Have you ever had an ongoing cleaning problem that kind of just persists as a cleaning problem because honestly, you didn’t know there was a solution? We don’t always know to look for helpful cleaning tips.
I mean how we can go about putting on a band-aid if we don’t even know band-aids exist? This sort of thing has happened to me tons of times – after struggling or declaring something permanently ruined – I discover an amazing cleaning solution that would have saved me time and tears if only I knew such a solution existed.
To get more on the offense instead of staying stuck on the defense and to save some sanity from having more messes and wasting precious time, here are a whole slew of cleaning problems that have superbly great solutions!
Let’s get started!
Psst…thanks to problem and solution #1 listed below, I am never going to have a smelly towel in my house ever again. Just putting that out there.
34 Of The Most Helpful Cleaning Tips Ever!
#1 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Weird Smelling Towels
If you have had this issue, I don’t need to describe the smell to you. If you don’t know what the smell is, consider yourself lucky. If your clothes or towels are in need of some TLC in the odor department, here is your smelly towel saving grace.
#2 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Shower Door Disaster
Have you not been proud of your shower doors lately? Do they look like a permanent cloud of white has been plastered onto the glass? To get your shower doors gleaming, try spraying the doors with some vinegar then form a paste of baking soda and salt and scrub those shower doors until they are as clean as the first day they were installed.
#3 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Dirty Bathroom Faucets
An overnight solution for your faucet beautification is here. Before going to bed, wrap your bathroom faucet like a Christmas present but with a microfiber cloth that has been dampened with vinegar. In the morning rinse the faucet with water and in cases of extra funkiness take an old toothbrush and some dish soap and give a scrub.
#4 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Stained Coffee Machines & Mugs
To get your coffee containers sparkling like new, clean with half vinegar, half water letting it sit for up to an hour and repeat if necessary.
#5 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Dirty Rubber Whites on Shoes
Sometimes I avoid buying shoes with white tips for fear of the damage done to the whites, but then I remember that toothpaste can save me. Yep, take some toothpaste (not the gel kind) and make those sneakers look as good as day one.
#6 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Crayon Art on Walls
Get some toothpaste (non-gel version), a toothbrush or other scrubbing tool and scrub away the delightful art piece. Rinse away the art for good with some water at the last step.
#7 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Stove Grease
As much as you wipe down the stove with a rag and dish soap, it seems like it’s just not good enough. To help with this, try adding baking soda to your dish soap then scrub and maybe let the mixture stay on your stove for about a half an hour to do its cleaning magic. Then rinse and wipe dry.
#8 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Too Many Sheets
Have you ever gone to stow away your flannel sheets once spring hits but then you are shocked that your sheets don’t exactly fit in your sheet cupboard that well? To keep big flannel sheets from taking over your linen closet completely, use this sheet storage solution. This thing is so fast and easy. At first, I thought these things might be a hassle, but no, in less time than it takes for me to vacuum the floor the sheets are in my cupboard, and my cupboard is closed (all the way closed, thank you very much).
#9 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Vinegar Stinks
If you are trying to go all natural with your cleaning habits but can’t stand the strong smell of vinegar, which happens to be in most every natural cleaning solution idea, try adding a few drops of an essential oil (perhaps lemon or lavender) per ¼ cup of vinegar.
Pictured: Biokips Airtight Cereal Keeper
#10 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Cereal Box Control
Have you ever felt cereal boxes are making your kitchen look like a grocery aisle? To minimize the branding, maximize the space, and make the need for refills obvious, these cereal containers are all you need. Get one for every type of cereal you commonly use in your household and refill once empty. (They’re BPA-Free and dishwasher safe!)
#11 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Keyboard Grossness
When your keyboard is off (as in not plugged in or turned on) take a baby wipe and wipe it down.
#12 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Pet Stains
Pet potty problems can be the worse problems. I have tried many types of cleaners for pet messes, and this one seems to know how to attack with the strength of ten cats.
#13 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Too Many Bean and Flour Bags
Beans can last a long time, and flour can be used in countless recipes. To keep your kitchen looking chic, your ingredients staying fresh, and everything quickly viewable to ensure you always know what you have and how much you have, consider getting these clear containers to cure your bag overload once and for all.
#14 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Ugly Grout
Is your grout turning your bathroom into something ugly? Quick, get some vinegar and attack it. Spray the vinegar on there or give it an extra cleaning power whammo with a toothbrush scrub as the bristles fight back against that grout grime with the almighty vinegar shine.
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#15 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Waffle Iron Crust
I love my waffle maker! Do your waffles come out but leave behind a ton of waffle still in the waffle maker? Grab a clean toothbrush and get those crumbs out of there.
#16 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Expired Food
Oh, I hate wasting food. To keep from wasting food try storing food according to date as they do in the grocery stores. Food with the soonest expiration date comes to the front of the cupboard or refrigerator, and the food that has the longest life goes to the back.
Pictured: DecoBros Supreme Stackable Can Rack Organizer
#17 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Can Confusion
Have you ever opened the cupboard, reached around a few seconds, and then said out loud, “I know I bought a can of that” only to walk away in confusion over where that can could be? To help cure the can confusion step it up. Literally step it up, by getting a stackable can rack that allows you to easily see a row of cans from front to back.
#18 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Out of Control Pots and Pans
To help with exploding cabinets and piles of pans that make it hard to find that casserole dish, consider a new solution. If possible, hang what you can on racks, stack what you can in as few piles as necessary, and lastly, if you have pans that you don’t use crowding out the pots that you do use all the time, consider getting rid of the ones you only use once every few years.
You could donate your no longer needed pans, give them away, sell them, re-purpose them, or let a family member have them on the condition they will let you use them every once in awhile if you happen to need them if you have a really hard time letting them go.
#19 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Stinky Trash Cans
To get rid of the gross smell coming from the bin spray with a solution of half vinegar and half water then rinse and dry.
#20 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Dishwasher Stink
Don’t make the mistake of trying to wash your dishwasher with dish soap, unless of course, you want to sit around and watch a big bubble show (yes, I know about this). Grab these nifty tablets that make your dishwasher like new. (Who knew such a fabulous invention existed, right!?)
Pictured: Affresh Washing Machine Cleaner
#21 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Smelly Washing Machine
Do you have a front loading machine that has to have its door open all day to dry out and prevent grimy build up but seems to build it up anyway? This has been my life!
My washing machine life: Washing machine in use, washing machine door closed, washing machine not in use, washing machine door open (which can be super annoying, potentially causing an injury, and just kinda not nice to look at). Here is your washing tub’s new monthly BFF. Seriously, this is awesome!
[bctt tweet=”There’s a solution for gross washing machine sights and smells! #cleaningproblems #cleaningtips” username=”perfectplaying”]
#22 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Dirty Shower Curtains
Check the labels of your shower curtains to be sure, but usually, you can successfully plop shower curtains into the washing machine on delicate cycle, wash with a gentle liquid laundry detergent, and then just hang them back up in their usual shower curtain spot to dry.
My shower curtains have looked new for over five years thanks to this tactic. It might help to do this somewhat regularly, as with most cleaning solutions, cleaning often keeps things in better shape, so I suggest washing shower curtains about once a month.
#23 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Hidden Trash Bags
To help keep track of trash bags store some at the bottom of your trash can allowing you to keep trash bags out of sight, but right where you need them when you need them. This also makes changing out the bags happen super fast. No more back and forth between the supply closet and the trash cans.
#24 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Gross Toilet
Don’t even bother with the cola drinks, chemical-laden cleaners and messy toilet brushes, just get right to the power of pumice. No, they won’t scratch your pretty white bowl, just make sure you apply them wet, and if you get one with a handle, your hand might thank you. Want to still be more traditional? Go the bartender route.
Pictured: 360-degree Lazy Susan Organizer
#25 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Spice Detective
Finding that perfect spice can quickly turn a great meal into an adventure of frustration as the hunt for that I-know-it’s-here-somewhere spice ends up taking five or more minutes to locate and in the meantime the bread burns.
To help with spice retrieval, consider getting a Lazy Susan that can keep all your spices in one spot and makes finding spices so easy that you feel almost lazy (hence, Lazy Susan I suppose).
#26 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Kitchen Paper Mess
How is it that the kitchen seems to become a magnet for mail, homework, and to-do lists? The key here is either prevention or execution. For some, kitchens stay clutter free with the rule of nothing gets put on the counter.
So mail gets dealt with as soon as the mailbox is checked, homework is left in a backpack when not in use, and to-do lists get put in Evernote. Another method is having a file in the kitchen that serves as an automatic sorting machine.
#27 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Sponge Insanity
You might want to trade out your sponges for microfiber cloths or Nature Kloths. To clean the sponges you do want to keep, wash them in the dishwasher with the heated dry setting on.
#28 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Knotted Jewelry
Have you ever gone to add some flare to an outfit only to be put off by the tangled jewelry before you? If you have some necklaces in knots, loosen up those beautiful pieces with some baby powder! If you need some extra help, grab some tweezers or a pin to help with the over and under.
#29 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Too Many Cleaners
Is your cleaning drawer unable to close? Do you have so many bottles in your cleaning cupboard that you don’t even know what’s in there anymore? Is your cleaning basket running out of space? Keep your cleaning regime uncluttered and simple.
Try making your own spray bottle of all-purpose cleaning spray and also making a spray bottle mix of vinegar and water and that’s all you need. Eliminate all the bottles that have only one purpose and just take up space in your house and space in your head worrying a kid might play with them.
For the all-purpose spray mix a tablespoon of borax, a tablespoon of washing soda, a teaspoon of dishwashing soap, a cup of vinegar, four cups of hot water, and 30 drops of essential oil (lemon, tea tree or peppermint) in a bowl and then grab a glass spray bottle and dump it all in. Remember to label your bottles (washi labels are super cute!). Spray to clean and disinfect then wipe down with a clean, dry microfiber cloth after cleaning.
#30 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Garbage Disposal
Your garbage disposal can be the holder of all sorts of leftover grime. Do yourself a favor and give your disposal a trip to the spa with this little beauty aid. You can also try tossing in some lemons (that have been sitting in your healthy lemon water all day) and let the lemons clean your garbage disposal with their lemony goodness scent.
#31 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Piano Keys
Is your piano playing sad tunes because its whites have lost their luster? Take out some toothpaste and a toothbrush and brush them down ending with a clean wipe off.
#32 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Dusty Ceiling Fans
You can use a regular microfiber cloth and reach up to your ceiling fans by standing on the bed or on a bench, but otherwise, try getting this extension duster that lets you dust way up high with ease.
#33 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Baseboard Drama
Try using a glass spray bottle filled with a teaspoon of baking soda in hot water with a bit of castile soap (Dr. Bronner’s is quite popular) and see how those baseboards shine. To keep from spraying the floor, you may want to spray directly onto a rag or microfiber cloth and then wipe the baseboards with the wet rag/cloth followed by a dry rag/cloth.
#34 Helpful Cleaning Tips: Yucky Kitchen Cabinets
Grab a microfiber cloth, a spray bottle with half vinegar and half water and spray those cabinets, wipe them well, then grab another cloth to dry them and do this every couple of months or more often depending on your cabinets and their use. Maybe daily if there are kids involved.
There are for sure tons more helpful cleaning tips besides these, but hopefully, a few of these will enlighten your cleaning method and lighten your load.
The good news is, if there is a cleaning problem you are facing, there is probably a great way to get things cleaned faster, easier, and with less headache, than you ever imagined.
The next time you face a cleaning dilemma, try to find a solution that others have tested and tried so you can now reap the benefits. Sometimes we try to fix things ourselves in the only way we have ever done or been shown, but likely there is a better way out there just waiting for us to discover.
That can be the fun part of cleaning: You can almost always become a better cleaner, increasing efficiency, doing things more easily, and just generally improving your skills and know-how.
Loving these cleaning tips? *Pin* this post for later in case you need more cleaning awesomeness! If you want additional cleaning tips, come follow along on Playing Perfect’s Pinterest Page!
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