Spring cleaning … love it or loath it, it’s time!

 Photo credit: https://www.homesandgardens.com/interior-design/living-rooms/how-to-prepare-for-spring-cleaning

It’s that time of year again! A total home refresh after winter will help you feel revitalised too, and ensure your home is prepped for the coming summer. There are those who find giving their home a thorough spring clean calming and rewarding, while others (OK, hands up!) dread it, avoid it and generally ignore the signs in favour of getting out and enjoying the warm weather. But whichever camp you fall in to, who doesn’t enjoy a hack – a tip or a shortcut that makes the job easier? So we can all get out into the sunshine sooner! While there are literally hundreds of pages of spring-cleaning tips out there, we’ve chosen a few that should make starting easier – if not finishing! Then you’ll feel free and confident to throw your home open and welcome in spring.

Plan it.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you think about a whole-of-house spring clean. If you’re mentally making long lists of jobs to do in every room of the home, you’re less likely to start – it all seems too hard! So take a few moments to sit down and make a plan. Divide the tasks up into rooms, and then into time slots. Allocate a specific time, say an hour or two hours, to do those smaller chores – it’s better to do something than nothing. Even better – delegate! Share the list with others, or invite a friend to come and help you, in return for you helping them. It’s more fun cleaning with a friend - put the music on, and start dusting. Then reward yourself with a cuppa afterwards! And remember, cleanliness can be its own reward. No one will probably notice if you’ve spent the morning dusting the skirting boards, but everyone appreciates sparkling windows. It’s those jobs that will give you a boost and the inspiration to keep going. So mix it up!

Oven lovin’

If your microwave needs freshening up, place some lemon slices in a bowl of water and heat on high for two to three minutes, then let it sit for five minutes. That lemon-scented steam will deodorise the oven walls and making cleaning easier – just wipe it down for a lemon-fresh oven! When it comes to normal ovens, ideally we’d be cleaning them down after every use to avoid food baking on, but we know that doesn’t always happen! Make a bicarb and water paste, spread it around the oven’s interior, then leave it for a few hours before spraying it with vinegar and wiping down. Clean the oven glass with hot water and dishwashing detergent, then wipe with a microfibre cloth. For sparkling oven racks, pull them out and pop them in a bathtub or large sink to soak in warm water, with washing powder scattered across the surfaces. After an hour, rub a sponge scourer along the racks, rinse and leave to dry – popping them into oven for ten minutes at 100 degrees should do the trick. Before you do any oven cleaning, though, do check your manufacturer’s guide.

Love your pets, not the pet hair!

No matter how much your love your furry family, they do create extra work! One hack is to lightly dampen a pair of rubber gloves and run them over your soft furnishings. This creates static energy, attracting the pet hair. Rinse off and repeat. Make sure you have an effective vacuum cleaner - not all 'pet' vacuums actually do a great job of sucking up the pet hair. Sweep your hard floors with a rubber broom, and get yourself a smaller rubber broom for furniture and clothing. The electrostatic charge they create helps to pick up pet hair. A lint roller or even sticky tape can help remove pet hair from clothing and soft furnishings. And a great way to neutralise pet smells is to sprinkle bicarb soda over the carpet and leaving for fifteen minutes before vacuuming. It also works for general household odours.

Stock up on stockings

Ever wondered what everyone’s favourite cleaning guru Shannon Lush, uses as her favourite secret cleaning weapon? Pantyhose! Cheap-as-chips pantyhose - made of the same stuff that many microfibre cloths are - can be washed time and time again. Lush reckons beside the stove and under the fridge are the places most people never clean. “Just wrap a pair of pantyhose over a broom handle and secure it on really tight, then spray the end of it with white vinegar, run it backwards and forwards in the gap. If you sprinkle salt in there, it'll stop cockroaches, too."

There are plenty of ways to get inspired and in the mood for spring cleaning. Wait for a sunny day and throw open your windows and doors to fill your rooms with fresh air, or fill vases with spring flowers and get ready to leave winter behind. If it all really is too much for you, there’s always professional help! If you want to find a local Mandurah cleaning company, here’s a few to check out:

• https://cleanersforcauses.au/
• https://brightgleam.com.au/
• https://www.leaveit2us.com.au/
• https://chingairacleaningservices.com.au
• https://crimsonandclover.com.au/

Happy spring cleaning! We’d be happy to hear any of your own tips – pop in to the Sales Office at Frasers Landing and let us know! Or you can email Project Sales Manager Kaylene McTernan at kaylene.mcternan@frasersproperty.com.au or call 13 38 38.

Our source for inspiration:

• https://www.choice.com.au/home-and-living/laundry-and-cleaning/surface%20cleaners/articles/best-spring-cleaning-hacks
• hhttps://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home/the-cheats-guide-to-spring-cleaning/news-story/ad74399f2567167e15e42684ced2e98e
• https://www.homesandgardens.com/interior-design/living-rooms/how-to-prepare-for-spring-cleaning