Home Cleaning Tools I Actually ENJOY Using

I don’t know what it is, but having cleaning tools that I genuinely love makes me so much more motivated to clean. If something smells amazing, works really well, or just makes the whole process easier, I’m way more likely to reach for it.

Over time, I’ve definitely developed my favorites. These are the cleaning tools I use on a regular basis to keep my home as clean as possible with four kids, a cat, and a dog!

Meet one of the main reasons I have to clean so much. This is our Saint Bernard, Georgia.

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1. Floor Tools – dust mop, wet mop, vacuum, shampooer

Freshly cleaned floors are the best and cleaning floors is my favorite task in the house. I’m always barefoot and I hate feeling dirt or grime on the floors. Also, my youngest is still a crawler, so I like the floors to always be clean so she doesn’t get dirty throughout the day.

When the floors are clean, somehow the entire house instantly feels cleaner, even if that’s the only thing I got accomplished that day.

I have a process:

First, I vacuum. My favorite vacuum is my Dyson cordless stick vac. It took me a long time to decide to spend $400+ on a vacuum, but now I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner. There are higher-end, more expensive ones on the market, but I couldn’t fathom spending that much money on a vacuum. I also have a cheaper cordless stick vac which my teenagers use for their chores (their bedrooms and bathrooms) because there is no way I’m letting them touch my coveted Dyson! I also have a Shark Matrix Robo Vacuum. I purchased the refurbished one because once again, I couldn’t stomach spending the money on a used one especially if I didn’t know anything about it. It’s been going strong for 2+ years and I have it set to automatically do the hallways, kitchen, and living room again in the evening as a secondary clean-up because I don’t feel like vacuuming twice in one day.

Next, I dust mop. I used to be a Swiffer person. Let’s face it, they work! But I got tired of spending money on the pads, so I switched to reusable ones. They work just as well (if not better), and I feel so much better putting something in the laundry versus the trash.

Lastly, I mop. I’ve used a hundred different mops over the years, and I didn’t jump on the O-Cedar bandwagon until they came out with the RinseClean because it has separate compartments for dirty and clean water. I also have a Bissell SpinWave which I purchased when I was super pregnant and didn’t feel like actually mopping anymore. It works great more for a spot clean than an actual deep mopping, but it’s great if you have back issues or just want something quick and easy to use. It has now been passed onto my teenagers to do their bedrooms and bathrooms.

I know that seems like a lot, but I do my house in the same “pattern” every time, so the three steps might take me 20 minutes because I’m just so routine about it. The areas I do include the hallways, master bedroom/master bath, kitchen, living room, dining room, office, and the baby’s room.

Afterward, the whole house feels and smells amazing. My favorite floor cleaner is the Method Squirt & Mop because it comes in Almond scent and I just think it’s amazing smelling. It’s labeled for hardwood, but we have tile and it works just fine.

My carpet shampooer gets used just once a month, but after one use, it paid for itself. We don’t have carpet in any rooms, but we do have an area rug in each room, so once a month, I shampoo them. I used to either go to Lowe’s and rent the machine or just hire someone to come out. When I decided to give this shampooer a try, I wasn’t super hopeful because it’s obviously not commercial-grade, but it does the job. We don’t wear shoes in the house and the kids aren’t allowed to take food or drinks to their rooms, so nothing really gets “dirty”. It does still get a lot of build-up out that

a regular vacuum won’t touch, and it makes the rugs smell SO much better, so that’s a win for me!

2. Shower Squeegee

We have glass showers, which are beautiful when they’re clean. Miss a few days of cleaning them, and you’ve got a soap scum mess. Looking at dirty shower glass gives me anxiety, so I keep this squeegee and a bottle of shower cleaner in each shower. The glass gets a few sprays of cleaner and a quick squeegee before getting out, and that extra 30 seconds saves so much time from not having to clean soap scum off later!

Tip: if you do have soap scum/mildew on your shower glass, use water and some steel wool pads to buff the glass, then dry the glass and go back over it with regular window cleaner. Depending on the severity, you may have to repeat this process, but it’s the easiest way to get nasty glass clean! Just make sure your steel wool is grade #0000! Then if you switch to the squeegee method, you won’t have to worry about soap scum at all!

3. Ceiling Fan Duster

We have a ceiling fan in every room of our house, and also a child with allergies who is super susceptible to bronchitis, so I make sure to keep dust at bay. Ceiling fans collect so much dust so quickly, but I’m short! I got tired of having to drag a step stool around with me to every room so I could clean the fans. This ceiling fan duster makes my life so much easier and gets the job done twice as fast.

4. Blinds Duster

Ah, mini blinds. The quintessential dust collector.

I really despise this task, but it needs to be done. This is on my monthly cleaning list, but I swear that month goes by so quickly and I’m cleaning them again when it feels like I just did it yesterday.

Thankfully we have the wide blinds, so it makes this job a little easier, but using this mini blinds duster makes it a lot less aggravating. I just clamp it to each louver, swipe, done. It cleans both sides at the same time and my favorite part – they’re washable. Anything I can wash and reuse versus throwing away when I’m done usually gets my vote!

5. Carpet Squeegee

Do I vacuum every single day? Yes. I also have a Saint Bernard who sheds like crazy and I’m convinced I could spend $1,000 on a vacuum and her fur would find a way to embed itself into the carpet regardless.

That’s where this handy tool comes in. I don’t use it every single day, because honestly, a lot of days I call it “good enough” after vacuuming, but I know there’s still fur in the carpet so I whip this thing out. In a couple swipes, it gets out all that fur the vacuum left behind and makes me feel better about my life. It really is the little things :)

6. Window Cleaner Tool

Finally, windows. I’ll clean windows INSIDE the house all day long. Outside? UGH. I dread cleaning outside windows. Not only do we live right next to a semi-busy road and get vehicle dirt on our windows, but the pollen where we live is absolutely insane. Not to mention it’s stupid hot here most of the year so I don’t necessarily enjoy cleaning windows in a sauna.

But, once again, it needs to be done, so I grabbed this little guy and it was $35 I’d spend a hundred more times if I had to.

Fill the bottle with window cleaner, spray, wipe. Then use the vacuum squeegee part to dry and get rid of streaks. Now I’m not out there with a bucket, a car windshield squeegee, and a roll of paper towels sweating my butt off in the first five minutes.

7. Baking Soda and Peroxide

Baking soda & peroxide are a couple of those inexpensive things I always like having in the house. They’re simple, but they come in handy for deodorizing and all sorts of little cleaning jobs.

Aside from the box of baking soda that has a permanent home in our fridge, I love mixing these together for grout cleaning. Make a quick paste, put it on your grout, and scrub it an hour later. The baking soda will leave a residue, but just wipe it off with some water mixed with a little white vinegar. Your grout will be cleaner than any official grout cleaning product you can find, I promise.

If it’s a high-traffic area, grab some grout sealer so your nice clean grout stays that way!

I’m definitely not going to pretend that I love every aspect of cleaning, but I do love the feeling of having a clean, fresh home. And when I have products & tools that smell good, work well, and save me from unnecessary scrubbing, the whole process feels so much easier.

If I have to clean anyway, I might as well use things I actually enjoy using!