spring cleaning tips for those who hate it - Bubbablueandme
|

Spring cleaning tips for those who hate cleaning

I hate cleaning. There, I’ve admitted it.  Although most people who know me would know that anyway, given the amount of time I like to spend out and about at weekends.  Anything to avoid having to spend time cleaning.

Spring cleaning tips for those who hate to clean

When I first moved in with the OH, we had an agreement that he would do bathrooms and bins (mostly because we had a lodger and I’m not clearing up after someone else), and I’d do floors, hovering, clothes washing and anything else.  It started well, although it did grate that the OH wanted things vacuuming more than once a week.  Really?  It’s not like we’ve got animals (or at that stage children) in the house.  But now he doesn’t really do anything and I do what needs doing when it needs doing.

Occasionally we’ll blitz, when we’ve got people coming to stay, or visitors, or when the OH decides to have a major declutter (of my stuff usually, because he doesn’t have a lot).  But mostly, I clean as and when it needs doing.

We rarely spring clean.  But we could do with having a good clean and declutter so we can get everything neat and tidy, fix anything that’s broken, organise someone to come in a decorate properly and get curtains and blinds.

My rules for spring cleaning include:

1. Get the household involved

Why should just one person do the work when everyone makes the mess?  N loves helping me clean – he likes vacuuming, getting the dustpan and brush out, folding clothes and taking rubbish and recycling down to the bins.  Giving him jobs keeps him out of the way from what I need to do.

transporting the rubbish to the bins

2. Have different boxes, bags or areas when decluttering

Aim for 4: keep, to sell, charity and throw out.  There are so many routes to reuse, recycle or dispose of items nowaways, and a need to improve our sustainability, even if you’re getting rid of items you don’t need to just throw them out.

With rubbish collections often only fortnightly, if you’re having a serious spring clean you might need to plan further in advance to start your declutter before your clean.

3. Decide how you’re going to clean

Are you going to clean a room at a time, or by the type of cleaning and work out when you’ll do each bit.  Over a weekend, a bit each evening, or once a week for a few weeks.  I tend to opt for do it in a weekend as far as possible, then finish the odd bits another time.

doing the vacuuuming - children's chores

4. Choose multi-function cleaning products

Ok, so we should probably all go for products that are gentle and better for the environment, but wipes are so easy.  Multi-use cleaning detergents are handy for floors, surfaces and more.  They are your friend.

Going into the dark to clean
Going into the cleaning cupboard

5. Get (good) storage

We live in a good sized house but we still don’t have enough or good enough storage.  We need to declutter to make room for some items I’ve inherited, plus my piano.  The bookcase will be good storage, but to fit these in we need to declutter, tidy and clean, so if you’re spring cleaning you always need to think about where items will go that you want to keep.

Of course, if you really hate cleaning that much, just get in some cleaners to do a deep clean and move out for a few days while it gets done.

If you’ve got some great spring cleaning tips to share, you can enter the blog competition over at Bobatoo for the chance to win £100.

———————————————————-

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All opinions and words are my own.

Love it? Share it

Similar Posts

5 Comments

  1. Brilliant tips i! When I moved into our new home a few months ago, I pledged to keep on top of the cleaning and printed out some handy tick lists I found on Pinterest, telling you what to do daily (wipe down counter tops), weekly (clean out the fridge) and monthly (deep clean EVERYWHERE!). It’s been a massive help!

    1. I think that’s probably the way to go, but that’s still a lot of work. I need to declutter and clean the entire house (ideally I’d get someone in!) so we can start afresh with a tidy and clean house.

  2. Reading your post made me feel seriously relieved. I hate housework too. With a passion. Most of the time I struggle with motivation to get down and just get on with it … It’s like the never ending story in our house with a toddler, dog and two adults who are not great at putting things away and/or decluttering. It can get overwhelming, and it’s certainly not all that rewarding when all your hard work is trashed in nano seconds.

    Agree with all your tips, but other than that my advice is to start in one room then you can at least see a difference (if only if it is just for an hour or two!). Put some great tunes on do that it doesn’t seem so grim! We are in desperate need of storage and some serious decluttering …. Plus I’ve just arrived back from my parents house this weekend with a boot load of old college/school stuff! Old work suits that I will probably never wear etc etc. So I’d better get on!

    1. I am with you on all of this. Nightmare when you end up with sentimental things too. My OH doesn’t have any of his own because they’re all still at the farm, but he doesn’t understand that old photos/jewellery etc are important. I’ve got stuff from my mum’s, and now things from my Nan because she’s in a home and we needed to take things from her house until her step son claims it back. Our bed has a lot of stuff under it. Then of course, there’s children’s old toys that you might want to keep for their possible kids. Where to put it all?!

      Music definitely helps…and I reckon rules afterwards for who needs to keep on top of what.

Comments are closed.