7 Cleaning Tricks Using Items in Your Pantry or Medicine Chest ...

As strange as this may sound, flat beer works well at cleaning and shining wood furniture, banisters and decks. Just dampen a cloth with the beer and wipe it over the wood. Since flat beer is recommended, either leave a can open overnight or just use what's left in the bottom of someone's can. Your wood furniture will not smell like beer and there is no need to rinse it off afterwards. This is one of those lesser-known cleaning tricks that really works!

Almost anyone who cooks regularly has at least one glass casserole dish with baked-on stains. These stains are usually so stubborn that steel wool pads won't even do the trick. Next time you want to get the stains off, use fizzing denture cleaner tablets or Alka Seltzer. Fill the dish with hot water, add a couple tablets and let it sit for about an hour. When you rinse the dish, you should have no problem wiping away the baked-on gunk.

If you need to clean tarnished silverware or brass candlesticks, use white toothpaste! Just rub the non-gel, non-whitening toothpaste all over the tarnished areas and let it sit for a couple minutes. Next, you just need to rinse off the toothpaste and give the silver or brass a good buff with a soft, clean cloth. This will work on sterling silver, but not silver-plated items. You can also use the toothpaste to shine up your brass door hinges and doorknobs.

There are all sorts of little tips and tricks floating around about ways to clean windows. Some tricks work better than others, but this one is supposed to work quite well. If you need to wash your windows or a mirror, but you're all out of glass cleaner, use lemon juice. Just spray it on the glass and wipe it off with a lint-free cloth. If you see streaks, I've heard people recommend wiping the glass with newspaper to remove the streaks.

Don't you hate it when you get a mirror, window or picture frame home from the store and there is a big sticker stuck right to the glass? When these kinds of items have retail stickers placed on them, it can be a real hassle trying to scrape away all the sticky residue. An easier way to get that gummy residue off is by slathering a little bit of mayo on the sticky spot. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, then use a bread knife or putty knife to gently scrape it off. It might sound kind of icky, but you will be surprised by how well it works.

At the risk of sounding nuts, I'm going to share with you the following two tips about ways you can clean using a piece of bread. If the wallpaper in your home has fingerprints, ballpoint pen marks or other small stains, rub a slice of white bread on the spots. This should remove the spots from your wallpaper. Before you throw that bread away, tear off the crust and use it to clean the Venetian blinds hanging in front of your windows. Wrap the crust around each slat and run it along the length of the blinds. There are people who swear by these cleaning tricks with bread.

If you have copper coins, jewelry or antiques, you will eventually notice that they develop a green coating, or patina. One of the easiest ways to clean this off is with ketchup. Rub the ketchup on the copper with a soft rag and let it dry for about 45 minutes. Next, rinse with hot water and wipe it dry. The green coating should be gone.

Although some of these cleaning tricks may sound kooky, they have worked for many people. Plus, you can have these tricks in the far corner of your brain, just in case you ever need to use them. What are some crazy cleaning tricks you've tried?