust out of the hard-to-reach places in your lamps? Stick a lint roller up there and roll it around to remove the worst of the dust.
30. Use coffee filters to clean screens
Coffee filters have far more uses than their intended job. They’re most effective at cleaning screens and glass, such as your TV screens, monitors, and phone screens. You can also use them to clean your glasses without scratching them.
31. Use newspaper to absorb refrigerator smells
Paper can absorb more than just water – it can also absorb smells. Pup a scrunched-up newspaper page in your fridge to absorb any bad odours. Sprinkle with baking soda for extra effect.
32. Spray lipstick stains with hairspray
We’ve all had to get lipstick stains out of our surfaces before, but it’s nothing a bit of hairspray can’t fix. Just spray any offending marks directly with hairspray, rub them with a damp cloth and then wash them to remove.
33. Clean your silverware with baking soda
To get your silverware sparkling once more, add some baking soda to a tub of hot water, sprinkle some onto a sponge and dip the items into the water, scrubbing with the sponge.
34. Pick up small toys with a dustpan
Smaller kiddie toys don’t have to be a nightmare to pick up. Just go round your house with a small dustpan to pick them all up, then distribute them back into their storage cupboards.
Conclusion
These 34 quick DIY cleaning hacks will help you save hours and hours of cleaning time – and they’re completely natural, too! Remember, though, that there are some cleaning jobs that you should leave to the professionals, like using poison to kill pests and cleaning your air conditioning unit.
But for the everyday basics, these tips will help you get some more free time — and a clean house while you’re at it! Comment below if you think we’ve missed any genius natural cleaning hacks from this list.