Clever Ways to Clean Just About Anything - New Uses for Household Items

When it comes to keeping your home clean, it pays to be creative as well as diligent. Yet you might not realize that everyday household items, which you generally apply to just one task, hold the power to tackle unexpected cleaning duties efficiently and effectively.

To prove the potential that’s laying dormant in all sorts of innocuous objects, here are some out-of-the-box ways of keeping our homes looking fresh.

The Unexpected Cleaning Capabilities of Old Toothbrushes

Your tired, worn-out old toothbrush might not be fit for your pearly whites anymore, but don't rush to toss it out. With its tiny bristles and easy grip, this dental tool can turn into a powerful ally in fighting against stubborn gunk and grime around the house. Let's consider some overlooked uses:

• Cleaning Small Crevices: The precise bristles are ideal for tackling hard-to-reach spaces like faucet edges or keyboard keys.
• Jewellery Polisher: A gentle scrub with a mixture of baking soda and water can revive your precious trinkets' shine without scratching them.
• Degreasing Kitchen Tools: For those grimy areas on graters or cooking utensils, your old toothbrush offers an effective cleanup method.

A seemingly worthless toothbrush could serve countless unexpected purposes, and if you’ve made the switch to bamboo-based products in place of plastic ones, they could even be repurposed as kindling for a log burner after their brushing and cleaning days are numbered!

Clever Cleanup Tricks with Your Dyson Vacuum Cleaner

Your much-loved Dyson vacuum is capable of cleaning more than just carpets and floors! With its robust suction technology, it can double as an indispensable tool for some surprising household chores, such as:

• Instant Deflation: If you need to shrink that air mattress after guest visits, your Dyson vacuum can do the job in a breeze.
• Car Interior Cleaning: Those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies in your vehicle could be easily cleaned using the handy additional tools.

Regular maintenance of your cleaning companion ensures a longer life span, so keep an eye open for genuine Dyson spares which can be used for both general upkeep and also more in-depth repairs when necessary.

Cleaning Solutions with Fizzy Pop

Repurposing carbonated soft drinks for combating household stains, dirt and other mucky problems may seem strange, but it really can work. It all comes down to how their effervescent nature loosens grime. Here's how you can leverage this fizziness:

• Drain Rescue: Pour a can of room temperature cola into your clogged sink or tub drain. Let it sit for an hour and then rinse with hot water before you resort to calling out a plumber.
• Toilet Bowl Revival: Diet cola will do wonders to those stubborn toilet bowl rings without any scrubbing.
• Grease & Oil Removal: If you encounter spilled oil on the garage floor, simply pour on some flat cola, leave it overnight and wash off.

These tricks work best if you use them as soon as you encounter the mess, rather than leaving it to fester, so don’t hang around!

Mind-Boggling Uses of Aluminum Foil in Household Cleanup

Aluminum foil isn't just for wrapping leftovers anymore, as it can be applied to various cleaning conundrums. Here are a few issues you can foil with foil:

• Tarnish Remover: Balled-up foil with a little dish soap can shine up your tarnished silverware in no time.
• Grill Cleaner: Post-BBQ cleanup becomes easy when you scrub grill grates with coiled-up foil, reaching into corners that brushes miss.
• Scissors Sharpener: If you want to bring back the sharp edge of your dull scissors, cut through several layers of foil, and the keenness of the blades will be improved.

So before you throw your used foil in the recycling, see if it can be put to work one more time, and your conscience will be as clean as your home!

Final Thoughts

Essentially, it’s a good idea to pause and take stock before you throw away any item that’s lying around your home. On top of the suggestions we’ve made, you never know what ingenious cleaning concept you’ll come up with if you just stop and think for a moment. That’s not to say there’s no place for purpose-built cleaning products, but rather that they aren’t the be all and end all if you’re in a pinch and you want to scrub away some unexpected domestic gunk.