15 Brilliant Cleaning Hacks For Hard-To-Reach Spaces
Whether you’re doing some spring cleaning or just trying to keep things tidy, it’s often the small stuff that presents the biggest challenge! Because while we all know how to the big stuff like vacuum carpets and wipe down countertops, smaller spaces like window tracks, air vents, and other nooks and crannies aren’t exactly covered by our everyday routines.
So I thought that in today’s post, I would do my best to save us all some time and effort by sharing a few helpful cleaning tips! But more specifically, I’ll be focusing on tips for cleaning hard-to-reach spaces around the house.
As you work your way around the house, this list is sure to save you time, energy, and frustration as you clean these tricky locations and items! :-)
See how to clean your car vents and window tracks quickly and easily in my videos below!
1. Keyboard Cracks
The nooks and crannies beneath the keys of your computer’s keyboard can be tricky to clean, but this cleaning gel can help! Tap the back of your keyboard to dislodge any loose crumbs and dirt, then turn it back over and spread the gel over the keys to pick up any leftover debris.
2. Car Vents
Are the vents in your car looking a bit dusty? Use a cheap sponge paintbrush to swipe any dust or dirt away. The handle on the brush will help you reach inside the vents to brush away dust and dirt, no problem!
3. Window Blinds
Dusting your blinds can be a real pain, but using your kitchen tongs can make it much easier! Just grab your kitchen tongs, a couple of microfiber cleaning cloths, and some rubber bands.
Wrap the cloths around the ends of your tongs and secure them in place with rubber bands. Use the cloth-covered tongs to quickly clean both the top and bottom of each slat of your window blinds.
4. Faucets
The faucets in your kitchen and bathroom can get grimy with mineral deposits, mildew, and bacteria over time. An old toothbrush makes a great tool for scrubbing them clean!
The scrubbing action of the toothbrush and a little bit of soapy water will help you clear out all the nooks and crannies. (And be sure to use this tip to make your old toothbrush an even better cleaning tool!)
5. Underneath The Rim Of Your Toilet
The area underneath the rim of your toilet bowl is a hot spot for all kinds of nastiness! Sometimes even a good scrubbing won’t get it completely clean.
The best way to clean this hard-to-reach area is to soak a few paper towels in white vinegar and bunch them up under the toilet rim. Let the vinegar work its magic for about 30 minutes, then discard the paper towels and use your toilet brush to scrub away any remaining gunk. (Bonus: This tip also works well for cleaning out grimy shower door tracks!)
6. Window Tracks
Your vacuum probably has attachments for cleaning crevices, but they may not be useful in every situation. For instance, the crevice tool that came with my vacuum isn’t narrow enough to fit into the tracks of my windows, making it tricky to clean out accumulated dirt!
But I discovered a great DIY solution for this problem, and all it requires is some tape and a cardboard tube from the center of a roll of toilet paper or paper towels. Just tape one end of the tube to your vacuum hose, then flatten the other end so you can slide it into your window tracks and other narrow spaces. Clever, right?
7. Dishwasher Filter
In order to keep your dishwasher in tip-top shape, it’s important to keep the inside clean and free of food residues. Use an old toothbrush to clean the screens, filters, and other small removable parts in your dishwasher.
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8. Car Crevices
Some of the nooks and crannies around your car’s interior can seem impossible to clean! But cotton swabs can make it fast and easy to to clean out even the tightest spaces.
Use a cotton swab to brush away loose dust and dirt, or dampen it with a bit of rubbing alcohol to wipe away stubborn gunk.
9. Air Vents
To quickly clean your air vents around the house, start by vacuuming them to remove any loose dust. Then wrap a microfiber cloth around a butter knife and use it to remove any dust that may be stuck to the openings in the vent cover.
10. Shower Head
Finding it tricky to scrub away all of the mineral deposits and limescale from your shower head? Swap the elbow grease for white vinegar, which will do all the hard work for you!
If you can remove your shower head, do so and place it in a container of vinegar for a couple of hours. If you can’t remove it, fill a ziplock bag with vinegar, place it over your shower head, then secure it in place with a rubber band.
After a couple of hours, discard the vinegar and use a sponge to wipe away the loosened gunk. It’ll look and work just like new!
11. Underneath Appliances
Cleaning underneath your appliances doesn’t have to be a once-a-year affair. This long, flexible duster makes it quicker and easier than ever to remove dust and debris from underneath your major appliances on a regular basis.
12. Ceilings & Moulding
To clear cobwebs and dust from ceilings and other hard-to-reach spaces, having a cleaning tool with an extension pole is a total game-changer! Along with an adjustable pole, this cleaning kit includes 3 different dusting heads and a washer/squeegee tool for windows, making it a versatile and useful tool for those with high ceilings, limited mobility, or both.
13. Baseboards
Baseboards come in all shapes and styles. Some types of baseboards are easy to clean, while others have plenty of nooks and crannies that dust and dirt can settle into.
If yours fall into the latter category, check out this set of ingenious cleaning sticks! Each stick has a microfiber cover that’s perfect for grabbing dust out of the crevices in your baseboards, and when the covers get dirty, just toss them in the wash to reuse them again and again!
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14. Microwave
If the inside of your microwave is coated with stubborn splatters, never fear! Just pour 1 cup of water into a microwave-safe bowl, add 5 drops of lemon essential oil, then microwave the bowl of lemon water for about 3 minutes.
Afterward, use oven mitts to carefully remove the hot bowl from the microwave. The combination of steam and grease-cutting lemon oil will have loosened up that stubborn microwave grime so you can wipe it away quickly and easily!
Read More: 13 Practical Essential Oil Cleaning Hacks You Need To Know
15. The Air
As strange as it may seem to consider cleaning the air inside your home, between dust, pet dander, pollen, and other airborne particles, there are plenty of reasons why it’s a good idea! And what’s harder to reach and clean than something you can’t actually touch?
Luckily, cleaning the air is actually easier than it sounds—just add a few drops of Defend to your diffuser! This blend of purifying oils has powerful antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, and it includes oils known to help soothe respiratory issues that can be aggravated by airborne irritants.
What’s your best tip for cleaning small or hard-to-reach spaces?
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