8 life-changing hacks for everyday home cleaning every busy mom should know.
Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash
We’re always looking for ways to improve our children’s’ lives. Simple actions like finding out where the most family-friendly neighborhoods are hiding are becoming easier with tools like beycome.com. We have plenty of government websites and online resources when it comes to choosing what schools are the best to attend. But often the world of keeping our kids safe and what is okay to keep in the house is influenced by companies trying to sell a new product. Cleaning solutions are no stranger to marketing, and we’re starting to learn that stronger doesn’t always mean better when it comes to stains and sanitizing.
Vinegar
White. Distilled. Vinegar. It might be the most versatile and powerful liquid you have in your cabinet. It can handle most surfaces, textiles, and clothing safely. It cleans, disinfects, and even deodorizes. You might be wondering how something so smelly could ever deodorize anything, but the secret is that when vinegar dries it leaves no scent. It also takes most of the smelly matter in the clothing or on the surface with it. Have no fear and simply load up a squirt bottle with a 50/50 water and vinegar solution. You’ll be amazed at how well it works on a variety of surfaces throughout your home.
Baking soda
Everyone remembers their 3rd-grade science project volcano. If not, all the more reason to combine that vinegar with another super potent and versatile cleaning agent, baking soda. Be warned, this will make a mess, but whatever your expanding baking soda and vinegar plume touches will get clean as well. You probably have an old box sitting in your fridge, for reasons not certain(deodorizes). What you may not notice is that baking soda is either the main or a listed ingredient in numerous cleaners and detergents. It’s benign enough to be consumed as a remedy for acid reflux and generally helps with cleaning anything you add it to.
Lemon juice
Between vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice, you can clean almost anything in your home.
Sometimes a little acid is needed and lemon rinds and juice provide safe natural sources of this potent cleaning agent. On it owns it acts as a potent spot cleaner. Simply let a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice sit on that spot and it might be gone by the morning. Just be careful the material isn’t delicate or it may be gone too. Where lemon juice really shines is as an additive to your already homemade vinegar spray. It not only reduces the odor and makes your house smell citrusy fresh, but it makes the spray an even more effective cleaner.
Ironing out the stains
Wax on the carpet? Stain on the carpet? Grab your iron. Getting stains out of carpet can be a nightmare, but irons can actually act as a close-quarters steam cleaner. Simply wet the stain with little hot water and dish detergent, place a wet towel on top and press the hot iron into the stain. The towel will absorb a lot of the stain as the heat and moisture break it up. You could iron with it too, but with our next tool ironing can start to feel a little draconic.
Steam out everything else
This tip isn’t so much a lifehack as much as it is strong advocacy for a stand-alone steamer unit. Priced typically around fifty bucks for the cheaper models, you’ll never know what you were missing out on until you own one. Ironing can become a thing of the past with a few wafts of the steaming wand. Troublesome and sticky messes are loosened and removed with minimal effort.
It acts as a mobile disinfectant station for toys, furniture, and just about anything else you can think of. Just be careful, it is hot!
Bleach right
Everyone knows about bleach from their parents. It was the only way to get the whites white for decades. The power of bleach when it comes to sanitizing and whitening isn’t in question, but how we use that bleach is important. Cleaning clothes with bleach should be broken into two parts: the soak, and the wash. Often we let our automatic machines do both of these with a prewash soak, but the hot water actually destroys some of the active ingredients in bleach.
Cold or room temperature water is going to make the bleach more effective and the clothes whiter. Bleach is also only effective for about 30 minutes before it starts to lose potency, so no need to let it soak all day. Washing in hot water is still recommended for the really stubborn stains.
Melamine foam
You probably know it by it’s more expensive brand name Magic Eraser, but this actually magical cleaning product can be bought in bulk for much cheaper under its generic name of melamine foam. This stuff is actually magic though, and the reason for that is the way it cleans.
Melamine foam functions like super fine-grit sandpaper, delicately scraping away that top layer of dirt or grime. While this makes it great for cleaning walls and other porous surfaces, just be careful not to scrub the paint off!
Haircare
Animal hair on everything? No vacuum attachment in the world will work as well as a rubber brush. They’re often sold to remove excess hair from dogs and cats, but they work just as well on your furniture! The brush creates static that helps the hair stick to itself as it conveniently rolls itself into a manageable hairball. It works on rugs as well for those filthy outdoor and entryway runners. It can even remove lint in a pinch!