There’s something so grounding about clearing out the clutter and the chemicals to make room for a home that actually breathes with you. 🌿✨ As we lean further into biophilic design and intentional living this year, these five kitchen staples are proving that the most effective solutions are often the simplest. It’s about more than just a clean surface; it’s that "crafted minimalism" energy where every ingredient in your spray bottle is as kind to the planet as it is to your space. Swap the harsh synthetic scents for the crisp, natural zing of lemon and salt, and watch your ritual change from a chore into a moment of self-care. Your home is your sanctuary—keep it pure, keep it calm, and keep it green. 🍋🧂🧴
Reblog to save these hacks for your next deep clean and follow for more sustainable home inspo. 🕊️♻️
Maybe you're young and it's your first rental. Maybe you're older but you don't feel you ever got the hang of it. You go on Youtube or TikTok and are bombarded by influencers using a whole pantry of different cleaning products, tools, rotating brushes and steamers to "deep clean" every nook and cranny in their giant freaking house.
Don't listen to influencers. They are lying to you. You don't need a thousand different products and gadgets and you definitely should NOT be mixing products.
What you need is pretty much this:
To wash your dishes:
A dish soap/washing up liquid. Nothing special. Whichever is cheaper. If you don't like the smell or whatever, use it up and then look for a nicer one.
A dish sponge or brush that's good for scrubbing. So it can't be completely soft like a bath sponge -- it needs at least one abrasive side. I suggest buying a cheap one and only switching to a brand name one if you feel the cheaper ones aren't working for you.
To clean your floor:
A broom and dustpan for sweeping. A vaccum is obviously nice if you have one, especially if you have pets that shed.
A floor cleaning liquid for washing. It can be the same as your general-pupose cleaner (see below).
A mop of some sort. Where I live, we use a floor squeegee and a big microfiber rag. Dip the rag in a bucket of cleaner mixed with warm water, squeeze, wrap around the squeegee, drag across the floor to clean. I like it because you can re-dip the rag in the bucket every few minutes to clean it and when you're done cleaning the whole space you can throw it in the washing machine. Hygienic. However, you can use whatever tool you're used to or is available where you live.
To clean other surfaces (countertop/worktop, shelves, cupboard doors, etc.):
A sponge that's good for scrubbing (it can be the same type as your dish sponge, but I do like to use a separate one for dishes and another one for other surfaces that I don't eat off of).
A microfiber cloth for wiping.
An all-purpose cleaning product. It can come in liquid, gel, or spray foam. Just pick one. They sell a thousand types from a thousand brands. Just pick one. They'll sometimes call it a "kitchen cleaner" or something but you can use the same one for every room in your house -- they're just trying to make it sound specific so they can sell you a bunch of different products you don't need. Note: Your all-purpose cleaning product can actually be dish soap -- it will clean exactly the same. The only problem is dish soap is foamy and foam has to be rinsed/wiped away carefully afterwards or it will leave the surface sticky.
To clean your toilet:
A toilet brush.
A toilet cleaning product. It's easiest to use the toilet-specific ones that come with a curved neck so you can squeeze product right under the lip of the toilet.
Here's the process for cleaning most surfaces in your house.
Step 1: Spray/pour a little cleaning product on the surface and spread it all over the surface with the sponge.
Step 2: If there are challenging stains on the surface, wait for 5 minutes to let the product soften the stains.
Step 3: Scrub.
Step 4: Rinse (if it's the sink, bathtub, etc.) or wipe with a damp microfiber cloth.
Step 5: Tada! It's cleaned. Or "deep cleaned", if you insist.
What if there are stains that won't come off?
Here is some stronger stuff you might want to have in your house for when it's needed. Just wear kitchen gloves when cleaning with stronger chemicals to protect your skin!
Bleach/chlorine-based cleaner: There are a thousand of these and the names vary by country, but the bottle will probably have "bleach" or "chlorine" in the name, the slogan or the ingredients list. Bleach is a strong alkaline chemical (if that means anything to you) that's good at getting rid of challenging stains, like very sticky dried-up food stains. It's also a good disinfectant so use it if there was like, rat poop on the floor.
Oven cleaner: This is an even harsher alkaline product. It can damage a lot of types of surfaces, so unless you know what you're doing, you should only use it on your stove and oven, and only if milder cleaners don't do the job.
Acid-based cleaner: Again, there are many of these. They usually say they're for your bathroom and for getting rid of hard water stains/mineral deposits/lime/rust, because that's what acidic cleaners are good at. Look for "acid" in the ingredients list.
Gritty cleaner: This category includes stuff like Scrub Daddy Power Paste and Cif Cream. These pastes and creams don't necessarily contain harsher chemicals, but they do have grit in them like facial scrubs, so they may help you remove stains that other cleaners can't. I like using them gently on sensitive surfaces, like painted walls.
Note: Do NOT mix alkaline cleaners with acidic cleaners like they do in stupid TikToks. This will (a) not work for cleaning, because the cleaners will react chemically with each other and neutralize each other instead of acting on the stains, and (b) will release toxic fumes. If you're not sure what your cleaning products contain, just don't mix them at all.
What about cleaning the underside and inside of everything I own and steaming away stains and using electrical tools to clean the grout?
Stop watching CleanTok. Look, there are specific things that do need to be cleaned once or twice a year and you'll need specific techniques for them. E.g. if you have a washing machine, you should probably run a hot cycle with two cups of vinegar once every few months to get rid of mineral deposits inside. But the basics of keeping your house liveable and decently sanitary -- the things you should be keeping on top of as part of your daily routine -- are not that hard and definitely do not require spending lots of money.
How often should I be cleaning?
As often as you want. I personally wash the dishes and surfaces around the house whenever they're dirty. I clean the toilet and shower twice a week, but I don't wash the floor in the rest of the house every week, even though other people do. I change the bedding every week and throw my towel in the wash about twice a week, even though other people think that's excessive. I'm kind of obsessive about laundry but that's just me and my comfort zone. Basically, if you reach a point where your place looks nice, smells nice, and is sanitary enough to eat and wash in, don't let anyone shame you for not "deep cleaning" often enough. Remember that influencers have a vested interest in making you dependent on their guidance and also in making you buy things.
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Anyway, if you're not familiar with Spin Mop, which is viral and annoying and apparently not that great because the mop head can move in a way that you end up scratching your floors if you're not careful, it's a mop and bucket set with a pedal-powered salad spinner on one end of the bucket.
The mop head spins freely, so when you put it into the spinner and push the pedal, that spins the basket and the head and centrifugal force slings the water in the mop head out into the bucket. It's very handy for making sure you're not flooding your floors which is important if you have a modern flooring type like luxury vinyl plank or are mopping hardwoods. It's best not to get those TOO wet. AND DON'T USE BOILING HOT WATER ON THEM EITHER.
PRETEND SPIN MOP because if I don't get it out of my system I'll be stewing about it forever.
What I'm seeing all over Facetokstagram is people doing this:
They say this separates your dirty and clean mop water.
This does nothing. You're still using one bucket of water both to wet and rinse your mop, and that bucket of water is going to get dirty. The only things being separated are the soon-to-be dirty water and whatever is spun out of the mop head.
This is stupid and it annoys me how much I see it online.
A 2-bucket system requires two, separate buckets.
The rinse water would go in the Spin Mop bucket, and the clean cleanser water would go in the other bucket.
dip mop head into the clean cleanser bucket
spin off in the other/rinse/dirty bucket
rub on floor
dip and swish in the rinse/dirty bucket to rinse the mop
spin off
dip into the clean cleanser bucket
spin off
rub on floor
repeat
That's how it works. That's a 2-bucket system.
When it's time to rinse you dump out all the water from both buckets, rinse out both buckets, and refill both with clean water. Then you dip into the clean water bucket, spin off in the other one, etc. same as before just with no cleanser.
A proper 2-bucket method isn't perfect. I just finished scrubbing my kitchen floor by hand with The Walmart Brush (which doesn't require much water and that is why my buckets have so little in them) and here's how my buckets looked when I was done.
Rinse/dirty bucket is blue, clean cleanser bucket is teal. It's not perfectly clean, the brush did carry some grime into the teal bucket after rinsing in the blue one, but this does demonstrate the why of a 2-bucket system pretty well. You're never dipping into a bucket of filthy cleanser water and then spreading THAT back on your floors if you use a 2-bucket system [correctly].
Bitches be like “I’m fighting demons” Homegirl, I am watching the dishes from my depression room. The microbes and mold living in these Tupperwares were my ROOMMATES. I had to flush them down the sink. There was a bowl full of phlegm and mucus that I spat up while I was sick MONTHS AGO. There is an ancient strand of disease in this goddamn bowl.
