As much as we’d like it to, cleaning our home is rarely quick or easy. But it can be faster and less exhausting when we use the right cleaners and clever hacks.

These home cleaning hacks will make the job easier and quicker without sacrificing cleanliness. Here are some of the best: 1. Use a dryer sheet to clean your baseboards.

1. Vacuum the Floors

It is important to always vacuum. It helps the house to look tidy and it is a good thing for all members of your family to have healthy bodies. Vacuuming will keep carpets and flooring clean, air from your home clean of germs, dust and allergens.

Browning likes vacuums much better than brooms and mops because, ‘these devices spread dirt around instead of sucking it up, thereby also causing the whole household to suffer from allergies and respiratory distress’.

Ensure you have the correct vacuum for your floors, and then set it to deliver as little power as possible while cleaning. Begin in the middle at the top of the room and work your way downward, vacuuming every piece of furniture, around all the window and high surfaces, and then through handrails of furniture, shelves, and bookshelves – being especially careful around the stairs, which attract dust and debris.

2. Dryer Sheets for Baseboards

For example, who knew you could trot them out as baseboard cleaners to ‘form a dust-fighting seal’? Check out this tip from the DIY blog Apartment Therapy: Use a dryer sheet as a baseboard cleaner: rub one down your baseboards to form a protective dust-fighting seal — for weeks (or months!) at a time.

This dust-removing method is equally effective for ceilings fans and blinds: they collect dust, too! Blinds: slip a pillowcase over each slat, and wipe back-and-forth as you move through a room.

As long as the screens of your TV or computer are completely dry, you can clean them with dryer sheets.

3. Squeegee the Windows

Window Determine the practicability of home livabilityAn effective way of cleaning windows is to use a squeegee to scrub bare the dust particles. This approach will help bring in fresh air to your home rather swiftly.

To clean windows, use soap or cleaner and rinse, and then dry with microfibre to reduce drips and streaks. Get a telescoping squeegee with expansion handle so the windows can be cleaned with an extended reach, reducing the risk of sore hands and joints.

This is a great hack for cleaning windows. Especially if you use paper towels as I did, as newspaper will leave you streak-free and without ink on your hands. If possible, clean your windows on a cloudy day: cleaning solution should never have time to dry because it leads to streaks or spots.

4. Homemade Cleaners

You can get a similar result from homemade cleaners without all the deadly chemicals. These inexpensive DIY solutions are wholly safe for the earth and your pocketbook; club soda, baking soda, lemons, vinegar, rubbing alcohol and more equal great results.

Vinegar is a great odour neutraliser – and a way to skirt the use of harsh abrasive cleansers on more embedded stains. A mixture of equal parts water and vinegar and one drop of essential oil make a non-toxic and totally versatile all-purpose cleaner that can be sprayed on almost any surface in your home.

Ensure any homemade or store-bought cleaners, homemade or store-bought, are tested on a small area before using any cleanser across your surface. Also, remember to keep all cleaners out of reach of children and pets, as ingesting them could be dangerous.

5. Feng Shui

Reaffirming the social practice of Feng Shui is the rearranging of household objects that bring balance to the home and your natural state. This is another creative way to clear stuck energy and offer positive environments.

Feng Shui considers clutter to be stagnant energy that requires sorting and donating any unneeded items on a regular basis, as it depletes valuable chi. Rooms with negative energy should be diffused, often with the strategic placement of certain colours at a door.

Burning white sage or other smudging herbs is also a powerful way to clear harmful energy and promote equilibrium, and using essential oils with positive aromas when cleaning can support that. Likewise, allow as much natural light as possible into the home throughout the day through open blinds and curtains, and further your light-promotion goals with mirror placement to reflect sunlight – the light of the sun has long been considered a prime source of health and wellbeing.