17 cleaning tips that work better than stuff you buy

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We're willing to bet cleaning your home isn't your favourite activity? And it's made all the more frustrating when expensive cleaning products don't do the job they promise to. But did you know there are a host of store cupboard ingredients that will? 

For just a fraction of the cost of the products you normally buy (which claim to be endorsed by professionals), you could have a brighter, fresher home that stays far cleaner for longer.

Why not take a look at these fantastic tips and try them for yourself? Perhaps your answer to a gleaming white kitchen can be found in your cupboards!

1. For dazzling bathroom suites.

Use a homemade cleaner comprising of white vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice with a melamine sponge.

2. Make your windows and mirrors shine

With microfibre cloths and white vinegar. Or just use newspaper and vinegar!

3. Eliminate rug odours

By sprinkling baking soda and essential oils all over them, before vacuuming a few hours later.

4. Brighten your whites and kill bad smells

By adding baking soda to your washing machine.

5. Cut your drying time in half

By adding wool dryer balls to your tumble dryer.

6. For a sparkling limescale-free finish overnight

Add white vinegar, citric acid or flat coke to your toilet bowl.

7. Use a water and citric acid mixture to clean your bath

Spray on, leave for 30 minutes then simply rinse off.

8. Prevent water marks in your shower

Keep a melamine sponge in the bathroom so you can wipe the shower screen as you wash. A spritz of lemon juice also helps!

9. Remove water marks and limescale from taps

By soaking them in white vinegar overnight.

10. Get rid of silicone sealant mildew

With hydrogen peroxide or white vinegar, then add tee tree oil to prevent it coming back.

11. Unclog your drains

By pouring baking soda and white vinegar into your plug holes, leaving for 15 minutes then rinsing with hot water.

12. Clean any copper kitchen items with ketchup

Yes, this really does work!

13. Banish bad sink smells

By cleaning the plug hole with a toothbrush and fresh lemon juice.

14. Clean extra grimy cookers

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With a white vinegar and baking soda solution that's left to soak for 30 minutes.

15. Remove fruit waxes

By wiping them thoroughly with a vinegar soaked sponge.

16. Banish fishy odours

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By rubbing cooking surfaces with lemon rind or vinegar.

17. Remove stubborn sticker residue

By using orange essential oil.

If you love discovering new and easy cleaning techniques, take a look at this Ideabook: 8 gleaming cleaning tips for meticulous homeowners.

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