This TikTok Hack Could Actually Convince Me to Clean Under Appliances
Do you want to pull out your refrigerator every time you clean underneath it? I’m not strong or motivated enough to do it all. Honestly, I’m lazy enough to not even move shelving or furniture unless absolutely necessary. This TikTok trick allows you to peel larger pieces—and while you’ll still have to yank them out at some point, you can extend the amount of time between your manual labor feats.
Take a sponge and spatula
I saw this video on the Washy Wash account a few days ago. In just 14 seconds, he shows how you can easily clean heavy furniture and appliances using just a sponge and spatula.
I don’t use regular sponges often (because I’m a fan of reusable silicone ones ), so I didn’t have a dirty old sponge to sacrifice for the experiment. Of course, I had Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Ultra Foamy , which I talked about and talked about and would never say no to. I’ve been using this particular Magic Eraser a lot this past week, so it looked pretty broken and I felt good about destroying it in the name of science. I went back to the video and discovered that I had to cut a hole in the edge of the sponge and stick the spatula in there. My regular spatulas are quite wide and I felt like they would end up tearing the whole sponge and making it unusable, so I used a thin icing spatula instead. One of the benefits of using a melamine sponge like the Magic Eraser over a harder sponge is that it was extremely easy to cut a hole in the side. I think the resistance of, say, a standard cellulose sponge would be greater.
The next part was easy: After sticking the spatula in the hole, I wet the sponge and dragged it under the refrigerator, using the handle of the spatula to push and pull the Magic Eraser.
Things to consider when using this trick
Obviously, you can only push the sponge as far as your handle can reach (and in cases where you’re dealing with appliances like a refrigerator, only as far as something large, low hanging component). This is not a substitute for pulling out the appliance or furniture and cleaning underneath it. Rather, it’s something you can do between big cleanings to get rid of the dirt and grime that gets stuck under the ridges of your larger items. The good news is that there is a lot of dirt near the outer edges of appliances, since that’s where it ends up when kicked and swept up.
If you’re using a regular sponge, use a soap-water mixture or your favorite cleaning solution to remove dirt, but no matter what you use, be sure to use another sponge, using only water and rinsing it off. any sticky residue. My Mr. The Clean Magic Eraser Ultra Foamy comes with soap pods inside, so I had to use a simple rag wrapped around the spatula to rinse when I was done. It worked fine!
Overall, this is an easy way to extend the time between larger cleanings underneath your large appliances. When I do this again in the future, I’ll try to use a longer tool, like a measuring stick, to really hit the mark.