Cleaning Gurus Shared 20+ Tips to Help You Eliminate Dirt and Mess

From a ketchup polish to a fun “squeegee hack” for instant fluff removal from your carpets — cleaning doesn’t have to be boring or extremely time-consuming. Instead, it can turn into a rather satisfying activity, leaving your house super clean. And all of this thanks to some easy, yet witty tricks.

Bright Side carefully picked the best pieces of cleaning wisdom from different users and we can’t wait to share them with you. Take notes!

• For squeaky clean floors with no streaks use a double bucket system. Separate water with the cleaning solution and dirty water for rinsing. This gives you the ability to rinse your dirty mop head out in the rinse water, wring it out and then dip a relatively clean mop head into the cleaning solution.
• Another method can be to wipe the floor with a soaking-wet mop (don’t wring it out). Then rinse the mop head in the bucket, wring out thoroughly, and go over the wet floor again, mopping up the excess water. Make sure you do it section by section and change out the water if needed.

• Sweep after you mop as well as before. Wait for it to dry and sweep out any remaining lint/hair that has come loose during the mopping.

• For a hard water stained dishwasher use heavy-duty rust stain remover. One cycle and the results are amazing.
• For stubborn areas like a tub, sprinkle some baking soda, let it sit for 5 mins, and lightly rub.
• For preventing water stains, rub wax paper on the faucets.

• Vacuum in the opposite way than you’ve been taught. We might be used to starting from the furthest part of a room (or a rug) and then working our way to the middle. Instead, try to vacuum high-traffic areas first, then move to the corners and vacuum yourself out. This way you can clean the most walked-on spots twice.
• To dust your blinds, take a microfiber rag, dampened with dusting oil, and wipe the front and back. Sometimes, though, the dust is stuck on or the blinds are grimy. In this case, take them off and soak in warm soapy water.
• To clean ceiling fans, put a pillowcase over the blades, and then slide it off. It will help to contain the dust and debris inside the case.

• For removing a dark-colored marker stain out of your carpet, let it dry first. Mix vinegar, warm water, a bit of dish soap, and non-bleach detergent. Pour a little on the stain, blot, and repeat until not much is coming off. Then apply a small amount of nail polish remover and lightly rub the top of the area (do not let it reach the bottom of the carpet). Use a dry cotton ball to dab off the nail polish remover.
• To get rid of almost any stain from clothes and carpet use a 1:2 solution of dish soap and hydrogen peroxide. This is good especially if you have dogs or cats who have accidents every now and then.
• To get pen ink out of couch fabric, apply some alcohol on a paper towel or white towel. Continuously blot the stain, but don’t rub it.

• For hard water stains on your shower doors, use toothpaste. Apply it to the spots, scrub in circles, and watch them disappear.
• For a streaky bathroom mirror, use vinegar. It smells icky at first, but it really gets rid of the streaks. And you don’t need to apply a lot of it either.
• Try to clean from top to bottom and go in order when cleaning the bathroom. Pour toilet cleaner in the toilet, let it sit while you clean the shower and tub, empty the trash and clean the trash can, clean the mirrors, clean the sinks and counters, then finish with the toilet. Dust off your toilet paper holder and your towel racks, clean off your light switches and doorknob, and then sweep and mop the floors.

• To remove the stained grout between tiles mix baking soda and vinegar. Apply it to the tiles for 20 minutes and then scrub it off with an old toothbrush.

• To clean the tub without extended scrubbing, use a mixture of warm cleaning vinegar (with an acidity of at least 10%) and dish soap. First, heat the vinegar for 2-3 minutes in the microwave, then after it cools down a bit, mix it with dish soap in a spray bottle (60:40 ratio). Spray it on your tub and the surrounding area, let it sit for 30 minutes, and simply rinse.

• When doing a bathroom, fill the sink with hot water and add your cleaning agent of choice. Dip a rag in there, wring it out, then wipe everything down, with strokes going toward the sink, pulling all the dust and grime into it. Once you’re done, go over it with a dry rag.

• To clean your old wicker chairs, use a metal brush with dish soap. After removing most of the grease, rinse them off with water and scrub a bit more with a scrub brush.
• If you haven’t cleaned in a while, your place probably doesn’t smell very good. While you’re cleaning, open some windows and boil a pot of water with some spices in it (cinnamon sticks and some citrus fruits, for example) to get rid of the stank.
• Get an air purifier. This will significantly cut the amount of dust that falls in a room. Less dust means things will stay clean longer.

• You can clean your shower liner in a washing machine with a simple towel. The towel will help to provide some scrubbing to it.
• Adding vinegar in addition to the towel helps to remove soap, shampoo, and mineral stains.
• For really dirty windows, use an all-purpose cleaner before polishing with window cleaner. Window cleaner isn’t that great at getting rid of dirt.

• Ketchup makes a great brass polish.
• Nail polish remover will take paint off mirrors and windows.
• Newspapers and a surface cleaner like Methylated Spirit are perfect for glass. No lint, no streaks, and they remove the oily fingerprints perfectly.

• Remove hair and fuzz from your rug by using the “squeegee trick.” Spray your rug with water, then use a squeegee (a tool with a flat, smooth rubber blade, used to remove liquid on surfaces).
• If you spilled wax, try putting ice packs on it and let sit for a bit, then pull up the wax using something sharp.
• Polish your shower hardware with a multi-surface everyday cleaner to prevent hard water stains in the future. It also gets rid of stuck-on soap stains and hair.

Do you have clever cleaning tricks of your own? Let’s share our knowledge in the comment section!