Cleaning Tips and Tricks

General rubbish stinks. It’s a fact of life. But  to make it a little less smelly — or rather, smelly in a good way. Take a cotton ball, soak it in essential oil, and drop it in your bin (underneath the liner or the bag). It’s an easy and inexpensive odour fighter that helps keep your rubbish from getting too pungent.

Why use a washing up rack to dry your plates and glasses when it takes up too much precious counter space?  Use the empty racks in your dishwasher to dry your hand-washed dishes. Your dishwasher holds more than a dish rack, anyway, so you can clean a sink full of hand-wash-only dishes in no time at all.

When you think of all the gross stuff that goes down your drains, it makes sense that eventually, it’ll start to smell. So, to get pipes clear of gunk and smelling better, flush your drain with hot water and then slowly pour a cup of baking soda down. Finish it off with about 1 cup of lemon juice and wait for the fizzy chemical reaction.

The next time you go to run the dishwasher, gather up all those little items like water bottle tops or lids to tiny food storage containers and put them all in a mesh laundry bag. The bag keeps small and fragile items from getting lost in the fray, while still allowing hot water and soap to do their magic.

Simply remove any excess food and oil from the stained garment with a clean paper towel and cover the entire spot with white chalk. Then, before you toss the item in the laundry, rub the spot with a little stain remover or laundry detergent, wash it in hot water, and your oily spot should have disappeared.

If your dishwasher is as good as it used to be then you're probably pretty frustrated with dirty-dishes that come out of it. Put a bowl in your dishwasher and fill with white vinegar, start the program and the vinegar will help combat that hard water so all your dishes come out looking spotless.

As much as we love our four-legged friends, pet hair can accumulate quickly. Simply wear rubber household gloves and run them over the surface of your furniture. The rubber will cause the pet fur to gather into a ball that can be easily thrown away. 

It happens: 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 actually need is a slice of bread, just press it gently over the glass and the little fragments will stick to the soft dough. 

Oven cleaner really can remove cooked-on grease and other stubborn residue from the outside of enamel Dutch ovens, without damaging any of the colour or finish. Use it as normal and you'll end up with a pan looking all new and fresh.