Tired of spending endless hours cleaning? Discover these amazing secrets to deep clean and spring clean your house in a fraction of the time. These cleaning hacks will allow you to achieve the same level of clean, but with shortcuts that save time and energy.
Cleaning Hacks for Your Fridge
A quick tip to save a ton of time when cleaning your fridge is to use a box or a laundry hamper and go shelf by shelf. Take everything out and just put it in the box. That way, you don’t have to walk back and forth, taking one item at a time and setting it on the counter. This actually saves a ton of time.
Once you’ve taken everything off of one shelf, go ahead and grab some cloths and get them really warm—just not boiling; you don’t want to crack the glass. You want them to be pretty hot. Lay them out to soften any of that goo that’s on your fridge shelf. Let them sit on there for just a few seconds while you go through the box, decluttering any food that you don’t want to put back in the fridge. By the time you’re done with that, you just need to wipe the shelf out for a perfectly clean fridge.
Lazy Oven Cleaning Secrets
Cleaning an oven used to take forever. It was discovered that using way too much product, and even harsh chemicals, was the reason. The secret that was found involves either baking soda or the pink stuff, and using a dry sponge, not a wet sponge. This will give you more abrasion. Sprinkle a little bit, not a lot, of baking soda, and then just to moisten it, use a little bit of Dawn dish soap, or go ahead with the pink stuff that has some moisture with it. Then, scrub in circles to get that stuff off, and use a damp cloth to rinse it. Less is more is the secret here, and a dry sponge and dry cleaning products provide the abrasion that really gives you fast results. No need to even take the racks out with this lazy cleaning method.
Cleaning Your Cleaners: Dishwashers, Washing Machines, and Dryers
The most important thing you should clean during spring cleaning is your cleaners. This includes the dishwasher, the washing machine, and your vacuum. The dishwasher is super important. Focus on cleaning the seal. Not only is this where 90% of the odors come from, but it’s going to make your dishwasher quieter when you clean the seal. Just use a little bit of dish soap—don’t put a lot of dish soap in your dishwasher or it’s sud Central—and really focus on the seals. Make sure you also clean the filter.
Pour in a cup of vinegar—some in the detergent compartment and some in the bottom—and just run this on really hot to give it a good clean. Cleaning your cleaners is a shortcut because it means you don’t have to rewash dirty dishes in your dishwasher or have your clothes have that skank smell that you have to rewash.
A quick clean to the washing machine involves the front loader having a little thing that you pop out to pull the drain and let out all the water. Also, pull out the filter. If your washer ever stinks, it’s probably the filter. Clean the filters. If nothing else, please clean your dryer because this could literally save your life. We all clean our lint traps, but something that you might not know is surprising. If you use fabric softener or you use any type of dryer sheets, there’s actually an invisible film that can be trapped in this filter that can stop air flow and cause fires. Vacuum this all out inside to make sure you’re getting everything, but also wash this with soap and water to remove that invisible film and make sure you never have a dryer fire.
If water isn’t dripping through the dryer filter, there is an issue. This mesh is actually clogged with residue, which is stopping clothes from drying as fast and it’s a total fire hazard. Not only will cleaning this dryer vent half the amount of time that it takes to dry your clothes, but it could just save your life.
Speed Cleaning Other Areas
Walls and Baseboards
Instead of washing your walls with a bucket of water—which is super time-consuming and can actually leave your walls streaky—just dust them. You can get any kind of dusting wand, or grab a broom and a big fluffy towel or cloth and just use a hair elastic to wrap it around the top and then dust your walls with this. If you find fingerprints or scuffs or goo on the wall, don’t use a magic eraser because it can take the paint off. Instead, go with a clean cloth (not one that has color, because you can actually transfer the dye from the cloth on your wall) and a little dish soap, and then just buff the areas where you have fingerprints or scuffs.
Dry dust your baseboards before you go in with a wet or damp cloth, or else you’re going to create a hairy paste. Dust off the baseboard. Then, instead of getting on your hands and knees, wrap a broom with a cloth, put a little bit of dish soap on it, and this is hands down the best baseboard cleaner. The broom is big and thick, so it’s getting into all those little crevices, but you don’t have to bend; you’re just walking around your house swiping and swooshing. Remember: dry dust, then wet.
Under Furniture
For under furniture, if you have hardwood floors, use a duster wand that’s nice and flat and just scoop everything out and then vacuum what you get out. If you have carpet, this isn’t going to work. Instead, grab some paper towel rolls and stick it on the end of your vacuum; tape it, or put like four together if it’s really deep back. This works because you can squish this down so it fits into any crack and crevice. Crunch it down to create flatness and get vacuuming.
Windows and Screens
Cleaning windows can make a big difference on how bright and how clean your house looks. The quickest way to clean outdoor windows is with a double-head squeegee. Fill a bucket with hot water, two or three cups of vinegar, and a little bit of dish soap. Dip in your squeegee head, and with the sponge side, rub it all over the outside of the window, and then just squeegee the water away. For cleaning the inside of windows, the best thing to use is a foaming glass cleaner and either newspaper, coffee filters, or a really tight-knit microfiber t-shirt material so there’s no lint. Don’t use paper towels; you’re going to get streaks for days. You can start by going in one direction, like back and forth, and then finish with up and down for a perfectly streak-free window every time.
When it comes to screens, get a really soft, fluffy hand towel or cloth and get it soaked with water and vinegar and a little bit of dish soap. Just rub it on the screen without even taking it down. The fluffiness actually goes through the little holes in the screen and cleans both sides.
Blinds and Curtains
Cleaning blinds is a pain. The fastest way to do it is to close the blinds and use a duster or even a sock and just knock the dust down. Don’t go in with anything wet before you’ve dry-dusted, because just like baseboards, it’s going to become a gross clumpy mess. If they’re not visibly gooey, leave it, but if you see goo, use a wet rag, a little bit of vinegar and water and dish soap. If it’s mini blinds especially, make sure that you put your hand behind it so that you don’t break the blinds to hold pressure, and then just wipe straight down.
Don’t wash curtains. All you have to do is use a sticky roller because they just get dusty. Just run the sticky roller over them, especially at the top. A sticky roller is also how you clean your lamp shades that get really dusty, especially at the top. Just run that sticky roller over them and get all the dust and the dog hair off of them in seconds.
Other Often-Forgotten Areas
If you’re a glutton for punishment, there’s a few other areas to focus on when spring cleaning. These include the table chairs and legs (because these get dusty and splattered in food and juice), light switches (a really neglected space), door handles and doors and jams (especially lower on doors where dogs put their noses to open them), and the front of kitchen cabinets (because cleaning these will make your entire kitchen feel brighter and cleaner).