10 Best Cleaning Tips From 25 Years of REAL SIMPLE

If you’ve seen a cleaning tip on TikTok or heard about it from your grandma, chances are, we’ve tried it. The REAL SIMPLE editors are a clean bunch and we love sharing our favorite little tricks to make cleaning your home, well, simpler. They’re all great (if we do say so ourselves), but a few of them have stuck out to us and we find ourselves referring to them over and over again. These are the 10 tips that changed our cleaning routines forever, for the better.

Use Packing Tape to Lift Dust and Crumbs

Fabric lampshades are notoriously hard to dust. You could vacuum them, or you could use packing tape, says Maeve Richmond, founder of the organizing company Maeve’s Method in New York City. Press a piece onto the shade and pull it back up. Bonus tip: Make a ring around your hand with the sticky side out and tap along the bottom of a drawer to pick up crumbs.

Steam Your Oven

This mostly hands-off method comes from the pros at Merry Maids: Rub half a lemon on the bottom of your oven, where the food spills. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Fill a medium-size oven-safe bowl with water and four lemon halves, place it on the top rack, and close the door. After an hour, turn off the oven, open the door, and allow the inside to cool enough to touch. Use a damp microfiber cloth to wipe down the door and inside. Gently rub stubborn spots with a wet scouring pumice.

Slow Down While Vacuuming

Many vacuums do the most sucking when they’re pulled backward, so go slowly during that part, says Donna Smallin Kuper, author of The One Minute Cleaner Plain & Simple.

Clean Your Shower Right After You Use It

Immediately after you towel off, spritz and wipe down your shower. This way, the soap scum won’t have a chance to settle in, and the steam from your shower will have loosened any grime and mildew.

Give Wooden Cutting Boards a Salt Scrub

Zap food pigments, like beet and berry stains, from your wooden cutting boards by sprinkling salt on them and then rubbing them with a halved lemon, advises cookbook author Julia Turshen (which reminds us, Simply Julia is not to be missed).

Fix Sticky Baseboards With Dryer Sheets

Bathroom baseboards are magnets for dirt, dust, and hair, especially if you use styling products that attract schmutz. The solution: Wipe your baseboards with a microfiber cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol, which helps break down tacky residue. (Test a small patch first to make sure the alcohol doesn’t damage the finish. If you’re concerned, just use a bit of water—and do a little more scrubbing.) After the area is clean and dry, run a dryer sheet along the baseboard. It’ll leave behind a waxy coating that helps repel staticky hair.

Repair Scuff Marks With Tennis Balls

Those streaks on your floor have finally met their match. Just use a tennis ball like an eraser to scrub away the scuff. No chemicals here, so this is safe for any kind of floor (hardwood, tile, etc.).

Lift Stains Off Coffee Mugs With Baking Soda

Baking soda can rescue those coffee mugs that just won’t get clean. Mix a quarter cup with a few teaspoons of water to create a thick paste, then scrub it into the lingering brown spots with a sponge or cloth until your mugs look like new.

Add Denture Tablets to Your Toilet Bowl

The easiest-slash-least-gross way to clean that pesky ring in your toilet bowl? Lean on denture tablets! Drop three into the bowl and let them sit for about 30 minutes. The nonabrasive chemicals lift away stains and kill bacteria without damaging the porcelain. And without any elbow grease.

Restore a Rusty Cast Iron Skillet

Even the rustiest cast iron skillet can be saved. You just need two pantry ingredients. First, cover the trouble spots with a thin layer of coarse salt. Then, cut a potato in half and scrub in a circular motion. The spud’s oxalic acid will help dissolve and lift up the rust, so it can be rinsed away.