These 45 Easy Cleaning Hacks Will Save You Loads Of Time

by admin January 19, 2023

collage of images showing various Easy Cleaning Hacks

Indispensable Cleaning Hacks For Your Whole Home

Keeping your house tidy can be an uphill battle, but just because you’re facing a mountain doesn’t mean it’s insurmountable. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you probably can’t rest until you’ve figured out how to conquer the challenge. (Some people like to call this obsessive, but I prefer the word “determined.”)

As I’ve been reflecting on my favorite cleaning hacks, tips, and tricks I’ve shared over the years, I’ve realized it might be useful to compile some of my “can’t live without” cleaning hacks in one place! Every tip on the list below will save you time and effort, regardless of what you’re cleaning.

You can keep these tips handy by bookmarking this post (or saving it to your OGT Free account) so you can return to it quickly whenever you need it. Check out 45 of my best cleaning hacks for every space in your home below, and get the full details for each tip by clicking the link next to ‘Read More’. Happy cleaning!

45 Easy Cleaning Hacks For Every Space In Your Home

hand holding lemon ice cubes over a sink drain

1. Use Lemons To Sanitize Your Garbage Disposal

When garbage disposals get stinky, the odor can overpower your whole kitchen. But who doesn’t love the vibrant scent of fresh lemon? This hack lets you smell that invigorating scent all the time. Even better? It couldn’t be easier. An added bonus? Your garbage disposal won’t just smell better, it will work better, too.

2. Use Baking Soda And Vinegar To Unclog Your Sink

Anyone who’s been to elementary school, middle school, or high school may recognize the old science fair standby of baking soda and vinegar. However, this time you won’t be using it to make a volcano explode. Rather, you’ll be putting their powerful one-two punch to work to solve a common household problem: a clogged or sluggish sink.

3. Clean The Inside Of Your Dishwasher

Your dishwasher works hard to keep your dishes clean, but it needs to be cleaned from time to time too! I’ve got 3 cleaning hacks that will help eliminate any grimy buildup lurking in your dishwasher, which will not only ensure it leaves your dishes sparkling clean, but will also sort out any drainage problems you may be experiencing.

pouring borax onto a sponge and dumping borax into a trash can

4. Use Borax To Clean (Almost) Anything

If you’re not already a fan, you’ve been missing out! Simply put: borax is one of the most useful cleaning products around. Check out the link below to learn more about this wonder mineral and the many ways you can use it around the house. From cleaning carpets to dissolving sticky messes, the possibilities are nearly endless.

5. Deodorize Your Garbage Can

Why settle for a smelly garbage can when you can eliminate odors with homemade deodorizing disks? Not only are they easy to make, but they’re great for stinky trash cans, diaper pails, litter boxes, and even small spaces. And did I mention they’ll leave your home smelling fresh and clean for an entire month?

6. Clean And Sanitize Your Cutting Board

Regardless of the material your cutting board is made of, it’s important to keep it clean and sanitary. This easy cleaning hack uses soapy water and a whole lemon to sanitize plastic surfaces while removing lingering odors.

putting a dryer sheet into a bathtub with an oven rack and pouring dawn onto the oven rack

7. Remove Gunk From Oven Racks

Oven racks accumulate all kinds of crusted-on messes and greasy food residues. While cleaning your oven racks can seem like an overwhelming task, there’s actually a secret that makes it unbelievably easy, and it involves dryer sheets. (Don’t mock it ’til you try it — it really works!)

8. Clean Your Oven The Easy Way

Of course, it’s not just oven racks that need cleaning; the space inside of your oven needs cleaning too. If you’ve ever spent hours scrubbing your oven’s interior, you might assume that the process always requires hours of back-breaking labor, but not with this method! Here, most of the magic happens overnight while you’re slumbering peacefully.

9. Clean Your Stove Burners Without Scrubbing

Cleaning stove burners and burner pans used to be another frustrating cleaning tasks, but not anymore! This is another “let it sit” cleaning hack that requires a lot less elbow grease.

pouring baking soda onto a glass stovetop

10. Steam Clean Your Glass Stovetop

Glass cooktops look stunning when they’re clean, but over time they can be dulled by grease and grime from everyday use. This hack uses an unlikely (but highly effective) cleaning agent to restore glass cooktops to a sparkling clean state: steam!

11. Clean Grimy Kitchen Cabinets With Two Ingredients

If your house is anything like mine, your kitchen cabinets seem to get coated in greasy gunk shockingly quickly. But you can make short work of all that gunk using one of my all-time favorite cleaning hacks, and you only need 2 common cleaning ingredients to do it.

12. Steam Clean Your Microwave

Sure, you could spend a lot of time and effort scrubbing your microwave clean, but why not let the microwave do the hard work instead? This brilliant hack creates a steamy environment that helps break down splatters and residue so they’re much easier to wipe away.

rangehood filter in a stockpot on a stove

13. Clean Your Range Hood Filter In A Stockpot

Your range hood helps keep your kitchen and the air inside it clean, but it can’t do either of those things if the filter is clogged up with grease. This hack is the easiest way I’ve found to clean said filter, and it involves boiling it in a stockpot. (Yes, you read that right!)

14. Remove Scorched Food From Pots And Pans

Some burnt food residues can be especially tough to scrub out of your cookware, but it’s a lot easier if you know which cleaners work best! Check out 3 tried-and-true methods for cleaning scorched messes out of pots and pans.

15. Erase Scratches On Your Dishes

White dishes have a crisp, clean aesthetic, but they can end up looking scuffed, scraped, and scratched from everyday utensil use. A good scrub with Bar Keeper’s Friend scouring powder (one of my favorite easy cleaning hacks in its own right!) returns them to like-new status.

pouring hydrogen peroxide onto a cookie sheet with baking soda and rubbing the baking soda into a cookie sheet

16. Make Cookie Sheets Look Like New

It may seem like that brown residue on your cookie sheets is here to stay, but this 2 ingredient method will have them gleaming as beautifully as they did on the day you brought them home.

17. Use Your Microwave To Sanitize Sponges

Sponges can be prime breeding grounds for bacteria, especially if they’re left damp in the sink. But what if I told you that you could zap away this problem easily? Just microwave a wet sponge for one minute to kill bacteria.

18. Use Bread To Pick Up Broken Glass

Rather than trying to use your fingers for picking up tiny glass shards (ouch!), just grab a piece of bread. The spongy texture of the bread will grab onto any hard-to-see shards so you don’t discover them later with your feet.

cleaning a shoe with a magic eraser and cleaning gunk off a glass jar with a magic eraser

19. Tackle Tough Jobs With Magic Erasers

Meet your new best friend for cleaning everything from phone cases to permanent marker: Magic Erasers. These foam blocks make short work of tasks that can be difficult to complete otherwise, like removing scuff marks and dried-out spills and splatters.

20. Deodorize Your Coffee Grinder With White Rice

Even if you love the aroma of coffee, that doesn’t mean you want everything you grind you smell like coffee. Before grinding something else in it, use a handful of uncooked rice to clean and deodorize it.

21. Scrub Cast Iron Pans With A Potato

It may sound like a prank, but it works! Clean cast iron pans without worrying about damaging them with the help of coarse salt and half a potato. You won’t believe how easily they break down messes!

pouring cleaning solution into a carpet cleaner

22. Make DIY Carpet Cleaner Solution

Even if the carpet cleaner itself is a good deal, the recommended cleaning solution can cost an arm and a leg. This DIY carpet cleaning solution just might change your life! Dirt, stains, and germs don’t stand a chance.

23. Use A Sock As A Swiffer Pad

If you don’t want to pay a premium for pricey refills for your Swiffer Sweeper or WetJet, you can use a fuzzy sock instead. Just slip the sock onto the base and your floors will be clean and tidy in no time.

24. Steam Away Tough Carpet Stains

Even the most stubborn carpet stains are no match for one of my favorite cleaning hacks! All you need is some ammonia, a spray bottle, and your clothes iron to remove stains (even ones that have been there for months!) Tougher stains may take some extra elbow grease, but the impressive end result makes it well worth the effort.

spray bottle, sponge, and microfiber cloth sitting on a microfiber chair

25. Make Your Microfiber Couch Look Brand New

Upholstered furniture is a significant investment. Unfortunately, regular wear and tear can leave your microfiber chairs, couches and sofas with a dirty and dingy appearance. My favorite fix for this problem? A little rubbing alcohol and a scrub brush has them looking as nice as the day you bought them.

26. Use This Simple Trick To Clean Your Ceiling Fans

Tired of dust flying around your home whenever you switch on your ceiling fan? Many people put off this chore because conventional cleaning methods can be arduous. Not only does this hack take mere seconds to clean each blade, but all you need is an old pillowcase to get the job done.

27. Find The Smartest Way To Clean Your Blinds

The best methods for cleaning blinds largely depends on what kind of blinds you have. From faux-wood to vinyl to vertical, I’ve rounded up the best cleaning tips for several common types of window blinds.

iron, newspaper and carpet stained with wax

28. Remove Candle Wax From Your Carpet

Candle wax and carpeting is not a good combination. But accidents happen, and when they do, it IS possible to remove candle wax from your carpets. You’ll need an iron, lots of newspapers and even more patience, but like-new carpeting is worth the effort. Learn how at the link below.

29. Use Drano To Scrub Away Concrete Stains

Leaky exhausts and transmissions in older cars can create unsightly stains on the floor of your driveway and garage. But I’ve got a secret weapon in my arsenal that can help you scrub those stains away in a jiffy: household drain cleaner. So grab that Drano and get cleaning.

30. Clean Your Vents With Turtle Wax

As it turns out, Turtle Wax isn’t only useful for cleaning your car. It’s also very effective at removing debris and dirt from your vents. Just apply a small amount, and the dust wipes right off.

brush soaking in a bowl of water with blue dawn dish soap sitting next to it on a table

31. Deep Clean Combs And Hair Brushes

Cleaning my combs and brushes isn’t the first task that comes to mind when I think of keeping house. However, the truth is that brushes and combs are full of all kinds of nasty stuff, including old hair, dust, dead skin, and product buildup. Luckily, a simple soak in warm soapy water removes bacteria and other residue for good-as-new hair brushes and combs.

32. Use A Trivet To Wash Your Makeup Brushes

Dirty makeup brushes are incredibly unhygienic, and they don’t work as well as clean brushes, either! They’re also expensive, meaning you want to get the most life out of them as possible. Instead of replacing dirty makeup brushes, use this hack to get them fresh, clean, and ready to work their magic.

33. Clean The Plates On Your Flat Iron

Your flat iron helps you leave the house looking your best every day, and for that, you owe it a debt of gratitude. If you use hairspray or other hair products when using your flat iron and other styling tools, grimy residue can build up quickly. Instead of letting it get increasingly gross, give my “miracle cleaner” a try instead!

blue spray bottle sitting on top of a roll of paper towels

34. Make Glass And Mirrors Shine

Is there any greater eyesore in a home than smudged, streaked windows and mirrors? Just a few household ingredients will have your glass crystal clear in no time.

36. Clean Your Computer With Vinegar

Step away from the acetone, ethyl alcohol, and ethyl chloride. The safest (and easiest) way to tidy up your computer is with a microfiber cloth and a bit of white vinegar. (A cotton swab moistened with vinegar is the perfect tool for nooks, crannies, corners, and other tight spaces.)

cleaning the sole of a shoe with toothpaste and a toothbrush

36. Clean Sneakers With Toothpaste

Working hard and playing hard can add up to some pretty grimy looking tennis shoes. Just grab an old toothbrush and a small amount of toothpaste to clean up your kicks in no time.

37. Pick Up Glitter With Play-Doh Or Tape

Any parent whose kids have ever gone through a crafting phase is no fan of glitter. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life discovering it everywhere. Instead, use a ball of Play-Doh (or a circle of tape) to lift it right up. (Or even better, turn it into a game and enlist your kids’ help!)

38. Make Your Rings Shine

Household cleansers contain harsh chemicals that can damage precious metals. The safest way to clean your rings is to soak them in a solution of hot water and dish soap before using a soft toothbrush to brush away any lingering residue.

39. Banish Funky Smells From Bath Towels

I hope you haven’t put away that vinegar and baking soda yet! If your bath towels have been smelling less-than-fresh lately — even after you’ve washed them — this cleaning combo will come in handy yet again. Mildew and detergent residues can lead to odor and absorbency issues, but this most brilliant of cleaning hacks will restore them to a cleaner, fresher state.

40. Remove Mineral Buildup From Your Shower Head

Hard water and limescale cause unsightly white streaks and a slower flow of water. They can even damage skin and hair. If you’re dealing with these issues, buildup on your showerhead may be the culprit. A quick soak in vinegar makes short work of the problem.

bucket of water and a bottle of blue dawn dish soap sitting on a toilet

41. Use This Secret Plumbers’ Trick To Unclog A Toilet

Have a clog but no plunger? We’ve all faced an unexpected toilet crisis at one point or another. There’s no need to wallow in despair when it happens. Instead, use this three-step process to deal with the situation. One word of advice? Learn it now so you’ll be ready in a pinch.

42. Keep Your Shower Clean

You shower often, so why not take advantage of that time to keep your shower clean? Just keep a scrub brush full of your favorite homemade cleaning solution within reach. Then you can easily give your shower door and walls a quick scrub to remove soap scum, water spots and other grime as needed!

43. Eliminate Water Spots With Shaving Cream

Water stains are unsightly on shower glass, but it couldn’t be easier to eliminate them. Just apply shaving cream to water stains for 15 minutes before wiping off then prepare to see some serious sparkle.

44. Pick Up Pet Hair With A Rubber Glove

Pets bring a lot of joy into our lives, but they also bring something much less desirable: hair. Keeping your pillows and upholstered furniture free of dog and cat hair can feel like a lost cause, but there’s a simple way to deal with the problem. Just don a rubber glove and drag it across any cloth surfaces to easily remove pet hair. No lint roller or roller sheets required!

45. Clean And Freshen Your Mattress

It may not be visible to the naked eye, but all of the dead skin and sweat we leave behind on our mattresses adds up over time, potentially shortening the lifespan of your mattress. Luckily, a simple combination of baking soda and essential oils can freshen up your mattress just like that.

What are your favorite easy cleaning hacks?