15. Use a Microfiber Cloth to Clean your Mirrors
You’ve probably heard the old method of using newspaper and Windex to clean mirrors… but the microfiber cloth is an even easier solution. Not only will a microfiber cloth never leave those nasty newspaper crumbles on your counter, it’s also reusable (so you never run out) and it will actually work with just plain old water(so you’ll never run out of Windex either). As a bonus, the microfiber cloth will also work on your windows and the front of your stainless steel appliances. You can even use them to remove dust from blinds and window sills, scrub floors, and wipe down counters. The bottom line: if you don’t have any microfiber cloths at home you should definitely run out and buy a few!
14. Use Ice Cubes to Clean and Sharpen your Disposal
We’ve all been there: your disposal is kinda stinky and it’s taking a while to, well, dispose of things. Luckily, there is a very easy solution to this problem. Run a handful of ice cubes through your disposal! In just a few minutes, your disposal will be clean and the blades will be sharp. Follow the ice cubes with a little baking soda to remove any stubborn odors, and with a handful of orange peels if you want your kitchen to smell absolutely amazing!
13. Use a Little Baking Soda Next Time You’re Cleaning Your Toilet.
This little trick is especially useful if you have hard water in your home: hard water will build up and eventually cause an unsightly ring in your toilet that’s difficult to scrub away even with powerful cleaning agents. Luckily, this baking soda trick is one of the best ways to prevent these hard water rings before they even get started: once a week, when you’re cleaning your toilet, sprinkle a little baking soda into the bowl and let it sit for about thirty minutes. Then scrubit away along with a little bit of vinegar. Make this trick part of your toilet cleaning routine and you’ll never have to worry about those hard water rings again!
12. Use Binder Clips to Hold your Trash Bags in Place.
This one’s simple, but that doesn’t make it any less useful — sometimes it’s the small things in life that make it great. If you have a constant struggle with your trash bags sliding down, just clip them in place with a couple of binder clips and your worries will be over!
11. Organize(or reorganize) your Kitchen.
This one’s maybe not a hack, per se, so much as just a regular thing you should probably do — and it does make everything in your kitchen go so much smoother! Even if you don’t have a lot of storage space, you should be sure to separate pots and pans from regular dishes, whether that means giving each type of kitchenware its own shelf or just keeping things tidy on their respective shelves. Make sure that you store items near the place that you actually use them — i.e. you should store your pots and pans near the stove, store your baking things near the oven, and store your dish soap near the sink. It may help to purchase a specific organizer for things like the lids to your pots and pans. There are many ways to approach storage and organization in the kitchen and it’s up to you to decide which methods work best for you and your family!
10. Use a Clothes Pin to Close Chip Bags and Other Things in the Kitchen.
There’s nothing worse than stale chips, but you also don’t want to eat the whole bag at once. You can fix this problem by using a clothes pin to keep the air in your chip bag-tight and secure. You can also use a clothes pin for brown sugar and other kitchen items that should not be exposed to the air.
9. Use Clear Nail Polish to Stop Fraying and Splintering.
Ballerinas often use nail polishto keep the ribbons on their pointe shoes from fraying after they’ve been cut. This is a great trick, and it only takes a couple of minutes. Even better, it applies to a wide range of things besides pointe shoe ribbons. You can use clear nail polish on anything from fraying hems on clothing to splintering corners on furniture. You should, however, test the nail polish in an inconspicuous area first, as it can cause stains.
8. Throw a Damp Towel in the Dryer with Wrinkled Shirts to Get Rid of the Wrinkles.
The combination of the heat from the dryer and moisture from the towel will produce a steaming effect, taking the wrinkles out of your shirts in no time at all. Even better, it’s so much easier than ironing!
7. Clean your shower curtain in the washing machine.
No matter which cleaner you use, cleaning the shower curtain is the worst job in the bathroom — until you realize that you can just toss the shower curtain in the washing machine along with your towels. Then it’s a piece of cake!
6. Use an old pillowcase to clean your ceiling fan.
Ceilingfans can be really tricky to clean because, well, they’re on the ceiling. So they’re hard to reach, but even once you stand on a chair — or even actually get out a ladder to reach the ceiling fan– you still have to face the struggle of all that dust falling on your head. Enter the old pillow case — bonus points if the pillow case has stains anyways. You just slide the pillow case over the fan blade and pull it off and voila, the dust is now inside the pillowcase. Just shake it out over the trashand toss it in the washing machine next time you’re washing rags or towels.
5. Line your trash cans with dryer sheets.
If you’re sick of your trash cans smelling like, well, trash, try putting a dryer sheet in your trashcan before the bag next time you’re replacing your trash bag. The dryersheet will absorb some of the trashscent and make your trash can smell fresh and clean! Of course, this method won’t help if you haven’t cleaned your trashcan recently with good old-fashioned soap and water. If that’s the case, then try taking your trash can outside and rinsing it out with a garden hose before you place the dryer sheets and the new trash bag in the can.
4. Use an iron to get stains out of your carpet.
You can use an iron to remove stubborn carpet stains! First, you want to vacuum the area to remove any loose dirt. Then add water with a little vinegar mixed in to the affected area. Wait a few minutes, and then put down a towel and iron over the top of it. This method should transfer the stain from your carpet to the towel, leaving you with a stain-free carpet!
3. Use caulk to seal up the crack between your bathtub and your bathroom floor.
If you have both kids and an older bathroom, then this hack is for you. It’s always stressful trying to keep kids from getting too much water on the floor when they get out of the bath, and it’s even more stressful if they do flood the bathroom and the water comes through the ceiling to the floor below! One thing you can do to lessen the likelihood of bathroom-to-ceiling floods is to use caulk to seal the crack between the tub and the floor. It’s as simple as placing the caulk, smoothing it out with a damp washcloth, and letting it dry. Once you’ve caulked this crack, you’ll be able to have a little more peace of mind about water on your bathroom floor — although we still recommend that you use a bath mat and be careful about getting water on the floor!
2. Use a drill for tough scrubbing.
If you have a particularly difficult scrubbing job, you can cut the handle off of a toilet brush and insert it into a drill. You can then use the drill to scrub anything you want, using higher powered settings for more intense scrubbing and lower powered settings for more delicate scrubbing.
1. Work on your creative storage solutions.
Storage is a big problem in most homes, no matter the size. However, with a little creativity, storage really doesn’t need to be an issue. Can you store things under your staircase? Could you fit a few shelves in that empty hallway? Maybe you could put a shelf over your toilet, or an over-door shoe organizer in your closet. Having enough storage space is all about finding creative storage solutions, and all it really takes is a little bit of extra thought.
We hope you enjoyed these home hacks and we wish you the best of luck in updating your home organization and cleaning routines to make everything easier and quicker! These simple DIY hacks can make all the difference in making your house a home and at Cove Security we are here for all your DIY Home Security Needs.