Thrifty Thursday - The Spring Cleaning Edition....

Spring is definitely in the air.

Which is great, obviously.

Except for the fact that the sunshine outside always seems to highlight the fact that my house is due it’s annual spring clean and de-clutter. As you’d probably expect, rather than actually start the job itself, I’m going to put it off for as long as possible – firstly by sharing my top tips for Spring Cleaning with you….

De-cluttering is a great way to not only make some space in the house but also to make a little bit of money at the same time and as an added bonus, it’s easier to clean because there’s less ‘stuff’ to actually clean. My preferred methods of making money from the things we no longer need are car boot sales, eBay or on one of those Facebook selling sites for my town.

I tend to have a black sack that I take round with me from room to room and I put anything in there that we no longer want or need as I go along. I get the kids to help out with this in their room and always tell them that they need to make space if they want anything else new 😉

Even when you think it might actually be quicker to do it yourself, get everyone in the house involved in some way. You’ll be surprised at how much children enjoy polishing and cleaning – especially if you make a bit of a game out of it. We have races to see who can finish a job quicker or who can make something shinier or cleaner!

We have a family clean once a fortnight all year round where we arm ourselves with a bin bag and cleaning things and all of us blitz every room in the house for 10 minutes. We set the timer for each room and then after 10 minutes, we move on so it’s a race to see how much we can do in that 10 minutes – I often go back later to do little bits but the majority is done in the time we set when we all join in.

Do you really need a cupboard under the sink with a different cleaning product for each room / surface in your house? I use diluted Stardrops for most cleaning jobs these days although I do use Lemon and bicarb too. I find that some stardops and a cloth can do most things although Miss Frugal has discovered a love of polishing so we do have polish too. I also find that Micro fibre cloths are great for all sorts of cleaning from dusting to washing – you can pick them up really cheaply in most supermarkets or even the pound shop.

I’m not a fan of cleaning so I try to work in the most logical order possible to get maximum results for minimal effort! My tips for this are to always work from top to bottom to avoid getting areas dirty that you’ve already cleaned, hoovering before I dust and only cleaning one room at a time. I’m also a little lazy so I tend to save my legs by having a box somewhere close to me that I can put all the bits in that need putting away elsewhere. Do them all at once or even better, I put everything on the dining room table and make the owners put them away themselves.

I’m always after cleaning help so I asked on Facebook for some of your cleaning tips and I’m definitely going to be adopting some of them, all year round:

Place newspaper on top of your kitchen cupboard it will absorb any grease etc and can easily be changed.
Sarah from Boo Roo and Tigger Too

Don’t wait until Spring – it’s sunny and you’ll want to go outdoors.
Joy from Pink Oddy

Find the biggest pack of bicarbonate of soda you can get your hands on and use generously…on EVERYTHING!
Stacey from Fives a Fellowship

WD40 is amazing for cleaning greasy cooker hoods and kitchen tiles and a can will last literally years for just a couple of quid.
Jayne from Mums the Word