#cleaning-hacks

#cleaning-hacks

During the autumn and winter seasons, my husband and I use our oven weekly, which means our baking sheets are really put through the wringer. One in particular has been almost completely black for months despite washing it thoroughly after every use. Now that we are approaching the end of year, I figured this would be the perfect time to get it clean.

Scuffed floors are one of the toughest spots in the kitchen to clean. They happen when anything gets dragged against the floor, from shoes to furniture, which happens all too often in the kitchen, as it's easily the busiest room in the house. As you've probably found - and felt frustrated by - scuffs are maddeningly tough to remove and won't budge with your typical floor cleaning routine. Tennis balls, however, are a chemical-free solution for cleaning kitchen floors you may already have in the house.

Made from soft rubber and polypropylene, these flat-ended attachments are about 2 feet in length, and stiff enough to go under appliances and cabinets, but also flexible enough to easily bend in any direction and get into deep narrow crevices, so you can clean hard-to-reach spots without having to move things around. Aside from cleaning under and on the sides of large kitchen appliances like refrigerators and stoves, they're useful for cleaning dryer lint traps, crevices inside cars, and collecting dirt, dust, hair

My issue is remembering to reach down and dust those baseboards. While it doesn't take more than a pass of a damp microfiber cloth to get them clean, I've got a lot of baseboards in my house, so I'm thankful it's not a task that needs to be done every week. Or, at least it doesn't now that I know to give them a couple of swipes with a dryer sheet - a trick Apartment Therapy taught me.

No matter how many exist, there seems to never be a shortage of cleaning hacks and tricks. When I was growing up I mostly learned these from my mom, and any new knowledge I gain is typically from a viral video I saw . Last month, however, I learned a new cleaning trick from my dad, whose hair-styling experience came in handy for more than just a haircut.

Deep-cleaning my shower is definitely not my favorite chore, but I do love having a sparkling clean bathroom. Recently, I found a trick that keeps things looking fresh without much effort. Instead of waiting until grime builds up, I take just a minute before (or after) my shower to do a light scrub with a dish wand, a hack I first discovered on Apartment Therapy.

These pillar candles are totally flame-free and look so good. The smoky glass hue gives them a moody vibe that will elevate any space, and they're even made with real wax. Just pop in batteries (two AA per candle) to keep the 3-D wick flickering for basically ever.

Remember to properly identify the type of stains when cleaning your bathtub, as different stains require different cleaning methods—never mix solutions.