6 Easy Cleaning Hacks That Will Save Your Time

Between cooking messes, dirty dishes, and everyday spills, your kitchen goes through a lot in one week. It’s easily one of the most trafficked rooms in the house, making it even more important to clean it regularly.

Whether it’s a sauce-splattered stovetop or coffee-stained counter, cleaning every surface in your kitchen on a daily basis can be challenging. These DIY kitchen cleaning hacks will help you degrease, deodorize, and sanitise in less time.

Material required:

Ice cube

Lemon

Rock salt

Water

White vinegar

Baking soda

Dry cloth

Lemon oil

Microfibre cloth

Bread

Flour

Keep your disposal smelling fresh: Few things are quite as offputting as a smelly garbage disposal. To remedy that, use lemon ice cubes. To make them, simply fill an ice cube tray with lemon wedges, rock salt and water. Once frozen, pop the cubes down the drain and run your garbage disposal until the ice is gone. Rock salt scrubs the blades while ice helps knock off any gunk and grime. The lemon helps keep your sink smelling fresh.

Clean your oven while you sleep: Forget auto-clean. Fill up a spray bottle with a homemade solution of 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup white vinegar, and 1/2 cup baking soda. When the oven is cool, remove the grates and coat the inside with the solution, making sure to avoid the heating elements. Close the door and head to bed, letting the solution work its magic for up to 12 hours. When you wake up, clean the oven with soapy water and dry using a plush cloth.

Polish woodwork with lemon oil and vinegar: Prefer natural solutions to commercial cleaners? This DIY wood polish leaves both a lovely scent and shine. To make it, fill a spray bottle with 1 part lemon oil to 1 part white vinegar. Spray the solution directly onto a dry microfiber cloth and use it to wipe down your cabinets, pantry door, and baseboards.

Get rid of those pesky coffee stains: Do your coffee mugs have stubborn brown stains that don’t want to come out? Try baking soda: Sprinkle some onto the bottom of your stained cup, add just enough water to form a paste, and scrub. The gentle abrasion of the baking soda will get rid of stains in a matter of minutes. Then, simply rinse and wash the way you usually would.

Clean up broken glass with a piece of bread: You gesture a little too enthusiastically and down goes your wine glass. The big pieces are easy enough to pick up, but the tiny shards? Not so much — or are they? All you need is a slice of bread. Just press it gently over the glass and the little fragments will stick to the soft dough. (They don’t call it wonder bread for nothing).

Polish a stainless steel sink with flour: If you have a stainless steel sink, the single best thing you can do for it is to polish it with flour. Wash and dry the sink, sprinkle the whole thing with flour, and then get to buffing. You will be surprised at how sparkly the metal gets!