5 Easy Ways to Deep Clean the Whole House Without Breaking a Sweat

No need for costly professional machines to give household items a good, deep clean. It’s easy to freshen up everything from your carpet to your mattress with items right in your pantry!

Lift mattress odors with a quick sprinkle.

Whisk away funky mattress smells and get sounder sleep with this simple trick: “Just combine 1 cup of baking soda and 10 drops of lavender oil, and sprinkle over the mattress,” advises Noemi Varga, host of the YouTube channel Simple Living with Scandish Home. “Let the solution sit for 2 hours with the window open, then vacuum it up.”

Baking soda absorbs odors while the fresh air dries the mattress, preventing new smells from setting in. Dreamy bonus: Lavender oil infuses your bed with a sleep-inducing aroma.

Dust off lampshades with a lint roller.

All it takes to get an instantly brighter shine from your lamps is moving a sticky lint roller (or a loop of packing tape) along the outside of the shades.

The adhesive latches on to all the accumulated dust and doesn’t let go, cleaning your lamp and allowing more light to come through.

Outsmart carpet dirt with a gentle spritz.

No need to lug a steam cleaner to lift rogue crumbs or pet “oopses.” Give it a deep clean by simply filling a spray bottle with equal parts vinegar and water.

“Spritz the messy spots until they’re slightly damp, let sit for 10 minutes, then wipe away-the debris will come right off,” assures Varga. Vinegar’s acids dissolve dirt molecules without harming rug fibers.

Brighten blinds instantly with a dish soap brew.

It’s easy to get blinds as clean as if you’d hired a professional window washer, promises Varga. “For wood and plastic blinds, just dampen a sponge in a mixture of 4 cups of warm water, 1 cup of vinegar, 1⁄2 tsp. of dish soap and 5 drops of essential lemon oil, and wipe down each slat.”

The soap and essential oil remove stubborn dirt while the vinegar acts as an anti-static agent, keeping dust from resettling on the blinds.

Revitalize your sofa with a simple kitchen tool.

Removing dust and dirt from your sofa is as simple as grabbing your rolling pin, says Varga. Just dampen a towel with a solution of 50 percent vinegar and 50 percent water, then lay it on top of your cushions.

Now the fun part: Give it a few whacks with your rolling pin. This forces the dirt out, which the towel then traps, while the vinegar gets absorbed into the fabric, neutralizing odors!

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