Rarely do you hear someone get excited about cleaning the house. It is time consuming, exhausting, and most of all, frustrating when you scrub and scrub but the stains refuse to budge.
But don’t give up just yet! Below is the ultimate guide to cleaning those tricky spaces with surprising tools, brought to you in partnership with Method Clean Happy.
Method believes in making cleaning products that are, well, clean. Naturally derived ingredients are superheroes, and they keep the planet in mind with every bottle. The bottom line? Method is a pretty package — inside and out.
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The Kitchen:
- Lemon juice can reinvigorate your knives that are covered with rust spots.
- Vinegar + baking soda = a savior for burned pots and pans.
- Rubbing your brass pots and pans with ketchup will keep them looking as good as new:
- Oil is the secret ingredient when it comes to cleaning a cast iron pan.
- Coffee grinders can look as good as new if you run rice through a cycle.
- Good old baking soda and water will keep your crockpot looking like new.
- Raw potatoes or apples can clean hard-to-scrub cheese graters.
- Vinegar and a toothbrush can keep your coffee maker clean and happy.
- Use rice, water and a little dish soap to clean strangely shaped bottles.
- Use an eraser or baby oil to remove scuff marks from linoleum.
- Clean your kitchen sponges by microwaving them for one minute.
The Living Room:
- Although we wish this on no one, use coffee grounds to clean up vomit and remove any lasting smell.
- Use rubbing alcohol to clean leather sofas…
- …and this technique works on microfiber couches, too!
The Garage:
- Use a degreaser on your tires to keep them looking fly.
- Use oven cleaner to make oily driveway stains disappear.
The Bathroom:
- Just use some regular dish soap and olive oil to clean your makeup brushes.
- The magical rubbing alcohol rears its head again when it comes to hair supplies. Just dab a little bit on a cotton ball to clean your curling iron or hair straightener.
- Believe it or not, your hairbrush can be a hot germy mess. Use another comb to get out stray hairs, and then soak the brush in a lukewarm shampoo and water mixture.
- If your shower curtain is beginning to get moldy and unusable, just throw it in the machine with some bath towels and baking soda.
- Fill a plastic bag with vinegar and tie it around your shower head to clean any build-up. Just leave it overnight for a squeaky clean finish!
- Dip your toothbrush in some mouthwash to disinfect it.
The Bedroom:
- Is your mattress yellow and musty? Just sprinkle a little baking soda and essential oils to leave it so fresh and so clean.
- Borax, laundry detergent, and a natural bleach alternative are all you need to turn yellowed pillows white again.
- Put small stuffed animals inside a sock and wash them with the rest of the laundry. It will be clean and germ-free, without any eyes or buttons falling off!
The Laundry Room:
- Sprinkle a little meat tenderizer on armpit stains before throwing a shirt in the wash.
- Use white chalk to get grease stains out of clothes.
- Lipstick stains can be removed, even from washed clothes, with a little bit of nail polish remover.
- If you get ink stains on your clothes, just apply a little bit of hairspray before washing to loosen the mark.
- It may seem crazy, but you really can wear those painting clothes again! Just use some rubbing alcohol to get latex paint stains out of most fabrics.
Miscellaneous:
- Fill an old candle container with very hot water to get out the residual wax.
- Cleaning headphones is super easy -- even buds. Simply wipe them down with a damp cloth of dish detergent and warm water.
- Play dough is more than just fun and games: It can be used to clean up a glittery mess!
- Use peanut butter to get scuff marks off of sneakers.