At Spruce It Up, we welcome all sorts of people to our community every day. Whether you’re a seasoned pro who’s been looking after your home for decades and has pre-made potions in spray bottles under your sink, or a total beginner who needs to get that stain out NOW before the real estate agent comes by – we’re here for you.
Think of this page as a sample platter of sorts (but with strange cleaning hacks instead of strange cheeses). There are some standard tips here, some that are more… interesting… but all of them should save you time and money and prove our community knows what it’s talking about before you jump into the forums.
Cleaning a Metal Sink
Have you ever had a look at your kitchen sink – and then immediately wish you hadn’t? Clearly, normal soap isn’t going to cut it, or those bits of gunk would disappear with the dishes! So what will work?
Our Trick
Take a couple (rough) spoonfuls of baking soda and sprinkle it over the offending sink. Use a slightly damp sponge and scour the bottom of the sink, especially any dirty bits. Once you’ve liberally applied the elbow grease, spray the sink down with distilled white vinegar. Leave the baking soda and the vinegar to sit for a minute, then rinse the sink out with water! Voila! It should be sparkling!
Pro-tip: Always have distilled white vinegar on hand in a spray bottle – it comes up a lot!
Getting a Coffee Stain Out of a Carpet
Mornings are bad enough as-is, but when you don’t get your cup of coffee AND there’s a huge new stain on your carpet? That’s a pretty bad start to the day. Well, we can solve one of those problems!
Our Trick
Get right on the stain – don’t let it soak into the carpet! The first (and easiest) thing to do is to just use cold water and two towels. Dampen one of the towels and alternate between patting the stain with the damp towel and drying it with the dry towel. Keep at it for long enough and, if you’re lucky, the stain will come out!
But what if you’re not lucky?
In that case, let’s get strange with it. One of our favourite tips is to use something you probably already have lying around – toothpaste! Make sure it’s just a white toothpaste, and only use a little bit, but the exfoliating properties of toothpaste that make your teeth sparkle will also help break down the stain! Just keep rubbing and rinsing until you see results!
Those are some sample, beginner tips for you – but we encourage you to jump into our Community Forums and see what else you can dig up! Happy hunting!