No matter the cleaning job, there’s probably a specialised product for it. There are probably quite a few ordinary generic house cleaning products for doing the job, too. However, we sometimes run short and look around for a way to deal with that wretched mess. In this case, you can try some of the more unusual things used to clean a house occasionally.
You could also try these unusual cleaning materials and techniques just for fun.
1. Vodka
Spray vodka onto clothing in between washes (especially on things that really should be dry-cleaned but you don’t want to or don’t have time to head to the local cleaners) to kill bacteria and remove any odours. Vodka is great as a disinfectant around the home in many situations, and it is also superb at removing permanent markers.
2. Tomato ketchup
The combination of acid, salt, and oil in this common kitchen cupboard staple makes it good for polishing copper and removing that greenish patina. If you accidentally splash ketchup onto a copper kettle or get it onto a copper-bottomed saucepan, make use of it!
3. White bread
Slightly moist white bread (e.g. just out of the packet) minus the crusts is good for cleaning gunge off wallpaper. However, you’d be better off saving the bread for feeding ducks and using a damp cloth instead. White bread also works for cleaning oil paintings.
4. Meat Tenderisers
These work in a marinade by breaking down proteins, and they’re also very good for removing protein stains such as egg and blood.
5. Mayonnaise
The combination of oil and vinegar makes it a furniture polish. It’s especially good at removing those dratted white rings left when someone has put their glass down on a wooden surface without using a coaster. Olive oil also works alone.
6. Tinfoil and Baking Soda
Clean metal, especially silver, by coating the metal with a paste of baking soda and water and wrapping the foil all over it, making sure that it’s in contact with every bit of metal you want polished (such as inside cups). Dunk the lot in a basin of warm or hot water and let the baking soda and the aluminium in the foil react with the silver to make it gleam. This also works for dirty metal oven racks.
7. Coca-Cola
The acids in this are pretty powerful, so it can be used for a number of cleaning purposes. The best-known one is to use it to clean a toilet bowl: pour a bottle down and shut the lid, then leave the loo untouched overnight. Stains should scrub away easily the next morning. Ain’t that an inexpensive cleaning product, after all, lol?
8. Ice
Got chewing gum in the carpet or in someone’s hair? Freeze the gum rigid by holding an ice cube on the spot. The stiff gum should then pick off a lot more easily.
9. Potatoes
Remove a lightbulb that’s broken at the neck and stuck in the socket by jamming a spud over the broken glass. Then, twist to remove what’s left of the bulb.
10. Tea Leaves
Use them to clean a carpet when you don’t have a vacuum cleaner (what are you thinking?!) or when the power is off. Sprinkle them over the carpet and sweep them up. (It’s heaps easier to vacuum the carpet—believe me!).
