Cleaning Tools

Say goodbye to that last line of dirt.

By going until it's "finished," you'll be motivated to keep scrubbing long past your usual stopping point, tackling some areas that rarely get cleaned.

Whether it’s disinfectant spray or a duster, obsolete cleaning products aren’t doing you—or your home—any favors.

Even the deepest, darkest, toughest stains don't stand a chance against this miracle in a bottle!

Plus, what you should use instead.

Yup, including the cult-favorite Wool & Cashmere Shampoo.

You can breathe new life into your vacuum cleaner in one weekend afternoon.

Picture this: Inspired by the window-cleaning marathon you completed while getting a jump start on spring cleaning, you’re cleaning all the glass in your house. You’ve done all the doors, the glass that protects every photo that’s hung on the wall or displayed on a bookshelf, and the mirrored tray on your oversized tufted ottoman. In your zeal, you’ve finished a spray bottle of glass cleaner.

It's like magic.

To truly master all the skills of maintaining a home is an exhaustive list and frankly, out of reach for many people. But even if knowing everything about home repair and DIY is not on your list of life goals, there are still a few skills worth knowing. This year, consider finally mastering a few from this list of ten — they’re skills that will come in handy in just about any home and not that difficult to learn!

It has nearly 5,000 5-star reviews.

Including top brands like Roomba, Shark, and more!

Sturdy and stiff enough to thoroughly clean, yet gentle enough to not strip away that seasoning.

Let's get introspective.

Plus, it's 16 percent off right now.

It can be used to store liquid soaps, too.

An impulse buy with no regrets.

An oldie but a goodie.

It's pretty sexy...for a broom organizer.

Tiny, mighty, and on sale!

Including why all-in-one products can't do it all.

Step away from the smelly sponge, I've got just the solution for you!

Welcome to the magical world of steam cleaning.

Spotless floors in a jiffy, and you're not even touching the grossest part of the mop!

IKEA's new collection is meant to tidy up your home in no time.

These eight quick tests will tell you if a used vacuum works well, and if it had a rough past life.

Here's to kicking off 2020 on a clean and tidy note!

You'll want to add these four things to your cleaning kit ASAP.

I know it's a controversial topic, but I personally welcome the gift of cleaning tools.

Your floors are going to sparkle!

For hundreds of Amazon's 5-star reviewers, there’s one stain treatment that stands out from the rest.

And they're 20 percent off today!

It’s no secret that probiotics are one secret weapon for healthier digestion and overall wellness. But this popular wellness remedy is now making its way into the world of cleaning products, too.

Before this device entered my life, I was either burning clothes with an iron or throwing them in the dryer with a damp towel to get wrinkles out.

From a scrub brush to a hand duster, here are the seven things you need to clean every inch of your space.

It works like magic!

So long, fingerprints and food crumbs!

Reminder: clean your phone right now.

When it comes to getting things done around your home, sometimes convenience and versatility are the magic words.

If you’re a Costco cardholder (or convinced you should be after reading this article) here are some home cleaning items you should definitely be buying.

In honor of Shark Week, we're calling out the best "Shark Tank" products for your home.

Because a wet towel under the door can only do so much.

Here are some tips on deciding on what style of vacuum suits you and your space, plus some models you can score on sale during Prime Day.

We put the cheaper, generic brand to the test against mighty Mr. Clean, and one came out on top.

Those of us who survive and thrive in this world of letting strangers tell the internet how tidy we are have learned some mad skills when it comes to cleaning and laundry.

If it feels like your home is literally covered in hair — whether it's yours or your pet's — you're not alone.

Check out these old faithfuls—plus the modern versions you can buy today, from $54 to just a hair under $4000.

It's true: Dusting seems futile. But that's no reason to let it go. Here are two ways you might be dusting wrong.

Laundry can be the most exhausting and tedious chore, or it can be your favorite excuse to unwind.

Whether I’m frying a few eggs for myself or preparing a dinner feast for 10, I don’t feel confident in the kitchen unless I’m armed with a side towel or two. Side towels, the chef’s term for simple cotton cloths slightly smaller than a dish towel, are a multipurpose kitchen tool. They’re so great, I guarantee that once you start using them, you won’t know how you ever did without.

With the season of flea markets and antique fairs now upon us, I’m prepping for the summer influx of secondhand furniture finds and putting together the ultimate used furniture cleaning kit. With most of these household items already in your kitchen, you’ll be ready to get any grimy piece sparkling in no time.  Baking soda. Mixed with water, baking soda forms a paste that polishes silver, lifts coffee and tea stains from ceramic and porcelain, and removes mildew and grime.

Rebecca just showed us how to refresh our bathrooms, but let’s zero in on the shower for a minute. I’ll venture a guess that it’s the area that gets cleaned the least in all the bathroom. Here are five easy ways to have a sparkling shower all year long. Cover your shower faucet with bag of vinegar and secure with a rubber band. Leave it there overnight and you’ll have a clean shower head without all the scrubbing.

I’ve moved in and out of eight different rentals in the last nine years, which means I’ve done my fair share of post-move-out cleaning. The one task I always dread is cleaning the oven. I hate using toxic oven cleaner, yet it seems to be the only effective combatant against that hardened puddle of food crumbs, melted cheese, and pie juice from a year of careless cooking.

As nice as it would be to always keep a perfectly clean, perfectly smelling house — the truth is, bad odors happen. Whether it’s smelly upholstery from a great thrift store find, a pet’s potty training accident, or a party that needs a massive cleanup, funky smell are an unavoidable part of everyday life. With that in mind, here are the 5 products we’d recommend always having in the house to combat and remove odors. 1.

Wood utensils date back to ancient Egypt and are still one of the most common tools found in the kitchen today. Wood is a great material to cook with for a variety of reasons, and with the right care wood utensils and cutting boards can last decades. After many years of new materials such as silicone dominating the kitchen tool market, wood is making a comeback thanks to its timeless functionality.

If you wear stockings or pantyhose, don’t let runs and snags ruin your day. And definitely don’t throw old nylons away. Because, while they might have fallen short in their promise to keep your legs looking smooth, they have a whole other future existence as versatile household helpers. Turns out nylon is pretty handy, so check out these twenty ways to reuse all your worn out hose: Locate small objects on the floor by covering your vacuum nozzle with some hose.

Don’t toss those orphan socks — the singles who get mysteriously separated from their pairs between washing and drying can be helpful. Put them to use in a variety of smart ways to help keep your home a bit cleaner. Slip a couple of damp socks on your hands and give the leaves of your favorite plants the gentle touch for a dusting that won’t damage. Toss the sock in the wash when you’re done.

Keep the house clean with display-worthy supplies you’ll be jazzed to use every time. Well, perhaps not jazzed, but certainly a bit more chipper about the tasks at hand… Dish Brush, Anthropologie, $12 All-Natural Laundry Kit, Food52, $33 Eco-Friendly Cleaning Kit, Food52, $20 Cleaning Pail, Williams-Sonoma, $49.95 Downright Festive Duster, Kaufmann Mercantile, $21 Copper Sponges, McGovern Home, £10/set of 2 Casabella Sponges, Target, $4.

Maybe you know a clean freak. Maybe you are one. In either case, you know that the people who lead spotless, uncluttered lives have very simple needs: Just spray bottles, a cleaning checklist and a doormat that delivers sass to anyone who dares not to take off their shoes inside the house. Use these to mark down little to-clean lists all over the place. $3.75 for 40 from Honeyinked You can also mark specific tasks with little icons on your calendar with these. Washing Machines, $3.

In an effort to green their clean routines, some Apartment Therapy staffers are taking on small shifts at home, replacing their usual products and tools with more eco-friendly versions. Anyone who watches Shark Tank knows about Bambooee towels. In fact, while I had our roll sitting on the counter waiting to take this challenge on, my husband couldn’t resist shouting “BAMBOOEE!” (in co-founder Noam Krasniansky’s contagious accent) every time he walked into our kitchen.

We joke about retail therapy all the time, but as it turns out, there is some merit to the idea that people spend more when they’re stressed—just, maybe not in the way you’d expect. According to recent research from the Journal of Consumer Research, when people feel like they’ve lost control of their environment, it can affect their purchases—even at the grocery store.

We are always looking for more eco-friendly ways to shop for our homes. In addition to being better for the environment, it’s also a money-saver. That said, it can often mean spending more money up front for savings down the line, even if it’s small (like our new favorite $6 solution to paper towels). So when we do see deals on green products, we get excited. Ahead, three buys that are better for the environment – and currently better for your wall – on Amazon.

Although those in the path of the Nor’easter may disagree, spring is officially here. Thankfully, no matter the outside temperature, we can already start observing one of our favorite parts of the season: spring cleaning. The unofficial holiday starts around the time we start thinking about the last time we vacuumed under the bed and runs until we actually vacuum under the bed (as late as mid-June for some of us).

Christine Platt is a writer and the Managing Director of The Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. And as you saw from her recent house tour, she also embraces many tenets of minimalism. But it’s not the empty, barely-own-anything minimalism you may be familiar with. It’s her own beautiful, bold, colorful brand that you can see on full display on her Instagram account, The Afro Minimalist.

Vacuuming isn’t on many people’s lists of most-hated chores. In fact, I’ve seen it pop up multiple times as people’s favorite cleaning “guilty pleasures.” I get it, for sure. It’s a quick way to make a room look much cleaner and the rewards for your effort are instantly apparent. No matter how much you love to vacuum and how often you do it, though, you’re probably not taking full advantage of everything your vacuum cleaner can do.

Aspirin is a staple in just about everybody’s medicine cabinets. But beyond its medicinal purposes, aspirin comes in handy for many uses at home, with applications ranging from laundry aid to dandruff treatment. Especially if your aspirin tends to expire before you see the bottom of the bottle, these household uses will allow your go-to pain reliever to do more than just that.

Does your mom know every cleaning trick in the book? Does your brother make you take your shoes off the second you walk in his home? Or does your coworker, with the only clutter-free desk on the floor, flee to a private conference room if you so much as sniffle? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it sounds like you know a neat freak.