3 Surprising Cleaning Items

The next time you need a cleaning tool, you might just be reaching for one of these!

1. Shaving Cream. In elementary school, you may remember “cleaning” your desk with shaving cream, which mostly amounted to smearing some shaving cream around your desk and drawing pictures in it.

However, your teacher was on to something—shaving cream can actually cut through grease pretty effectively, making its use as a carpet stain remover not quite so surprising.

Vacuum the floor to get rid of particles, then spray shaving cream (real cream, not the gel) onto the stain. After 15-20 minutes, come back with a brush and gently scrub the spot clean. Clean up the shaving cream with a damp cloth and blot dry.

2. Soda. You may have heard of using baking soda before, but that’s not what we’re talking about here—this is the type you drink. If you’ve got burn stains on your pots and pans, pour soda into them to soak overnight.

The soda breaks down the burn and will allow you to wash it normally the next day!

3. Eraser. You know that grime you leave behind on your cell phone after you’ve used it enough? It can be a pain to clean—the more you wipe it, the more it smears. If you’ve got an eraser handy, it’s one of the most effective tools for cleaning a cell phone.

Rub the eraser over the surface of the phone as if you were actually erasing it. The grease and dirt will stick to the eraser rather than your phone, then you can just dust it off.