Simple Home Cleaning Tips

These are some of my favourite Simple Home Cleaning Tips!  Simple and practical.

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I find cleaning very cathartic.  When everything around me feels chaotic, cleaning helps to calm my mind.  Especially after the holidays…I absolutely love the feeling of taking down decorations and starting the new year with a clean slate!  This time of year is also a good time to restock up on favourite cleaning products and tackle a few chores that have been put off to the side.

Yesterday I shared some Tips for Deep Cleaning Your Kitchen, and today I’m sharing some of my favourite cleaning tips, tricks, cleaners and tools!  These are my must have items in my cleaning arsenal!  Nothing fancy, just simple and practical.  In fact one of my most loved cleaners is vinegar.  Anyway, I hope you might find some of these useful for your own home!

Here my some of my Simple Home Cleaning Tips:

1.  All Purpose Vinegar Cleaning Solutions

One of my most favourite cleaning products is vinegar.  The old tried and true, trusty vinegar.  I make a 1:1, vinegar:water solution  in a spray bottle, and use it to clean sinks, counters, and pretty much anything that requires a good cleaning.  It makes everything sparkle!  A lot of people worry about the smell, but don’t!  The smell disappears really quickly.

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2.  Vegetable and Fruit Cleaner

If you have never used a veggie and fruit cleaner, you should try it!  You would not believe the colour of the water after you have washed them…it’s very dirty and gross!  To clean my fruits and vegetables I like to use a homemade vinegar/water solution.  When I come home from the grocery store I fill my clean sink about half-way with lukewarm water, then add 1 cup vinegar.  Then I add my veggies/fruit (don’t overfill your sink with your veggies/fruit).  Soak for 10 minutes, then rinse well.  If you want to read more about this wash, and the different veggies/fruit you can clean with this solution, see my blog post here.

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3.  Vegetable Brush

One of my most used tools in the kitchen is a simple vegetable brush.  I use it to clean strawberries, potatoes, carrots…anything that needs a light scrubbing. 

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4.  Spot Shot

If you have kids or a pet, Spot Shot is a must have.  This takes out everything without ruining your carpet.  It does smell a bit stinky though, but this is only temporarily. 

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5.  Shaklee Scour Off

I love Shaklee Scour Off.  In fact it’s one of my most favourite cleaners.  I use it to remove stains, crayon, pen, and rust off of my counter tops.  I also use it to remove cooked on food from my ceramic stove top.  I also really appreciate that it smells good, is non toxic and a container lasts a very long time (at least a year). 

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6.  Bleach & Cleaning Front Loader Washing Machines

I prefer to use non-toxic cleaners, but I like to have bleach around for the really dirty tasks like cleaning up after meat, and after illness.  But recently I used it to clean my front-loading washer.  I didn’t even know you were supposed to clean a front-loader, but apparently you are.  I discovered this when my front loader started to stink.  After some research, I discovered that front loader washers always have a little water that sits in the bottom of the washer, and over time it can begin to smell, even if your washer runs 5 times a day like mine does.  Running a load of bleach through will get rid of the smell!  I will do this once in a while…mainly when I find that smell coming back.  Here’s how I cleaned my front loader:

• Add 2 cups of bleach to an empty load (no clothes, towels or anything in the load).
• Run a hot cycle.
• Run one more empty cycle to rinse thoroughly.

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7.  Microfibre Blind Duster/Cleaner

Cleaning blinds has to be one of the worst jobs ever.  I hate it.  But I found this microfibre blind cleaner, and it has made the job of dusting and cleaning blinds so much easier.  You just squeeze the handle and it cleans the top and bottom of the blind.  Awesome.

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8.  Microfibre Cleaning Cloths

I love my microfibre cleaning cloths.  They don’t leave behind bits of fuzz or streaks.  I use them on my mirrors, counters, floors and everywhere you can run one.

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9.  Ring Cleaner 

On my 10 year wedding anniversary, my hubby bought for me my dream ring.  It is a platinum diamond ring from Tiffany’s that we saw one year on a trip to New York City.  I love this ring with all my heart.  ALL of my heart.  It will have to be cut off my finger.  But after about a year of wearing it, I developed a strange, itchy rash around my ring.  I had always been diligent about cleaning it with a store-bought ring cleaner, so it couldn’t be dirty?  Maybe other household cleaners I was using were irritating it?  Maybe I had developed an allergy to the platinum?  I was heart broken.  It was almost to the point where I considered taking it off.  Then I took to the internet in search of some solution.  And over, and over again, I saw the same thing:  clean it with a solution of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.  No way this could work.  But it did!  I now have no problem at all with my ring, and am so relieved!  If you have the same problem, try it!  It saved me!

• Use 2 parts vinegar, and 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide (in the right dilution – I use a 3% solution)
• To clean one or two rings mix together 2 tsp vinegar and 1 tsp peroxide.
• Let it sit in the solution for at least 10 minutes.
• Rinse well.

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10.  Grout Cleaner  (works great for Showers too)

A couple of years ago I discovered a really fantastic homemade cleaning solution for dirty grout.  It’s just a simple vinegar and Dawn dish detergent mix.  I wrote a whole post on it, so you can visit it here to see how to make your own mix!

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11.  Hardwood and Tile Cleaner

A couple of years ago I reviewed the Hoover Floormate and to this day, it is still my favourite hardwood and tile floor cleaner.  I will be using this cleaner until the end of time, I seriously love it that much.  I find it SO satisfying to see the dirty water in the tank…and I love my squeaky clean floors.  They truly squeak when you walk on them after they have been cleaned.  I recommend this machine to anyone who will listen.  Ha!

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Well that’s all for my cleaning lesson.  Hope you found it a little useful! 

Happy Cleaning!

Disclosure:  This post is NOT SPONSORED.  I have only mentioned specific products because I love them and use them in my own home.

This post does contain affiliate links.  Thank you for supporting A Pretty Life blog!  xo