One ‘humble’ fruit could be the key to helping us clean our homes by banishing stains and nasty odours in no time – and most of us already have one in our fruit bowl
Using a common tasty fruit to clean your house could work wonders.
With people looking to save money wherever possible and wanting to move away from expensive cleaning products full of chemicals, many of us have turned to natural cleaning methods such as bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar. But did you know there’s actually a popular fruit that could help you clean your house too?
One cleaning expert has explained that lemons can be “cleaning miracles” for many jobs around our homes. Not only can lemons get rid of stains, but they also have the added benefit of leaving behind a gorgeous citrus scent.
Paulo Filho, the owner of Celestial Commercial Cleaning Service, told The Sun: “Nature holds the key to many cleaning miracles but our favourite is the humble lemon. Its acidic properties work wonders on stains and odours, leaving behind a refreshing citrus that our clients love.”
According to Good Housekeeping, lemons can be used for multiple jobs around the house, including freshening up your microwave to banish foul smells, removing stains from your linen with a lemon and salt mixture, polishing metal, getting stains out of wooden chopping boards, and bringing the shine back to bathroom fixtures like taps and drains.
Lemons work as cleaning products because of their acidity, which makes them especially good at removing stains and brightening whites and metals. Clean Heart Maids states on their website: “Lemon, like vinegar, is an excellent cleaner. Lemon acid is naturally antibacterial and antiseptic and also serves as a natural bleach. Not only is lemon great to use as a natural cleanser, but the citrus scent is also energising and refreshing.”
However, it should be noted that lemons are not disinfectants, so they cannot be used to eliminate harmful germs from cooking surfaces, such as cleaning chopping boards that have had raw meat on them.
We previously shared a number of ways you can use lemons around your home, including one hack that used the fruit to restore the shine to bathroom taps that have become stained by hard water. All you need to do is cut a lemon in half and rub the cut side on the affected area.
You can even use lemon peels to keep pests out of your garden. We recently reported that foxes – who can cause a nuisance to homeowners by digging up plants and eating outdoor pets like rabbits – hate the smell of citrus fruits, so won’t come into your garden if they can smell lemons.
A single lemon will cost you less than 20p depending on where you shop. They are cheapest at Aldi with a pack of four setting you back 65p, meaning a single lemon is just 16p. Then at Asda, you will get the same deal with four lemons for 65p, or a single lemon will be 30p. Ocado offers five lemons in a pack, which will set you back £1.50 or 30p per lemon.
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