The thing about cleaning is, I hate doing it, but I love the way my space feels once it's done. Well, recently on Reddit, people shared the cleaning tips and tricks they've learned from the pros, and I learned some much easier and more effective tricks for getting my house in order. Here's what they had to say:
1. "Always work top down for every room. It's a way to move the dirt down, never having to repeat steps."
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2. "I keep a dish scrubber brush in the shower, and in the soap reservoir of it I use 1/2 cleaning vinegar and 2/3 dish soap. Once a week while I'm in the shower, I can scrub the shower down while I'm in it and it makes it so much easier. Got it from a housekeeper on TikTok."
3. "Blow the dust and loose hair off your vanity and toilet with your hair dryer and vacuum the floor. Works amazingly if you shed a lot."
4. "I worked as a housekeeper for a while and picked up the habit of vacuuming the bathroom before cleaning anything. It picks up dust, hair, and any other miscellaneous things you might not want to grab with your bare hands."
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5. "For refrigerator and oven handles, wipe daily with a damp microfiber cloth, and you’ll notice such a nicer feeling when grabbing them."
6. "Wipe the walls for dust with a dry Swiffer. Makes all the difference, especially during Spring."
7. "We use coffee filters to clean mirrors and interior car windows. It works beautifully, with no streaks, and the fibrous nature of the coffee filter cleans well."
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8. "Dusting and disinfecting the underside of the toilet, between the seat and the floor. So many people miss this area, and it's like night and day. Most don't notice dust there because you'd have to get up close to see it, or deliberately look at the underside of the toilet, but once it is dusted, you can tell right away from a distance. The whole bathroom feels so clean."
9. "Windex on faucets makes them shine and removes hard water spots."
10. "Boil a cup of water with some lemon in your microwave. Let it sit for 5 minutes while you’re doing something else. You can now easily wipe out the entire appliance. FRESH!"
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11. "My cat always leaves little smudges at face height all over the corners of doors. I use a wet Scrub Daddy to clean it off, and it's so easy!"
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12. "The trick to cleaning most surfaces is to let the solution/product sit. Leave it for an hour or more, and this allows the solution to 'activate,' and you don’t need to scrub much. Of course, it depends on the products. For example, with Bar Keeper's Friend, you don’t want to let it sit. The same goes for any abrasive product."
13. "Shining a bright flashlight on the walls will enable you to see cobwebs and dust very clearly. Sidetip: light almost any surface from the side with a flashlight to see the dust it’s holding. There’s almost no point in trying to clean without a flashlight."
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14. "Put Glad Press'n Seal on the glass shelves of your fridge. Great hack for anyone with a busy house. Before our extended family comes to visit, we clean the shelves, then line them with the Press'n Seal. You want the sticky side against the glass. After they leave, I just pull it up and toss it out. Catches all the little crumbs, drips, and spills that happen when we have more than nine kids and six adults in and out of a fridge for a week. Much easier than hand scrubbing it all twice. It’ll last about a month at a time if you want to leave it on that long."
15. "Soaking the oven racks in the bathtub with scalding hot water and dishwasher tabs makes them dream-easy to wipe off and sparkly-clean."
16. "Use a lint roller on the surface of all sofas, pillows, and bedspreads. No matter how clean you think it is, there is ALWAYS hair."
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17. "For reflective surfaces (example: coffee machine), use a wet rag or paper towel and wipe a small area in circular motions. Before that dries, use another dry paper towel and wipe the moisture away. This prevents streaking and makes the surface soooo shiny."
18. "I clean houses, and one of my favorite tools is a firm, angled paint brush. Spray a little wood cleaner on the tips of the bristles, and it is really easy to dust away dirt from small cracks and corners of wood furniture and panel doors. (Really any small corner)."
19. "One thing I picked up was wiping down door handles and light switches real quick whenever I’m already cleaning the room. Such a small thing, but it makes the whole place feel way cleaner instantly."
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20. "You know the dirty-looking shower floor that never looks clean, no matter how much you scrub? A realtor taught me this: Sprinkle powdered Comet and granular dishwasher soap on the floor of your shower. Add enough water to make a paste. Using a scrub brush, first scrub a little in, then let it sit for about 30 minutes. Add a little more water, scrub again, rinse. It will amaze you how clean the shower floor is. Works well in bathtubs that have that old-timey slip strip on them that are impossible to clean."
21. And finally, "When dusting, don't 'flick' the duster at the end of your swipe. Try to terminally stop when you get to the end of what you're dusting. That way, the dust will drop straight down instead of swirling into the air."
Do you have a cleaning tip you swear by? Share it with us in the comments or via the anonymous form below: