12 easy but effective ways to spring clean your house, according to an expert (2025)

The sun – finally – comes out and that’s great and everything, but the one downside is that suddenly our homes can look a bit tired, a bit dusty and, well, a bit grubby. In the olden days, our grandmothers would have subjected themselves to the tyranny of A Good Spring Clean, but honestly, who has the time or the inclination to waste the precious days of spring scrubbing a floor?

It’s a dilemma. We want things to be clean and tidy, but for most of us, the idea of cleaning and tidying them is a pain, sometimes to the point of procrastination paralysis.

The thing to do is to just get started. Doing something – anything – is better than doing nothing, and concentrating your efforts in the spaces where it makes the most difference will provide you with the sort of easy wins that encourage you to keep going. Focus on things you can SEE as it’s all about easy wins. Something like cleaning mattress protectors is an important job but you can’t see it and it’s often a right old pain, especially if you have to go to the laundrette to tumble dry them.

At a minimum, make your bed. If you have time, change the bedlinen. Sleeping on fresh sheets is one of life’s easiest and most delightful wins. Then ask yourself, if I were having people over tonight, what would I need to do not to be mortally ashamed and possibly have to find myself a whole new friendship group? Then do those things: straighten up a bit, clean the loo, give the kitchen sink a swish, maybe run the vacuum cleaner round and plump a few cushions. Don’t get hung up on perfectionism and don’t overthink it.

1. Tools for the job

We’ve all done it. That is, bought all the fancy cleaning products as a substitute for actually doing the cleaning, a little like when we were students, we bought the book and then somehow imagined we’d written the essay. The truth is, you don’t need loads of different things to keep your home clean: a multi-purpose spray, some sort of floor cleaning liquid, a mop, a dustpan and brush, a vacuum cleaner, some rubber gloves, a stack of microfibre cloths and some scrubby sponges will take you a very long way.

I use white vinegar a lot as a degreaser and bicarbonate of soda as a mild scourer. Get rid of anything you don’t use. Keep the things you do use together in a bucket or basket so you can move around the place easily and don’t have to keep going back to fish something out from under the kitchen sink. If your place is over two or more floors, consider having a cleaning kit for each floor. Make it as easy as possible to get stuff done.

2. Forget the list

I worry a bit about checklists because in my experience, people often spend so long on some elaborate checklist they then lose all inclination to do the actual cleaning – they feel like they’ve already done it because they’ve written it down.

I think it’s better to give yourself 10 to 15 minutes a day to work on something you have been avoiding, whether it’s scrubbing the grout in the bathroom or washing the front door. In a week, you’ll see the difference, in a month, you’ll feel like your home has had a deep clean, without having given up huge chunks of precious leisure time to cleaning.

3. Fingertip patrol

Grubby finger marks always make everything feel a bit depressingly crime scene, and it’s especially aggravating that they’re often in the spaces we see the most – light switches, door handles, door plates, appliances (stainless steel appliances are a particular form of torture).

Get your microfibre cloth and vinegar spray and spend 10 minutes tackling the ones that annoy you the most, remembering to spray onto the cloth not onto the surface you’re cleaning. Before you clean light switches, turn off the power and make sure they’re bone dry before turning it back on again.

4. Shine your sink

Once upon a time, in the early days of the internet, there was an American woman called the Flylady whose philosophy was about making small, incremental changes, creating good habits to help you live an ordered life. Her first commandment was: clean your sink.

Getting the kitchen sink clean is an easy win. It takes minutes and makes everything else easier, from making dinner to hand washing a sweater, and any number of those small household chores you’ve been putting off because just getting started feels overwhelming.

5. Reflected glory

Take a microfibre cloth and a spare 10 minutes and give all mirrors, televisions and other screens a quick wipe. This is usually enough, but if they’re very grimy, get a plastic spray bottle and fill it with a mixture of two parts water to one part white vinegar, shake, and spray it onto the cloth before you polish.

Don’t spray it onto the glass – you’ll be buffing it dry for ages and we’re all here for the quick wins.

6. Don’t forget the pictures

When you’ve done that, give your picture frames a once over with the microfibre cloth. Look up, and anything with elaborate mouldings, swish over with a feather or synthetic duster which is less likely to catch on fine details.

7. Straighten up

Ever wondered why they fold the loo roll into that little point in hotel bathrooms? It’s so the head of housekeeping can inspect the rooms quickly to check which ones have been done at a glance. For me, straightening out throws and plumping up cushions gives that same sense of “done” to a room. Visually, everything feels calmer.

8. Give lamps a little love

It’s often easy not to notice that your lamps are a little grim. Wipe lightbulbs and bases with your trusty microfibre cloth. If the base is elaborate, a quick blast with a hair dryer can help dislodge dust. Either remove fabric shades and give them a good shake outside, or if you have a upholstery attachment on your vacuum cleaner, gently vacuum them on the lowest setting.

9. Shiny, happy taps

If you don’t have time to clean the whole bathroom, just make sure the loo is clean, then wipe down the sink and the taps. In the morning after I’ve washed my face, I use the same flannel quickly to swish around the sink and taps to get rid of any toothpaste splashes and grubby makeup marks and then I toss the flannel in the laundry. It takes seconds and it means the sink seldom needs a deep clean as it never gets very dirty.

10. Spring showers

Keep a squeegee in the shower – you can get them in supermarkets and all the cheap homeware shops – and get into the habit of clearing off the drips each morning. You can use the vinegar spray you used on the mirrors here too and it’s especially good if you live in a hard water area. If you have a fabric shower curtain, give it a wash in the washing machine – the care label will tell you what temperature to wash it on, but 40C is usually fine. Add a couple of towels to the wash as it helps scrub the curtain clean and stops it from getting wrinkled in the wash.

11. Bathroom edit

Bathrooms can become dumping grounds for everything from half-used bottles of shampoo you don’t really like, stolen hotel toiletries, dried out bars of soap and out-of-date medications. Take five minutes and a bin bag and get rid of anything you don’t love or need, and anything past its best. This can also include ratty old towels and dressing gowns, if you’re really feeling inspired.

12. Bin it

Grab a bin bag and run around your house or flat emptying waste paper baskets and getting rid of anything you don’t need. Clear off surfaces that have become dumping grounds. Don’t overthink it. Be ruthless. I use a timer for this so it feels less onerous. It’s astonishing how much you can get rid of in 10 minutes and it’s hugely satisfying. Do it two or three times a week, and you’ll never have to give up a precious Saturday to decluttering again.