Professional Housekeepers Share Must-Know Cleaning Hacks

Don't let a messy brain leave you with a dirty home. Use these amazing cleaning hacks recommended by professionals.

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If you could see my room right now, you would judge me.

It’s almost 10 p.m., and I’m sitting on an unmade bed surrounded by four notebooks, two cups, chocolate truffles, various paper scraps (why?), and a package of smoked sausages.

On every surface or corner, there are clothes: clean clothes drying on a rack, dirty clothes that I hope(d) to re-wear thrown on the floor and over chairs, clothes that are still sandy from the beach hanging limp from wooden knobs, clothes piled on other clothes so I’m not sure what they are.

There’s an ironing board, boxes, a trash bag full of clothes I meant to give away when I started (but never finished) spring cleaning in May. There are boxes of unopened toothpaste, books, some old posters I got for free at a museum exhibit maybe a year ago, bags, binders, makeup, lotions, all of the dust. Crumbs. Tiny insects.

And the receipts. Oh sweet Lord, the receipts. How are there so many?

Imagine taking the contents of a big wooden office desk (the kind filled with file folders and little trinkets like paper clips, erasers from the 1990s, and sticky tack) and just dumping it all out into a pile. There. That’s my room.

Maybe this sounds romantic to you, as you read this from far away, perhaps in an organized space that seems to you predictable and anesthetized. I assure you that it is not.

It’s true that there is some evidence suggesting cofounder Elizabeth Dodson tells Glamour about a safe, efficient method for cleaning your blender: Use it.

“Put a little soap and water into your blender and with the lid on, turn the blender on,” she says. 

“You will see the blender clean in front of your eyes. Now rinse and let your blender pieces dry. No cuts!”

Use your morning tea to make your bathroom mirror sparkle.

The problem: Your bathroom mirror looks like it’s had tiny particles of food and spit hurled its way on the regular. Because it has.

The solution: Let the last couple swallows of your English Breakfast do some shining action.

“Black tea and the tannin acid in it are your best friends when it comes to cleaning your bathroom mirror,” Go Cleaners London housekeeper Harriet Jones tells Glamour.

“Brew a pot and use a clean cloth to wipe it over mirror and you are done.”

Hide dust with books.

The problem: Dusting, like life, can be boring and hard and often feel pointless.

The solution: Don’t do it (dusting, that is)!

Certified professional organizer Amy Trager tells Glamour that putting books on the edge of your shelves will cut down on the amount of dusting you have to do.

“Not only does it look great, but this style doesn’t allow dust to accumulate on the shelves in front of the books,” she says. “It settles behind the books, but no one ever sees that. Less dusting!”

Clean your toilet bowl with denture tablets.

The problem: Toilet bowls are friggin’ disgusting.

The solution: Denture tablets (!!!) Who knew? (Apparently a lot of people, but whatever.) There are a couple of variations on this trick.

Option one is that you take a single denture tablet, plop it in the bowl, and let it do its fizzy thing before you flush the toilet. No scrubbing necessary.

Option two requires you to hold your bladder through the night. Before going to bed, put a denture tablet and one cup of white vinegar in the toilet bowl, allowing the mixture to sit overnight before you scrub and flush.

Which option you choose will likely depend a lot on how dirty your toilet bowl is. Maybe you can have a cleaning kickoff with option two, then maintenance with option one.

We’re ready to get it together with these simple tips. How about you?

Anna Cherry
Anna Cherry is the staff writer for Multiply. She's lived in a few different places, written in more, and is now back in the state of her birth (Missouri).