Extraordinary Cleaning Hacks for Renters

Extraordinary Cleaning Hacks for Renters

We’re REALLY not talking about breaking doors and windows. OK, tenants? Ok? Right?

Believe us, we know very well that rental homes are full of details that are a pain in the backside to clean — we have to clean up after every tenant that moves out! We’ve discovered, over the years, a goodly number of ‘hacks’ that make cleaning up some of the most annoying parts of a house. Let’s do it!

• Drape a tea towel over a ruler or a butter knife and spray it with some warm water mixed with a few drops of dishsoap. Run it between the slats of a heater/AC register. Voila!
• Clean the grease and other cooking leftovers out of the nooks and crannies of your cupboard doors by stirring a few tablespoons of baking soda into just enough vegetable oil to make it a paste. Scrub it on with a toothbrush, and sponge it away for instantly clean cupboards.
• Faded leather sofa? Shoe polish. Yep.
• Get a grease stain out of your favorite blouse by rubbing chalk dust over the grease and then running it through the wash.
• Blow your dusty kitchen or bathroom fan out with the same canned air you use on your computer.
• That same fan making a horrid grinding noise? A citrus-based “cut-through” spray or your basic WD-40 will do the job, though the lubricant usually lasts longer.
• If the burners on your stove are gross, get a gallon Ziplock bag, but the burners inside, and fill it with ammonia. Leave them soaking overnight. They’ll wipe clean like a dream.
• A bowl of ammonia in your oven overnight will make it easy to wipe out in the morning, too.
• That nasty layer of congealed grease on top of your oven hood will die to a thin layer of vegetable oil followed by sprinkle baking soda, scrubbed up with a dry paper towel.
• Rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth combine to get most nail polish out of carpet. You might need to toss the cloth, but that’s nothing compared to the cost of paying a carpet cleaner!
• Grate a potato — the denser the potato, the better (i.e. red over russet, etc.) — to get the dried-on cheese gunk out of your cheese grater.
• Pet (or human!) hair stuck in your carpet or upholstery comes out…with a squeegee.
• Moldy shower grout is all but impossible to clean, but we’ve found that a cotton coil soaked in bleach and taped onto the grout overnight is the closest thing to a sure thing.
• Got a collection of decorative bottles that you don’t dare try to force a bottle brush into? Dump in a few tablespoons of dry rice, a few drops of dishsoap, and a splash of cold water. Shake it like a polaroid picture, pour it out, rinse it out, and dry it upside-down.

And finally, the greatest cleanup tip of all:

• Play-doh can be used to easily daub up the most evil of craft supplies…glitter. (Unless it’s in your carpet. If you got glitter embedded in your carpet, God hates you and that’s all there is to it.)

Do you have any killer cleaning hacks that you’d like to share? Drop them in the comments!