The days are getting longer and green buds are starting to appear in parks and gardens – spring is on the way! This rebirth of the year gets many people thinking about a good old deep clean and declutter after the winter. If you’re keen to spring clean, here’s some great tips to help you really sparkle.
Invest in some vinegar
White or malt vinegar is a really cheap way to dissolve limescale, freshen up washing machines and dishwashers and even to clean windows and mirrors. At under £1 a bottle, it makes sense to always have some in your cupboard for a quick spruce up. Leftover or mostly-squeezed lemons are incredibly handy for cleaning too, even coming with their own sponge, so don’t bin them until you’ve given your taps a quick scrub.
Put more than just dishes in your dishwasher
Your dishwasher isn’t just for crockery and cutlery, you can use it to clean grubby-looking children’s toys, your shower head, toothbrushes, silicon oven gloves and even plastic flipflops. Load your dishwasher up with all these items instead of washing them all by hand and get on with another cleaning task; possibly one involving odd socks…
…odd socks still have a lot to give
How they become odd is a mystery for the ages, but you can give lonely socks a sense of purpose by using them to dust awkward spaces and objects like moulded skirting boards and blinds. Put them onto your hands and you have the ultimate in flexible dusters.
Pick up pet hair with a squeegee
Very often, your vacuum cleaner isn’t great at picking up pet hair and you could find yourself going over and over the same areas in the vain hope of making a difference. Just run a squeegee over problem areas – stairs are a particular nuisance – and it’ll gather stray hairs into clumps or rolls that you can just pick up with your hands.
Declutter your home at least once a year
Ideally, you should try to declutter every six months, but life can get in the way. Spring is the best time to declutter because you can rid yourself of winter clothes that have seen better days, unwanted Christmas presents or older items that were replaced by wanted Christmas presents. Once you have fewer things to think about, the easier it is to keep the place in order.
