Household Cleaning Tips and Tricks
Hey there Hive friends! Today I got my cleaning on, and I thought I would share a few tips and tricks to make cleaning easier (and non-toxic!).
The Power of Vinegar
If you have mineral buildup on your faucets, or even if you just question if they are really clean (lately I've had smelly water a few times coming from the sink so I wanted to clean it out good), all you need is a plastic bag, rubber band, and some white vinegar. Pour some vinegar in the bag (I'm reusing one that I've already used several times for other things) and strap it on to the faucet with the rubber band so that it soaks. Leave it there for several hours (I often will do this overnight), and your mineral buildup will be gone by morning!
Similarly, if you're getting white spots on your dishes even though you have Jet Dry type rinse aid in your machine, take a little cup the size of a shotglass and put it upright in the top rack of the dishwasher. Fill it with white vinegar just before you turn on the machine. The vinegar will get splashed around and you won't have spots on your silverware! The cup will be full of dirty dishwater when the load is done, so be careful to pull it out and rinse it, but I just kept one in there permanently when this was an issue in Old Apartment and it really helped. You don't want to put the vinegar directly in the rinse aid compartment as it will eat away at the seals, so I have heard, ergo the cup.
To Clean Your Clothes Washer
They sell separate cleaner things to clean out your washing machine, but you can do this for much cheaper just by running an empty cycle with a dishwasher tablet inside the drum. Cleaning the machine in this way helps to prevent mold and mildew or any kind of buildup. :)
Lemon Juice to the Rescue
Did you have cheese splatter and spill in your microwave? Put a small cup of lemon juice in there (I just used a plastic scoop from a whey protein jug; about the size of a shotglass) and heat it for 30 seconds (perhaps longer if your microwave is not very powerful). Pour a little onto the big splatters, and they will come off easily (and just heating it in the microwave will make the little spots on the walls wipe right off)!
What about that crumb tray from the bottom of your toaster oven that you possibly haven't cleaned since the first millennium BCE? 🙄 Heat up another little cup of lemon juice and pour it on. Let it soak for just a minute and then scrub with it, keeping the juice on the tray as best you can. I could have probably heated up more and given it a second scrub, but I called it good after one pass. :) Progress, not perfection is how I get anything done. The warm lemon juice has acid in it, so it helps to cook off the grime, in a sense.
I hope these tips help you make cleaning and upkeep a little bit easier! Have a wonderful day! :)
Congratulations @phoenixwren! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 1300 posts.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Thank you so much! :)
You're welcome @phoenixwren. Looking forward to you reaching your new target 😊👍🌹
It's odd that you can use a dishwasher tablet to clean your washing machine, but you need a different cleaner to clean your dishwasher. 🤔 It often puzzles me how the dishwasher tablet clean the dishes, but not the machine while they're at it. Speaking of which, I think mine is ready for a clean.
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 45/55) Liquid rewards.
I think it's a matter of buildup, perhaps? Like I've seen lots of videos on social media from this appliance tech person, and she is always talking about how people use too much laundry detergent and it builds up in the machine.
You can also clean out a dishwasher with a packet of lemonade flavor Kool Aid (the little packets that are like 30something cents with no sugar), because the citric acid will clean it out. I've done that before too!
Cleaning with Kool Aid kind of makes me think about cleaning with Cola. Cleaning fluids for human consumption. 😆 I actually don't know if Kool Aid exists here. I only know it as the drink made infamous by a cult. 😅
Fun fact: that cult actually drank Flavor-Aid, which is like the knock off Kool-Aid, lol. But everyone says they "drank the Kool-Aid."
Oh never thought of that, but yeah, why doesn't clean the whole machine?
Ahhh I love these tips hahaha. Maybe I'm already becoming a lady of the house :p
I discovered the power of vinegar recently when I removed all the scale from my electric kettle. It was incredible, a 100% effective result thanks to chemistry. And the bottom of my stove looks exactly like this, so I might try the lemon juice trick.
Thanks for sharing these everyday life saving hacks 😅.
I learned the lemon juice trick when I worked in the college dorm kitchen! I was often working on the big grill, which is like a whole stove that you put the food on like it's a skillet. The industrial toxic cleaner they wanted me to clean the grill with made me ill, so someone told me to use lemon juice. I'd leave the grill on low so it kept the lemon juice hot and would scrub it clean. The cooks weren't happy that I was absconding with their lemon juice, but eventually I was allowed to do it as long as I didn't tell anyone else since the regular cleaner made me sick. 😁
The power of white vinegar. I usually use it with baking soda to clean my kitchen sink and stove. I let it stay for some minutes and just swipe afterwards. All the hard stains on my stove top comes off immediately.
Yes! I break out the baking soda to scrub the bathtub.
Ooh, I like these tips A LOT!!! Especially the vinegar on the faucet thing and the hot lemon juice for the bottom oven plate. We don't have a microwave still... thanks for all that, I always look for cheaper and none toxic ways to clean thing.
Come to think of it we should do that to our clothes washing machine like you said too.
For many years I didn't have a microwave either, but in my new apartment it's installed above the stove. So now I'm like, I'm living in the FUTURE! Lol
Yes it always feels that way... We had pone for about 10 days recently because my brother moved in with us so he could save money... it was never used so he returned it!
Also, I used to put my silver rings amd necklace that had tarnished into a cup of vinegar, in the morning I was able to wipe off all that black stuff and make it all shiny again!
Vinegar is handy for a lot of things!
My grandmother used to rinse my hair with it... diluted in warm water!
For about three years my shampoo was diluted baking soda, and my conditioner was diluted vinegar. It worked really well but I was tired of mixing up a bottle nearly every shower (I have a lot of hair, so I used almost a full bottle every wash, lol).
Wow these are all excellent tips that I will definitely take into account. Thank you very much for sharing this useful post.
Thanks for reading!
The lemon juice tip just saved me a load of time and money. Thank you for solving a problem I had!
Oh yay, I'm so glad! :)
!LUV
@phoenixwren(1/1) gave you LUV.
H-E tools | my wallet | discord | community | <><
HiveBuzz.me NFT for Peace
Incredible, this is really so educative, I'm so glad I came across this. I'm so doing this, thank you for the cleaning tips Ma'am 🤗.