The UK alone spends over a billion pounds each year on cleaning products in the UK and sales get a massive boost around now as we all embark on spring cleaning projects. But cleaning products are pricey and there are lots of good cheap alternatives hanging around the house that do the job just as well. Read our cleaning hacks that will save you £££s on cleaning products and possibly put you off drinking cola for life, too:
In the kitchen
- To descale a kettle, chop up a lemon into large chunks and place it in the kettle. Fill it with water, boil it up and then leave it to stand overnight. In the morning, discard the mixture and give it a good rinse before use.
- For a cheap surface cleaner, mix two parts water with one part distilled white wine vinegar and a squeeze of lemon juice. This mixture will cut through grime and can be used on the kitchen floor, cupboards and the bath.
- To get stains off your china, use a wet cloth and a little bicarbonate of soda. For stubborn stains, a denture cleaning tablet disolved in a bowl of water can work wonders – just leave it to soak. Don’t do this with expensive/decorated china as denture cleaner has bleach in it, which could cause damage.
- To get the grease off the oven door, mix up a little water with plenty of bicarbonate of soda. Put on some rubber gloves and rub the paste over the inside of the door. After about 15 minutes, it’ll be ready to wash off. The same trick works well for burnt on food that’s stuck to the hob.
- To get your saucepans looking like new, pour cheap shop own-brand cola into the pan, covering the burnt areas – then bring to the boil, give it a stir and remove from the heat. Get rid of the hot cola and you’ll find that the nasty burnt stuff disappears with it.
- To get rid of nasty odours, boil a couple of cloves with a cup of distilled white vinegar in a saucepan without the lid on, for a few minutes.
- To clean up your microwave. pop in half a cup of lemon juice mixed with a cup of boiling water and put it on high for 30 seconds. Then, take out the bowl and give the microwave a good wipe down using a damp clean cloth.
- If the sink gets blocked up, chop a tennis ball in two and place one half over the plug hole, dome side up. Give it a good pump and the ball will work like a plunger. You may also want to try pouring down half a cup of bicarbonate of soda and one or two cups of white wine vinegar (this will foam and froth quite a bit), then leave for about ten minutes before pouring down a kettle of boiling water. This is not only a great way to clear minor blockages but it leaves the drains smelling much fresher too.
- Next time you buy oranges or lemons, hang on to the bags. Once you have a couple, out one inside of the other and scrunch up – these make great scourers.
- To keep the chrome in your kitchen sparkling, use a dab of baby oil – applied with a soft cloth, this will give any chrome surface a glistening shine.
- If your fridge is a little stinky, make a cheap natural deodroriser – simply scoop out the flesh from half a lemon, fill the empty shell with salt, then put this in the back of your fridge.
- To make your freezer more efficient, scrunch up old newspaper and stuff it into the gaps between the food. Because the freezer doesn’t have to cool empty spaces, it will be more efficient.
Around the house
If your carpet is drab and smells a little unfriendly, use bicarbonate of soda, sprinkled liberally over the carpet – leave it on for about 15 minutes, then use a vacuum to suck up the dirt and dust. You’ll find the carpet smells much better afterwards too.- If your light switches are covered in finger marks, remove them using a regular pencil eraser.
- A pencil eraser is also handy for cleaning the remote controls as well.
- If you’ve got dusty bowls of pot pourri lying around, bring it back to life – pour it into a sandwich bag and add a generous sprinkle of salt. Shake it around and the salt will knock away the dust. Take the pot pourri out of the bag and put it into a new one, i.e. minus the salt, and shake again. Then return it to a clean bowl and add a couple of drops of your favourite essential oil.
- To buff up copper, pour on lemon juice and then sprinkle with salt. Use an old rag to rub at the solution until your copper is shiny once more.
- To get brass looking new, mix up vinegar, salt and flour in equal quantities then dab on with an old toothbrush thickly. Leave for an hour or so (longer for really dirty brass) and wipe off with a damp cloth before buffing up with a dry soft cloth.
- To clean your silver, cheap toothpaste is the answer! Use an old toothbrush and coat the silver with the paste, working it over the surface with the brush and then rinsing away and washing it dry. Much cheaper than silver polish!
- If your wood furniture is looking a little dull, mix a quarter of a cup of olive oil with the juice of half a lemon. Use a duster to apply and buff over the wooden furniture, for a lovely sheen.
- If your dark wood furniture is scratched up, mix a spoonful of instant coffee with a tiny amount of boiling water for a very thick paste and leave to cool. Then dip a cloth into the coffee and rub it over the areas on the wood that are scratched. Once the scratches are covered, buff the furniture with a dry clean cloth.
- To get your windows shiny and streak free, use a drop of vinegar on some newspaper that has been scrunched up.
- For dusty radiators, wipe them down with a damp cloth – and for the bits that are tricky to reach, wrap the cloth round the hook of the hanger, bend the body of the hanger into the shape and length you need, and use it to retrieve dirt from behind the radiator. Radiators work a lot more efficiently when they are clean!
Bathroom
To whiten up grout around the tiles, use thick bleach and apply with an old toothbrush then wipe down well afterwards.- To get limescale off your taps, pour some vinegar into a couple of sandwich bags and attach one over each tap using an elastic band, with the limescale submerged in the vinegar. Leave it to work its magic overnight and rinse off the next day. Don’t use this on brass/coloured taps.
- If your shower head is a little blocked, unscrew it and place it in a bowl or bag of vinegar overnight, then rinse off the next day.
- To clean the loo, cheap own-brand cola works excellently as a toilet cleaner. A litre poured into the toilet bowl and left for an hour will leave you with a sparkling clean toilet.
