It’s well known that grandparents bring a little more wisdom, warmth, happiness and love to every life they touch; and to celebrate grandparents on today (September 7^th), National Grandparents Day, at eSpares we’ve decided to share some of the greatest cleaning tips our grandparents have passed onto us.

The tips shared below use the power of everyday household / kitchen products, which are typically used in cooking; and first up is the….

Power of Vinegar:

If you’re anything like me, the bottle of vinegar probably only comes out when you have chips, and therefore spends most of the year sitting in the cupboard unused. But your bottle of vinegar can be used for so much more than a light coating for fried potato products, especially when it comes to the cleaning of your home, as it harbours great cleaning qualities, as our grandparents found out back in the day.

An old cleaning trick which you’ve probably heard thousands of times by your grandparents is utilising the power of vinegar to clean windows.

To do this you’ll need to mix one part vinegar with several parts water to create the powerful window cleaning solution, with this mixed, spray it over the windows, and then wipe using scrunched up newspaper to receive a streak free finish.

In addition to cleaning windows, vinegar can also be used around the home to remove limescale, clean out pipes, clean baths, floors and surfaces.

Vinegar isn’t the only powerful cleaning kitchen product you’re likely to have left lying around the home. An equally powerful cleaning solution comes in the form of a lemon.

Waxing Lyrical About Lemons:

Within the eSpares blog, we’ve previously waxed lyrical about how a lemon can be used to clean watermarks from your shower taps. But those yellow citrus fruits offer more cleaning powers than you’d care to imagine, including being useful for the cleaning of:

• Microwaves – by placing half a lemon in a bowl of water, then placing the bowl of water in the middle of your microwave and putting the appliance on full for 30 seconds, you’ll clean the microwave.
• Limescale from Kettles – over time kettles suffer from limescale, whilst there are numerous cleaning products available which remove limescale why not take a leaf out of your grandparent’s book and use a lemon?

  Cut a lemon into large chunks and place in your kettle, add water and leave to stand overnight. The next day empty the kettle of the water and lemons and rinse for a limescale free finish.

• Buff Your Copper – If your copper is looking worse for wear, give it a buff-up with lemon juice and salt. Squeeze the lemon juice over the copper, sprinkle on salt and then rub with a cloth until the metal once again gleams.

A Clean Toilet without Bleach:

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll have seen our tips in the past which mention the power of coke when it comes to cleaning toilets, and the previous tip we shared does work. For those who missed the tip, a quick recap: pour coke around the rim of the toilet bowl so that it flows over the stains and inside the bowl, leave to sit for an hour and then flush.

However, back in the day when you’re grandparents were younger, coke would have been a rarity; but there were other food products which were used to clean the toilet, such as bicarbonate of soda.

To clean your toilet without the need for everyday cleaning products, sprinkle the bicarbonate of soda over the bowl before scrubbing with the toilet brush. If the stains are a bit tougher, add a sprinkle of vinegar, leave to soak for an hour or two and then give it a scrub – the result, a clean, stain free toilet once again!

Following the cleaning tips from our grandparents can not only save us all money, but can also leave our homes sparkling clean……if you don’t believe us, why not give them a go yourself or better still, share any cleaning tips you’ve been passed on from your grandparents within the comment section of the eSpares blog.

Tags: Cleaning Tips, Grandparents, Home Improvement