7 House Cleaning Tips That Make Life Easier

Whether you clean your house all the time or just tidy it up briefly before guests arrive, knowing some useful cleaning tips can help make the process easier and more efficient. Today, I've compiled a list of the most effective cleaning tips for your home. These tips will take the work off your hands and save you time and money.

1. Clean glass and mirrors with vinegar and newspaper
Using cloths to clean glass and mirrors can leave streaks, stains and lint. Since newsprint is a very dense material, it has soft fibers that make it non-abrasive, making it perfect for cleaning glass. Plus, it's readily available in most households. If you want to save some money or switch to less toxic cleaners, vinegar is an excellent cleaner and an alternative to expensive window cleaners. It's also better for the environment, as the soiled newspaper can be recycled after use. Here's how:

Step 1: Take an empty spray bottle and fill it with 50% white vinegar and 50% water
Step 2: Shake well and spray on the mirror or glass
Step 3: Wipe the surface with your newspaper

2. Clean your coffee or tea pot with denture cleaning tablets
Denture cleaning tablets are a surprisingly effective cleaning agent, especially for hard-to-reach places like those on a coffee or tea pot. Because of their effervescent and antibacterial properties, denture tabs soaked in water mimic the scrubbing and cleaning motion of a toothbrush, removing stains in crevices your hands can't quite reach.

Step 1: Fill your coffee or tea pot with water
Step 2: Put in one or two denture tabs, depending on the size of the pot
Step 3: Wait for the denture tabs to completely dissolve and stop bubbling
Step 4: Empty the pot and rinse it briefly with water
This cleaning tip can also be used for stained coffee cups or other ceramic or metal items to remove unwanted residue.

3. Clean your shower head and faucets with vinegar and a plastic bag
Simple cleaning tips that require little work on your part are the best. With this trick, you'll remove unwanted debris, dirt and limescale from your showerheads and faucets with minimal effort, aside from removing the showerheads and faucet handles yourself when needed.

Step 1: Take a sandwich bag and fill it with vinegar and baking soda.
Step 2: Place the shower head or faucet handle in the bag, making sure they're completely submerged in the liquid.
Step 3: Secure the bag with a rubber band or hair tie.
Step 4: Wait one to two hours and then remove the sandwich bag.
Step 5: Turn on the shower or faucet and let the water run through
Step 6: Enjoy your shiny, dirt-free shower head

4. Use tennis balls to wash your comforters and remove scratches from your floor
You can use a tennis ball to prevent the stuffing in your comforters from collecting in a corner as they dry in the machine. Just throw a few tennis balls in the machine with your comforter and start the wash cycle.

The power of the tennis ball is far from exhausted, however. If you have unwanted scratches on your wood floor, you can use a tennis ball to gently rub the spot. If the scratch is particularly large, put some baking soda on the spot, rub it with the tennis ball, and then wipe off the remains with a damp cloth.

5. Remove faucet and steel stains with lemon and salt
Hard water, if left on too long, can leave stubborn stains on stainless steel surfaces and faucets. Even after cleaning these surfaces, when the water air dries, stains remain. Cleaning stainless steel with lemons is a great way to remove this residue, as the citric acid will remove almost all stains and leave your home smelling fresh and lemony. The combination of the citric acid with salt creates a perfect cleaning formula that will leave your fixtures and stainless steel surfaces looking like new without being too abrasive.

Step 1: Cut the lemons in half.
Step 2: Sprinkle salt over the area you want to clean.
Step 3: Clean the faucet or steel with the lemon halves.
Step 4: Rinse with warm water for a shiny, streak-free result.

6. Use a squeegee to remove hair from your carpet
If you have a house full of kids and pets, you know how difficult it's to remove hair from carpets, rugs and upholstered furniture. Sometimes vacuuming just isn't enough, but with this cleaning tip, it works.

7. Use your trusty bathroom squeegee to scrape across your carpets to remove embedded hair and dust pushed down by the vacuum. 

Because of their shape, squeegees are also great for removing dirt or dust from the corners of your room.