The Unusual Reason You Should Keep A Tennis Ball In Your Kitchen

Tennis, anyone? Or should we say, tennis-related cleaning hack, anyone? We know you may have told your kids "no balls in the house" approximately 3,000 times, but there's a very good reason you'll want to keep your own tennis ball on hand in the kitchen. The same fuzz that helps the ball grip the strings of a racket and bounce uniformly can prove effective at cleaning kitchen floor scuffs that no other tool can.

Scuffed floors are one of the toughest spots in the kitchen to clean. They happen when anything gets dragged against the floor, from shoes to furniture, which happens all too often in the kitchen, as it's easily the busiest room in the house. As you've probably found — and felt frustrated by — scuffs are maddeningly tough to remove and won't budge with your typical floor cleaning routine. Tennis balls, however, are a chemical-free solution for cleaning kitchen floors you may already have in the house. They work on a variety of different floor types, too, from hardwood, linoleum, and vinyl to tiles made from porcelain, stone, and ceramic. Their fibers are the perfect texture for buffing out marks — they can get under those surface-level scuffs and remove them without being abrasive enough to damage the floor itself. And this way, you don't need to use any cleaning products that can sometimes be potentially toxic, not environmentally friendly, and pricey.

Using a tennis ball to remove scuffs is about as easy as it gets — all you need is the ball itself. You will want to use a new one, so you're not just transferring any dirt to your floors. It's a good idea to use the tennis ball after you have done your regular sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming, just so you can identify any spots that routine didn't remove. Then, you can simply give those spots a scrub with the ball. If you'd rather not get down on your hands and knees, you can fashion a makeshift tennis-ball broom: Cut an "X" into the ball and slip in a broom handle. Then you can scrub with the ball the way you would with a mop, albeit with a bit more pressure.

Tennis balls can help with other chores, too. The same way they can remove scuffs from floors, they'll get to work effectively on walls, too. They're also great for cleaning up pet hair, their fuzzy fibers working like a lint brush you can easily roll on your fabric furniture and your carpets. And while dryer sheets might work wonders cleaning your oven racks, if you're just not satisfied with their work in the actual dryer, add a few drops of an essential oil to a tennis ball, wrap it in foil, and toss it in with your laundry — this both fights static and provides a lovely scent.