5 Ways to Clean Your House While You Sleep

Clean house while you sleep? It might sound too good to be true, but we promise you don’t have to lift a finger with these five simple tips and tricks that do the dirty work for you while you’re deep in dreamland. Try them tonight and wake up to a sparkling home when the sun comes up in the morning!

Lift gunk from pots with a dryer sheet.

Put down the steel wool and simply fill dirty pots and pans with water, then immerse a dryer sheet and head to bed. The same fatty acids in dryer sheets that plump up clothing fibers also break down stubborn food particles, allowing baked-on residue to slide right off with a quick wipe-down in the morning.

Renew showerheads with vinegar.

Faucets and showerheads are magnets for mineral deposits, but they’re easy to clean. “I call this the ‘set it and forget it’ method,” says Bailey Carson of Handy. “Pour one cup of distilled white vinegar into a large plastic bag, then tie it over the faucet or showerhead and leave overnight.” In the morning, remove the bag and turn the hot water on full pressure to remove any residue — mineral deposits will be gone.

Speed-clean your oven with a baking soda ‘scrub.’

Just combine a half cup of baking soda and a few tablespoons of water. “Spread the thin paste on the inside of your oven and leave overnight,” says Ty Rosa of TheSparklingCleanHome. Baking soda lifts grease and will gently scrub your oven when you wipe it down the next day.

Degrease burners with an ammonia bath.

No need to scrub your stove — just let ammonia do the work for you, urges Carson. “Simply remove the grimy grates, pop them in a plastic bag, then pour in two cups of ammonia and tie tightly,” Carson says. Let the bags sit outside or in your garage overnight. “In the morning, empty them in your sink, give the grates a quick rinse, and watch in amazement as the grime washes right off!”

Let your bathtub sparkle with supercharged salt.

Your bathroom can clean itself, assures Jacob Martinez, founder of SwiftClean. “Combine two cups of water, a half cup of salt, and quarter cup of vinegar until the salt dissolves, then pour into a spray bottle and spritz your tub.” Salt and vinegar create charged particles that lift scum and mildew. Leave overnight and rinse in the morning.

A version of this article originally appeared in our print magazine, Woman’s World.