Hollywood celebrates the best in film this Sunday night with the Academy Awards. Here at Buckets & Bows Maid Service, we celebrate what we know: the best in cleaning! These tips walk our clean carpet and win our Oscars.

Clean top to bottom, left to right. Bring the dust and dirt from up top down to the floor where you can vacuum them up. Move left to right around the room to be sure you get everything. Being efficient makes cleaning quicker.

Everyone wants stainless steel appliances. But no one wants the fingerprints. Place a small amount of baby oil or olive oil on a paper towel and wipe the finger prints away.

They’ve only been on the retail market since 1983, but most of us couldn’t imagine life without our microwave. Keep the micro squeaky clean by mixing 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and a cup of water in a micro-safe bowl. Put it in the microwave for 5 minutes. The steam will condense on the inside walls and you’ll be able to wipe the microwave clean.

We love pets at Buckets &Bows and consider ourselves experts at giving our clients a pet-happy clean home. One of our secrets? Use damp rubber dishwashing gloves to remove pet hair from furniture.

Clean your toilet bowl with Coke or Pepsi. You’ll restore your toilet to its original sparkly brilliance, and you might finally break that cola habit too!  No cola? Kool-Aid!

Two microfiber clothes belong in every cleaning bucket. To wipe and dry, clean and shine almost every surface in your home — from baseboards to mirrors — carry one damp/wet microfiber cloth and one dry.

Drain s-l-o-w-i-n-g down? Pour in a 1/2 cup of baking soda. Follow with a 1/2 cup of vinegar. Cover the drain with a wet cloth and watch the magic happen. Winner: Most Entertaining for your kids

We couldn’t face a day of cleaning without Red Juice from Speed Cleaning. It cleans a gazillion things from countertops to grass stained knees on your favorite pants. It even cleans the plumbing as it goes down the drain.

Maybe your home won’t pass the white glove test, but it can smell clean: ice cubes and kosher salt run through your garbage disposal, followed by some cut up lemons; a clean sponge soaked with vanilla extract in your refrigerator; scented dryer sheets under your furniture cushions (test for color fastness) and under mattresses; baby powder sprinkled in the cat litter.

And The Oscar for the VERY BEST Cleaning Tip We Can Offer: Hire someone to do it for you. You have more important things to do with your time!