1. Tennis Balls Can Unblock Sinks

I’m sure we all have a few unused tennis balls lying in the garden somewhere. One of the best cleaning hacks is to use a tennis ball in place of a plunger. Cut the ball in half, place it green side up over the sink hole, and pump away until the blockage has been cleared. No need to run to the grocery store for a plunger!

2. Coke!

You’ve probably seen videos on YouTube and elsewhere online, but use Coke to clean almost anything in your house. The toilet, sink and shower all come up beautifully clean using a can of coke. Do make sure you rinse thoroughly to remove any sticky residue, unless you like ants for company.

3. Stick Dirty Jeans in the Freezer

The Chief Executive of Levi’s tells us not to wash our jeans because it will damage the denim fabric. Instead, if you are cleaning on a budget, try sticking your pair of smelly jeans in the freezer overnight. The cold will kill any bacteria, so you have saved on the washing bill and hopefully helped prolong the lifetime of your jeans.

4. Baking Soda Can Clean Almost Anything

You can pick up a pot of baking soda for a dollar at the grocery store, and it will save you a huge amount on cleaning products. Just mix baking soda with some water or lemon juice to scrub your kitchen surfaces, or clean any sort of glassware. It’ll come up sparkling as if it were new.

5. Baby Wipes on Coffee Stains

One of the great cleaning hacks when you are on a tight budget is to press a baby wipe onto a coffee stain. Rather than have to pay out for a professional cleaner, the stain will lift right out of your carpet or fabric sofa.

6. Hairspray to Remove Ink

Although I try to be careful around the house, sometimes ink stains are just impossible to avoid. I keep a can of hairspray downstairs so that when I notice I have accidentally dropped my pen (I like to use a fountain pen sometimes) and have created a splodge of ink, I can just spray the mark and wipe it straight away.

7. Milk Bottle Dustpan

Rather than spend money on a new dustpan and brush, turn an empty milk bottle into a handy dustpan. Just snip around the handle and down into the base of the bottle, so that the handle can be used to help scoop up any debris into the dustpan. It might sound complicated, but if you turn your plastic milk bottle on its side you’ll soon understand!

8. Put a Lemon in Your Kettle

To remove limescale from a kettle (the cancer of kettles!), pop half of a lemon into a kettle with enough water to fill to the maximum mark. To be even more effective, add some extra lemon juice as well. Boil and leave for an hour before pouring the lemony water away, to reveal a perfectly scale-free kettle.

9. Mouthwash as a Floor Cleaner

One good cheap cleaning method is to stick a cup of mouthwash in your mop bucket along with warm water. It will kill bacteria without you having to buy any other cleaning products.

To be honest, I think cleaning hacks are more about fun and seeing if they actually do work. Because, let’s be serious, you can buy multi-purpose products that tackle most cleaning jobs, and specialist products for specifics. But, like I said, have some fun, save some money, and use fewer chemical products to reduce your negative impact on the environment. What cleaning hacks do you know?