10 Cleaning Hacks to Speed Up Your Life!

After years of cleaning both my house and uni accommodation, finding cheats to cleaning have been my saviour. Here are 10 of my cleaning tips which will help to nt only speed things up, but make it cheaper too!

1. Soaking Cloths in Zoflora

I have mentioned this in my Zoflora hacks post, but it is a sneaky little cheat to clean your sponges and sink. Every night I fill the sink up with half a cap of Zoflora and boiling water, throwing all my sponges in there. When I wake up, all the cloths are smelling dd fresh and ready for use and the sink is shiny and clean.

2. Cleaning The Microwave

This one is a tip that I have to thank my boyfriends mum for – she has literally saved me so much time. To clean your microwave, all you need to do is fill a bowl with water and washing up liquid – and heat it up in the centre of your microwave for 2 minutes at a time. About 6-8 minutes later, take the bowl out, grab a wipe and down the sides of the microwave – you will find that all the dirt comes straight off.

3. Save Money on Reed Diffusers

Although this is not a cleaning hack, it is one that will save you money in the long run. Having reed diffusers around the house can work out costly – therefore my hack is to pick up reed diffuser liquid from Dunelm – they are £6 each, and the glass holders from Poundland. Each liquid bottle fills up to 12 mini diffusers – which only cost £12. Your whole house can smell lovely on the cheap!

4. Duck Toilet Disks

For only a couple of pounds, you can use Duck Toilet Gel to put in the rim of your toilet. These last for around 30 days. Why I love them so much is that the smell is quite strong – and it makes it seem as you just cleaned that day, making the bathroom smell nice and germ free.

5. Make your own Detergent

Another wonderful hack to save money on all those pesky sprays! Simply add a little bit of Zoflora or Dettol if you have that to hand and dilute it with water, adding it to a spray bottle – and there you have it!

6. Brillo

These soap scourers are most commonly known for the simple scrubbing of pots and pans. However these make for neat cleaning utensils – especially for stubborn surfaces. Beware though, the metal can stick to your fingers so do use rubber gloves when using these.

7. Getting Ink Stains out of Fabric

This is a cleaning hack I have relied on for what seems like years, and never fails. As a student, ink seems to get all over me as I contemplate my thoughts (supposedly). I spray some hairspray onto the stain (its actually the alcohol that does the trick), leave it for 30 seconds, then dab with a tissue or wipe – do not swipe, as this will make the stain worse. Keep repeating until the stain has gone and wash the residue away!

8. Cleaning Curtains

The easiest way to clean curtains is to whack them with a kitchen tea towel. The weight of the towel will act like a force to get all the dust off.

9. Use a Blunt Safety Pin to clean Intricate Items

When items are small, and cannot be reached with regular products, a safety pin can do the trick, if it is blunt enough will will not scratch up the surface of the item.

10. Cleaning Makeup Brushes

I find this such an effort – with over 30 brushes it just seems to take forever. Instead of buying a brush cleaning liquid – which I find a complete con, I use baby shampoo. There are no harsh chemicals which will damage the bristles, it is affordable and does a great job.

And there we have it! Do you have any cleaning hacks?