9 hacks for quickly cleaning up your house this Diwali

Try out these effective tips for cleaning house quickly before the festival of lights

Effective hacks to clean your house quick

India's brightest festival is almost here. Markets have begun laying out their festive wares and families have started charting out their gift lists. Now is also usually the time many households finish the great big clean up.

If the thought has already begun to scare you, worry not. Here are some smart hacks that will help you clean out your house as quickly as you begin, so that you have a sparkling house ready before the festival of lights. Start GALLERY.

Make space to place the clutter

Before you dig your hands deep into the clean up ritual, designate an area in the house where you wish to keep all that you plan to get rid of. This makes disposal easier. If you let the clutter lie around your cleaned areas, chances are, they can go right back into the cupboards.

Divide and conquer

Clean area by area. Attack the dust, clean up the grime and declutter one room at a time. This way, things will be more systematic and you won’t miss out those usually ignored corners. Use old clothes as rags to clean the rest of the house and donate some used clothes to the needy.

Use vinegar for window panes

Vinegar has multiple uses, and giving you squeaky clean glass surfaces is one of them. Just pour some vinegar into an empty, old cleaning spray bottle and squirt on dirty surfaces. Clean using bunched up tissues or newspapers.

Play doh can clean out your window frames

The frames of your sliding windows often accumulate dust and small particles that are hard for our fingers to reach. Use your child’s play doh for this! Roll out a play dough worm and run it between the frames so that the dust particles stick to them easily.

Half a lemon for clean stainless steel

Slice a lemon into two and rub a half onto greasy fridge shelves or the filter of your electric chimney. Rub off with a damp towel to get super clean surfaces. Lemon halves can also clean stained sinks and shower heads.

Use tamarind paste to sparkle your brass artefacts

Those beautiful brass artefacts or idols can get their golden hue again if washed with tamarind paste. Just scrub your brassware with tamarind paste and wash after a few minutes.

Use baking soda to clean stubborn stains on bathroom tiles

Baking soda works wonders on stubborn stains that never seem to leave bathroom tiles. Make a solution of baking soda and water and scrub those bathroom woes away.

Ear buds for those hard-to-reach areas

A ear bud can easily get across those hard-to-reach areas where cleaning is seldom possible. Cleaning out keyboard keys is one. Just dip a ear bud in some cleansing liquid and gently clean out the dust that hides between the keys.

Throw away expired medicines and toiletries

Use this opportunity to cleanse the drawers of toiletries and medicines that have passed the expiry date as this is not something we do on a regular basis.