To get things like bumper stickers off, heat it up with your blow dryer, and it should scrap right off. It will also loosen peeling paint if you should be unfortunate enough to have to try to peel paint off something.

White vinegar is a great carpet cleaner, and can be put in your carpet cleaning machine.
It also will take thinset [motar used in laying tile] off the tile and walls after you're done.

Use the olive oil once you've cleaned the stainless steel to remove spots (:

@tennisanyone, don't forget to open some windows after so much vinegar and amonnia:)

When we sold our home, the agent listed our 18 year-old stove as "new" because the brushed chrome top was pristine thanks to shining it with baby oil after clean ups. I now use it on all of my SS appliances and I do like the smell. :)

When I clean the crystals on my chandelier, I fill a small narrow cup with rubbing alcohol, big enough to fit the largest crystals. Then I get up on the dining room chairs, and dip each crystal and wipe with a paper towel. No finger prints from hanging them back up!

Ditto Lesley. I do the same thing!

My MIL taught me to use plain baking soda to remove stains on my light colored formica counter (until it was replaced). Plain baking soda also cleans plastic container stains pretty well, and the coffee stains on the glass coffee pot and coffee stains on my stainless sink drainer.

Try my effective, inexpensive, healthy DIY cleaners available here http://on.fb.me/19y4a94 and download my free guide and recipes here http://bit.ly/18RyeJV. You'll save time and money!

Hahaa this is not my dept.

Buffing dish detergent on bathroom mirrors will help keep them from fogging up after a steamy hot shower. Takes a lot of buffing until it is clear but it is worth it.

Oxygenated bleach for cleaning the driveway, peanut butter for those stickers, vinegar and newsprint on the windows,and - like saratogaswizzlestick - ammonia for heavy oven cleaning, except I put a pot w ammonia in the oven and degrease the whole thing at once. Baking soda for most else.

Most baby oil is just mineral oil with scent added, so plain mineral oil should work fine.

microfiber cloths and distilled water will cut most window glurp.

Oxyclean type laundry detergent; we get a Mexican made type called Ariel in a plastic bag; and it works just as good as the expensive oxy stuff. My hubby has an issue with it; so I save it for washing things that aren't his clothes. (I break out to everything but regular Cheer and Ariel so go figure).

Get some plain 20 muleteam borax and use half and half with your expensive laundry detergent; it will do the job.

Just make sure to NOT *EVER* mix Dawn dish soap and bleach, this is the same as mixing ammonia and bleach, which makes chloramine gas. Just the slightest whiff of it will disable you and it doesn't take much to kill you (I found this out the hard way no thanks to my hubby)
NEVER EVER EVER mix ammonia and chlorine... rinse with plain water in between if you think you have to use both on something. The Dawn soap with 'bleach equivalent' is NOT Dawn with Bleach.

The cheapest clay based kitty litter; works good as ice grip, also if your car 'marks turf' and leaves oil drips on concrete. Also fireplace ash will work for ice grip. (It won't melt it like salt based, but it will give a good footing).

Borax is a natural flea killer, and can be sprinkled on carpets for that purpose.

If your dog is itchy, bathe her, and then rinse with a baking soda solution. If this is a chronic condition, you need to bathe her every time she starts tearing herself up as the more she itches, the more allergens her itching releases. Change her diet to a limited ingredient diet, preferably grain-free.

It you have a screw that won't go in, rub parafin wax on it. An old candle works great for that.

If you have restless leg syndrome or severe constipation, soak in epsom salts. Both can be signs of low cellular magnesium levels, and since epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, soaking in it helps raise the your levels quickly and easily.

If you get bloated easily, you're probably low on hydrochloric acid in your stomach and need to take digestive enzymes, especially Betaine HCI. Organic apple cider vinegar also helps--mix a splash in a glass of water and enjoy! It's not as bad as it sounds........

I keep a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide in the cabinet with the toothbrushes so that they get a quick spray and rinse before and after each use. Every so often in addition to hp, I run them through the dishwasher. Leaving the container on a sunny windowsill for a few hours also lets UV rays do the sanitizing -- I do that at the beach where we don't have a dishwasher. (And with dentists in the family, there's always a new one handy...)

Scrubbing Bubbles and Magic Eraser combo. I was skeptical at first, but it takes the hardcore back aching labor out of cleaning the tub or toilet. Love it!

The best kitchen sink cleaner ever is just baking soda, plain table salt, and a lemon, Liberally sprinkle the sink with the baking soda and salt, cut the lemon in half. Use the lemon halves a scrubbers, squeezing the juice out as you go. The acid in the lemon reacts with the baking soda making a cleaner, and the table salt acts as an abrasive that will not scratch the sink. Put the lemon down the disposal, rinse with clean water. You end up with a clean, sparkling, lemon-scented sink.
For cleaning the hard water and gunk build up around the faucet on granite countertops, mix 1 part plain white vinegar with 4 parts water, scrub the area with the mixture and an old toothbrush. It takes a little work, but it will clean up just fine. Just remember to reseal your granite afterwards.

To clean rust/water stains out of your shower, rub Lysol toilet bowl cleaner into the stains. (wear gloves) Let it sit for about 5 minutes and then scrub gently and rinse with warm water. For years my husband asked how could I get the stains out when his cleaning never removes them. Finally shared the "secret" with him. So happy to have a hubby that cleans!

Baking soda, peroxide, white vinegar and lemon.

An old plumber's trick to keep your drains running fast is to pour boiling water down them [several pans full] monthly. If the toilet starts running slow, I put a 5 gallon pot of water on to boil, and scoop it out with a 3 qt sauce pan so I can easily carry it to the bathroom. The boiling water helps break up the toilet paper that is the cause of most clogs. And DON'T ever put tampons or diaper down your toilet. Even flushable tampon strings will hang up and cause the toilet to back-up!

rubbing alcohol and white vinegar work wonders. I also clean copper & brass with a mixture made out of plain flour, white vinegar and salt, I rub with a sponge then rinse with water and immediately dry it up.

Today, I decided to test out cleaning the grout in my kitchen using baking soda and water as you all suggested. OMG IT WORKED it looks brand spanking new but now I am stuck doing the whole kitchen or just living with dark dirty grout. I'm torn, it could take weeks working with a toothbrush. What a huge difference and I haven't cleaned the grout in l8 years but I mop once a week.

What would you do????? Would you keep going or hope no one will notice :)

Both!

The way I clean the grout of the shower floor is by sprinkling baking soda and then spray vinegar on top of it. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes and with a larger plastic brush just scrub a bit the grout. Toothbrushes are too small to clean a larger area (it would take forever to finish)

@tennisanyone, LOL, same thing happened to me a few years ago!

I ended up doing the whole floor. It took me six hours to clean every inch of grout floor in my medium sized kitchen! 3 hours one day, and 3 hours the next. Turn on some loud music. My knees were sore. And nobody dared walk with shoes in there afterwards, ha ha. But it was so worth it.

With a dog and cat, it lasted about 4 -5 months. I've done it now 4 times, and swear I will never have tile in a large space again because of the grout, unless it's dark grout with dark tile (I don't like dark grout with light tile). :)

@ smileyface2013 I just decided I am going to do the whole DARN kitchen. l8 years is too long. It looks so good and that is what is keeping me going. AMAZING. NEXT THE BATHROOMS. I'LL NEVER GET DONE but a good winter project since it is so cold out. !!!!

@tennisanyone That's the spirit!!! Yay, go for it!!!

Btw, you can get a larger "grout brush" at home depot or lowe's . It's like a giant angled toothbrush, with larger, stiffer bristles. It won't shorten your work time, but it will hold up to a lot of scrubbing! A pillow (with a cover that can get dirty) to sit on is also recommended as the floor will be very hard and cold! Good luck!

I tried everything on the water and soap stains on my Fiberglas shower floor with no luck. Read somewhere to try easy off no fume (blue can, not yellow) oven cleaner. I sprayed, let it sit for a couple hours, then brushed with shower running and it looked good as new!

@tennisanyone: try the drill brush attachment for your cordless drill. It works great on floors. Better than the grout brush or the toothbrush.
http://www.drillbrush.com/tile-grout/

Since you are all so nice and encouraging, here is a picture of the before (don't judge) and the after of cleaning the grout with baking soda and water. AMAZING!!! It has been l8 years. I'm glad I started this because when I actually see it in the picture, it looks really really bad.

Huge difference! That's what gives me incentives when cleaning the shower..I hate it, but I want to see it clean, so I clean:)

The best way to clean copper (and also stains on cutting boards) is to slice a lemon in half and pour kosher salt on it using it as a sponge of sorts and rub. The tarnish comes off easily and quickly.

Looks great Tennis. Don't forget to reseal your grout when you're done so it will last awhile.

@Amy , I'll put that on my list too :) See you all in the Spring when I'm finally done :)

I make shower spray with a recipe from a blog called pinkyhasabrain. (Google it, she has awesome recipes!) A pint of peroxide, a pint of rubbing alcohol, about a teaspoon of dishwasher rinse aid and a couple tablespoons of dish detergent, in a gallon jug. Slowly fill with cold water, so it doesn't get all foamy. Then decant, as needed, into quart spray bottles. I just used the ones from the shower spray we'd used before, until they wore out, then bought sprayers from Home Depot for about a buck.

I'm also a rabid fan of OxyClean. Nine years ago, my daughter brought a boyfriend home from Italy with her. He had two bottles of good red wine as a gift from his aunt, that he put, against her advice, into a carry on bag with several of his good, tailored shirts. Then decided to check that bag, instead of carrying on. You can see it coming, can't you...

The night they got here, we spent about an hour picking broken glass out of the stained shirts. Then I tossed them in the laundry tub with OxyClean and cold water, and we all went to bed. By morning, no stains.


BTW, I'm happy to say that he is NOT the father of her baby, LOL. She married someone else, with much more common sense.

I use it, as someone mentioned above, for the kitchen sink, as well as coffee and tea stains in stainless steel (yeah, right) travel mugs. They look new, after soaking for a few hours. We've even used OxyClean to get the gunk and bird poop out of the bird bath. Just put a solution in, set a piece of plywood on top, held down with a brick, and let it sit overnight.

@tennis, that's fantastic! you could make your own "as seen on tv" commercial with that! :)

All I can say is that I'm into it for 5 hours already. Husband walks by every hour and says "WOW what a difference". My new motto "don't start something you can't finish" AND WHY OH WHY DID I START THIS :)

I should be wearing HOUZZ slippers for this job. I needed the break. Cinderella has to go back to work now :)

Go get 'em, tennis!

@tennis, you are really making a difference in your kitchen. It looks so good!

Barnhart Galleries, windowsill won't do the UV, it has to be directly in sunlight. Glass doesn't transmit enough UV through. 10 min in direct sun will kill a LOT of stuff.

Uv exposure is my go to secret for a lot of smelly stuff, like something musty? Works well.

DONE cleaning grout and sealing it too!!!!!! Before and After

It looks like a new floor! A lot of hard work that's well worth it! :)

smileyface2013, yes it does look like a new floor but I can't move today :(

It's just lovely! Don't move, let your husband wait on you today, while you watch the ads during the Super Bowl.

mickisue, he made me breakfast and lunch yesterday while I was working on the floor. He's a keeper. Today, I made chili for the Super Bowl and I'm not moving the rest of the night. I will not be trying any of the other home cleaning methods for a while either but this was a good one and obviously I needed to do it.

For removing those hard water stains out of the toilet bowls, a pumice stone works great. Also, if you have chlorine buildup on your swimming pool tile, the pumice stone works wonders. For reasons I do not understand, these rectangular pumice stones do not scratch porcelain. Go figure.

Forget all that.
(Although I do like The Original BeesWax spray.)
Otherwise buy "Jude's Miracle Cloth"
It is fantastic. I now use this on all my stainless steel appliances...and more.
Gets glass so clean, granite, you name it.
And best part: no other product used but water AND Canadian made. Check their website: www.judesmiraclecloth.com