Guest Author - Heather DeGeorge

It's a wonderful thing when you buy an item and find that it has multiple uses. Suddenly, that purchase was a greater value than you expected. Here are a few things you may not have expected to have a purpose in cleaning your house!

Fabric softener sheets
Trying to soak baked on food off of a baking dish? Fill the baking dish with hot water and put a fabric softener sheet in the water in the dish. Allow it to sit overnight and in the morning, there will be no scrubbing involved!

Hairspray
If you have an ink stain on your laundry, spray a bit of hairspray on it and wash it IMMEDIATELY--don't let the hairspray dry! You'll never know the ink was there.

Rain-X
After you get your glass shower doors clean, coat them with some Rain-X to keep them from accumulating spots. If the view isn't crystal clear at first, use a squeegee after showering a few times to get it to the perfect thickness of Rain-X to make your doors crystal clear and resistant to the water spots.

salt
Salt is awesome for wicking (pulling out) stain-forming liquids from rugs and fabrics. Remove as much of the liquid as possible and then pour enough salt to cover the area. For non-greasy liquids (like wine) let it sit for 15-20 minutes. For greasy liquids, it may sit for several hours before wicking up all of the liquid. This is most successful when done immediately after the spill.

You can also use salt water to kill poison ivy. Just dilute some salt in some water, add to a sprayer, and spray on poison ivy to kill.

vegetable oil
This is a dream for removing sticky residue from almost any surface. Just dab a small amount onto the residue or onto a cloth and rub until the residue is gone. Depending on the amount of the residue and how long it's been there, this may take some effort. It's also wise to test the oil on an inconspicuous spot of the item with the residue to see if the oil produces a stain on it's own. But for glass, ceramic and mirrors--there's no problem!

lemon juice
I could truly go on forever about lemon juice. But the neatest trick I've found so far is to put a coffee cup of water with a splash of lemon juice into my microwave and set it to boil (most microwaves have a setting for "boil" or "hot beverage"). Once it's done, let it sit in the microwave for 5 minutes so the steam can absorb into the dried and cooked food on the interior. Carefully remove the cup of hot liquid and wipe out the interior with ease. The steam will have softened all of that grime making your cleaning task an absolute dream.