Tips for quicker spring cleaning

IS it time for a spring clean? Check out these tips for quicker, better cleaning.

Spray the cloth when polishing: If you’re using furniture polish, don’t spray the furniture directly. It can work well if you use lots of elbow grease and remove it all, but if you’re doing a general clean, you’ll leave lots of it behind.

This sticky residue ends up attracting dirt, so you’re sabotaging yourself. Instead, spray the cloth and then wipe the furniture.

Chuck the feather duster: It’s a real shame because they’re so pretty, but the truth is that a microfibre cloth is specially designed to hook on to and stick to dust whereas feathers just sweep most of the dust particles around.

If you still want to use your feather duster, stick a piece of cloth over it to get to ceiling corners and high shelves.

Let it sit: Tile, floor and faucet cleaners work best when you spritz and then let them sit for a minute or so. This allows everything to moisten or penetrate so that you don’t have to scrub too hard.

If you’re doing a room, work out a system that allows you to spritz and then tidy something small so you don’t end up standing about and thinking of all the other things you’d rather be doing.

Work from top to bottom: It’s better to work with gravity than against it, so clean the ceiling fans and let the dirt drop to the floor, and wash curtain rails before cleaning windows. Similarly, when tidying shelves, work from the top down.

Remove parts and clean separately: The coffee pot or the smoothie blender are all designed to look like they’re a single tool but if you don’t remove blades and bits before cleaning, gunk gets trapped and you’ll end up with nasty stuff growing in rims and crevices. Take it apart and use a bristle brush to get into small spaces.