Comments on: Ask The Audience: What’s your best cleaning tip?

By: Peintre

Peintre — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:27:27 +0000

My tip is for microwaves: Place a bowl half full of water with about half a lemon (or lemon juice, I have a lemon tree in my backyard so I always use that) in the microwave for 6-10 minutes or so. The dirt just wipes away and doesn’t leave any chemicals to cook into your food later (plus it smells like lemons!)

By: Jaki

Jaki — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:14:05 +0000

Get a microfibre sofa.
I love it and so far every dirty stain on it has washed off

By: bojah

bojah — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:01:07 +0000

I recently ran out of dryer sheets, & had a load of laundry that required them (I don’t use any kind of treatment, either in the wash cycle or the dryer, for a load of towels). I grabbed a bottle of hair conditioner, mixed a little bit with some water, & put some of this mixture on a clean rag….& into the dryer it all went. Everything came out fine, & static free. I will say I prefer the ease of dryer sheets, but I was happy to have this method to see me through until I made my next shopping trip to town.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:26:06 +0000

Mine is a bit of a cheat, but with it being shedding season for both of my dogs, some times it’s hard to keep up with all the hair, and that’s always when the mother in law calls to say she’s stopping by. So, when there are tumbleweeds of dog hair floating around on my hard floors and I don’t have time to vacuum, I pull out one of our fleece blankets (the ones that the dogs sleep with) and just drag it around the room really quickly, it doesn’t get everything, but the static picks up most of the dog hair and then it can just be washed after a quick shake in the yard.
If you use fabric softener on your fleece blankets, this won’t work. And we only do it with the dog blankets… I wouldn’t suggest doing it with your own bedding.
Another anti-shedding tip–my dogs are great about staying off the couch and chairs when I’m home, but as soon as the garage door closes, I know they’re back up on the couch leaving their fur all over it! I’ve found that if I pick up a few of the cheap old-fashioned spring mouse traps, set them and then lay them MECHANISM DOWN on the couch, if the dogs try to jump up on the couch, it springs the trap (it’s harmless since it’s mechanism down, the trap just makes a noise and jumps up into the air, it doesn’t catch the dog) and the dog will leave the couch alone. This also works for dogs who try to get their noses up on the counters. I have big dogs though, this might be a bit much for a little guy.

By: Margo

Margo — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:45:17 +0000

My best cleaning tip is to hire someone else to do it for you, but since I don’t have the money for that I’d have to say what works for me is not putting anything off and just doing it as soon as I see it needs getting done. I have to kick myself in the butt a lot during the day. Sometimes I have to put encouraging little notes around the house to get myself going!

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:28:42 +0000

I’m a complete convert to just using a half water/half vinegar mix in a spray bottle to clean everything. It’s cheap, it’s easy, there are no toxic chemicals, no fake smells, and it really works.

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:59:54 +0000

6 people, one toilet.

I keep “wet wipes” on the back of the toilet. They aren’t free, but I don’t know. I spend maybe $5 a month for them.

Once a day, I wipe down the dirtiest area in there (the seat, or under the seat, or around the base, or whatever). Then flush the wipe.

My toilet is ALWAYS clean.

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:58:52 +0000

I use the brush attachment to vacuum every surface in my bathroom before cleaning it. I used to hate how sponges and rags just pushed lint/hair/dust around.

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:41:03 +0000

I use the small cheap paint brushes (the kind that the kids would paint with) to clean the inside of the top of my sippy cups and all the small suction parts. Also works great if you have something stuck into crevices of plastic tops for food storage.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:20:22 +0000

Baby powder or corn starch will remove oil stains from clothing. Just sprinkle it on and it will wick the oil right out of the fibers. Shake off the excess, scrape off the caked powder and repeat until the stain is gone! Yay!

Have you ever seen those little yellow bottles called “Stain Devils”? They have all kinds of different formulas, grass, blood, grease, ink… I love them! I used to buy them at Jo-Ann fabric but I am not sure where to buy them around here.

You can clean leather sneakers with a magic eraser. It is amazing. (It also cleans soap scum off the shower — even the glass door)