Even before I had a chronic illness, cleaning was a necessary evil. I wish I would have known these house cleaning secrets a long time ago. Cleaning the house with a chronic illness can be overwhelming. So, you have to be smart and use the right cleaning products to make life easier. From the best bathroom cleaning tools to the most clever kitchen cleaning hacks–you will benefit from knowing these su
Before I knew these chronic illness cleaning hacks, I would kick myself when it came time to clean the house (and I couldn’t put it off any longer without being reported to the CDC.) LOL :
Now that I live with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Chronic Pain, I simply don’t have much energy left over for cleaning. I need some heavy duty chronic illness cleaning hacks. You probably need some helpful cleaning tips too, especially ones that take into account your limitations, challenges, or disability.
I have gathered a list of the best house cleaning tools for disabled Chronic Warriors like you and me.
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✅ Kitchen Cleaning Hacks for the Chronically Ill
The kitchen is one place that you could seriously jeopardize your health if you don’t keep it germ-free. I am not saying you have to go crazy and become a
1. Use a Soap Dispensing Dish Brush
I love this one. I find that if I give the dish or pot a quick scrub under running water and a little soap right after I am done
Scotch-Brite makes these great heavy-duty ones and they come with refill scrub pads.
Quick Tip: Since dish-cleaning can get grimy and leftover food can breed germs, buy a brush with replaceable heads.
2. Use your stovetop and dish soap for cleaning pots & pans.
But, sometimes you can’t clean your pots & pans right away. Then by the time you get to cleaning it, the food really hard to clean off. So the trick my mom taught me, is to fill the pot with water and dish soap then put it on the stovetop and heat the pot up almost high enough to boil the water. The leftover food particles soften up. You then dump out the water and it can be easily cleaned. This kitchen cleaning hack will save you time and energy!
3. Use Select-A-Size Paper Towels
We use Bounty Select-A-Size. It is easier to clean up after small spills and I don’t waste a whole paper towel. Now don’t get me wrong, there are times I need a lot of paper towels with 4 kids running around 😉
4. Line pans with aluminum foil before you bake.
I bake a lot of chicken and I use my jelly roll pans (like this one.) For seriously easy clean up, I line the pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil and when I am done
My favorite foil for this kind of job is Reynolds Heavy Duty Foil. I have tried other brands (and store brands), but they just aren’t as strong.
✅ See more of the best pans for baking, roasting, and broiling. (Check Prices)
5. Use Clorox Wipes wherever you suspect germs.
Clorox Wipes are seriously one of the best products to make cleaning easier, in my
I even wipe down my granite counter-tops on a daily basis with these wipes. I know some of you may be cringing, but I have been doing it over 10 years and my granite is still in top-notch condition!
✅ The Best Bathroom Cleaning Tools & Hacks to Make Life Easier
If I hate to bet, cleaning your bathroom (especially with a chronic illness) is probably your least favorite part of your house to deal with. Your best cleaning hack for bathrooms is to make use of the best cleaning products to make life easier. Some of the most surprising cleaning tips come form using the best bathroom cleaning tools on the market. Here are some of my favorite bathroom house cleaning secrets.
6. Use disposable toilet wand scrubbers for ucky toilet bowls.
Cleaning toilets has to be my most hated task when it comes to cleaning. So when I found this toilet wand that Clorox makes, I was so excited. I don’t have to touch anything except the clean toilet wand handle. What an amazing bathroom cleaning tool! I just stick a new scrubbing pad on it, clean the inside of the toilet bowl, and click the release button straight into my garbage can. The scrubbing pad drops right in and my hands are germ-free and my toilet bowl is clean. Boom.
7. Use Clorox Wipes to clean the toilet seat.
I know I may sound like an infomercial, but yes I LOVE my Clorox wipes. Using a wipe to quickly clean the toilet seat is quick, easy, and effective in killing germs-especially when you end up having unexpected guests at your door!
✅ Check today’s best price for Clorox Wipes!
8. Use Rainex after you clean your shower.
The hardest part about keeping a shower clean is scrubbing those hard water stain buildups. I use
*Update: Rainex NOW makes a shower door version of its original product.
Want to remove hard water stains the easy way?
9. Use a drill brush to clean bathroom surfaces like bathtubs.
When I first heard about this, I had to chuckle. Really?!? A drill to clean your bathroom. One of my disabled readers told me about it when I polled them for the best house cleaning tools for
You can also get a long handle drill so you don’t have to get on your knees or bend over and stretch to reach the furthest parts of the bathtub (I have one of those big bathtubs and short legs.) This is my newest favorite cleaning product to make life easier!
This gets a Gold-Star from
10. Use compressed air cans to clean bathroom vent fans.
I bet you never would have guessed that
Just make sure you’re careful with whatever you use to get up high enough to reach it. While your there, why not just clean the light bulbs and fixtures too?
READ MORE HELPFUL CHRONIC ILLNESS HACKS:
- Free Printable for Doctor’s Appointments: Th One Thing You Should Bring to Every Appointment
- 5 Brain-Friendly Tips: How to Get Organized When You Don’t Know Where to Start
- 17 Marvelously Useful Kitchen Gadgets to That Will Make Your Life Easier
- 30 Mind-Blowing Kitchen Hacks that Make Cooking Easier with Chronic Illness
- How to Keep Medications Straight When You Live with a Chronic Illness
✅ General Household Chronic Illness Cleaning Hacks
House cleaning secrets are all over the internet. Cleaning house with a chronic illness is easier when you know the best of these surprising cleaning tips. These are
11. Use Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to clean walls, doors, and so much more.
This is one of my favorite hacks and house cleaning secrets. I love Mr. Clean Magic Erasers almost as much as I love Clorox Wipes.
In their toddler years, my kids are graffiti artists in training. So we go through A LOT of these magic erasers. I can’t tell you how many different types of marks we have cleaned off our walls, furniture, cabinets, and doors through the years. (I have 4 kiddos but my girls seem to be the most interested in graffiti).
✅ Update: Now they make Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Cleaning Sheets. These sheets are thin and flexible to get into the corners and other hard to reach spots. (See what customers are saying about these)
12. Use baby wipes to clean . . .like everything.
I saw this awesome quote once, “Baby wipes are the Swiss knife of parenting.”
So true! Especially to clean marker ink off of furniture (non-fabric), cabinets, floors, and kids. A surprising tip, I know, but baby wipes are very powerful cleaning products to make life easier.
There are a ton more ways to use baby wipes to clean. Even after all of my kids are out of diapers and potty
I do recommend going with Amazon’s brand because they are much cheaper and if you are using them for cleaning, then you don’t need special ones like “Natural” or “Hypoallergenic.”
13. Use Windex Electronic Wipes for quick screen clean-up.
Our TV screens never stay hand-print free for long. We use these awesome Windex Electronic Wipes for everything including laptops, phones, iPads, TVs. This is so quick to do and you just throw the wipes away when you are done. We usually have so much grime and buildup that using microfiber cloths makes me nervous. I don’t want to clean off
So these disposable wipes is one of the great products to make cleaning easier.
14. Use long-handled Swiffer Dusters
You probably already know about these Swiffer Dusters. They have been around a while and the company has continued to improve on the original designs. Now there is
15. Use hot water and an old towel to clean up spills on carpet and furniture.
I have to give a shout-out to my mother-in-law for this one. This surprising cleaning tip may seem counterintuitive, but I promise it works. It certainly doesn’t cost you anything to try it. When you have a spill that needs to be cleaned up, you automatically think “What cleaner should I use?” Right?
But the truth is that cleaners will leave a
So you are better off just soaking up what you can with a dry towel, then going back over it with hot water and a towel and scrubbing the heck out of it. (I usually leave this up to my hubby because his hands are stronger.)
*Note: Some spills and stains need to be treated like red wine, paint and such. In those cases you may have to use a special cleaner.
See Today’s Sale Prices on Chronic Illness Cleaning Products
I have to finish this post with a funny story (not funny at the time) and a request. My oldest daughter went through a much more destructive graffiti phase. We broke her of the habit and encouraged her to become an artist who uses paper, canvases, and other appropriate media to express her talent. She is actually quite the artist today and I suspect she will grow up and that will be a major focus in her career path.
But, back to my story. Several years ago, we bought a new couch for our family room. Just a few months went by until my daughter decided to use a Sharpie marker to draw a landscape scene on the back of our couch. (Insert expletive). Luckily, the best place for the couch in our family room is up against a wall. But still . . .
So here is my request. Do you know a cleaning hack that removes black Sharpie marker from fabric?
*Note: When I was a new wife and mom, I remember hearing about The “Flylady.” She had some great ideas on keeping up with cleaning in little chunks of time. Check out her Babysteps program to get started with some easy and simple ideas for keeping your house clean and organized.
P.S. Would you do me a favor and pin 15 Seriously Genius Cleaning Hacks for me?
