Hey there folks! After reading some of my other Adulting 101 posts, my wife, Maggie, came up with some content for this series. She asked if she could join write some posts, and I'm glad to have her on here. That said, I'm going to take a backseat here and let her share with you some cleaning hacks. Let's get into it!
My husband has been posting this series on helping recent college grads become adults. One thing I have been passionate about my whole life is cleaning. I have always felt that when things are in order, my brain works better. I also just like to feel clean physically and mentally. And finally, only one of the two homes (parents divorced) I grew up in was ready for guests at any time. I always want our home to be clean and open for company and our daughter's future friends.
Okay, enough about why I love cleanliness. I'm always looking for great non-super chemical ways to clean and decided to take to Pinterest. I found some unique ways to clean specific things around our home. I was about to hire someone to clean my oven, blinds, glass light fixtures, my shower, freshen our mattress (because a new baby can mean all kinds of surprises!), and clean the faucets and sinks around here. I thought to myself, certainly I can find something and do this myself!
Here's what I found and you can see if it worked or not. I'll rate these as spotless or thoughtless. Spotless meaning it worked and I'll do it again. Thoughtless meaning, do people really use these? I won't use it again. It's just a theory more than a practical help.
DRYER SHEETS TO CLEAN LIGHT FIXTURES
I read that using dryer sheets on glass light fixtures would clean all the dust off of the glass. So I set out to try it. Now you have to rub on the glass with the dryer sheet and also be gentle on the glass at the same time. We have frosted fixtures which in my opinion are harder to clean. See the pictures below:
Rating: Spotless! It worked. Do this and vacuum up all the little dust after. When the dust comes off it looks like eraser shavings. But I'm really happy with the outcome. Not to mention, I always have dryer sheets until the cows come home so it's no extra cost.
LEMONS TO POLISH METAL FIXTURES
For my next project, I read that using lemons and cutting them in half, then rubbing them on the faucets and sinks that are metal (faux stainless) would make them sparkle clean! So I did just that using only two lemons. We have two bathrooms and our kitchen with sinks and faucets. That means three bathroom faucets, two shower heads, two shower knobs for water, and then our double kitchen sinks. I might add, I bought rubber gloves to start using since I had a baby and don't want any cleaning type things on my hands. Just incase. Trust me with lemons you'll want to use these. If you didn't think you had a cut, let the lemon find it for you. ;) See the pictures below:
Rating: Somewhere between spotless and thoughtless. You can tell it made a difference but didn't take away the hard water stains totally. Worked better on the sinks than the faucets. The thoughtless part is, who really goes around using lemons on their stuff to see if it'll clean? (Outside the kitchen that is). To give credit to those who did try this, the citrus smell all around is delightful.
LEMONS TO FRESHEN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL
Last thing I did was use the lemons I had scrubbed with to clean my garbage disposal in the sink. Let's be real. Those can be smelly and it's so unsafe to put your hand down in there for any reason. So I cut up all the lemons I used (2) and put them in my disposal. I cut them into about nickel size pieces. Then I ran some water and turned on the disposal. I didn't take any pictures here but can you smell the lemony fresh as we talk about this?
Rating: SPOTLESS. I did this at the beginning of the week and have been drafting my post here. My disposal has not smelled at all! Some people will use lemons and put them in ice trays with vinegar too I read. I don't love the smell of vinegar so I opted not to but I could see it working too.
RECAP
I spent $1.64 (on lemons) and already had dryer sheets $0. I also purchased rubber cleaning gloves. $2.
Now I have spotless light fixtures, improved faucets and sinks, and a fresh disposal. What hacks do you use or have you tried? I have a lot more to try on my list. I'll be conquering blinds (UGH), my oven, my shower, and mattress in the coming weeks. Stay clean my friends.
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