WFMW - Favorite Cleaning Tips

It's always easier for me to think of something to post when I'm given a subject, and today's is favorite cleaning tips. So, here are some of my favorites:

1) Keep a paper towel in the bottom of the produce drawers of the fridge. This makes cleaning up after squishy fruit much easier. (Of course, you could always eat the fruit before it becomes squishy, but that's not a cleaning tip.)

2) Clean the microwave immediately after the spaghetti sauce spatters. Don't wait for days. A couple of seconds now saves minutes of scrubbing later. (Once again, you could remember to cover your spaghetti and prevent the problem in the first place.)

3) Store cleaning supplies in multiple places. This prevents the "Oh, I would scrub the sink right now if only I had a sponge handy" procrastination. Two vacuums in a two-story house is a wise investment.

4) Make things easier to put away than to get out. For example, our kids had shoe baskets, not shoe shelves. Although it took a couple of minutes to find a matching pair in the morning, they could just toss them in at night instead of having to place them neatly on a shelf. That way they were less likely to leave them in the middle of the room.

5) Put a coat of car wax on the shower door and then wipe it down after each use. You'll remember from this post a couple of years ago that keeping them sparkling is something I struggle with. Your advice was great, and I tried all of it. However, I'm not very good at remembering to scrub every week. When we replaced a faucet under warranty (and the customer service rep saw a picture of my non-shiny, spotted faucet), she suggested that I keep a coat of wax on the new one and it would stay shiny. She was right! And it works on shower doors as well. So, once you've scrubbed and gotten it clean, keep it that way by drying it off daily. (I just keep a spare hand towel next to my bath towel. The kids' shower door still gets spotted because I don't go in there every day to dry it off and I haven't taught them to make it a habit!) So, this is another tip that shows that taking a few seconds now saves hours later.

What are your favorite spring cleaning tips? There are some good ones over at Works for Me Wednesday. For example, try here and here and here. Oh, and here's one of mine from a while ago.