What's your best cleaning tip/advice?

[HowNowBrownCow2]

I used to hate cleaning but with the kids grown up now I have started to like doing a big clean on a Monday (then smaller cleans during the week) when they're off at school/college and DH is at work. I love looking around at how good it looks afterwards (and the smell 😍)
BUT two things that are driving me mad is how to stop my shiny tiles from being streaky (I mop with hot soapy water and then go over them with a dry wipe on the flash mop) and also the glass shower door is just disgusting. I've tried vinegar, a squeegie, various glass cleaners etc and while it looks ok for a few hours it looks grimy again pretty quickly.

Any suggestions for those or just all round tips that you can't believe works so well?

I follow Nancy Birtwhistle on Instagram and she has some really good cleaning tips, I made one of her concoctions to clean the shower cubicle and it looked like new afterwards.

Fresh flowers distract the eye from dust.

White vinegar applied with a shower puff, rinse off, blade down, then buff with - dare I say it - a microfibre cloth.

Viakal on the glass shower door

What was the concoction please? I was only cleaning mine in the weekend with a combination of products. I do make a white vinegar and washing up liquid mix which is quite good but would love it looking new again!

Get someone else to do it😂

Seriously though, you can't beat an old toothbrush and some thick bleach for cleaning tile grout.

We swear by Viakal in our wider family and use it once a week in the shower to clean. Must use squeegee after every shower otherwise the limescale will build up from water drops. Our shower glass is like new after 5 years in both bathrooms. This product is a godsend!

I used method shower spray (passion fruit) after every shower which works well

Getting in early before they come out.

Sodium bicarb/baking soda and vinegar makes water. There may be some value in using them separately and bicarb can be used as an abrasive. Together it is just water.

Most of the products used by the influencers, particularly a lot of bleach, are etching your surfaces and will gradually make them more difficult to clean. Use them very sparingly.

So my tip is this. Hot water with a bit of washing up liquid will clean almost anything everyday. If you have something a bit baked on, pop a hot, wet cloth on it for for a few minutes. You'll them be able to wipe it off without extra chemicals.

If hot, soapy water could kill Covid, you really don't need much in the way of antibacterials.

Please don't keep shoving all these chemicals in our rivers and seas.

HG glass and mirror cleaner is the best I've used.

It is also amazing on the chrome fitnentsw in the bathroom, leaving them super shiny.
I shine lastly with a micro fibre cloth.

And Pink Stuff, in a tub (chemical free) for everything else, including my trainers!

Nancy Birtwhistle's "Pure Magic" is 200g of citric acid mixed with 150ml of boiling water, give it a good stir until all the crystals have dissolved then add 20ml of washing-up liquid and stir again.
Add to a spray bottle.

It's environmentally friendly and cheap, citric acid is easily available from places like B&M, Home Bargains etc.
No nasty fumes and it is great at removing stubborn limescale.

Try the recipe @MayorOfHuyton posted above. It’s amazing.

I bought myself a water tooth flosser thingy from Amazon a while back (approx £20 not a fancy one btw) and it's REALLY good at cleaning hard to get at things, around the base of taps, inside my annoying shower trap drains etc it's basically a mini jet wash and it came with approx 8 different heads so I can use a different one for my actual mouth!

Newspaper for cleaning glass! Use normal glass cleaning spray and scrub dry with scrunched up newspaper

Viakal to get rid of limescale then use Method shower spray in between.

My mother always swore by newspaper for cleaning the windows and I've always done this so I don't know why I hadn't thought of it for the shower glass!

Someone mentioned method passionfruit spray and yes! I've recently discovered that and it does get the job done but then it looks grimy again. I love the smell of it though so still continue to use it for other stuff.

I've read about viakal before so I think that should be the next thing I try.

Getting 4 others in the house to squeeqie the shower down down after their shower is hard going! I'm lucky if they find the wash basket afterwards!

Gin 😁

Glad to see someone else uses their water flosser as a mini jet washer!

My hackles are up as someone's mentioned 'chemical free', everything is made of chemicals - water, air, cif, bleach, vinegar, cleaning cloths, even you and me - please refresh yourself with the definition of 'chemical'.

Oh and I got the flash mop, the one with wipes? But I bought reusable pads for it
Then I can use it with method mop stuff or use them dry to dust walls

I don't have room to store a traditional mop and it's great for a quick whizz around plus the pads just go in the wash

Love this! When my kitchen is looking grotty; I fill the washing up bowl with hot water and washing up liquid. Literally cleans everything.
When I was a kid this was pretty much the only option. Oh and Vim - which I believe was powdered bleach and not to be inhaled and careful if you get an itchy eye. Glad that’s not around anymore

It sounds like you live in a hard water area. Come to South Devon. If only for the water.

Little and often, and clean before it's dirty.

If I could just keep up with those two my house would be great. I keep leaving the downstairs loo which gets really dusty, too long and it takes me longer to wipe the damp dust remnants that the cloth leaves behind than it does to just clean.
Yet still I forget 🤦🏼‍♀️

Many years ago, I had a bath re-enamelled. The re-enameller warned me against bleach and other cleaning products as they etch the surface. He said 'what would you clean your chip pan with'? (Tempting as it was, I didn't say 'I don't have a chip pan'). I did say, washing up liquid and hot water.

Since then, I have discovered it literally does clean nearly everything. I keep a spray bottle of diluted washing up liquid handy for when the big guns of the hot water aren't needed.