20 Cleaning Tips & Work Savers: Timeless Wisdom

These vintage cleaning tips are a collection of snippets found in books and magazines from the 1940’s and early 1950’s offering advice to homemakers. Since they didn’t have the appliances, tools and cleaning products that we have today (that make our tasks so much easier), every good tip made a difference to the homemaker’s daily schedule.

This is the latest addition to Tipnut’s “Timeless Wisdom Collection” and each quick tip below was advice given to readers by the publishers (rather than readers sharing tips with each other like many of the past collections have included).

I chose each of the tips below for their interest, each are still useful today.

20 Vintage Cleaning Tips & Work Savers

1. Hard rubbing is not necessary for removing tarnish from flat silver. Do it this way: Use a large enamel kettle. Place an old aluminum pie pan or layer cake pan in the bottom. Measure water into the kettle. Add 1 tablespoon each baking soda and salt for each quart of water. Bring to boiling point. Put flat silver to be cleaned into the kettle. Be sure each piece either touches the aluminum pan or touches another piece of silver which is in contact with the pan. Boil 2 to 5 minutes. Remove silver, wash and dry. Rub to a soft polish with a clean flannel cloth. Do not use this method for hollow ware, flat ware with hollow handles or silver with an oxidized finish. Also see these Homemade Silver Polishing Cloths.
2. Add new life to fiber brooms by washing them occasionally in 2 quarts of warm water to which have been added 4 tablespoons of household ammonia. Let the bristles soak in this for half an hour. Rinse in clear warm water and then hang them up in a cool place to dry.
3. Never stand a broom or brush on its bristles in the closet. Screw cup-hook at the end of the handle and hang it up so the bristles don’t touch the floor. This prevents the brush from losing its shape or wearing out sooner than necessary.
4. Windows will require less elbow grease to clean if you moisten a rag with some glycerine and use it on those dirty panes. They’ll stay clean longer too.
5. Clean and shine mirrors at the same time by adding a little borax to the water used for washing them. Another way to brighten mirrors is to rub with a cloth dampened with a little alcohol.
6. Remove paint splashes from windows and mirrors by washing with turpentine or ammonia, or hot vinegar. Never use a razor as it may scratch the glass.
7. Always dry scrubbing brushes with the bristles down, in the sun, if possible.
8. A small open market basket with a handle makes a fine cleaning basket, easily carried from room to room. Holds small brushes, dusters, polishes, cleansers, etc. Also mentioned here: House Cleaning Kit – Tips & Ideas.
9. Make your own treated dusters this way: Dip 18-inch cheesecloth squares in a solution of 2 cups hot water and 1/4 cup lemon oil. Squeeze out excess liquid and dry. Also found here: DIY: Pretreated Dusters or Dusting Rags.
10. Picture glass is best cleaned with a cloth wrung out of hot water and dipped in alcohol. Polish at once with a chamois cloth until dry and glossy.
11. Sounds silly but it works! Stale, soft chunks of bread, rubbed over wallpaper in even, vertical strokes, “erase” the soiled spots–even very visible fingermarks.
12. Varnished surfaces can usually be cleaned nicely with a cloth dipped in cool, weak tea. That’s right! Cool, weak tea.
13. After washing the supper dishes, the draining boards at the side of the sink should be given a good scrubbing with hot soapy water. This should be sufficient to keep them sweet and clean. If, for any reason they have become badly soiled, a little soda should be added to the scrubbing water. The dish-mop and dish-cloth should be well washed, and squeezed in a hot soapy lather, thoroughly rinsed in clear, hot water, and wrung out. It is then a good plan to shake out the mop and stand it head up in an empty sealer kept for the purpose at the side of the sink.
14. When “washing up” put a piece of lemon peel into the dish-pan. It will soften the water, remove all traces of the smell of fish, onions, and so on, and put a fine gloss on china.
15. Sparkle up enameled wood by cleaning with 2 quarts of warm water to which 3 tablespoons of household ammonia and some mild soap have been added. Be sure to rinse with plain water and to dry thoroughly.
16. To clean crevices in carved pieces of furniture, use a cotton-wrapped orange wood stick or wooden skewer.
17. Repair crayons will also do a good job of camouflaging scratches, dents or nicks in furniture or woodwork. Select a crayon which matches wood, and melt. Work the melted crayon into the wood until the damage is concealed.
18. Wicker furniture should be cleaned by scrubbing with a stiff brush moistened with warm salt water. Salt keeps the wicker from turning yellow.
19. White furniture can be cleaned by dissolving baking soda in warm water and applying the solution to the furniture with a soft cloth. Then rub with a dry cloth. Use a teaspoon of the solution to a pint of water.
20. Try this treatment to get rid of mildew in valuable books. Brush each spot off, page by page, with an absolutely clean, dry cloth or cleaning tissue. Open the book and air in a dry, sunny place. If mildew is exceptionally bad, sprinkle French chalk on the page. Close the book and several days later brush the chalk out.

Find plenty more Homemade Cleaner Recipes here and Cleaning Tips here.

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