8 Killer Cleaning Hacks to Keep Your Apartment Sparkly Clean

Spring has finally sprung, and it’s time to give your apartment a good, solid cleaning to start the year off right.

If you’re not looking forward to getting on your hands and knees to scrub for hours, then you’re not alone! Cleaning can be quickly voted one of the most unpleasant tasks we have to do around the house, and many people postpone them until the very last moment.

Luckily, there are a few great tips and cleaning hacks to help make your spring cleaning a lot easier.

Cola Destroys not Only Your Teeth, But Dirt as Well

If you’ve ever spilled Coca-Cola or any other sodas on the ground, you’ve probably noticed how sticky the floor gets.

But we bet you’ve never realized that it picks up any dirt in its path as well! Once you wipe it up, it leaves the floor squeaky clean, albeit a bit sticky. The same carbonation that makes a cold Coca-Cola so refreshing also makes it a great cleaning agent.

It’s best used in hard-to-reach spots which are prone to stubborn build-ups, such as tile grout. Take a bottle or a can of soda and pour it over the tile grout. Let it sit and work its bubbly magic for about 10-20 minutes.

After the bubbles have died down, wipe up the Cola and all the dirt with a rag. If you have more stubborn stains, giving the area a quick scrub with a clean toothbrush should do the trick.

The best part about the Cola trick is that it’s a common household item and is much cheaper than a magic eraser or harsh cleaning chemicals.

Cola can help you remove all kinds of other stubborn stains as well. For instance, you can use it to descale your kettle just fill the kettle with Coca-Cola, boil it, leave it for around 30 minutes, then empty it, fill it with water and boil again.

The inside of the kettle will be clean as new. The same applies to rusty items or greasy stains on concrete soak the affected area in Cola for a few hours, then scrub a little and see how the dirt quickly disappears.

Disposable Razors Double as Lint Removers

Finding that your razor is no longer cutting it? Just run the blades lightly across your clothing and BOOM! You have yourself a nice, lint-free outfit! Before you throw it into the garbage, you should know that disposable razors also work well as lint removers.

It also works well for paint stains and old shirts with fuzzes hanging from them (Pro tip: get rid of the old shirts and get yourself some brand-new t-shirts from your favorite brand). The razor blades loosen the materials clinging to the fabric and “shave” them off for a clean finish.

This is a great trick to have on hand for painters or pet owners. No more going to the bank covered in paint stains. No more heading to work with Fluffy’s hair clinging to your best black pants. No more having sweaters look worn and old within a few weeks. It’s a real lifesaver.

Read Also:

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• 9 Noticeable Things You Forget to Clean in Your Apartment
• 5 Spring Cleaning Hacks from the Pros

Dryer Sheets Work Great as Rags

Though fabric softening and lint-catching dryer sheets work wonders for our laundry, it’s a shame that we throw them out after only one use. Luckily, some smart cookie came up with the idea of using old dryer sheets as rags to clean up household messes.

Their unique texture makes them incredibly good at picking up dust, so if you want to give your house a quick sweep without purchasing Swiffers, just grab some old dryer sheets.

They are perfect for removing pet lint from clothes and furniture. You can also use them to wipe dirt off window blinds, baseboards, and ceiling fans. They will not only help you remove the dust faster, but they will also help repel it, keeping the surface clean for longer.

Used dryer sheets are also highly effective for buffing persistent water stains and soap scum on glass doors, faucets, showerheads, and other water fixtures. Just put a few drops of water on the sheet and buff until you see the result.

Dryer sheets also have a wide application around the kitchen you can use them to clean up dry spills, like flour or cornmeal. You can also use old dryer sheets to clean a greasy pan just fill it with water, throw the dryer sheet in there, and watch the burnt food loosen and stick to it like magic!

Keep a small bin next to your dryer where you can store used sheets until you need them.

Hanger Clips are Excellent for Closing Food Bags

Is there anything more frustrating than finding an open bag that spilled inside a cabinet or drawer? Or digging into an open bag of potato chips and finding that they’ve gone stale because the bag wasn’t sealed back up? This topic has been a matter of debate for roommates since, well, forever. Now there is no more excuse for haphazardly rolling up the top of the bag!

You can achieve a similar result by using some old hair bobby pins or a paper clip. Snap the clips off of some old paint or skirt hangers and use them for your chip bags.

It’s as easy as snapping, clipping, and waiting until the next time you get to enjoy delicious chips that taste as fresh as the day they were opened.

Refrigerator Mats Make for an Easy Clean

Cleaning out the fridge is essential to a spring cleaning, but it’s not exactly fun. Let’s face it, old food is disgusting, and so are all the leaky juices and goo that go along with it.

Aside from the “gross-out factor,” the fridge is a small space, meaning it can be a real pain in the butt to scrub down. There is nothing pleasant about sticking your head into a confined space filled with the fumes of cleaning chemicals, either.

You can simplify your fridge cleaning routine with refrigerator mats. These mats will sit on your fridge shelves and drawers, assuring that the fridge surfaces remain protected.

If you have a simple spill, you can just take one mat off and wash it instead of scrubbing out your entire fridge.

It’ll also reduce the number of deep cleans you need to perform per year. You can purchase these mats online, at your nearest home retailer, or DIY a few of them if you’re feeling ambitious.

Sea Salt Takes Stubborn Stains off Pans and More

Sea Salt isn’t just a seasoning. It also works wonderfully as a cleaning supply because of its coarseness and ability to absorb moisture. The most common use for it is for cleaning pans. Just dump some salt into the pan and begin scrubbing with a sponge. It works like a charm.

Ever rubbed sea salt-based beauty products on your skin to exfoliate? Well, think about this as exfoliating your pan. It’s scrubbing all of the dirt and grime away while still retaining the integrity of the pan.

The effect is enhanced even more by adding citrus juice, such as lemon or lime juice. This technique works best on cast iron skillets, which must be cleaned while retaining their cooking oils and seasoned status.

In combination with some lemon, sea salt is also the perfect remedy for removing stains from wooden surfaces. You can easily bring the life back to your old cutting boards just cut a lemon in half, dip it in some sea salt and rub the entire wooden surface.

Then just wipe up the residue with a paper towel and enjoy a clean and disinfected cutting board. You can try the same trick to remove coffee marks from your wooden table or kitchen block.

If the underarms of your favorite white shirt have yellowed from sweat, sea salt can help you restore the whiteness! Dissolve 4 spoons of salt in a cup of hot water, dip a clean sponge in the solution and dab the stains away.

White Wine is a Quick Stain Remover

Every homemaker needs to keep a bottle of red wine in the fridge, particularly if you’re an avid red wine drinker. Why? It’s the perfect cleaning supply for those tragic moments when red wine spills onto light clothing or a white carpet.

The chemicals found in white wine have the power to neutralize those in the red wine, making the red wine easier to lift out of fabrics.

Just pour on the white wine immediately after the spill and blot the red pigment with a towel. The keyword here is “blot.” Wiping or smudging will only make the stain worse. After all, drinking red wine may look sophisticated, but having it dripping down the front of your crisp white shirt is anything but!

White Vinegar is for…Well, Everything Else

White vinegar is one of the most magical cleaning supplies known to man, but the hilarious part is that very few people seem to know about it.

It has a wide range of uses that can’t all be listed here, but we’ll give you a few: White vinegar cuts through tough water stains. Just soak a rag in vinegar and run it over your water fixtures for a shiny, clean finish.

Heating a bowl of water mixed with white vinegar in the microwave for a few minutes (depending on how dirty it is) will loosen up any excess grime and help you clean it a lot faster.

The dirt can then be wiped away easily with a paper towel or washcloth. Vinegar’s abrasiveness mixed with baking soda’s effervescence can also do wonders for oil stains in carpeting.

Do you ever find your clean laundry or towels smelling a bit musty? This is often caused by too much laundry detergent, which is “food” for mold and mildew. Throw that laundry in with a cup of white vinegar instead of detergent, and say goodbye to that mold and mildew!

White vinegar is often combined with other simple ingredients such as lemon juice, baking soda, sea salt, castile soap, borax, essential oils to make natural, green cleaners.

Overall, vinegar is probably one of the most valuable items in your pantry for cleaning and one of the best cleaning hack tools you can have on hand.