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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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