Ahh, cleaning! The bane of most adults and the joy of every DIYers. There are thousands, if not millions of DIYs there to make cleaning easier for everyone and while at first glance, all of them seem simple enough not all of them are.
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We are weeding out the effective DIYs from the flops and finally finding out if using vinegar and baking soda all across your home is as good as it is said out to be. The answer to this will shock you, we couldn’t believe slide 14!
Lemon & Olive Oil
Read an article about DIY cleaning and Lemon will be mentioned at least 60 thousand times but while Lemon does make the ideal ingredient for cleaning, it doesn’t mean it should be always used.
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Lemon should only be mixed with other things and used sparingly. A simple solution of Olive Oil, Lemon and White vinegar will do wonders for any wood furniture but before you begin, always do a test patch.
Dryer Sheets Can Help Collect Dust
While Lemon has been used for cleaning for decades, Dryer Sheets are a rather new addition to DIY cleaning hacks and we have to say, they are one of the best things on our list. How did we even clean before them?
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The best part, you can use old dryer sheets – just damp them and wipe your surfaces. It works best for getting pet hair off of furniture but cleans just about everything and makes sure the dust gets stuck to the sheet rather than just moved around from side to side.
Toothpaste
You would be very very wrong if you thought, Toothpaste was just for cleaning your teeth. As far as the DIY world is considered, Toothpaste is a multipurpose item that can do wonders.
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While we don’t agree with all of the claims of using Toothpaste as a cleaner, there is one which definitely works and should be adopted by everything. That is to clean your silverware with toothpaste. Use a sparing amount and wipe it off afterwards, also do not use gel and whitening toothpaste
Vinegar And Granite
The tried and tested staple of Vinegar can get almost everything clean and it’s cost-effective and natural, making it a fan favourite in many DIY cleaning hacks but there is one place, Vinegar should never ever be used.
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Fantastic Services‘ cleaning supervisor, Lily Cameron, shared with Reader’s Digest, “The acidic cleaners may etch the granite top and leave a dull or discoloured spot behind.” Yes, your granite countertops should stay far away from Vinegar and even lemon!
Carpet Stains
While not many homes have carpet anymore, we still have lots of rugs and those tend to develop stains much like the dated carpets. Though, the way to clean these stains has evolved with time.
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Once, drenching your carpet with cleaning solution and rubbing in the stain would be the way to do it cleaning professionals actually recommend against it. You should be spraying a cleaning solution on an absorbent cleaning cloth and then plotting it away.
Glass Jars for Cleaning Products
Creating your own DIY cleaning products also comes hand in hand with the responsibility of storing them. A common way to do that is in glass jars, which are not only environmentally friendly but also aesthetically pleasing.
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But, one thing which many DIYers fail to warn audiences about is that some very basic DIY cleaning products are not suitable for storing in glass jars. The risk of cross-contamination between bottles is very high and can be lethal in most cases.
Coffee In Laundry
Coffee available in almost every home technically makes for the perfect DIY ingredient but despite its popularity and ease of availability, it shouldn’t be used in as many DIYs as we see.
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A common DIY that uses coffee to “dye” old clothes is well, useless. According to this trend, all your need is a cup of coffee thrown into your washing machine and voila, you will have new clothes and folks, this is a complete myth.
Vinegar And Hardwood Floors
Vinegar makes its second mention on this list, not because it doesn’t get the job done but because DIYers have overused the item to the point that it has become harmful. A common use for Vinegar is on hardwood floors but professionals disagree.
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Professional cleaner Lily Cameron urged everyone to purchase and use the proper cleaning products, specific for your floor. The only time Vinegar works are when it is highly diluted with water and used sparingly.
Bleach And Rust
Bleach seems like every clean-freaks best friend and most DIYers will go for as saying that it removes all stains but that isn’t exactly true. If you have a rust stain, bleach will do nothing for it except make it worst.
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Even Clorox Bleach mentioned on their site that, “it’s critical to note that rust stains can NOT be removed with Clorox® Regular Bleach2 (or any chlorine bleach for that matter). You need to use a rust remover product instead, which can be found at hardware stores.”
Odours in Your Fridge
Is your fridge funky? Well, many simple DIYs can get rid of the smell and make everything fresh again. A very old school DIY, which still works is to place newspapers in your refrigerator to soak up the smell.
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But if you need a more permanent solution, first give everything a good clean with a mixture of hot water and vinegar. Let it settle in for a few hours and then wipe it away and you should be golden. To make sure, you won’t have to regularly clean your fridge with this mixture, opt for air-tight containers which help limit odours.
Salt And Washing
Just like coffee, this DIY is created more out of wishful thinking than actual results. The DIY says that adding salt to your washing will ensure that clothes don’t bleed together. Some suggest adding vinegar as well, but all of these claims had never been proven.
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So, next time just save yourself the hassle of throwing in obvious amounts of salt into your laundry and just buy a commercial product, which will get the job done with half the hassle and the same amount of money.
Banana Peel Polish
Most of us probably don’t wear shoes every day that require polish and thus this “easy” substitute for the real thing was created. DIYs around the internet claimed how no one ever needs to buy shoe polish again.
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All you need is a banana peel, which can substitute for fancy shoe polish any day… or at least that is what was advertised. In reality, using Banana peels as shoe polish will only give you a smeared shoe with a funky smell.
Does Hot Water Actually Sanitize Items?
We sadly live in a world right now where sanitizing everything has become necessary but those, who can’t afford buckets on buckets of sanitisers DIYs claimed that hot water should be a simple alternative.
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And well, they aren’t wrong. Boiling water has been known to sterilize and sanitize items and while many plastic items which are water-resistant can be sanitized with boiling water many household items still need spray sanitisers and gels.
Laundry Trick
Detergent pods are having a moment right now and we won’t even talk about how some kids want to eat them! The pods actually prove how wrong the old ideology that dirtier clothes need more detergent is!
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In fact, the amount of detergent won’t increase your chance of getting cleaner clothes. On Tide’s official website they stated “take a high efficiency (HE) washing machines [for example]. Since they use less water, putting in too much laundry can soak up all the water so there isn’t enough to completely dissolve the detergent.”
Coffee Filters As Cleaners
As we mentioned above, Dyer sheets make for the perfect dusting rag but the same can’t be said for coffee filters. This DIY, which was created out of “ease” rather than effectiveness is clearly ineffective.
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For starts, Coffee Filters are rather expensive and if all you are doing with them is wiping off surfaces, it is more cost-effective to use a simple rag or even a used dryer sheet rather than a small coffee filter.
Vinegar & Baking Soda
We dare not write an article about natural cleaning products and DIY without talking about these two best friends. This combination can be used to clean almost anything from kitchen counters to stovetops but should it?
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Brian Sansoni from the American Cleaning Institute shared with Reader’s Digest that, “the reaction [of vinegar and baking soda] has an immediate ‘clean’ look, but when you look deeper you realize that you’re left with saltwater … The agitation of the fizzy reaction itself can be useful to physically break up and carry away dirt, but there’s no long-lasting help.”
Wax Paper And Your Linens
This DIY is rather unknown despite being used for hundreds of years. All you need is some wax paper to keep your linen closet in check. This DIY is perfect for anyone who wants to keep sentimental or expensive linens looking pristine.
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Add a layer of wax paper in between each linen, this simple step will ensure that moisture doesn’t get trapped in between the fabric while also protecting it from rubbing against each other. Though, make sure the linens with the max paper are stored in a cool environment, as the wax can transfer on the fabric.
Hair Conditioner And Laundry
It looks like DIYers are always looking for ways to make laundry a more enjoyable or at least quick experience and with this hack. It just might become one. All you need to do is grab from Hair Conditioner from your bathroom.
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According to both Huffington Post and Reader’s Digest, it’s possible to stretch out your clothing by using a hair conditioner, mixed with water. You will have to mess around with the exact qualities based on the type of fabric you are trying to unshrink.
Black Tea And Hardwood Floors
While Vinegar might not be the best solution for your floors, another pantry staple might be. Black Tea has actually been used to clean hardwood floors for years and it is only now that DIYers are finding it.
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All you need to have shiny deep floorboards is to throw 5-6 black tea bags in a bucket of warm water, let them steep for 10 minutes, wait till the tea is lukewarm and mop away. Make sure to wring out any excess liquid and dirt away before you apply the tea solution.
Don’t Overclean
Ending our list off is a simple and very effective trick and that is to stop overcleaning! With so many hacks, we have become a bit obsessed with cleaning every unseen nook and cranny of your homes and most of the times – it is all fruitless.
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While yes, some items need to always be cleaning, overcleaning things to the point that you strip away paint, varnish and your mental sanity is never good. So, always remember to take a step back and reassess with whatever you are DIYing even needs all that work and if it would be good with just a wipe and some dish soap.