Speed Cleaning Tip - Let it sit

Many years ago I bought a book called "Speed Cleaning" at a library discarded book sale.  THIS is the book.  There is a picture of the book on my right side bar.  If you want to order the book, my suggestion would be to find the cheapest used version, which at the moment is $1.51, plus $3.99 shipping.  I've decided to review the book again and try to put some of its ideas to work in my home.

One idea is that when you have a grimy area to clean, a dried on spill, or built up stains, spray the area, or simply squeeze some water on it.  Instead of using your time and elbow grease, let the liquid do the work.  Move on to something else for a few minutes and when you come back, you just wipe it off!

Saturday I put this idea to work with this bottle of spray cleaner I bought on the dollar aisle at Dollar General.  This stuff works so great!  I have bought Tilex in the past, but no more.  For one dollar, you would not believe how well it works. 

First of all I worked on the stainless steel sinks in the kitchen.  Here's a before picture.   The brown stuff is a build up of coffee, etc.  It is pretty easy to clean by scrubbing, but I just sprayed the cleaner, walked away a few minutes and when I came back, all I had to do was rinse!



Before with yucky brown build up.

This picture shows the drain after I sprayed it and walked away.



Spray and let it sit!

This is after rinsing the cleaner down the drain.



After rinsing, no scrubbing.

I was on a roll and so here are pictures of more areas I applied the spray, let it sit, and came back and rinsed or wiped away the grime.




The sink in the laundry/bathroom.



The top of the freezer had stains and a build up of dust.

The knobs on the stove had a build up of grime, even though we wiped them every time we cooked.  I hadn't even noticed until I put on my reading glasses and looked close!  That's another tip!  Put on your reading glasses, or just get close.  You will be amazed at the grime that is there that you don't notice.





I removed the knobs, sprayed, and let them sit.

They are nice and clean now.



Clean knobs.

One thing I can't stand is a grimy can opener.  There can be all kinds of bacteria on there from food and seems like a recipe for food poisoning to me.  I removed the part that actually opens the cans and let it go through a dishwasher cycle.  Then I sprayed the rest of the can opener with my spray with bleach, let it sit and then wiped off all the grime.  Here's my clean and sparkly can opener.

The next area I plan to put this idea to work on is the white cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom.  I can clean a few doors a day.  This one definitely needs some cleaning.

I hope this post gives you some ideas of ways to use the wet it, let it sit and rinse, speed cleaning idea.

Do you spray grime and let it soak, or do you "scrub it now"?