Tools for easy housecleaning

November 26, 2020 4:31 PM

What tools, products or items make housecleaning easier? I'm bad at cleaning and don't enjoy it. I'm looking for products that will make it easier, more efficient, and less annoying. Cleaning the floors (particle board and tile), scrubbing the bathtub, dusting, vacuuming, vacuuming behind the bed or under the couch - blah. Perhaps a better toolkit would help me.
posted by bunderful to Home & Garden (32 answers total)

The latest roombas that map your house and self empty are a lot less "useless gimmick" and a lot more "actually saves time".
posted by bbqturtle at 4:45 PM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Deck push brush for the shower cleaning. I like the Goldwell mop that I have, very easy to keep up with the hard floors because it's cordless, and sprays the cleaner. And a vacuum robot.
posted by kellyblah at 4:55 PM on November 26, 2020

Our old vacuum died and we replaced it with a cordless stick-style vacuum cleaner that hangs in a dock… I'm not going to go as far as saying it makes vacuum cleaning fun, but it does make it so much less hassle and so quick to whiz around the high traffic areas that it's no longer near the bottom of my chores list.
posted by robcorr at 4:56 PM on November 26, 2020 [11 favorites]

We have a couple of those chenille duster thingies and they are really good at dusting electronics and fragile things. They’re like a handle with a frame and the duster goes over the frame, it is a pad covered in wiggly chenille mop looking stuff. You can pull the used duster off and stick it straight into the washing machine. No complicated bits, the dust really stays trapped in there, easy clean and very lightweight.
posted by Mizu at 5:02 PM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

If you have a cordless drill, get a drill brush for cleaning the bathroom. It is, as the name implies, a brush (actually a set of brushes) that attach to your drill. It gets the bathtub super clean with basically no effort.

Microfiber cloths are the best for dusting. Make sure you dry them in the clothes drier and don't use fabric softener: you want to build up some static, since that's what makes them so effective at picking up dust.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:46 PM on November 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner really helps clean soap scum. I started using it on the recommendation of Jolie Kerr of Ask a Clean Person.
posted by carolr at 6:10 PM on November 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

I like so-called Cuban Mops for simplicity , ease of use and effectiveness.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:17 PM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Magic Eraser is incredible for cleaning bathtubs, grungy tile, and many other things. Just be careful on delicate surfaces, as it can be harsh.
posted by yawper at 6:31 PM on November 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

Baking soda for scrubbing. Dilute vinegar or soap for washing. That gets you most of the way there. Enzyme cleaner for smells.

Rags, broom, dustpan, vacuum cleaner.

Oh, and a dog for the kitchen floor ;D
posted by aniola at 6:37 PM on November 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Make sure you have easy access to multiples of most of these throughout your home so you can clean when you see the need instead of making it a Big Deal once in a while.
posted by aniola at 6:40 PM on November 26, 2020 [19 favorites]

Seconding Scrubbing Bubbles or its Clorox counterpart. So much easier to clean gross, gross toilets!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:25 PM on November 26, 2020

Cleaning bathtubs: Take a bubble bath and wipe it down with one of those non scratch plastic scrubbers either the kind that you use for either cleaning Teflon, or one of the kind that they sell for defoliating your own skin, before you pull the plug and get out.

The downside is that bubble bath is hard on the skin so afterwards you will need to moisturize and you shouldn't do it every week.

Dusting: A good feather duster means that you can do a good job without having to handle and move small items.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:25 PM on November 26, 2020

The very best tools I have are actually empty spray bottles, vinegar, and bleach. I only spray the bleach on surfaces that can handle it, like the toilet and sink and tub. But a spray bottle of vinegar will clean EVERYTHING, I cludi g hardwood floors, countertops, and smelly laundry. I have a bottle in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. Just be careful and don’t mix the bleach and vinegar, will create a toxic gas.
posted by raisingsand at 7:29 PM on November 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

My best advice is: things with long handles. I scrub my bathtub with a toilet brush - not my toilet toilet brush, to be clear, a different one that I keep in a cupboard so guests won't accidentally use it - because it saves so much reaching and bending.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:49 PM on November 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

Roomba plus a Miele vacuum for non-Roomba-accessible areas. I run the bot twice a week when I go to bed, and it’s just made a huge difference in overall dust/cleanliness. I like the Roomba specifically because replacement parts are easily available; many cheaper knockoffs should be viewed as essentially a consumable — they’ll rip up the rollers on long hair, and then you put it in the trash and go buy a new one, which is more or less monstrous IMHO.

Green Goo for drain-cleaning.

I like the O’Cedar mop for hard surfaces a couple times a year (with the associated bucket for ease-of-wringing), and for weekly spot use the OXO microfiber spray mop.
posted by aramaic at 8:21 PM on November 26, 2020

If you have the funds for new equipment possibly you could (post Covid) hire in cleaning twice a month? I say that because when I moved to a place with a yard, the only good option in that location, I faced the necessity of having to buy a mower and other tools. But then I realized there are services that will just come mow your yard for you. I hate yardwork and it's honestly money I will never regret spending. They even trim the bushes and treat for weeds if I want.

Similarly a cleaner will already have their own equipment and know how to deal with whatever issues you hate most. If you truly hate cleaning and have the funds, you might consider it.
posted by emjaybee at 9:56 PM on November 26, 2020 [6 favorites]

A spray mop has been a game changer - no more filling buckets and wringing, it can stand in the corner with the reservoir filled and when I notice a dirty bit of floor, I just grab it.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:54 PM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

My husband does almost all the cleaning in our house, and says that a lightweight cordless vacuum cleaner (we have a Bosch) is helpful for making vacuuming less of a real chore and more something you can do in a couple of minutes in between things. We more or less have ours on permanent charge, so it might work best if you can keep it somewhere right by an outlet.
posted by plonkee at 1:22 AM on November 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Scrubbing Bubbles and the Clorox equivalent didn't work for us, due to our hard (but treated, so I guess it's actually soft?) water. But Barkeeper's Friend in the liquid squeeze bottle format is a true miracle from the heavens. Squeeze it around the tub, use a long-handled brush to spread it around, wait 10 minutes, rinse. Sparkly clean tub with no scrubbing or bending over.

We* also tried a drill brush for cleaning the tub, and were careless and actually scrubbed off some of the tub's finish, and now that one little spot is permanently stained until such time as "we" can refinish the tub.

I bought a pack of large microfiber towels from an auto supply store. Cheaper, larger, thicker and more durable than any I've ever bought in the cleaner aisle at the grocery store.

We have all laminate floors and a multitude of pets, and emptying the little dust reservoir on our stick vacuum multiple times per room gets old really fast. So I bought one of those giant mops that school custodians use (random link), and now sweeping up the dog and cat fur takes only minutes.

Also - steam mops (google search results link) are the easiest way to clean hard floors. Just don't use on unsealed laminate...

*We=my husband, who was all excited to use power tools in the bathroom...
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:07 AM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Dyson cordless stick vacuum. Roomba. Rubbermaid spray mop. Long handled scrub brush for the bathtub. Our toilets are the new fangled low flow kind with the push button. They suck, and were always gross until I broke down and started using the chlorox tablets that go in tank. Now I just have to give them a quick swish with the scrubbing bubbles flushable wand thing once a week. Bar Keepers friend for the porcelain sink.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 6:29 AM on November 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Tangentially, I have an audiobook subscription and headphones I wear when cleaning, which lets me clean longer and more carefully when half my head is in a story.
posted by nickggully at 6:50 AM on November 27, 2020 [12 favorites]

Seek out products that smell really nice! It makes cleaning so satisfying.
posted by mochapickle at 7:55 AM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

> The Magic Eraser is incredible for cleaning bathtubs, grungy tile, and many other things

Second this. Except don't buy magic eraser. Buy "melamine sponges". They are a fraction of the price of the name brand but work just as well (eg a 60 pack of no name, for the same price as 10 pack of magic eraser).
posted by aeighty at 8:34 AM on November 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Put the correct cleaning supplies in every room. I ponied up and bought 3 small handheld vacuums: main floor, upstairs, and one just for the cat litter area in the bathroom, so it lives under the sink. The house is way cleaner with way less effort! Worth every penny of the $150 it cost to get the extra dustbusters.

Cleaning products you enjoy the smell of. Mrs Meyers in Lavender is my fave. Absolutely worth the extra few bucks!

Vileda Spin Mop. My very efficient house cleaner told me every single week to get one and eventually texted me a photo of a store flyer when they went on sale. She cleans houses for a living and has tried every mop, and she was right; it's amazing.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:54 AM on November 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

I was astonished at the difference a robot vacuum made. It made/makes the rooms feel sparkling fresh in every day.

We borrowed my daughter's Eufy cleaner for a couple of weeks, and after giving it back went and got ourselves a Roomba as it was on sale. I liked the Eufy better because it was quieter, and had a nice little remote control, where the Roomba wants to be controlled via an app over wifi (or by pressing buttons on top) and is more noisy, but they seem equally effective at cleaning.
posted by anadem at 9:15 AM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Keep in mind that technique and timing are just as important as tools and supplies. Our policy is to to do a Clean every weekend. It takes about an hour per person for three people. One person does the bathrooms, another does the kitchen and dusting, and another does an extensive furniture-moving & rug-lifting sweeping (we have cats), then the bathroom person damp-mops all the floors. If you stay on top of things by cleaning them at least once a week, you'll need less effort and fewer harsh chemicals than if you do it less frequently.

Also, the best tip in re soap scum: use a squeegee to dry down the walls of your shower after it's used. Then the weekly cleaning only needs a bit of all-surface cleaner and a white scrubby, rather than any toxic Tub and Tile nonsense.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:52 AM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Mind-blowing melamine sponge tip, via a friend's MIL who has used them all her life: you don't use the whole soap-sized bar (and if you're smart you buy them by the sheet anyway, Asian markets will have them that way), you cut the smallest bit you need and use that until it is too dirty/disintegrated to use anymore. Thanks to that knowledge, we keep about a 3/4" cube of sponge next to each sink, which can be discretely tucked away but nearby for quick sink and faucet cleaning.

I am a fan of the drill-based scrub brushes, though someone here recently said they didn't think they were very effective in the shower so it may depend on surface type (though they are still very handy for cleaning stuff like lawn furniture, tools, windows etc). Jolie Kerr recommends a pole scrubber, though, if you have trouble cleaning bath/shower because of mobility issues (or if it's a small cramped space that's hard to get into and clean simultaneously). You can also get motorized spin scrubbers, for the best of both worlds I suppose.

When I moved into a house that was entirely (cheap) laminate, a friend of mine who cleans beachside vacation homes told me she uses nothing but a vacuum cleaner and the wet Swiffer pads (not the Jet, just the wet pads), except she gets the knockoff pads at the dollar store. We still don't have a mop, those really have done the job all this time.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:54 AM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

For us a game-changer was the steam mop. You can wash the heads in the washing machine, and no chemicals like the spray mop. The only downside is the edges of the floor sometimes need a closer wash, and I usually do the scrub brush routine a few times a year because I'm like that. But the steam mop makes it so easy we do it 1-2 times a week and it keeps our hard floors really nice and clean. It's ok on hardwood too.
posted by warriorqueen at 12:36 PM on November 27, 2020

If you have long hair or furry pets, a long-handled rubber rake for carpets works well to de-fur prior to vacuuming. My previous method was to bend down and rub the carpet in circles with my hands, yielding balls of fur-hair. The rubber rake method is more thorough, less gross, and easier on the body.

I only recently found out how great a simple paste of baking soda and water is on stains. I've used it to remove stains from our annoying off-white kitchen countertop (whose goal in life is to absorb and hang onto any stain it possibly can, especially dark tea and wine splashes) as well as an item of clothing I thought was a goner. Just let the paste sit a half hour or so, and stains rinse out easily.
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 1:15 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Technique rather than product. Professional cleaners apply detergent to bathtub scum, and go on to other things, giving the detergent time to work. They come back to the tub later when the scum is easier to deal with.
posted by SemiSalt at 3:39 PM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Swiffer dusters are very effective. I wash them because I hate disposable products.
Play lively music, loud. Show tunes and dance music are good.
posted by theora55 at 4:30 PM on November 27, 2020

Baking Soda. It's so cheap, and so harmless. I use it for cleaning the bathtub, shower, sinks, oven, and dog dishes. A lot of people like bar keeper's friend, not sure what the benefit of that is over just using baking soda.
posted by belau at 6:49 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]