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11 Unexpected Cleaning Hacks: From Using Hairspray To Brazil Nuts And More!

Whether you're a working mum trying to quickly rectify a smelly fridge before you run off to the office, or you've just cooked dinner for a date and found red lipstick on your collar and red wine on your table, there may well be a weird and surprising cleaning hack on this list for you.

Often it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day to cover the basics of home cleanliness, let alone to sort out the accidents and mishaps.

Just had a steamy date with a bit of wine spillage? [REX]
Just had a steamy date with a bit of wine spillage? [REX]

We spoke to the cleaning experts over at Hassle.com and charged them to come up with 11 brilliant cleaning hacks, to make everyone's life a little easier.

Here are their 11 hacks:

1. Red wine
There’s nothing worse than spilling red wine all over anything crisp and white, be that a table cloth, some skinny jeans or your carpet - think of the wasted wine too! Fear not, your stain remover could well be sitting in the fridge.

To get rid of red wine stains all you need is a bottle of whole milk: Use a paper towel to blot the red wine, removing any excess liquid. Next, pour milk on to a clean paper towel and blot over the wine, this should remove the majority of the stain but it’s likely there will still be a slight red mark. When you have blotted out as much as possible, pour a thin layer of milk (roughly 100ml) over the stain and leave to soak for roughly an hour.



2. Lipstick
It’s happened to most of us, you pop to the loo to top up your make up and somehow lipstick has made its way onto your collar.

Either that, or you've just had a steamy enounter with someone rather delightful and they've left a lipstick memento somewhere on your clothing.

[Superdrug]
[Superdrug]



Don’t smudge it in with make up wipes! Instead, reach for a can of hairspray. Spray onto the affected area and leave to sit for ten minutes. Gently wipe off and when you get home rinse under warm water. Job done!

3. Leather
After a while leather can start looking tired with scratches and marks appearing on your shoes, bags and sofas. But before you reach for some polish check your fruit bowl! Bananas are excellent for buffing leather.

Wipe the inside of the banana skin on the spot of leather you’d like to clean. The potassium in bananas is absorbed into the leather and slowly works to remove the scratches. Just remember to wipe a damp cloth over the leather when you’ve finished with the banana, to removes any fruity residue.



4. Wooden floors
Similarly to leather, wooden floors can get scratches all over them. You sweep and you mop but nothing is budging those marks. Try Brazil nuts.

Cut a nut in half and rub vigorously over any scratches that you would like to remove. The nutmeat in Brazil nuts contains natural oils which when applied to wooden floors help darken and hide scratches.

5. Fridges
Smelly fridges are enough to put you off your food – literally! Keep your fridge smelling fresh with coffee.

Put dry ground coffee into an old margarine tub with holes in the lid. Place in the fridge and leave to eliminate odour. The strong smell of coffee will simply deodorise your fridge in days.

6. Silver
Tired looking jewellery doesn’t need an expensive cleaner, tomato ketchup will do the job.

Rub onto the silver you want to clean, leave to work and wipe later with a moist cloth. Ta dah, as good as new!

7. Shirts
In a hurry, but need to get the creases out of your new shirt? Forget battling with the ironing board, ice will keep you looking crease free and super cool. Bear with us on this one…

Place a few ice cubes into your tumble dryer with your shirts and blouses. Switch onto a hot setting and let it go for a few minutes. Don’t put too many clothes in or it won’t work - this is just a quick fix for those emergencies!

Crisp white shirts should stay that way! [Yahoo Lifestyle]
Crisp white shirts should stay that way! [Yahoo Lifestyle]



8. Mattresses
Scare off the bed bugs with some vodka. As a natural disinfectant, vodka will clean and deodorise your mattress leaving it nice and fresh.

Pour vodka into a spray bottle, spray lightly over a bare mattress and leave it to air dry. Just don’t use the good vodka, keep that for your drink.

9.  Windows
Keep your windows clean with coca cola. The citric acid removes streaks and dirt leaving you with glistening glass.

Pour the can of coke onto the window then wipe then wipe it off with a damp cloth.

10.  Clothes
You’ve dared to dip your bread in olive oil and now grease has dripped all over your leg. Panic over, sweetener is only an arms reach away.

To get rid of grease stains blot artificial sweetener on the patch and watch them disappear.
 
11.  Carpets
Rearranging the furniture always seems a refreshing idea until you notice dents in the carpet from where it used to be.

Try placing some ice cubes over the carpet to remove the impressions.

Too busy for any of that? You could just hire a local cleaner from Hassle.com

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Will you be trying any of these? Let us know in the comments!