How to Use Lemon for House Cleaning

Few natural products are as versatile as lemon for almost every household cleaning task. A degreaser, whitener, deodorizer, and polisher, lemon, when used for just 15 minutes, can reduce microbial counts by about 75 percent thanks to its acidity. This also helps you avoid wasting lemons when you have too many and no longer know how to use them in your kitchen. Lemon's versatility in household cleaning is further enhanced by its combination with two other natural substances that should not be missing from your home. Don't waste: let's talk about...vinegar and bicarbonate.

Index of topics

To degrease in the kitchen

Lemon juice dissolves grease very well, making it perfect for washing dishes and cutting boards.

How to use it:

Mix lemon juice + warm water.

Pass the solution on:

hob
work surface
hood
kitchen tiles

To remove limescale

Lemon is very effective against limescale thanks to its citric acid.

Use it for:

taps
sink
shower

With this method:

rubbed half a lemon directly on the limestone
leave to act for 5–10 minutes
rinse and dry

To eliminate bad smells from cutting boards

Thanks to lemon, some bad smells, especially those of garlic, onion or fish, disappear from cutting boards.

It is used like this:

Sprinkle the cutting board with salt
Rub with half a lemon
Rinse

To eliminate bad smells from the sink

Even in this case, lemon is very effective, and that's it:

Squeeze half a lemon in the drain
to slide the warm water

To wash the dishes

In this case the simplest and fastest method is the following:

Cut half a lemon
Squeeze a few drops on the sponge
Scrub the dishes as if with detergent
Rinse with warm water

To do the laundry

Lemon can help brighten yellowed whites.

For laundry, it should be used like this:

Fill a basin with hot water
Add the juice of 1–2 lemons
Soak white clothes for 1 hours
Wash normally by hand or in the washing machine

For cleaning steel, copper and brass objects

Lemon makes many metals shiny again.

Use it like this

add to the lemon a pinch of salt
scrub with a sponge
rinse and dry

When not to use lemon for house cleaning

Lemon should not be used for house cleaning when:

you need to wash clothes made of delicate fabrics, such as linen and silk
marble surfaces need to be cleaned
you need to clean and wash iron pots and pans

House cleaning that can be done with lemon