SAVE ON the spring clean

Embrace the freshness of lighter days and bring it into your home with a deep clean of your floors, furnishings and countertops. Instead of shelling out on a whole cupboard’s worth of products, follow our low-cost tips for a home that’s as clean as a whistle.

Stock up on the basics. White vinegar, bicarbonate of soda, olive oil, lemon juice and soda crystals have a wide range of uses throughout the home, from tackling grimy grout to deodorising an oven. You can pick them up as part of your supermarket shop, plus they don’t contain any nasty chemicals.

See the light. Get your windows sparkling clean by washing them with a solution of one part distilled white vinegar to nine parts water. Use an old toothbrush to clean any built-up grime around the sill and buff dry with a microfibre cloth. Avoid doing this on very sunny days as the heat will dry the windows too quickly and leave smears on the panes.

Clean smart, not hard. Pop your fridge shelves and salad drawers in your dishwasher for a thorough clean, then line the drawers with kitchen towel to make removing veggie debris easy. When using a bicarb paste on your grubby tiles or soda crystals to unblock a drain, let the agent do its work and get on with another task while you wait, which will save on elbow grease, too.