How to make your Gleeson home gleam. Our cleaning tips and hacks.

Kitchen

Keeping your kitchen clean might feel like a full time job, but is there anything better than a shiny sink and gleaming work top?

If you love cooking up a storm, you’ll likely find yourself freshening up your kitchen at least once a day. The kitchen is one of the most used rooms in the house and of course, is where we prepare food, making it super important to keep it clean and germ free.

If finger prints in your kitchen are your nemesis, a daily wipe down with a soft microfibre cloth or the smoother side of a minky should keep your appliances looking shiny and sharp. Kitchens do have a lot of metal surfaces, whether that be your sink, hob, cooker hood, oven or appliances like your kettle and toaster and you definitely don’t want these surfaces to be covered in smears and dirt. To keep your metal looking shinier than ever, why not use bicarbonate of soda and lemon, giving you a guaranteed shiny surface? Both handy items you’re  likely to already have in the home. Bicarbonate of soda is slightly abrasive, plus it’s a natural bleaching agent, while lemon juice is acidic, meaning they are the match made in heaven. To make the solution simply mix a few tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda with the juice of one lemon, lather on, leave to work it’s magic and wipe away with a slightly damp cloth.

With so many areas to clean, for your worktops, it’s important to continually wipe them down with hot, soapy water, or use an all-purpose cleaner with added disinfectant and a clean cloth. Kitchen tiles can also harbour grime, clean dirty grout in between your tiles with a toothbrush and a solution made of one part bleach to four parts water. Simply, wipe over with a damp cloth and allow to dry. Ta da!

Another kitchen obstacle to overcome is cooking smells! Don’t let those odours linger, reach for the Zoflora. Made popular by Mrs Hinch. All you need to do to get rid of bad smells is fill up your sink with your favourite Zoflora scent and boiling water, it’s that simple! Leave the liquid in your sink for a couple of hours, and return to find your kitchen smelling beautiful.

Lastly, your kitchen floor will need a regular hoover for all those pesky crumbs, and of course a mop. If you’re looking to treat yourself, why not purchase a Shark steam mop for those hard floors? Proven to leave floors gleaming, the technology within the Shark mop lets you clean and sanitise your floor without harsh chemicals, ideal for those who have pets and children. Perfect on all floor types, the mop plus its recommended solution will kill 99.9% of germs.

Bedroom

Getting into a fresh bed at the end of a long day is one of the most amazing feelings. There’s an art to beautiful smelling bed linen, but predominantly it’s key to wash your bedding at least once a week on a 60 degree hot wash. Top up the fresh scent by using Unstoppable crystals, fabric conditioner as well as your favourite detergent.

Following this, keep your bed smelling stunning for longer by showering or having a long soak before bed and only getting into bed when you are clean. A handy little hack to keep your bed sheets and pillow cases smelling fresher for longer, is using scented tumble dryer sheets inside your duvet and pillowcases. This hack can also be used in your radiators by stuffing the sheets at the top. This is a great tip to use in winter when its dropping colder and it’s time to turn your heating on. The heat will help the sheets release a beautiful aroma, leaving the whole room smelling amazing.

A nifty product to have in your cleaning cupboard to keep your bedroom smelling its best is a fabric freshening spray. Fabric fresheners are often made up of essential oils, which when spritzed refresh your room from top to bottom, including bedding, carpets and chairs.

Bedding care is important not only when your sheets are on the bed, but also when they are in storage. Bed sheets when stored can easily get stale and musky smells due to lack of circulation so make sure to keep your stored bedding in a dry and airy place at all times if it’s not in use. Dampness is the enemy of fresh sheets; it only takes a few days for the musty smells to settle in. If you want maximum freshness for the maximum amount of time, it's best to air your sheets slowly on a clothes horse next to a gentle heat source like a radiator or window. Plus, air drying your sheets will ensure your fabric conditioner stays scented for longer.

Following your night’s sleep, air your bed in the morning before making it. Throw back all the sheets, open the window and let the air stream in. Lastly, if you want your wardrobes, drawers and the clothes within them (including those all-important PJs) smelling fresh try leaving a little bag of laundry Unstoppable crystals hanging in a pouch inside.

Bathroom

Cleaning the bathroom is likely to be one of your least favourite jobs, it certainly is the least glamorous of all tasks. To achieve maximum bathroom sparkle with minimum fuss, it’s a good idea to give yourself a head start with the toilet.

Squirt bleach around the toilet rim, and leave it to work its magic while you tackle the shower. Spray the toilet all over with disinfectant and leave it to kill any germs living on your loo.

In the meantime, begin the shower. Showers and baths should be cleaned weekly, however top up wipe downs are recommended throughout the week to avoid the build up of scum.

Remove all items such as shampoos, shower gels and conditioners from the bath and shower, as well as razors, sponges and toys, wiping them down while doing so. Spray with water the bath and shower walls, spritz on glass cleaner on any glass surfaces, and disinfectant sprays on any non-glass surfaces. Scrub and shine the shower head and the taps then leave all surfaces for around five minutes to breakdown grime before wiping or rinsing off. Use a squeegee or old towels to remove any water from every surface to ensure you’re left without water spots and pour bleach or disinfectant down any plug holes.

Once complete, head back to the toilet and with a bristly brush give the bowl a good scrub and then flush and wipe the whole toilets outer surface.

Lastly, give your sink a shine and disinfect with antibac and a good cloth. Wipe around the taps and bleach the plug hole to get rid of any stubborn bits and bobs that might be lurking there.

Living room and hallways

Hoovering your whole house is just the icing on the cake after a big clean. Odours can get trapped in your carpet, so leave your home smelling fresh as well as looking fresh with hoover lines created using Glade Shake and Vac which can be found in all your favourite shops for cleaning gear, like The Range and B&M. Simply shake the powder over your carpets, leave, and vacuum over in neat lines for long lasting delightful smells.

Blasting your music out and hoovering the house is probably one of the more fun jobs when it comes to cleaning. But cleaning the stairs is a whole different ballgame and can be very impractical. Instead of hoovering the stairs, try using a squeegee to get rid of the unwanted dirt that sits under the carpet. Simply scrape your stairs and be amazed at the dust, pet hair and more that pops to the surface, making any dust and dirt easy to dispose of.

We hope our top cleaning hacks have inspired you and you can put them to good use in your home. If you’re looking for your dream home that you can’t wait to clean, look no further! We have over 80 developments across the North of England and the Midlands with prices starting from just £102,995 for a stunning 2 bedroom home. Find yours here today.