Time-Saving Spring Cleaning Tips
The biggest hazard of spring cleaning? Getting distracted and, say, color-coding your billing or redesigning the bedroom furniture layout. This is not the time. This is also not the time for perfection-no one will ever see the inside of your oven, and the furniture waxing doesn't have to be flawless. Read on to learn the best way to… Photo by: Alex Wilson/Getty Images
Disinfect a Garbage Can in 3 Minutes:
1. Take the can outside, lay it on its side and spray it with a hose. The spray will do a lot of the work for you.
2. In the bottom, make a mixture of around 5 inches of water and either bleach or Lysol, following the instructions on the bottle.
3. Dip in a toilet brush and scrub the inside of the can.
4. Dump the dirty water down a household drain (not into the street sewer or yard-chemicals!).
5. Leave the can upright outside to air-dry.
6. Sprinkle in a bit of baking soda, or for cans that tend to get smelly, a layer of activated charcoal. Reline.
Why do it? If left unchecked, mold and bacteria can grow into the material of the can itself, making it permanently stinky.
Get rid of these 7 common household odors once and for all.
Use a Dustmop:
1. Slightly dampen the mop.
2. Mop in one-way strokes away from you in the direction of the wood grain, being careful not to launch the dust into the air at the end of each stroke.
3. Regularly shake out the mop head in a trash can and remoisten. Remind yourself how healthy all this arm exercise is.
4. When you're done, toss the mop cover in the washing machine.
Why do it? Dustmops are great for cleaning surfaces that might have a bit of grime on them, without having to actually wet-mop.
Discover 4 surprising substitutes for your cleaning products.
Clean the Oven:
1. Plan ahead. Self-cleaning cycles can take hours and heat up the kitchen. DIY cleaners usually work best when left overnight.
2. If it's a self-cleaning oven, do exactly what the manual instructs. Note that most selfclean the grates and broiling pans too.
3. For a non-self-cleaning oven, buy a commercial oven cleaner (an environmentally friendly version if possible) and rubber gloves, and gather a pile of hole-filled, readyfor- the-trash rags. Open a window.
4. Follow the bottle's instructions to spread the cleaner on all surfaces of the oven. Put the used rags in a plastic bag and throw away. Close the oven and let sit for as many hours as suggested.
5. Use warm water and rags to rinse off the cleaner, then throw out the rags.
Why do it? The more pristine the oven, the more pristine the food.
Save even more time cleaning with these simple shortcuts.
Clean Blinds in 5 Minutes:
1. Fill your bathtub with 2 inches of warm water. Squirt in a bit of dish detergent and swish it around.
2. Unhook your blinds and carefully lay them flat in the water.
3. Most gunk will come right off. For very dirty blinds, rub with your fingers and a rag.
4. Drain the tub and leave the blinds there for a couple of hours to lightly dry.
5. Rehang blinds. Put a bathmat below to catch any drips.
6. Be amazed at how good your windows look.
Why do it? Wiping off each individual blind not only takes much more time than you have, but can also bend the blinds.
Fix window shade glitches with these 4 quick tips.
Original article appeared on WomansDay.com.
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