"7 grandma vintage cleaning tips that still ring true today
With all the chemical cleaners you can buy today, it’s hard to imagine that our grandmothers survived without them. But they did – in fact, they thrived!
Our grandmothers made their own set of rules by taking advantage of every natural household cleaner they could find. Vinegar, lemons and bicarb were integral to every cleaning kit, and the results were just as shiny as they are today.
Curious to know how they did it? Well, here are 7 popular grandma cleaning tips, so you can try them out for yourself.
1. Give silver jewellery a once-over with toothpaste
There are endless products you can buy to clean silver: foams, liquids, cloths, baths – you name it. But you might already have everything you need in your bathroom, or at least our grandmas did.
Toothpaste is ideal for cleaning silver jewellery because it often contains bicarb, which is abrasive enough to lift stains, but without being so harsh that it could scratch. And as it’s mixed in with the toothpaste, it’s already in a handy format for application.
Using a soft, dampened toothbrush, simply scrub a pea-sized amount of toothpaste into the silver jewellery, then rinse it clean. But keep in mind, you should only use plain white toothpaste for this; not modern gels or whitening toothpastes. Avoid this method on soft stones, too, such as opals.
2. Buff windows with newspaper
This is a probably one of the biggest grandma cleaning tips out there! Before we had microfibre cleaning cloths, newspaper was the best alternative for cleaning windows. The reason is that it’s lint-free and highly absorbent, meaning it can distribute the cleaner effectively around the glass, without leaving streaks behind.
Grab a couple of sheets of newspaper, scrunch them into a ball, and buff gently over the glass once you’ve applied your cleaner. If you’re looking for a natural cleaner to couple it with, a solution of one-part distilled white vinegar to nine-parts water is all you need. Be careful not to oversaturate the paper, though, or it’s liable to bleed; avoid your frames and sill when cleaning for this reason.
3. Simmer bicarb in burnt pans
Your grandma didn’t have time to scrub burnt pots and pans, so she relied on bicarb! It’s a brilliant cleaner for the same abrasive reasons as mentioned for silver jewellery and, when simmered in a pot, it can help to dislodge baked on grease and grime.
Add a few drops of washing-up liquid to the pot, followed by two tablespoons of bicarb, then half-fill it with water. Simmer it on your hob for 10 minutes to work its magic. Then let it cool, before rinsing and cleaning.
For stubborn scorch marks, you can also apply a gloopy paste of bicarb directly to the stain, leave for an hour, then scrub away.
Dishwasher tablets are a handy alternative today for cleaning burnt pots and pans.
4. Twist lemons on to taps
In true grandma-style, this tip involves next-to-no elbow grease and lets the cleaner do the work for you.
Lemons are acidic, which makes them ideal for breaking down the minerals found in limescale. So, if you’re trying to get rid of the limescale on the nozzle of your taps, simply cut a lemon in half and then twist each end on to the spouts. Leave to sit for 1-2 hours (depending on how thick the limescale is) and rinse away once the time’s up.
Keep in mind that lemons are unsuitable for plated taps, though.
5. Use shoe polish to cover scratches on furniture
An unsightly scratch on the coffee table didn’t faze your grandma. Instead, she’d simply reach for the shoe polish and use that to cover it up. You’d need to have the right shade of brown polish to match the wood, so it’s always best to test this on an inconspicuous area first.
Alternatively, a walnut is an age-old fix for scratched wood, too. Just remove the shell, cut the ‘meat’ of the walnut in half and rub it over the scratch to remove. For darker wood, damp coffee grounds can also do the trick.
6. Use decluttered clothes as cleaning rags
This tip is taken from my own mother, who is also a grandmother, so it counts! Whenever her T-shirts tear or thin, rather than recycling them straight away, she cuts them into shreds to use as cleaning rags.
They’re ideal for odd jobs around the home where you might not want to use your ‘best’ microfibre cloth, such as scrubbing mould from the bathroom wall, or cleaning pet waste from the floor, or wiping grease from the cooker hood.
7. Remove sticker residue with peanut butter
Sticker residue is a real nuisance, whether it’s on a jar you’re trying to upcycle, on the bottom of your shoes, or on the wardrobe you applied a barrage of stickers to as a child (sorry, Mum!).
But there’s an unorthodox fix for this problem: peanut butter. By applying a layer of peanut butter, the oils will break down the glue, allowing it to come away easily. You need only let it sit for 10 minutes or so to make a difference. If it’s not come away in this time, reapply and give it a little longer."
Do you/have you used any of these tips?
Do please share your thoughts in the comments.
Happy Cleaning!
All the best Jan
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