I’ve always hated doing chores. Especially when you get to the end of the day when you just want to relax, so you leave it for the weekend – but then the weekend comes around and you just want to take some time off and not do ‘work’-type stuff.

But they still need to get done, and luckily we have modern technology to give us a hand. Whether it’s cleaning in the kitchen, the bathroom, or just the whole house in general, there’s a cool and somewhat fancy product to help make your life easier.

Considering how many of us have strong memories of our parents looming over us to make sure we got our chores done, it makes sense that somebody would design a product that mimics an angry mother reminding you to clean the microwave.

Personally, I’ve always hated doing that specific task. Food gets stuck hard, and becomes quite hard to remove without some elbow grease. With the angry mama, you just fill her up with water, lemon, and vinegar, run the microwave, and let the mist soften all the residual food – then you simply wipe all the grime away, without any extended hassle.

Karcher WV 1 Plus Window Vacuum 

One of the most annoying things to deal with, when it comes to cleaning windows, is trying to get the streaks out. It’s especially annoying when you think you’re done, pack-up and step-back... only to catch a smudge, streak or fingerprint you missed earlier.

The second most annoying thing is dealing with drips of water or cleaning solution, and I’m happy to announce that the Karcher Window Vacuum solves both problems.

The set includes both a spray bottle/sponge combo, and the vacuum cleaner itself, the latter of which has a squeegee with embedded suction holes for the vacuum. That way, when you wipe down the cleaning solution, it all goes into the vacuum, rather than on the floor, creating a further mess that needs to be cleaned up.

Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaning System 

No matter how fastidious you are, no one enjoys cleaning toilet bowls. Toilet bowls can be a bit revolting – especially if you haven’t cleaned them in a while.

This is where the automatic toilet bowl cleaner comes in, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. By pumping the chlorine directly into the bowl, it both cleans and keeps the internals of your toilet tank from damage that traditional chlorine tablets cause. 

The only thing you need to be aware of is that it might require a bit of jigging to mount, depending on what type of tank lid you have.

Grease Bags / Grease Hero Disposable Drain Guard

Sometimes I get really lazy about cleaning out oils, fats and other forms of grease and just dump it down the drain. It’s not even that I don’t want to do it properly, it’s just that I’ve had bad experience with leaky bags, and so I tend to double or even triple-bag grease before disposing of it. It’s always such a hassle.

Well, apparently Grease bags are a thing, and I wish I’d known about them earlier. Not only are they not likely to leak, they’re also resealable, so it’s not a constant matter of needing to take out a new bag.

The hardest places to clean are nooks and crannies: the base of faucets, around the drain, grout between tiling, certain parts of the range. Naturally, modern technology has gone out of its way to design something specifically for that problem.

The sonic scrubber isn’t really anything revolutionary when you first look at it, it’s basically just a handle with scrubber attachments. Once you turn on the sonic cleaning part though, it makes life so much easier, and you don’t have to waste a toothbrush to boot!

Two things to keep in mind: you will need to wipe down afterwards, since the sonic scrubber breaks up grease rather than outright remove it. It’s also really small, so don’t expect a normal sized brush that you might use for cleaning, I mean it really is made for nooks and crannies. 

Toilet Plunger Air Drain Blaster 

Besides being the name of my next band, the Air Drain Blaster takes a lot of the awkward work out of trying to unclog your poopoo drain.

It’s actually kind of smart in a paradoxical way, since traditional plungers try and suck things out to clear them, whearas this pushes a large blast instead. It also come with a bunch of different attachments, so it works on everything from your sink to your toilet, although admittedly I’m not sure I’d want to use it for both without some really strong sanitizing in between each use.

Honestly though, the best part is that it’s only like $15, and about as much as a traditional plunger.

OXO Good Grips Electronics Cleaning Brush

If you’ve ever had a piece of electronics, which, if you’re reading this, I’m assuming you do, you know how dirty they can get – especially where different parts come together. Unfortunately, using a tissue to try and get the dust out only really tends to get the dust in deeper, and q-tips aren’t really great for cleaning small crevices.

This is where an electronics cleaning brush comes in handy, as the bristles are very fine and do a much better job of removing dust and dirt. Funnily enough, when I got my first cleaning brush for electronics, I ended up cleaning them more often because it made the work so much easier compared to the whole process I had before.

Gutter Sense Gutter Cleaning Tool 

Cleaning gutters... in a word, sucks. It’s grimey, it’s a hassle, and if you don’t have a second person to spot you on the ladder it can also be pretty dangerous. 

Using a gutter cleaning tool may seem a bit silly on the surface, but it actually saves you a lot of trouble in the long run. Operation is pretty easy, you just need to extend the pole, put the gutter tool in and pull a string. I mean, it’s essentially just a pair of tongs – only fancy, big and probably not going to scratch up your gutter.

Albert is a freelance writer and the sort of person who takes the philosophy "jack-of-all-trades" to heart and is therefore just as comfortable rooting around with plumbing as he is inside his computer. He also loves fiction writing, and has even done some game writing in a couple of small mobile games, although he doesn't like to mention it or anything . . .