Little Known Cleaning Hacks

Recently, I read a news story about one of these unexpected cleaning hacks.

It was about a group of New York City subway riders who were able to remove anti-Semitic graffiti with hand sanitizer.

By grabbing their bottles of hand sanitizer and rubbing it on the Sharpie-written hate words on the subway walls, the graffiti disappeared.

Who knew that hand sanitizer was one of those little know cleaning hacks?

Yes, it seems that alcohol is a Sharpie marker’s worst enemy.

This is yet another reason to keep a bottle of hand sanitizer on you at all times.

I’m all about using cleaning hacks to get the job done around my house.

cleaning hacks

Cleaning hacks for getting wax out of clothing

A few years ago our area was hit with multiple hurricanes.

In less than a month’s time, we’d lost power for days on end.

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Once the sun went down, we needed candles to light our way.

While we were careful never to leave the candles unattended, lest we risk a fire, at one point we had so many candles going that knocking some over was inevitable.

Which is what happened one evening as we were closing up for the night.

It wasn’t until the next morning, when we were in daylight once again, that I was able to see the damage that spilled candle had caused.

I saw that the melted wax that had gathered in the candle in a jar and had spilled all over the floor.

Thankfully, it came up easily from the hardwood floors.

The same wasn’t true of my favorite pair of green khaki pants that I’d been wearing.

The left pant leg of those pants looked like a wax version of a Jackson Pollack painting–it had splatters of wax all down the leg.

get wax out of clothing

I tried scraping the paint off with my fingernail, which got some of the wax to come off but not all.

Eventually, I gave up and put those pants aside.

Just recently I pulled them out again, determined to fix them.

Thankfully, I discovered an easy way to get wax of out clothing.

A hot iron can work wonders on wax

All I needed to do was to take a piece of paper towel, place it over the area with wax on it, and then run a hot iron over the area.

With five or so passes of the iron, the wax simply disappeared into the paper towel.

I used a fresh piece of the paper towel on each new area of the fabric so as not to melt the wax that I’d already removed onto the paper towel back onto my pants.

In under five minutes, the pants looked practically brand new.

Because the candle that spilled was scented, there seems to be some oily residue left behind, which makes the pants look like they are spotted with water.

I guess I can live with that rather than spotted with wax.

Stain removal cleaning hacks

Do you use a lot of styling product in your hair?

Do you ever use clarifying shampoo as part of your cleansing routine?

If so, you’re probably reaching for your favorite clarifying shampoo because you know that it does a great job of stripping that product build up in your hair without wrecking your hair.

Well, here’s something else you can use that clarifying shampoo for–getting out ring around collar and armpits stains.

Clarifying gets rid of styling product from your hair.

Turns out the same chemistry works to remove body stains, like sweaty necks or sweaty underarms on shirts.

Dawn dish soap cleaning hack

You can try this sweat/stain removal using Dawn dishwashing liquid, too.

I recommend sticking with Dawn.

It is excellent for removing oil-based anything.

In fact, after I garden, I always bathe first using Dawn to get any poison ivy oil off of me before my skin becomes infected.

After the Dawn, I wash with regular soap.

Also, recently I was cooking with oil.

And if you’ve ever let oil get too hot in the pan, then you know what happens when you put the food it–oil splatters everywhere.

This included on my shirt.

So, as soon as I was done cooking, I changed my shirt.

Then, I took my Dawn dish soap, saturated those oil splatters on my shirt and tossed the shirt in the laundry.

Guess what? It came out without any oil stains.

Tide To Go Stain Removal Sticks

On a side note: I tend to be stain prone.

Because of this, I have Tide To Go Stain Removal Sticks everywhere.

They are in my car, in every handbag, and in my office.

I’ve found that a Tide To Go Stain Removal Stick is a must for getting stains when they first happen and before the set in.

That way I won’t need to use any cleaning hacks to get the stain out.

Because I’ve pretreated it with the Tide To Go Stain Removal Stick, I’m good to go.

Get stickers off glass and picture frames

Do you like to hit the clearance aisle for great picture frames and other household goods?

And like me do you absolutely hate it when stores put the price tag right on the glass?

It makes me nuts.

Because as you know it is nearly impossible to get those price tags off without leaving a sticky icky residue behind.

If you’ve ever wondered how to get price tags off the glass of a picture frame or a mirror, I have three words for you: nail polish remover.

The acetone in nail polish remover helps to break down the glue in the price stickers.

This allows you to rub the whole thing off.

It will leave the glass or mirror completely glue free.

If I come up with other cleaning hacks, I’ll be sure to expand this article.

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