Food products that double up as cleaning supplies

Have a good rummage in your kitchen cupboard, where you’re sure to find an array of cleaning materials masquerading as food products.

Lemon juice is a domestic life-saver in the never-ending fight for cleanliness, and it has been popular as a stain remover for centuries. Try using lemon juice to remove rust and stains from plastic, either neat or diluted, and give curry stains on carpet the heave-ho with diluted lemon juice.

For common carpet spillages such as beer, simply dab the stain with soda water. Water marks on wooden surfaces can be removed by applying mayonnaise on a soft cloth or toothpaste on a damp cloth to the water mark.

And if your family members are leaving grubby fingerprints on your walls, simply rub the mark with slightly moist, stale white bread.

Next time you’re having a headache over the less-than-sparkly chrome taps in your bathroom or kitchen, rub them with flour. Rinse the flour off and buff them with a soft cloth. To ensure your stainless steel sink doesn’t appear dull in comparison, rub the surface gently with baking powder or buff with a scrunched-up ball of newspaper.

Another truly indispensable item in the cleaning closet is white vinegar. Use it to wash glass and windows for a smear-free finish. For the final buff, use scrunched-up balls of newspaper to add an extra glossy sheen to the glass.

Use a solution of water and vinegar to spruce up wooden furniture. Wash the furniture with the solution, leave overnight to dry, apply quality furniture polish and buff the surfaces.

Call on white vinegar for use on those tough, hard-to-shift stains; its disinfectant properties make it an amazing all-round cleaner. Blitz bath stains with a 1:5 solution of white vinegar and water.

Unclog showerheads by first dismantling them and then soaking them for 20 minutes in vinegar.

Remove hard water marks by pouring a can of fizzy cola down the toilet bowl; leave it for an hour, then flush.

And finally, after all that hard cleaning, it is time for a glass of white wine — but not for you, for your glass shower doors, to rid them of stains and limescale.

— Adapted from bbc.co.uk