7 cleaning hacks for everyday

7 cleaning hacks for every day

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I can’t say that I love cleaning, but I love, nay I say, need a clean house. For me a clean, neat house leads to a calm mind. After so many years together, my husband recognizes this about me. He knows there is a threshold after which I automatically go into full cleaning mode if the house feels too messy.

Not only because I use a wheelchair, but also because I want to use more environmentally friendly products (not always, but I’m trying), I have developed a few cleaning hacks, tips and tricks over the years that others might find useful. 

1.. Castille soap - there are so very many reasons to love Dr. Bronner’s Castille soap. I really hate the idea of using chemicals to clean my counters and made the switch to Castille soap years ago. Just a few of the uses around our house include: 

Spray bottle with vinegar and water, Magic Erasers, and a the Castille soap I use literally everywhere

• hand soap - we’ve added it to either re-used foaming soap bottles or re-used liquid soap bottles. Because this is a very concentrated soap, you can add water and it lasts forever. 

• Floor cleaner - add a few squirts to your bucket of water and it does a great job cleaning your floor. If you get the unscented version, you can add a few drops of essential oil to get the scent you enjoy, or you can pick one of the great scented soaps they offer. 

• General cleaner - I add Castille soap and water to a reusable spray bottle and instantly have cleaner for the counters, stainless steel (it works great), dining table, etc. Don’t add too much soap, because it is concentrated and you’ll get a film. Also, don’t add vinegar to this mixture, Castille soap and vinegar don’t play nice together. 

2. Vinegar - Our floors are Pergo and the instructions clearly state to use a mixture of water and vinegar on them. Vinegar is great because it cuts through the dirt and leaves everything without a soapy film or a feeling of your soaking up chemicals through your feet. It smells for a few minutes like vinegar but once dry they smell is gone and you’re just left with clean. Best yet, it’s cheap! You can get a gallon of vinegar for under $4 and you only need a ¼ cup in a bucket of water. For my wood painted cabinets, I tried a few different cleaners but nothing has worked better than a water and vinegar mixture. Everything else left a film and the dirt. If there’s extra grease on them, I just add a drop of Dawn to the mixture.

Debot easily going over a threshold

3. Robot vacuum - I had my doubts about a robot vacuum and wasn’t ready for a $500 commitment. I got my Ecovacs Deebot 79W on a black Friday deal for $80. The thing is a workhorse. I joke with others that I never realized how dirty we are. We run it nearly every day and it’s filled with dirt. “How can it be filled with dirt? We just ran it! How dirty are we?” I say this to my husband. Apparently, with the wheelchair, the cat, and the 8 years old, we’re pretty damn dirty. My husband hates vacuuming and since I use a wheelchair, it’s not impossible, but pretty damn hard to vacuum. We have mostly hardwood floors and a few area rugs. The Deebot has no issue transitioning from floor to rug. I will admit it does get stuck under the refrigerator on occasion, necessitating us to block it off. Would also admit that it’s not the most systematic in its vacuuming, but it gets the job done. Deebot isn’t the most expensive and there are plenty of options to explore with automatic cleaners, etc. If you’re thinking of getting a robot vacuum, run don’t walk.

4. Dawn and vinegar - Most of the time, ant can live and let live. Two exceptions: 1) when carpenter ants are seen in my home. Then we mercilessly spray the foundation to ensure no more carpenter ants are eating the foundation. 2) when the ants are coming up through my patio seams. I don’t need the patio stones to be displaced. I try not to use chemical poison where we have bare feet touching the ground. I find that a vinegar and dawn soap mixture not only kills surface ants, but rids us of whatever lies beneath (think big ant colony) which quite frankly could be more damaging. After spraying, I never have a return. 

Debot easily transitioning from the floor to the area rug and back

5. Dawn, vinegar, and baking soda - I’ve always had fun doing the volcano experiment with my 8 year old. This is just taking baking soda in a cup or bowl and adding vinegar to watch the chemical reaction. We add food coloring too for more fun. I have tried the Dawn Dish Soap, vinegar and baking soda on the bottom of my enamel coated pans, with little result, However, I did recently try it on the inside of my “non-stick” pan after I had a distracted moment and burned some chicken chili in it (piano lessons, dinner cooking, 911 work call - you get it right?). We let the pan soak for 2 days and it was still pretty bad. I tried this concoction and we could wipe it clean by next morning. AH-mazing!

6. Sponge mop - I found this one by accident. I usually wait until my husband can clean the bathtub with me, but I just wanted it off the list! So I grabbed the sponge floor mop*, sprayed it with cleaner and used the mop to get the tile all the way up the wall. Brilliant! I cleaned the entire wall without risking life or limb and didn’t have to ask anyone for help.  

* Note: no other floor mop is better than a sponge mop. I’ve tried them all and most of them push dirt into the grout lines, which makes me insane, and necessitates that I go back and scrub the grout. I hate cleaning doubly hard. 

Before and after hitting the baseboard with a magic eraser. Unfortunately, I made a clean spot, so now I have to do the whole house. :-)

7. Magic erasers - baseboard cleaning, wall scuffs - I love Magic Erasers. They do a great job on the stainless steel sink, the counters, any random stain floating around. I remember a friend of mine, her pants color had rubbed off on the paint under the bar overhang. She was mortified, but I told her not to worry. I whipped out the Magic Eraser and stain gone. She asked, “what magic is this”, to which i replied “Magic indeed”. As a wheelchair user, I leave marks on the walls all over the house from my tires hitting things. Not a problem. Magic Eraser. I also used this on tough stains in the bathroom, like grout, and bathtub seams. Recently I’ve been using it all over the house on the dust and dirt that collects on the baseboards. It’s like magic. Ok I’m done, I promise. 

What are your favorite cleaning hacks? Any I should try? Please post in the comments!