25 Household Hacks That Make Cleaning A Breeze

Cleaning frequency depends on lifestyle and can feel like a looming task. There’s always a lot of cleaning to be done but with limited time and little desire to spend hours scrubbing after work, an efficient solution is needed. Thankfully, results can be achieved without dedicating hours and using ingredients already on hand, avoiding the need to buy more eco-friendly cleaning products. Here are some tried and tested tips to get you going.

Designer: Roborock

1. Refresh Microwave with Steam

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Steam-clean your microwave by placing a bowl of lemon juice inside and microwaving it for 2 minutes, or until the lemon juice boils. This trick generates steam that helps loosen any residue clinging to the microwave walls. Afterward, wipe down the interior with a cloth, leaving behind a refreshing citrus aroma.

2. Eliminate Wine Stains on Carpets

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Although wine stains can pose a challenge, there’s a solution with club soda. Start by spraying the stain with club soda, then gently blot it with a microfiber cloth. Repeat this procedure until the stain disappears. Note that rubbing alcohol, clear vodka, and even white wine can be utilized for this cleaning technique.

3. Clean your Ceiling Fan Using a Pillowcase

To clean fans, cover each blade with a pillowcase and wipe. This ensures dust is collected inside the pillowcase instead of settling on your furniture and floors.

4. Clean Blinds with Socks

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Start by placing an old sock on one hand and lightly moistening it with water. Next, grasp each blind panel and glide your hand covered with the sock along the length of the slats, effectively removing dust from both sides.

5. Remove Water Marks with Shaving Cream

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Remove water stains from shower glass effectively using shaving cream. Simply apply the shaving cream, let it sit for 15 minutes, then wipe it off.

6. Shine with Lemon Oil and Vinegar

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Woodwork and wooden furnishings accumulate dust and dirt with time, requiring regular cleaning to maintain their shine. For an eco-friendly and shiny cleaning hack, combine equal parts lemon oil and white vinegar.

7. Eliminate Hard Water Stains

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Remove hard water stains by soaking paper towels in undiluted vinegar, placing them on the buildup overnight, then scrubbing and rinsing.

8. Use Microfiber Dusters

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Clean efficiently with microfiber products, which use an electrostatic charge to attract and hold dust. They outperform traditional methods like dry rags and feather dusters. Machine-washable and reusable, they save money over disposable options. Air dry them for continued softness, and avoid bleach or fabric softener to maintain effectiveness.

9. Polish Surfaces Using Olive Oil

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Buff surfaces, such as stainless-steel pots, pans, and appliances, with olive oil applied on a soft cloth in circular motions to effectively clean and polish them.

10. Freshen your Garbage Disposal with Lemons

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Freshen and cleanse your garbage disposal by using lemons or limes. Given the regular dirty work it handles, maintaining cleanliness and preventing clogs is crucial. Simply cut the citrus fruit into quarters, and with the water running, insert the pieces one by one into the disposal.

11. Use Rubber Gloves to Eliminate Pet Hair

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To tackle pet hair that your regular vacuum may miss, opt for rubber gloves, which effectively gather remaining hair when rubbed against fabric due to their elasticity. Simply slide them on, rub down areas needing extra cleaning, and then rinse the gloves under running water to remove the collected hair.

12. Freshen Upholstery

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Banish unpleasant odors from upholstery by blending vinegar, water, and a preferred essential oil like lavender. Pre-test the solution on a hidden spot for colorfastness before applying it to the rest of the upholstery, as it often retains odors. If safe, spray the mixture on the remaining upholstery, then vacuum once dry.

13. Clean the Mattress

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Refresh your mattress by combining baking soda and vinegar. Spray vinegar on the mattress, sprinkle with baking soda, cover with a towel, and let sit for one to two hours before vacuuming. Another method that can be used for mattress cleaning is to employ a garment steamer to thoroughly treat the top, sides, and box springs, eliminating dust mites. Follow up with your vacuum’s upholstery tool to remove deceased mites. Address stains with a carpet and upholstery cleaner, ensuring not to over-wet the mattress.

14. Clean the Gadgets

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Utilize damp microfiber cloths to clean shared tech like TV remotes, keyboards, and game controllers, followed by disinfectant-treated cloths for germs. Make sure to keep surfaces wet for 5 minutes, then wipe dry with a microfiber cloth. Repeat twice weekly. For keyboard crevices, tap gently and use a folded sticky note to remove stubborn dirt

15. Clean the Grout

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Clean grimy grout by making a paste of baking soda and water, applying it with an old toothbrush, spraying vinegar over it to create a bubbling mixture, scrubbing with a brush or old electric toothbrush head, and rinsing tiles well with water afterward.

16. Cut the Dirt

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To keep dirt out of the house, use a high-quality dirt-trapping doormat. Regularly shake it outside and vacuum it weekly. Check if it’s machine washable, but be cautious as some mats may be heavy when wet.

17. Sparkling Clean Windows

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Achieve sparkling windows by spraying a solution of one part distilled white vinegar to nine parts water onto the glass and wiping it with a lint-free cloth. Then, use a chamois leather or glass polishing microfiber cloth to buff them to a brilliant shine.

18. Use Soda Crystals

Soda crystals are versatile cleaners, useful for deodorizing washing machines, removing burnt-on residue from pans, keeping sinks and drains fresh, and clearing moss and algae from patios. To unclog plugholes and drains, pour in half a cup of soda crystals followed by boiling water, but remember to wear gloves as they can irritate the skin.

19. Use Lemon to Clean the Cutting Board

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To freshen up your wooden cutting board, sprinkle salt on it and scrub it with half a lemon. Rinse and repeat if necessary for a clean board.

20. Refresh your Refrigerator

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Freshen up your refrigerator with the aroma of coffee. Just place dry ground coffee in a bowl inside the fridge. The coffee grounds will absorb any unpleasant odors, keeping your fridge smelling clean and fresh.

21. Scrub your Cast Iron with a Potato

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Clean your cast-iron skillet with a potato. Sprinkle salt inside, then use a halved potato to scrub in circles. Rinse and dry.

22. Clean the Coffee Maker

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Clean your coffee maker with vinegar. Fill the chamber with equal parts vinegar and water, then run the machine. Flush with water afterward. Repeat until clean.

23. Renew Cloudy Glasses

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Restore clarity to cloudy glasses by soaking them in white vinegar for five minutes to dissolve hard-water mineral buildup. Hand rinse and dry with a microfiber cloth for sparkling results

24. Make an All-Purpose Cleaner

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Create a versatile kitchen cleaner with this homemade recipe. Mix four tablespoons of baking soda with one quart of warm water in a spray bottle. Apply to surfaces and wipe away messes with a sponge. Rinse with a damp cloth if necessary.

25. Clean your Sponge

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Keep your sponge bacteria-free by microwaving it for 30 seconds or running it through the dishwasher. Remember to let it cool before use.

The post 25 Household Hacks That Make Cleaning A Breeze first appeared on Yanko Design.

Uppgradera brings Ikea hacks to improve your garden, kitchen, living room

Swedish furniture brand IKEA is one of the most famous ones in the market but that doesn’t mean that their products are perfect. There’s always room for improvement of course. There are a lot of tips and hacks out there to make the furniture and accessories more useful or better than their original purpose. Uppgradera, the Swedish word for upgrading or improving something, is an Ikeahack collection that supplements the original design and corrects some of the problems that actual users experience when using some of their products.

Designer: Adam Miklosi

Uppgradera has now come up with five new product ideas, four of which are new hacks while the other one is a new version that builds on one of the original ideas. These hacks can actually be 3D printed and used in real life if you have the original IKEA product. For the “new version” of a product, it can help out in your gardening needs. IKEA doesn’t have a watering head but the SOCKER watering can is the next best thing. When you add the SO02 hack, it can improve its watering capabilities.

SU02A is a hack for the SUNNERSTA rails that people use on their kitchen wall even though It’s not really meant for knives and other tools. So this is something you can print and insert to hold these tools, especially the knives and avoid drops, clutter, and other messes it might cause. The SUNNERSTA boxes are also one of the most used accessories but again, if you stuff all of your pens, utensils, or whatever you want to put in there, it can look like a mess. So SU02B is a divider for your boxes so you’ll be able to organize all the things you want to put inside the box and also maximize the small space that you have.

The NÄVLINGE reading lamp doesn’t originally come with a shade so the high-powered LED light can be too much for your eyes if you use it as a desk lamp. You can add the NÄ02 as a shade to add to the lamp to diffuse the light. Another IKEA desk lamp that is shade-less is HÅRTE and so you can print the HÅ02 clip-on shade to reduce the light that will directly shine into your eyes and also add a little bit of design to your light source.

These Ikeahacks are pretty interesting and can be useful for those who have the original products or are planning to get them soon. We look forward to future hacks that Miklosi can come up with and add to their Uppgradera collection.

The post Uppgradera brings Ikea hacks to improve your garden, kitchen, living room first appeared on Yanko Design.

The world’s first USB-C iPhone exists… and it wasn’t built by Apple





Apple may have until 2024 to comply with the EU’s demands to have USB-C as the standard charging port for smartphones… but it seems like a Swiss robotics student may have beaten them to the punch. Meet the world’s only USB-C iPhone (that we know of), hacked together by Ken Pillonel, a master’s degree student in robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

The USB-C iPhone has been on Ken’s mind for a while. In fact, he embarked on this journey 5 months ago with a video explaining how he planned on modifying an existing iPhone, and even demonstrating a work-in-progress. Now, Ken’s work is pretty much complete as he debuted his first working prototype of the iPhone USB-C. The modified iPhone doesn’t just sport a USB-C for kicks… the port actually works, and lets you charge your phone as well as transfer data.

At the very heart of Ken’s solution is a redesigned PCB ribbon cable that fits inside the iPhone X, replacing the lightning charging PCB. Ken’s initial experiments from 5 months ago involved using a breadboard to work out the circuitry, before he actually fabricated a pretty professional-looking ribbon PCB that could actually fit inside the iPhone’s housing, sandwiching itself between the other components. The outer chassis of the iPhone had to be CNC machined too, to fit the new, wider port. Ken’s working on a much more in-depth video to showcase his final result and the process behind it, but he decided to give the world a taste of his prototype in a short YouTube snippet.

For now, Ken’s modded USB-C iPhone is probably one-of-its-kind. It isn’t entirely clear if Ken plans on taking his PCB to the market, although I imagine there’s an entire building of lawyers in Apple’s HQ waiting for a chance to fire up lawsuits and cease-and-desist notices to people and companies who create such kits that involve meddling with the iPhone’s hardware.

As a customer, however, the idea of a USB-C iPhone seems quite tantalizing. Imagine having just one cable for your MacBook, iPad Pro, and iPhone, and not needing multiple cables and solutions to charge different devices (or transfer data between them if AirDrop isn’t an option). That being said, unless Apple makes the USB-C iPhone official, Ken’s little hack isn’t going to sit well with the folks at the genius bar when you go to get anything repaired. Don’t expect any of your product warranties to still be valid!

Designer: Ken Pillonel

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