American scientists have calculated that women spend no less than 30 minutes every day cleaning. Men are way behind: they do the cleaning 2 times less often than women. Internet users of both sexes claim that the necessity of keeping their places constantly clean drives them crazy and irritates them. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to completely stop caring about housework. But there are tips and secrets that will allow you to clean your place 2 times less often which is already great progress.
Today Smalljoys has collected the best recommendations for those people who don’t like cleaning but are not willing to live in a mess.
1. Liquid soap helps keep the sink clean for a long time.
In order to keep your bathroom clean, use liquid soap instead of the regular type. Regular soap leaves stains on the sink that take a long time to remove, whereas the liquid kind saves a lot of time. More than that, doctors claim that bacteria reproduce at an amazing rate on a piece of regular soap.
2. If you clean the “hot spots” often, you won’t have to scrub the floor as much.
In order to scrub the floor less often, all you have to do is watch out for the “hot spots.” From there, the dirt usually spreads all around the house. The most popular hot spots are the hall and the area around the litter box. In order to keep your place tidy, just clean these areas once a day.
3. Clean the toilet without cleaning it every day.
Just take a universal detergent for the bathroom and pour some into the toilet brush stand. This way, every time you use the toilet, you will be able to disinfect it. Additionally, this tip helps to reduce the bad smell, just add more detergent at least once a week.
4. Storage systems help maintain cleanliness.
If you have a good storage system and if your things are where they should be, you will be able to clean less often. Instead of using boring plastic containers, designers recommend being creative about storing things and using every inch you have. For example, instead of a headboard, you can put a cabinet with drawers, add vertical shelves in the kitchen, and organize your things the way you want.
5. If you don’t use paper, you won’t have a lot of trash.
Paper bills, newspapers, letters, and magazines are useless things that you will need to find a way to dispose of. Don’t postpone this. Get rid of paper trash often and the cleaning process will not take as long.
- You can make your children’s drawings digital, so their masterpieces won’t pile up on your desk.
- All bills can be kept in a digital format: Long live the internet!
Bonus: This method is extremely good for the environment. You can make your contribution to the protection of nature by refusing to use paper.
6. If you ventilate the bathroom, you can avoid mold.
It’s necessary to ventilate the bathroom after taking a shower or a bath. Mold is formed very quickly in conditions with high humidity and temperature. It’s very hard to remove mold and it takes a lot of time. Good ventilation prevents fungus and mold from appearing, stops bad smells, and will save you a lot of time when cleaning.
7. Air freshener will reduce the amount of dust.
An air freshener doesn’t let dust and fur stay on furniture so you absolutely have to have it if there are children or people who have an allergy in your house. However, you should be careful when using it because if the humidity is 40-50%, the result will be the opposite.
8. Lemon pieces will help you get rid of the unpleasant smell of the trash can.
Pieces of lemon placed in the bottom of a trash can may prevent the appearance of bad smells. However, this is an extreme measure and it’s only good if you are expecting guests to arrive any minute and you don’t have enough time to clean. Remember that using pieces of lemon won’t prevent bacteria from reproducing and doesn’t solve the actual problem.
9. A box for things in the hall, will prevent your stuff from being all over the apartment.
After a walk or when we come back from work, there is a lot a useless stuff in our pockets — receipts, brochures, candy wrappers, and so on. Create an area for incoming things in your hall and put everything that you are not sure you will ever need there. It may be a container or a basket, and you should sort it from time to time, checking what you need and what you can throw away. This way, this stuff won’t take up space in your house.
10. Cabinets with glass doors will protect souvenirs and books from dust.
Books, souvenirs, and so on — the more small things there are in your house, the more often you have to dust them. Specialists recommend keeping these things in a glass cabinet — it looks better and it you won’t have to dust it as often. Anything that could get dusty should be kept in a cabinet like this.
Minimalism is becoming a popular trend so maybe you should reconsider your attitude toward the things that you “might need someday” and stop collecting stuff. In this case, cleaning will be a rare and fast process for you.
11. Shaving cream will prevent the mirror in the bathroom from getting foggy.
In order to prevent the mirror from getting foggy, put a little shaving cream on it and then wipe it off. The ingredients in the shaving cream will not only prevent the fogging but it will also prevent stains. This way you will be able to avoid cleaning the mirror.
12. One tray for flower pots will keep the windowsills clean.
This is a great recommendation for those who love having flowers at home: use one tray for all the flowers on the windowsill. It will help to prevent stains under the pots and if some water pours out of the pot, it will stay on the tray.
13. Water-repellent window cleaner will keep windows clean for a longer time.
Rain, snow, and wind can easily cancel out all your effort when cleaning the windows. In order to keep the windows clean for as long as possible, you should cover them with a water-repellent detergent after cleaning. You can buy this detergent in a store or make it yourself. The most important thing here is to wait for the windows to dry completely. This way there will be no stains after you apply the detergent.
14. Wax paper will prevent water spots
Wax paper can prevent water spots on your taps. Just clean the tap with wax paper. The wax will act as a barrier for the water so you will be able to forget about cleaning the taps for a long time.
15. Paper towels will protect the microwave oven from grease spots.
Cleaning the microwave oven is a boring job and keeping it clean is not that easy. Instead of cleaning the oven every time after cooking, just put paper towels on the bottom. And in order to prevent food from exploding, cover the plate with a paper towel or a special lid.
16. It’s better to wash your windows in rainy weather, you’ll get them cleaner this way.
Housewives usually try to clean windows on hot sunny days in order to be able to see every little stain. This is a mistake because the detergent that you use dries instantly in hot weather leaving new stains that are hard to remove. Postpone cleaning windows to a cloudy day and you will spend way less energy accomplishing this task.
17. A microwave oven can help remove grease from furniture.
In order to remove the grease from kitchen furniture quickly, all you need to do is clean it with a sponge that has been heated up in the microwave. Just 30 seconds and the sponge will be hot enough for you to remove the layer of grease. And if you soak the sponge in lemon juice, there will be a very nice smell left behind in the kitchen.
Bonus: Clean your oven like this with about 40 minutes of work.
There is an ammonia-free way to clean your oven! Make a bowl of paste using baking soda. Coat the whole oven in the paste. Leave it overnight. The longer you leave it, the easier it is to clean. Then mix a cup of vinegar into a bucket of water and use that to clean off the baking soda and baked on food. This method needs a little more elbow grease, but it works well and saves you from having to breathe in chemicals.