Happy New Year! Well, you will be happy when you return home to a spick and span home at least.

Unfortunately, this won’t happen on its own, but with our household hacks, you’ll be inviting your friends over for coffee in no time!

In no particular order, we’ve listed our favourite (some a little out-there) tried and tested spring clean tips.

Bathroom

This tip is sure to put a smile on your face, seriously. Cleaning your loo has got to be one of the worst jobs out there but by dropping 3-4 denture tablets down it for 30 mins, or even over night for tough scale, just one flush of the chain will have it gleaming. Rate: 5/5

For more tips on how to use your denture tablets, check out ‘One Good Thing’ by Jillee http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2015/07/20-things-you-can-clean-with-denture-tablets.html

Laundry Room

It may sound ironic, but it is actually important to wash your washing machine. Banish any stale odours by running an empty cycle on hot with distilled white vinegar and baking soda. Good House Keeping suggests 1/4 cup of vinegar to 4 table spoons of baking soda when using a front loading washing machine. Rate: 3/5

Other ways to use white vinegar and baking soda can be found here.

Drawing Room

Deep clean the carpets, especially if you have pets! As cute and cuddly as pets can be, they are the No. 1 culprit for leaving surprises on the carpets for us, not to mention the shedding of fur which somehow manages to weave its way into every fabric. But, all will be fur-given with our next tip: let the professionals do it! Well, twice a year anyway. For the rest of the year, keep on top of things with a Dyson V6 Top Dog Handheld vacuum. It will literally be your most used cleaning utensil, sofa, floor, under beds, mattresses, you name it, you can probably hoover it. Rate: 5/5

Martha Stuart has more tips up her sleeve for keeping the carpets and canines in check.

 

Windows

Put the window cleaner down, because Coca-Cola is just as good! In fact, it’s so efficient at cleaning everything except your teeth that you can remove grease, dried on food and rust from most homewares. Here’s not 50 but 51 ways in which you can use it. Rate: 2/5

Wardrobe

Out with the old to make room for the new! There are many ways to narrow down which clothes to keep and which to lose, for example by turning all the hangers one way, then swapping the direction of the hangers for the clothes you use. But the most efficient way to store the clothes afterwards is to order them in the way you get dressed in the morning. Do you start from the top and work down or vice versa? Also, colour co-ordinating each category will help enormously. With the clothes you don’t keep, be thoughtful and take them to a charity shop. Rate: 3/5

For more tips on purging your wardrobe, head to House Beautiful.