Super simple spring cleaning tips to cut through the drudgery

If you’re not a “polish the silverware” type of spring cleaner and you don’t relish the idea of resealing the grout in the bathroom or get excited about descaling the kettle, these spring cleaning tips are for you. There is an easier way to give the house a freshen up without investing countless hours dusting the ceilings and labelling tv cables.

Spring cleaning without the fuss

Make a list

Grab a cuppa, sit down with a pen and paper and write down all the jobs that need doing. Put everything on the list, even the jobs you don’t have the motivation or the skills to tackle. It can help to picture every room and work through the tasks that need doing in that room. Don’t be disheartened or overwhelmed by the length of the list, it’ll get easier.

Prioritise jobs

Now you have your (probably very long) list, rank each task as either:

1. Top priority – these jobs are important to the health of your home (like getting rid of mould and serious dust issues), the efficiency (cleaning ceiling fans and the air con), or the structure (cleaning and fixing gutters).
2. Important but not urgent – these could be jobs like cleaning the oven, washing windows or wiping out kitchen cabinets, stuff that needs to be done but is not critical.
3. Bonus – this category will be filled with chores like sorting through the plastics cabinet and throwing out all the odd bits or finishing the filing.

The priority system is pretty straightforward, work through the 1’s first, 2’s are tackled next, and the 3’s if you still have the time or the motivation.

Start at the top

Cleaning from the top-down stops the dirt from one job messing up the last one. For example, clearing the cobwebs and wiping the fans before you vacuum the floor means you’re not having to do the vacuuming twice.

Put the effort where it’s needed

Don’t spend hours making the windows sparkle when the floor is so untidy you haven’t seen carpet since Christmas. Use your time and energy wisely and to the best use. Hopefully, the prioritised job list will help, but even within this system, you may need to make some executive decisions along the way, especially when you get to the 2’s and 3’s.

Delegate, delegate, delegate

What’s the one thing that can make any job easier? Giving it to someone else. Just make sure that someone has the skills to carry it out. Even the kids can help out with the spring cleaning, delegate chores such as tidying toys to the little ones and vacuuming or window cleaning to older children.

Get help from the experts

The spring clean is also a great time to tick off all those small repairs that just never seem to be a priority such as replacing cracked tiles, fixing a leaking gutter or patching up chipped plaster.

Some of these projects will need to be passed on to a professional if you don’t have the skills or expert knowledge to complete them. An experienced carpenter can carry out many of the small timber repair or maintenance jobs that need doing around the house like fence repairs, timber stair or deck repairs, door adjustments and more. Ask your tradesperson to complete several jobs in one visit to save on costs.

We hope our super-simple spring cleaning tips help you to cut through the pain and fuss of your annual clean. Got your own spring clean cheats? Let us know in the comments below.

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