Buzz
The idea of discovering a shortcut that simplifies or reduces the cost of household chores is incredibly appealing, especially when it involves cleaning your home. TikTok is flooded with such tips, but many of these so-called cleaning “hacks” offer only surface-level solutions, spread inaccuracies, or highlight the gaps in STEM education. Here are a few widely shared cleaning tricks from social media that fail to deliver on their promises.
Using boiling water to mop floors
If you spend time on CleanTok, you’ll likely encounter suggestions to mop your floors with boiling water. At first glance, this seems logical—boiling water is used for sterilization and making it safe to consume, so why not apply it to cleaning floors? However, this method isn’t as effective as it appears.
The primary reason is that your floor isn’t built to handle the extreme heat of boiling water. Sealed hardwood floors can warp and swell, while vinyl and certain laminate floors may loosen as the adhesive deteriorates. The most concerning part is that the damage might not be immediately visible, allowing you to unknowingly harm your floors over time before realizing the consequences of this cleaning hack.
Using aspirin to brighten white clothing
Some people remain deeply concerned about being judged for dull-looking whites and go to great lengths to restore their brightness. In your quest for quick fixes, you might stumble upon videos like this one, which recommend crushing aspirin tablets and adding them to your laundry for a dramatic whitening effect.
Not only does this hack complicate your life—imagine grinding pills instead of simply using bleach—but it’s also ineffective. To be precise, it doesn’t work well. Aspirin dissolves into salicylic acid in water, which has minimal cleaning properties and almost no bleaching effect. Internet, you’ve missed the mark this time.
Using a Magic Eraser to clean the toilet
Cleaning the toilet is a chore everyone dreads. So, when someone suggests that dropping a Magic Eraser into the tank can keep your toilet bowl spotless, it’s hard not to pay attention. Imagine never having to scrub that bowl again!
Unfortunately, this method is ineffective. Magic Erasers don’t contain any cleaning agents or detergents (unless specified). They rely solely on mechanical action, meaning they only work when you scrub with them.
Using cola as a cleaning agent
While colas are acidic and can slightly affect dirt and stains, they’re also packed with sugar, leaving behind a sticky mess. They streak glass and shiny surfaces and have no ability to kill germs. It’s not entirely pointless, but it’s baffling why anyone would choose this over purpose-made cleaning products that clean, sanitize, and rinse away cleanly.
Adding lemons to laundry and dishwashers
Similar to cola, many TikTok and social media users advocate for lemons as cleaning solutions due to their acidity and refreshing scent, which we often link to cleanliness. While citric acid does act as a decent solvent for dirt, in theory, adding lemon wedges to your dishwasher or lemon juice to your laundry should work. However, in practice, it falls short of expectations.
The main issue is the quantity required: You’d need roughly 1/2 cup of lemon juice to see any effect, but a single lemon only yields about one tablespoon. This means juicing around eight lemons, which is far more effort than simply using detergent.
Using paper towels to remove Tupperware stains
Despite our best efforts, plastic food containers often develop stubborn orange stains that make them appear dirty even after washing. Online advice suggests resisting the urge to replace them and instead using dish soap, water, and a paper towel to shake away the stains.
However, as The Spruce notes, this method likely only works on fresh stains. Older, set-in stains won’t budge, making this hack less of a miracle solution and more of a partial fix.
