In my ideal world, I could wave my wand like Merlin in Disney's The Sword In The Stone and all my cleaning and tidying would take care of itself. While these tips won't quite get you there, they're the closest you can get when you're just one individual without any magic powers. Even if you just choose one or two of these ideas to try, you too can have a sink that never ends up coated in grime and surfaces that accumulate wayyy less dust!
1. Make your bed first thing in the morning so your bedroom instantly looks neat and tidy, no matter how messy the rest of the room happens to be.
Natalie Brown / BuzzFeed
I lived in a tiny studio for about four or five years, and nothing made my entire space look more neat and put together than quickly straightening my sheets out a bit and throwing the quilt over them. It's the first thing I noticed when I got home in the evenings, and helped me ignore whatever other little mess I had going on elsewhere in the room.
I still endorse making the bed today, as long as you minimize the number of pillows so it doesn't like, become a chore (we have three decorative ones). These days my partner does it most of the time because he likes it done even more, but it still has the same calming, put-together effect on our room despite my corner pile of Space Bags left over from moving.
2. Stash a pack of municipally compostable cleaning wipes under your bathroom sink, then swab things down once a day so you never have to deal with a buildup of dust or mildew.
Amazon, Natalie Brown / BuzzFeed
Try to go in order of least-germy to germiest surface. Maybe: counter, faucet, toilet tank, top of toilet lid, toilet handle, sink, toilet seat. They won't disinfect (which — disinfecting wipes won't either, unless you consistently wipe down the surface so it stays wet for four minutes or so), but they will eliminate dirt and grime with just a few seconds of work.
Get a pack of three containers of plant-based, municipally compostable cleaning wipes on Amazon for $29.48 . (Municipally compostable means they won't work in your backyard compost pile, but if your city has a curbside compost program, you can send them out with that.)
Or go the waste-free route: Mix up your own all-purpose cleaner in a spray bottle you already have using plastic-free cleaning concentrate , and cut up a T-shirt you haven't worn in years into a few washable cleaning rags!
3. Mist your shower walls, curtain/door, tub, fixtures, and floor with a no-wipe, no-scrub formula after you turn off the water and you won't have to deep clean your shower again until, like, July.
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4. Catch all the hair you and the people you live with shed in the shower using a silicone drain cover , so you can stop spending so much $$ on chemical de-cloggers and never have to call the plumber for help.
This fits over pretty much any drain, whether it pops up, sinks in, or is flat and flush with the rest of the tub. It's made of silicone, which means even if it gets a little mildewy you'll be able to easily wipe the gross stuff off. The weighted top holds it in place, and your hair stays trapped while the water flows through. Get one on Amazon for $13.99 .
5. Stamp some gel into your clean toilet to actually keep it that way from now until summer — and beyond — no scrubbing required.
Scrubbing Bubbles / youtube.com , Amazon
All you have to do is restamp as needed (about every 12 days or so, depending on how often the toilet's flushed). If you can't imagine not using your toilet brush, you can use the small remaining bit of gel to scrub down the bowl before applying more. I used these all the time in college because my roommates and I couldn't be bothered to scrub, and they do actually work! You just press it beneath the rim (after a regular toilet cleaning, of course!) and let it get to work. Oh, and make sure to stamp it somewhere it won't become a, well, "target" and get sprayed off before its time.
Get enough to keep your toilet clean for up to four months on Amazon for $9.76 .
6. Banish years of rusty stain buildup all over your bathroom with some spray-on cleaning gel — all you do is spray, wait a minute or two, then rinse to reveal your bathroom's ~sparkle~.
7. Soak your clogged and mildewy showerhead in a plastic bag filled with vinegar for a couple of hours, and it should dissolve every bit of the buildup.
Natalie Brown
I've tried this, it 100% works: Those are literally my before and after pics above! (The exception? If you have incredibly hard water, then you may need to use something stronger than vinegar, like the CLR cleaner I mentioned earlier.) Simply guide the bag over the showerhead, bunch it on the pipe at the back fo the head, and loop a rubber band around that bunched spot a few times until it seems like it'll hold. Read my full review of Pinterest Hacks for more.
8. Run a line of no-odor mold and mildew remover gel along your gross grout and caulking to banish even seemingly embedded black spots from your bathroom without having to do more than simply rinse it away after a few hours. Yes, it'll even STAY clean at least for a few months, if not longer.
You do have to let it sit for four to five hours (or even overnight), but the results, as proven by the review photos like the one here, are worth it. The gel formula lets it stick and stay exactly where you put it down, which is why it works better than just spraying with regular bleach: The bleach stays right on the mold stain until it's gone, without drying up or running off. My best friend bought some of this from one of my posts and said it worked exactly the way I said it did — and when I saw her shower, all the grout and caulking were perfectly white!
Get one bottle from Amazon for $14.99 or three bottles for $36.99 ($12.33/bottle).
9. Drop a eucalyptus-scented, citric acid–infused toilet bomb into your toilet bowl on a regular basis (like, once a week, depending on how hard your water is) to help cut down on the need to scrape lime scale or calcium buildup with a pumice stone . Swish once or twice, let it fizz for about five minutes, then scrub for a minute or so with a toilet brush.
10. Wear sweeper slippers to pick up hair, dust, fuzzies, and little water drips as you cook, do your makeup, pace while talking on the phone, or just generally hang out on your wood or tile floors.
amazon.com , Natalie Brown / BuzzFeed
No, they're definitely not even close to as effective as a broom or even a focused dust mopping would be, but their microfiber bottoms will still pick up *some* dust and grime. When I wore them for a week, I ended up using my feet as little brooms, sweeping everything into one pile that was easier to pick up. So my floors were actually a little cleaner! The ones I tried are out of stock, but you can get the similar teddy bear pair (pictured above) on Amazon for $9.99+ (available in various colors and sizes).
11. Or to really keep your floors cleaner than you ever thought possible, splurge on a robo vac . Regular vacuuming = the best way to keep floor dirt, pet hair , and dust under control. And IDK about you, but there's no way I'm ever going to vacuum or sweep every day without one of these little buddies doing it for me.
Amazon, amazon.com
This vac moves between hard floors and low-pile carpets/ rugs without a glitch and can pick up all the accumulated dust, dirt, and hair left strewn about your home while you go do literally anything else. The reviewer who took the pic on the right above says that with a goldendoodle in the house, it picks up that much dust and hair EVERY DAY. Omg. Get it from Amazon for $159.99 .
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12. Besides the obligatory outdoor doormat, place an indoor doormat right inside your front, side, and back doors (or whatever doors you have) to catch water that doesn't get wiped off on the outside one. On particularly rainy or snowy days, just one mat won't cut it!
13. Press a boot scraper into the ground next to your back porch to help get all the gunk off your shoes before going inside, especially if you have a particularly mucky yard or garden. I was wishing for one of these the other day when I had snow-encrusted boots, too. The less you track in, the less you have to clean later.
14. And if you have dogs who constantly bring dirt in from the yard, wipe down their paws with an old towel — or if a towel just doesn't cut it, a paw washer — before they come back inside.
amazon.com , Amazon
Enlisting an old beach towel really can work wonders to keep your floors cleaner, especially if you're consistent about giving them a quick wipe-down.
But if you deal with lots of mud or sand that gets embedded between their toes, a paw washer could help. Its silicone bristles are super gentle so many dogs don't mind them, and they help rinse off most dirt and mud with just a quick dip or two (for particularly muddy days, you may have to change the water once or twice, but that will still be easier than pulling out the hose). Just imagine how much cleaner your floors would stay if your dogs stopped bringing dirt inside with them, period!
Get one on Amazon for $13.49+ (available in three sizes and eight colors).
15. Keep a bottle of all-purpose stain remover around for those inevitable occasions where you don't want to deal with a professional carpet cleaner — or pick it up to tackle those set-in stains you got tired of looking at years ago.
16. Enlist a HEPA air purifier to help reduce all that dust that's been floating around, causing annoying sneeze-a-thons. It can also help cut down on the dust settling on your furniture, which is always a win. And if you live anywhere with wildfires, some kind of HEPA air purifier's a must.
Jenae Sitzes / BuzzFeed
My colleague Jenae owns this and swears by it:
"I picked this air purifier up a while back to help manage the ~smell~ that sometimes wafts from my cats' litter box when it starts to get full, and to help keep my NYC apartment air cleaner in general. I'm also (lol) extremely allergic to cats, and though I get allergy shots for this, it's also nice to help cut down on the pet dander for myself and any visitors with allergies. This thing makes a DIFFERENCE. It cuts down on any noticeable smell from the cats, my air feels cleaner, and my allergies are usually non-existent in the apartment.
I was *especially* grateful to have this when Canadian wildfires brought smoke all the way down to NYC, where the AQI (air quality index) was over 400 at some points (for those who don't know, that's BAD). It helped keep the air inside my apartment as clean as possible, which made me feel better for myself and my kitties. Since I have a one-bedroom, I'll likely pick up a second one just so I don't have to move it back and forth at night. Oh, and it's fairly quiet — it basically functions as white noise, which can be handy if you run this at night in the bedroom too.
Depending on your usage and environment, it's recommended to replace the filter every 3–6 months — replacements are available on Amazon. (You can see the difference between my old filter and a new replacement one above!)"
Get it from Amazon for $49.33 (available in two colors).
17. You can clean all kinds of things in the dishwasher instead of spending time washing each thing individually, as long as they're glass, nonrusting metal, or plastic (assuming you skip the heat cycle).
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18. Water spotting and funky smells in the dishwasher can be solved by simply running a cycle (either with or without dishes) with a cleaner and disinfectant designed exactly for those purposes — just drop one in the bottom, and run a cycle like normal.
There are a couple of dishwasher cleaners out there, but they all work similarly. They're made to be used once a month to ~maintain~ things, but TBH you can just use one as often as you need.
Get a 3-pack of the one used in the photos above from Amazon for $14.64 .
19. Or, if you don't have a dishwasher — or simply need to clean some extra greasy dishes that won't fit in said dishwasher — Dawn's Foaming soap will help hasten things at least some.
I mean, you're still washing dishes and there's no real shortcut for that, but seeing what it did in the above during and after, I don't think that you'll find much that anything requires too much scrubbing when you soak it in this for a second.
In fact, Elizabeth Lilly , an editor here at BuzzFeed, swears by this stuff! She says: "I live without a dishwasher, and I honestly use that as an excuse to order takeout. But, as soon as I got my hands on a bottle of this stuff (regular Dawn is my go-to dish soap, BTW), I put it to use on both a saucepan I used to make homemade enchilada sauce *and* the casserole dish I baked those enchiladas, which had a ton of caked-on food. It really does work like I say it does! Like, scary well."
Get four bottles from Amazon for $16.88 .
20. Put a shallow cookie sheet on the bottom rack of your oven (or a reusable liner ) to catch any spills before they start.
21. Microwave a bowl filled with water + lemon for three to five minutes — then leave the door closed for a few minutes so everything can steam — and you'll be able to wipe off every single dried-on food bit with one swipe of a paper towel.
Natalie Brown / BuzzFeed, Facebook: watch
This also works with water + vinegar, or honestly just plain water. And of course you can wipe off with a sponge instead. I've been doing this for years, and have yet to find a gross microwave where this doesn't work wonders. Read my full review or watch the Nifty video .
22. Eliminate the smears and fingerprints on your stainless-steel appliances by treating them with a 2-in-1 cleaner and polish once a month or so. My mom tried like, three or four different stainless cleaners before I showed her this one, and y'all: she swears by it because it's easier and faster to use than the others (key for lower effort), and makes all of her stainless appliances SO SHINY!
23. Lay down a layer of wax paper or paper bags on the tops of cabinets and furniture — especially in the kitchen — to catch greasy dust, then simply swap it out when you get around to cleaning that spot again *next* year.
Nancy Andrews / thisoldhouse.com , simplify101.com
Or sooner than that if you feel like it, but since I barely get around to scrubbing my cabinet tops once a year, if I did this, I definitely wouldn't change it more often than that.
From This Old House and Simplify 101 .
24. Line your refrigerator shelves with absorbent, machine washable mats to prevent small spills from drying to a sticky mess you have to painstakingly scrape off a little at a time.
25. Pop one of these cleaning pods in your Keurig coffee machine and "brew" it exactly the same way you make a regular K-Cup, and you'll have a cleaner coffee maker in less than, like, three minutes.
You can use it up to once a week or so; basically it cleans all the built-up coffee residue and oils from the brew chamber and the pour spout, which will keep your coffee tasting more like it's supposed to (especially if you switch between different coffees on a regular basis). It's also good to use right before a tea or hot chocolate K-Cup so you don't have any coffee flavor contaminating it. Note that you'll still have to occasionally do the vinegar descaling process — these don't touch the water chamber or the other inner parts that get the mineral buildup from water — but you can use this along with that for for a truly deep clean.
Get a pack of five from Amazon for $7.99 .
26. Shine up your cooktop or stove in five minutes: Drizzle on some Dawn and hydrogen peroxide, sprinkle with baking soda, and scrub in circles with a dish brush .
Then wipe clean, and enjoy your sparkling stove! From My Thirty Spot . Get a dish brush on Amazon for $9.99 .
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27. Pull out a lint roller to quickly pick up all the dust that's built up on your lampshades...well, since the last time you cleaned your lampshades.
28. And wipe down all your other surfaces with a microfiber duster , which attracts and holds onto dust like a magnet instead of brushing it into the air just to settle again later.
Amazon, amazon.com
Actually getting rid of the dust is THE key to a home that needs less dusting. This one from Oxo is very thin so it can squeeze into tight crevices. To clean it you just run the cover through a gentle cycle in the washer and air-dry.
Get it from Amazon for $15 . (If you have lots of high, hard-to-reach spaces in your home, they also make an expanding duster for $19.99 .)
29. Make pet or lingering food smells vanish without lifting a finger: Just light a candle designed specifically to eliminate those sorts of scents.
30. Use any old squeegee and some water in a spray bottle to easily clean pet hair off your sofa, furniture, and basically anything that's upholstered with fabric.
31. Or to pick up gobs of pet hair all at once, try an infinitely reusable pet hair roller — or even quicker and easier, splurge a little on a handheld pet hair vacuum that requires very little effort for you to make it seem like no pets live in your house (or ever go in your car) at all.
My in-laws and sister both have dogs who shed everywhere all the time, so I have extensive experience using both of these products at their homes. Here's a bit about each to help you decide which one might be right for you!
THE ROLLER
It's super quick, cheaper, and more compact than the vacuum (so, good if you have a small space), and easily picks up mountains of hair from couches, chairs, and other upholstered furniture! It does require a little bit of elbow grease in the form of semi-rigorous rolling up and down, as the gif above shows. You open up the back to empty the hair out when you're done, and it's ready to reuse, and literally lasts for years, even with daily use. I'd say it takes about four minutes total to pick up all the hair from a regular size couch.
Get it for $24.99 on Amazon (available in three colors).
THE VACUUM
It's like a turbo-charged upgrade to the roller: all you do is pick it up, turn it on, and run it over the piles of hair to make every last bit vanish! Since it's a vacuum, it's bigger and heavier than the roller, but I'm a five-foot-three thirty-something and have no issues using it with just one hand. You'll probably want a convenient but hidden spot to store it on its charger, which keeps it ready to suck up pet hair at any moment. It has three specialized attachments but the motorized brush head is the key for most upholstery! And like most handheld vacuums, no bags are required; you simply press a button to open the dust compartment and empty it. I can vacuum my in-laws' large sectional with this in about two minutes!
Get it for $89.99 on Amazon.
TBH, there's not a bad choice here. Either way you go, you'll have SO much less pet hair in your life!
32. Prevent future shedding by getting a head start on it with a deshedding brush . Then you won't have to painstakingly extract it from your upholstery later!
It has rounded teeth instead of sharper pointy ones, which some reviewers say their dogs prefer the feel of. It works well for cats, too!
Get it from Amazon for $9.99+ (available in 8 colors).
You, enjoying all the extra time you have in your life because you don't have to spend tons of time cleaning, but your home is still clean:
Want to continue to build your cleaning arsenal? Try these:
* Low-Effort Ways To Keep Your Home Like, 90% Clean All Through Spring
* I’ve Got You Covered With These Elite Cleaning Products
* Products Parents Swear By For Keeping Their Homes (Mostly) Clean And Organized
* Stop Procrastinating On Cleaning Your Bathroom, And Use These Products
* If A Stain Has Been Bothering You *Forever*, Check Out These Tried-And-True Stain Removers
* Places You Should Probably Clean And Definitely Haven't
* People Who “Hate” Cleaning Swear By These Products, And You Will Too
Plus, finds from Walmart .
Reviews may have been edited for length and clarity.
Why Trust BuzzFeed Shopping?
BuzzFeed Shopping is service journalism first: our writers and editors spend all day shopping so you don’t have to, vetting products, fact-checking brand claims, and surfacing what actually helps in real life. We center readers over revenue, recommend products with authenticity (using real experiences, not ad-speak), and reflect our diverse audience, inclusive of a variety of price points, people, and needs. We cut through fake deals, favor useful info over glossy fluff, and recommend both budget and splurge options with context so you can decide what’s right for you — and still have a little fun along the way.
Natalie Brown , a mom, Senior Editor on the BuzzFeed Shopping team, and BuzzFeeder since 2015, is constantly on the lookout for smart, genuinely effective problem-solvers, especially anything cleaning, home, parenting, fashion, and skincare related.
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