Giving your home a thorough spring clean is the next best thing to a full redecoration: eliminating the clutter, swishing away the cobwebs and shaking off the dust can really show it off in its best light. But if you’re running a little low on funds, you might want to re-think investing in turbo-formula cleaning products and gadgets. Here are some ways you can clean up without clearing out your bank account.
Work with what you have
Supermarkets have a different product for cleaning every room and object in the house, from floor cleaner to toilet gel, but you don’t need to have thirty bottles and spray cans under the sink for a clean home. Antibacterial washing up liquid dissolved in hot water with a splash of bleach is just as effective floor cleaner.It will also leave your best flushing toilet sparkling and make your bathtub shine… and make your bathtub shine. Remember to wear gloves and air out the room you’re working in when using bleach.
Make your own cleaning products
You might, in the past, have cleaned your windows with the dedicated blue liquid you find in the supermarket, but you don’t need to rush out and buy some more next time you run out. Simply mix one part vinegar with eight parts water and a squirt of liquid detergent in a spray bottle. Then, instead of using a cloth, use a newspaper to really make them gleam.
Invest in a quality vacuum cleaner
One cleaning product which demands considerable investment is your hoover. You’ll want to suck up the dust from your carpet. Buying a good home vacuum will save you money long term: on hoover bags, breakdown repair and replacement. Many upright Hoovers come with a range of attachments, designed for everything from dusting curtains to freshening upholstery, and a good one will last you a lifetime.
Ditch the clutter
Instead of buying yet more plastic storage boxes or spending another Saturday morning dusting the ornaments, be ruthless and clean out the ballast. You can donate old bric-a-brac, books and furniture to charity, and as for clothes, some recycling centres even pay out for large bags of unwanted fashion.
Freshen up, naturally
You don’t need fancy aerosols or plug-ins to make your house smell fresh as a spring breeze. Besides, they’re bad for the environment. Instead, air out rooms regularly and ensure they’re dust-free. Cut a bunch of fresh flowers from the garden for the living room and bedrooms, and grow sweet-smelling herbs in the kitchen on the windowsill. Your house will smell marvellous.
Follow the steps above and you can enjoy a tidy, clean smelling home. Beautiful!
Image by David Reber’s Hammer Photography, used under Creative Commons licence
Nice tips, I love a good declutter at this time of year, spring clean to welcome new life (or something like that).
I’m also a believer in elbow grease and a little bleach are far more effective than all the different sprays and pastes you can buy out there.
This is one fantastic post with so many useful tips and tricks. You made my life a little bit easier for which I am very grateful!
I love this post. I can tell you’ve done this for a long time, if not then you’ve learned much faster than I did! Haha.
I feel cleaning with natural products can be a much wiser alternative to toxic cleaning products because of the risk the latter poses to young children, pets and pregnant women.
Keep up the great content! I enjoyed it 🙂
Hello Becky
Nice five frugal tips. Here is one more. Washing soda is sodium carbonate which is a natural substance that has many, many uses. You can find it in the detergent isle of your grocery store. It is commonly used in your laundry as a laundry booster. You can even make homemade washing detergent out of it. However, there are many more things that this can be used for.
– Mix 1/2 cup of washing soda with 1 gallon of warm water. Scrub toilet bowls, tile, sinks, countertops, tubs, ovens, range hoods and range tops.
– Remove burned on stains on cookware, sprinkle washing soda on a damp sponge and scrub down.
– Clean your outdoor grills with washing soda. Sprinkle washing soda on the brush that you use to clean your grill. This removes the cooked on grease like a charm.
– Anywhere that you have spilled grease, use washing soda to clean it up. Pour the washing soda directly on the spill. Then add a little water until a paste forms. Let it sit for several hours. Wipe down until the surface is clean.
My best to you in your endeavors.
Great article, and thanks for taking the time to publish it; really opened my eyes for some new perspectives that I hadn’t thought of before.
Toilet cleaner is very important issue for our daily needs.Natural cleaning product is perfect for for kitchen, bathroom and also floor cleaning.