Cleaning Tricks From HGTV Stars You Should Be Using At Home

The homes always look so fabulous during the big reveals on your favorite HGTV shows, as do the stars' own properties during behind-the-scenes tours. So what's the secret? Fortunately, many of these design gurus aren't shy about sharing their favorite hacks for keeping spaces tidy.

Some of their favorite tips are backed by science, including clever ingredients you might not realize keep things spotless and disinfected. Other suggestions are more mindset-focused. Cleaning can be such an overwhelming chore. Sometimes having the motivation to start and the endurance to complete the task are the hardest parts. Your favorite stars know this. They deal with it every day, both in their personal lives and as a part of their brands. Just like you, they want to make cleaning as easy, effective, and long-lasting as possible. So, these are the cleaning tricks from HGTV stars you should be using at home.

Joanna Gaines revealed how she keeps her furniture looking new, even with lots of kids in the house. Trying to get rid of stains after the fact can be frustrating and even impossible. However, Gaines has a cleaning trick you can borrow to make upholstery and textiles more resilient to them in the first place. "We have drinks and stuff in there, and you know, there have been spills... we've had Cheetos," she explained about eating on light-colored furniture in the living room. "And again, I took precaution early on and spray the couches with Scotchgard," she said in a since-deleted Southern Living article.

Scotchgard Fabric Water Shield works well as stain protection because it is made from a type of synthetic latex. When sprayed on any fabric, like a couch cushion, the fluorochemicals in Scotchgard latex bond with the textile fibers and create a hydrophobic layer. Hydrophobic means that it repels water. Because of this water-repelling layer, any oils from Cheeto dust, or even spilled Coke, are less likely to stain the fabric, as they'll just roll right off. They can't sink in and ruin the cushion because there is an invisible chemical barrier in the way. For best results, Scotchgard recommends applying the spray at least once a year or after every deep clean.

Nicole Curtis, host of "Rehab Addict," started her career fixing up homes in a very different way. "If you don't know my backstory, I built my design and real estate business from...my cleaning business. My grandmother grew up in a Catholic orphanage, and all of us were raised to clean," she shared on Instagram. Her grandmother passed down a fantastic method to get into the nooks and crannies when cleaning tile. "I felt my gram smiling in Heaven today as I took a very important call while scrubbing away at my 1930s tile with an old pot scrubber," she wrote.

Curtis uses this simple kitchen item to clean her tile for its many benefits. The hundreds of small bristles on the brush have more abrasion than a soft sponge, so if something is really caked on the tile or in the grout, you can get more friction. However, because bristles are typically made from softer materials like nylon, plant fibers, or even animal hair, they won't leave harsh marks on a surface like a brillo pad might. You can purchase a set of two, like the Mr. Siga Bamboo Palm Brush, so you have one to use in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. This way, no bathroom germs get transferred to the kitchen or vice versa.

An important part of making cleaning effective is making cleaning fun. For Nate Berkus, this means finding tools that make the chore feel more like a game, like the Magic Eraser from Mr. Clean. "Is anyone as obsessed as I am about cleaning before I leave the house every morning?" Berkus asked on Instagram. "I walk around with an eraser basically every single day, wiping off every single mark."

Berkus swears by this cleaning product because it doesn't require anything extra to get rid of stains and scuffs. It works on its own. This is because it's made of melamine foam, which is a natural abrasive. It has little air pockets in it, which is what is doing the work. You just have to get it damp, which activates them. "At a microscopic level, the air pockets look like tiny upside-down triangles," Morgan Brashear, P&G's Scientific Communications Manager, told Apartment Therapy. "When activated with water, the individual triangles become about as hard as glass. The 'struts' — the points at the bottom of the triangle — catch on the soil and drag across the surface, similar to a windshield wiper." However, because of how abrasive these erasers can be, proceed with caution. If you wouldn't use sandpaper on a material, be sure to test the eraser in a small, inconspicuous spot first to make sure it doesn't cause damage.

Dave and Jenny Marrs have five children and live on a busy farm in Arkansas. They know a thing or two about chaos and how to keep your home clean despite it. "I think the biggest thing is to do a little bit every day and involving the kids," Jenny told WTMJ-TV Milwaukee. "You know, they live here, too. It's their home, so they are involved in keeping it put together. The kids help with laundry, they help with dishes, picking up things — their toys, all of that. It is just part of the everyday routine for us and for our kids."

To establish a routine, make a list of the things in your home you should clean daily and assign age-appropriate tasks to various family members. For example, wiping the kitchen countertops with a spray like Mrs. Meyer's All-Purpose Cleaner Spray. This cuts down on sticky substances and is an easy enough job for kids to complete. Family members should also regularly rinse out pet food bowls so they don't harbor any bacteria and wipe down high-touch surfaces to rid them of germs. If feasible, set aside a few minutes before bedtime for an all-hands-on-deck tidying up. Put away shoes, hang up jackets, and sort stray papers so your home is neat and orderly for the next day.

Better known for his laundry tips and tricks, Patric Richardson also has the perfect hack for saving money on cleaning supplies. "Use dish soap to clean your bathtub, to clean the bathroom sink, to clean the shower, the commode, whatever you want," the star says in a YouTube video. But unlike the dishes, you don't just squirt a little soap directly on what you're cleaning. Instead, you need to make a mixture. "Put a couple of drops of dish soap in the tub, add just enough water to, like, maybe half an inch, and lather it up and just go to town." If you prefer to add the mixture to a spray bottle to make it easier to cover all the surfaces, that works too. Just a few drops of soap will work in most standard options, like these 16-ounce Bottles from JohnBee.

This works so well because soap is soap, no matter its form. "The reason it works so well is because it cuts oil, and your body wash...your skin, all those things have oil in them, and dish soap cuts it," Richardson continued. Dish soap molecules have two parts: one is attracted to water, and one repels it. This motion destabilizes the germ's makeup and kills it.

A great cleaning trick from Jasmine Roth is that it is significantly easier to clean when there isn't as much stuff. If you find yourself stuck when redecorating your home, it's time to take stock of what you have. She suggests getting rid of a lot before bringing anything else in. "I know, I know, the most fun part about refreshing a home is buying a few new items to bring into your space — think bright pillows, soft throws, vases, and other items that catch your eye," she shared on her blog. "It's important to declutter and go through items before you begin to act on what you want to change about the space."

Her reasoning is simple."You'll know what you are getting rid of versus keeping, where you'll need to utilize organizational storage solutions, and what you really want to invest in to make your space feel new," she said. This may mean getting rid of a throw pillow that won't fit the color scheme you have in mind. Maybe there are decor pieces that don't really fit your current style goals, but you've been holding on to them just to fill shelves or wall space. Donate or toss them to give yourself a blank slate. That way, you can visualize how other pieces will work to create a more meaningful impact. If you are still overwhelmed, try using Marie Kondo's KonMari Organizing method and only keeping items that spark joy.

Cleaning can be fun for some people. Relatably, Drew and Jonathan Scott are not those people. Their trick for making the chore easier is to change the mindset they have around it. "Find ways to make it fun," Drew told readers on their blog. "Play music or turn on a podcast or audiobook you've been meaning to listen to. You might find that cleaning can actually be a nice form of me-time...especially if you have kids." And the Property Brothers aren't alone. In a study conducted by CLR, 94 percent of people said that music makes cleaning a more positive chore. So, choose your favorite form of entertainment and get going!

If you're struggling to get off the starting block, however, Jonathan has another tip."Start with the worst thing in the room first. If you do that, everything else will feel easy," he said. So, get that giant pile of dirty laundry or tough stain on the carpet taken care of first, then coast through the light dusting and vacuuming the rest of the way. In addition to music, great supplies can make your chores more enjoyable. The brothers recommend The Pink Stuff, Windex, and Scrub Daddy as a few of their favorite cleaning products.

Sometimes, getting started is the hardest part of all. It's all too easy to ping around and do a little bit of this and that, only to find yourself hours into the chore without feeling like you've made much progress. Jillian Harris from "Love It or List It Vancouver" knows this feeling all too well. "Sometimes I like to tackle too many things at once and what I call 'organized chaos,'" she joked on her website. "[My husband] Justin considers it to be more like 'little bombs' scattered around the house ... lol! I've learned over the years that while I want to pound an espresso and do all the things, I have to focus on one room and take it one step at a time."

By cleaning things one room at a time, she insists that it's easier to stay focused and keep things moving. "Slow and steady wins the race, right?" she continued. What this might look like in practice is committing to one room and then one thing within each room. You might start by gathering all the dirty clothes from your bedroom and taking them down to the laundry. Once that's done, tackle taking any dishes down to the kitchen. But don't change course and begin cleaning the kitchen. Instead, return to the bedroom to vacuum, dust, and clean the windows before moving on to the next room.

The Napiers have a perfect tip for keeping the outside of your home looking fresh, especially when dealing with a humid climate like Alabama, in which mold tends to grow quickly. "A big one for us is that we pressure wash our house exterior," Ben told New Beauty. "It lets the paint hold up a little bit longer and keeps mold from building up." Power washers use a very concentrated stream of water to blast away dirt, mold, and grime. Because the pressure of the water's intense force can get rid of stubborn dirt and grime, it saves you time and energy because you don't have to scrub. Many also like this option because it doesn't require any chemicals — the water does all the work.

You can invest in an electric unit like this Pressure Washer from LWQ and tackle the job yourself. You can also rent one from Lowe's if you don't want to pay for or store a machine. Pressure washing does come with a few safety concerns due to the extreme intensity of the water's spray. Always wear protective eyewear to keep away debris, and never point the water at yourself or anyone else, as it can cause significant injury. If you prefer not to take the risk, many power washing companies offer a full range of services.

Over time, minerals like calcium and magnesium from water can accumulate inside your coffee machine, leading to scaly buildup. This substance can impact the taste of your coffee and the performance of your machine, so it's important to get rid of it. "The High Low Project" host Sabrina Soto is the first to suggest this task, which many might overlook in their cleaning routines. "Coffee tastes so much smoother and less bitter," she told Domino. "It depends on the coffee machine, but at least every few months, you should descale your machine." The same goes for other beverage appliances, like electric tea kettles, too. 

Descaling is simply the process of removing limescale buildup. You can use a store-bought descaler, like this Two Pack from Impresa. If you don't want to use chemicals, DIY a solution of equal parts vinegar and water and pour that into the coffee maker. Vinegar works similarly to the chemicals because it's acidic, with a pH of around 2.2. The vinegar reacts with the calcium and magnesium in the limescale and creates a salt called calcium acetate. This salt easily dissolves in water, so after a bit of soak, you can typically just wipe the limescale away.

This mother-daughter duo suggests that a clean home starts with fresh air. There is only one surefire way to make that happen. "You have to clean your filters. Especially after a renovation, there's likely to be a lot of drywall dust in your filter," Karen E Laine said on Facebook. "Check it regularly and keep changing your filter until all the drywall dust is gone."

Whether you are renovating or not, changing your filter regularly is essential to a clean home. HVAC filters catch dust, debris, and plenty of allergens, too. So if you don't change them, they stop working, and all that can just leak out into your home instead. Plus, not changing your filter as often as you should can also damage your whole HVAC system. "If you don't have pets, you can probably get away with changing your filter every 90 days," Mina Starsiak Hawk added. "If you do, depending on how many you have ... you probably want to change it every 45 to 60 days." HVAC filters come in many different shapes and sizes. But it's important to look for brands with a high MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) like this Two Pack from Filtrete.

Vodka is a great way to deodorize things around the house, at least according to Martha Stewart. "Say goodbye to musty smells," she said in an Instagram video, using a DIY vodka spray. While her partnership with Tito's Vodka might have been tongue-in-cheek for Dry January, the liquor is actually a great cleaning agent. This is because there are proteins present in most viruses and bacteria, which is where the bad smells they cause come from. However, strong alcohol can impact the shape of these proteins. When this reaction happens, the smelly bits of the viruses and bacteria die, decreasing the odor. 

One important tip is to always choose clear, unflavored vodka. This is because food dye can ruin whatever you're trying to clean, and the flavoring often has sugar, which will make things sticky. It's also important to apply the vodka as a mist. Don't dilute it with water or anything, just pop it in a spray bottle and cover the smelly item, be it shoes or couch cushions, in a light coating, then leave it to dry.