Sometimes the old ways are the best – after all, the tried-and-tested methods your grandparents swore by have been getting the job done for generations. From natural cleaning recipes to money-saving ideas to make supplies stretch further, some tricks really do stand the test of time. 

Click or scroll on to discover some proven household wisdom that will make your home sparkle and run like clockwork...

If your best knits are suffering from moth holes, did you know you can create your own repellant?

Simply place dried bay leaves or lavender into a small cloth bag and hang them in your wardrobe or put them in your clothes drawers to keep the critters at bay. You can also use rosemary or thyme if you prefer those scents.

Make changing the bed sheets a breeze with this handy tip: simply place the folded duvet cover inside its matching pillowcase and fold. Next time it comes to changing beds there will be no searching for a matching set.

Another handy pillowcase hack is to place knitted jumpers inside a pillowcase to keep them safe from moths and dust. It will offer protection for your prized knits while still allowing the fabric to breathe. Genius!

Flowers don't always arrive in tip-top condition so if they are looking a little drab, this hack will be sure to revive them.

Plunge your blooms into hot water to bring them back to life, making sure to move the flower heads out of the way of any steam. After the water has cooled, trim the stems as normal and pop them in a vase in some fresh cold water. 

It can be hard to pull out long nails that have been driven deep into thick wood without this handy trick.

Placing a small block of wood underneath your hammer or carpenter's pincers will give you extra leverage to pull out the long nail without losing grip. 

Notoriously hard to clean, the inside of bottles can be rinsed out with a mixture of sand and water.

After a good shake, the abrasive combination will clean out all those hard-to-reach corners. Just make sure to properly rinse out the bottle afterwards and leave it to air dry. 

Stacking glasses is perfect for saving space, however, when they get stuck they can be in danger of breaking.

The easiest old-school way to remedy this is by filling the upper glass with ice-cold water and plunging the lower glass into warm water. With a slight nudge, they should come apart easily.

While a dustpan and brush will sweep up larger shards of glass, to get rid of all the tiny unseen bits, there are a few effective things you can use.

Try using children's play dough, a piece of bread or even a damp cloth. Simply dab your chosen material on top of the small splinters so they adhere to the surface and then throw the used material away. Your floor will soon be clean and safe to walk on again.

Keep on top of housework with a schedule that follows the seasons. Include daily tasks such as making beds, then add in weekly chores such as changing bed linen, monthly jobs such as washing windows and finally seasonal projects such as curtain laundering.

You can find plenty of templates online, from daily checklists to decluttering plans. Thanks, internet.  

It pays to make your bed as soon as you rise to get a jump on the day.

But did you know that turning down your blankets to air the sheets reduces bacteria in the bed? Also, open your bedroom windows at least once a week – it really does help clean out dust and germs.

Try and have a monthly clear-out to avoid things building up. If there's no space for something, ask yourself if you really need it or if a redundant item can be thrown out to make space for it. 

Brandsale sideboard available from Shelved.

Corners are often problem areas where we throw things that we don’t know where to put. But, they can soon look cluttered.

Try adding one storage basket for random items and go through it when it gets full and put everything away or donate it to charity.

Jute rug available from Alternative Flooring.

Our grandma would use any excuse to rearrange the furniture – so much so that our grandad would often whack his shins on a newly positioned coffee table – and now we can really see the benefit.

As well as shaking things up if your home is feeling a bit tired, you can experiment with where to place furniture to get the optimum layout. You can even swap whole rooms around to see if they function more efficiently.

Waste is the ultimate sin and one way to keep on top of it is to know what's in your pantry. Check what you have before you buy extra and try to use up what you’ve bought before you get more. Keep your cupboards organised with nifty little baskets.

Stackable pantry basket available from A Place For Everything.

Place all cleaning products organised in a caddy. It's a simple storage solution that makes household tasks quicker and easier.

Opt for a design with a handle and use it to carry staple products like polish, antibacterial spray, cloths, rubber gloves and window cleaner about the house. Trust us – your cleaning jobs will take much less effort with a cleaning caddy. 

Ceiling fans collect dust quickly. Stop blades from throwing particles around the room by cleaning them weekly with an old pillowcase.

Slide the open end of a clean pillowcase over the paddle, press down and then slide back, keeping all the dust inside the pillowcase as you remove it. 

Vinegar and salt work very well on brass that's seen better days.

In the book The Miracle of Vinegar, authors Aggie Mackenzie and Emma Marsden suggest cleaning brass by rubbing it with a damp cloth soaked in any type of vinegar and sprinkled with salt. The metal will instantly take on its original lovely shine. Rinse and buff dry with a soft cotton cloth to finish.   

After cleaning windows with your usual cleaning product or a diluted white vinegar solution, use an old sheet of newspaper to wipe away streaks on the window pane glass. 

The paper and ink act as a light abrasive when you wipe in a circular motion and the results are flawless.

Want to renew the steel soleplate on your iron? Here's a simple time-tested hack to revive your iron with a couple of simple household items.

Place a plain piece of A4 paper on your ironing board and sprinkle it generously with salt. Run a warm iron over the paper a few times, then unplug and leave it to cool down. Once cold, you should be able to easily wipe away the salt and grime. 

Almost every 1950s housework book advises washing walls from the bottom up. This is because if cleaning solution runs down the wall it is less likely to cause permanent streaks on a clean surface than a dirty one.

However, if you make sure your cleaning solution is sparingly applied and dribbles are wiped as soon as they appear streaks should be minimal. 

Give your stainless steel kitchen appliances, pots and pans a professional streak-free shine with regular baby oil. First clean items with dish soap and water along the grain to get rid of watermarks and stubborn food spills. Then polish up with baby oil for a gleam that would impress a chef. ​

Good quality vegetable oil does the job too and is safe for anything you might want to cook with.

Odd socks are a laundry day dilemma. So, here's a new purpose for the lonely 'soles'. Pop them on like mittens to transform them into a practical dust buster.

They apparently also make especially good Venetian blind cleaners – tilt slats to a fully closed position and wipe across them or open fully and run the sock gently in between the slats. 

Bicarbonate of soda is a non-toxic cleaning staple that works wonders on almost any cleaning task.

You can even use it to refresh carpets. RugDirect.co.uk explains it is effective for removing both greasy and non-greasy stains and to elimate odours simply sprinkle the powder over carpets and rugs in the evening and leave it overnight.

In the morning when you vacuum the area, you’ll find that the area smells fresh all over again.

Vanish carpet dents left by heavy furniture with ordinary ice cubes. Lay the cubes on the affected area and leave them to melt. Blot any excess water and repeat if necessary. Then when the fibres are all back in shape and the area is dry, you can vacuum the carpet normally.  

Lemon is a natural cleaner and deodoriser. Paired with salt, it cuts through grease leaving a refreshing citrus scent. Sprinkle some coarse salt over your board, then scrub with half a lemon. Rinse with water and let it dry. It will neutralise those lingering onion and garlic smells.

You can also leave half a lemon in the fridge to keep it smelling fresh.

If you’re keen to avoid chemical-laden air fresheners and plug-ins, why not try this tip from Shirley from Louisiana: "Before I invite guests over, I boil a small pot of water and I add a few drops of vanilla extract to it.

"Sometimes I add orange peels. I leave this on the oven for a few minutes to get my entire home smelling good." 

Cola has been around for decades and thanks to its powerful cleaning properties, you can use it to help remove grease from your pots and pans.

If you have baked-on food in a pot or saucepan, add a can of cola to it and place it on the hob on a low heat. Leave it for 30 minutes or an hour if it’s really baked on, then remove from the heat. Use a scouring pad or sponge to scrub away the grime. 

Give your laundry and soft furnishings a natural and refreshing scent with a homemade linen and room spray. All you need is witch hazel, distilled water, essential oils, and a spray bottle.

You could add a squeeze of lemon, lime or orange juice for a fruity aroma – or place sprigs of your favourite botanicals in the bottle, such as rosemary or eucalyptus. 

Drying clothes outside is cheap, eco-friendly and gives laundry a fresh clean smell better than any fabric softener. But did you know that sunlight is a great natural whitener and brightener too? For an extra boost, spritz stains with a mixture of lemon juice and water before washing. 

Changing bed linen doesn't need to be a dreaded chore. Once you've put two duvet corners into the cover keep them in place with pegs and then pull the rest of the fabric down into place. It's that easy!

Use traditional wooden clothes pegs or go for discreet quilt cover clips, which can be kept in place while sleeping too. 

Keep underwear and delicates in a bag when washing and you'll never be left with odd socks again. This will also protect your washing machine from loose bra wires, beads and sequins, which could break the machine. 

Here's another bicarbonate of soda household trick.

To make your washing machine as good as new, mix the powder into a paste with water. Then clean the inside of the drum, plastic rim and drawer to remove slime and grime. Finally, mix a new batch with white or clear vinegar and pour it into your detergent drawer, then run a hot cycle to thoroughly refresh the internal pipes.  

Teach your pets to stay away from furniture by mixing a homemade chew barrier. Cats and dogs do not like the smell or bitter taste of vinegar so will hopefully be repelled.

Try this recipe that costs just pennies to make: mix up one part vinegar with two parts apple cider vinegar. Simply, water it down for a milder spray. 

Crochet pads and cloths are sustainable and make a great yarn project for beginners. The texture of the crochet stitches is ideal for cleaning delicate surfaces without leaving scratch marks. Plus the pads can be washed and reused again and again.

Dried lavender has been used for centuries to add scent to homes but did you know it also repels moths, fleas, mosquitos and even scorpions?

Place lavender bouquets or linen pouches filled with dried buds on windowsills to keep those unwanted creepy crawlies outside. 

Here's a thrifty tip: make cleaning sponges last twice as long by cutting each one in half before use. Not only will this keep costs down but it's also better for the environment and the smaller sizes will help reach into awkward angles and corners.

To increase longevity further, pop them in the dishwasher to sterilise.

Whether it's made of polyester, a nylon cotton blend or linen, a long wet shower curtain stuck to the bath in a warm environment will breed bacteria and mould.

To eliminate the problem and increase the lifespan of your shower curtain, cut and hem the fabric so it falls a few inches into the bath or skims the shower tray. Very clever.

Make sure your houseplants are getting the water they need with a consistent watering system that keeps the soil moist even when you are away from home.

Feed a shoelace or piece of yarn – known as a wick – into a potted plant's soil and submerge the other end in water. Water will flow up the wick to water the plant with just the right amount of moisture. This is what's known scientifically as a 'capillary action'. 

Improve the performance of your scissors with aluminium foil. Fold the foil lengthwise several times to create a thick folded strip. Working along the length, cut into the foil with a full cut. Repeat several times and test by snipping a piece of paper. 

The foil will remove any little burs from the cutting edge, so they will feel sharper and cut better.

While minimising food waste may feel like a Generation Z invention, our grandparents (and their grandparents) were doing it long before it became fashionable.  

Those who lived through rationing know not to let good food go to rot, and making pickles, preserves, and conserves is a way of using up old vegetables and fruit to save them from the recycling bin, so isn't it time you invested in some jars? 

Here's another aluminium foil trick – this one helps keep the home cosy.

While you can buy radiator reflectors to reduce heat loss from your radiators, a cost-savvy method is to put a sheet of tinfoil behind the radiator to reflect radiant heat away from the wall. The foil will bounce heat back into the room and help reduce energy costs. Clever!

Ironing is one bit of housework we do our best to avoid, but what if there was a trick that let you have hotel-style crisp bed linen with minimal effort?

A little effort goes a long way, so try this: remove your bed sheets from the dryer (or the washing line if you’re going full-on grandma) before they are completely dry, fold them neatly to a manageable size and then iron the top sheet (being careful not to actually iron the crease).

When you unfold, the whole sheet will look like it's come fresh from a hotel laundry.

Rather than splash out on expensive furniture polish, have a little dig around under the sink for your old faithful shoe polish. 

This household staple is great for cleaning up scuffs and scratches on wooden furniture. Always test on an inconspicuous spot first to see how it will react on your piece.

Toothpaste is one of those household essentials that has many good uses.  As well as zapping spots and helping remove stains, a squeeze of toothpaste (not gel) is great for cleaning silverware.  

Simply add some to an old toothbrush, give the item a good scrub, rinse with warm water and dry with a soft cloth and your silver will shine once more. The same method works well on jewellery.  

We’ve all been there – we’ve cooked a meal and been a bit over-zealous with the heat and been left with food stuck to the bottom of the pan. But rather than steeping the pan in hot water overnight (and having to face the washing-up the next day) there is another way.  

Boil a fresh pan of water and hold the offending pan over the steam and the food will soon soften enough that you can scrub it off.  

Fed up with the never-ending washing cycle and having to dry clothes and fold them every day? Then nominate a day for washing and launder all your clothes that day.  

Not only is it an excuse to have a day at home but it will free up your time for the rest of the week. 

As well as changing our bed sheets regularly, we also need to air them to kill off dust mites and other nasties.   

On a fresh and dry day, lift the mattress down to the garden and leave it outside for an hour or two to give it a good airing and that night you’ll sleep better than ever.  

The best way to stay on top of housework is to avoid it building up, so clean a little as you go and try and respond to issues quickly. This includes things like cleaning spillages right away, rather than letting them sink in, and preventing problems in the first place.

A simple measure such as placing rugs and mats by doorways to stop dirt from being trodden through the house could save you a lot of cleaning in the long run.

If, like us, you are fed up with throwing out herbs that have gone past their best, freeze them for future meals.  
 
Simply fill an ice cube tray with some chopped up herbs and olive oil, pop in the freezer, and next time you’re cooking a dish that requires some nice herbs you just melt the ice cubes in a pan.  

Ink stains were once a common problem as many a person kept a pen in their shirt pocket and leaks were frequent. You’ll be pleased of this trick if you ever fall victim to it and it also works for felt-tips for your children’s more creative moments. 

Simply, put the stained garment in a bowl of milk overnight and the fat in the milk will break down the ink, so when it goes in the washing machine the next morning it should wash out fine.

Tired of buying expensive razor blades? You can make them last longer by running them along a pair of jeans – just be careful not to tear the fabric. This sharpening trick is a game changer.  

Did you know that you can grow a plant from a single seed? Every fruit and vegetable we eat starts life this way and everything from an avocado pit to the seeds found inside a pumpkin can be replanted.

For the most part, scrape a handful of seeds from your chosen vegetable, soak in water, then rinse and allow to dry for a week before storing in an airtight container. When you're ready, add them to soil and keep them watered.

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