Household budgets are feeling the pinch, and with cleaning products often carrying a hefty price tag, it’s always helpful to find savvy ways to save pennies. Now, you don’t always need branded cleaners to maintain your home’s sparkle – there are countless ordinary items and leftovers from your kitchen that can tackle dirt effectively.
For those battling grimy mirrors, an everyday object could give you that desired gleam without costing a fortune. Believe it or not, a used teabag is at hand for this task, something we often discard without a second thought.
Experts at BunkBeds.co.uk have disclosed a selection of top-notch DIY cleaning alternatives, including a top tip for gleaming mirrors. A representative from the company, Adeel, remarked: “January is a tough time for us all and many of us are waiting for payday, the last thing we want to spend our money on is cleaning products so using these homemade items can help us to save money in the long term but also make our money stretch a little longer over the next few days.
“These homemade solutions can be used throughout your home to keep it clean, and some can even be applied to your clothing or accessories.”
His advice: put that used teabag to work and watch your mirrors shine effortlessly. The process is simple and effective, and who knew – tea bags could be your new go-to cleaning hero, reports the Express.
Tea bags
All you need to do is brew your morning cuppa, then place the used teabag in another cup with hot water and let it steep for an additional 10 minutes.
Pour this leftover liquid into a spray bottle and voila, you’ve got yourself a natural glass and mirror cleaner.
Teabags contain tannins, which can bind to smaller particles effectively removing them from a surface. Tannins also possess antimicrobial properties that help eliminate bacteria and microorganisms, making teabags an excellent alternative for a glass or mirror cleaner.
If you don’t already have teabags at home, a bumper pack of 240 from Asda costs £3.20 – meaning each one works out at just over 1p.
Cornflour
But it’s not just spent teabags that can be repurposed for those challenging cleaning tasks at home. Cornflour, often found languishing at the back of most kitchen cabinets, can be used to polish your wooden furniture.
Furniture polish can set you back anywhere from £5 to £15 a bottle depending on the brand, while cornflour can be snapped up from Asda for a mere £1. To use cornflour on your wooden furniture, mix two tablespoons of cornstarch and one cup of water in a spray bottle and give it a good shake.
Then, you can spritz it on the furniture and buff it off as you would with regular polish.
Lemon
Lemon is another fantastic all-purpose cleaner. It can be used to clean countertops, chopping boards and your kitchen or bathroom taps. The acidity in a lemon can help dissolve grease and kill any lingering bacteria on your surfaces.
To whip up a lemon cleaner, you’ll need the juice of one lemon, a cup of water and one tablespoon of white wine vinegar.
Pop this concoction into a spray bottle and spritz it onto your surfaces.