5 cleaning tricks you should know if you don't like to clean

For people who don't like cleaning, dividing tasks into smaller daily jobs can be a great solution. In addition to that, you can resort to these simple cleaning tricks to make life a little easier.

THE REALITY OF CLEANING

Sorting, sweeping, scrubbing and cleaning a house is something we all have to do (or at least we should be doing) to keep things in order, maintain health, and for general well being. But let's get real, very few of us relish the idea of tackling those cleaning tasks - no matter how good we may feel about it afterwards. Most of us have to slot cleaning in among busy work schedules, kids and life in general. However, since cleaning is an essential part of life, why not find some cleaning hacks?

1 USE MULTI-SURFACE CLEANING WIPES

This is a simple cleaning tool, and pretty hip nowadays, it also has the advantage of being able to clean surfaces such as kitchen tables to bathroom appliances. Keep a packet of these wipes around the house to grab when needed. For example, after washing the dishes, you can take a wipe to clean the kitchen table with. Within seconds your table will be gleaming, and it barely took any time at all.

Another place these wipes come in very handy is in the bathroom. Due to the steam, mirrors will be wet, take advantage of this and give them a quick wipe, along with the shower heads, and leave your bathroom gleaming.

One thing to note when using cleaning wipes is that they should always be disposed of in a waste basket , never through the toilet. Perhaps it's obvious, but I feel it's worth a mention, for hygiene reasons, wipes should not be used more than once.

2 TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EVERY STORAGE SPACE YOU HAVE

Drawers, trunks, furniture and shelves are your friends, use them! They are perfect when it comes to keeping an orderly house. As well as the great advantage of having everything in its proper place, it saves you picking random objects off the floor when you're trying to sweep, vacuum, or mop the floors. When it comes to keeping surfaces unoccupied, this also goes for tables, especially ones used regularly for eating.

Don't have enough drawer space? Invest in some stackable clear plastic boxes, these are relatively inexpensive and can be placed anywhere in your home. As the name suggests, they are stackable, so you can stack a few in a corner of a room and use them as movable drawers.

Be warned: having storage is not a licence to accumulate junk. The whole point of storage is to keep everything in order so you know where they are. If you're just stuffing everything away, in the pretense of keeping things clean, it kind of defeats the point. So only keep what you need in there, and maintain order in the drawers too.

3 WASH THE DISHES WHEN YOU FINISH EATING

If you're like me, and see cleaning as a massive chore, then you're probably not be too fond of seeing a load of dirty plates piled up either. Most of the time, when it's got to that stage, it's like sinking your hands into a murky lagoon of dried on food, wafts of bygone meals, and general ickiness. Therefore, to avoid mountains of crockery invading your kitchen sink, devote a few minutes after each meal to wash each plate. It will probably take a little while to get used to, but believe me, it will make you so much happier in the long run.

4 ONE ACTIVITY PER DAY

No matter how busy we are, most of us can spare two minutes a day. For example, it could be when the adverts are on between your favorite soap, while waiting for a cup of coffee to boil, or even before going to bed. The point is, no matter how busy anyone professes to be, we all have free moments.

In those empty minutes, pick up a broom without thinking and sweep the floor. You can also wipe the furniture with a cloth quickly. By dealing with small tasks every day, when you have a minute or two, your home will always be clean.

Of course at some point, you will need to clean a little more thoroughly; however, when that time comes, you will notice that you're cleaning far less. Happy days!

5 THE BATHROOM, THE FUNDAMENTALS

For the bathroom, apply all the tricks discussed above. Try and clean a little each day, clean right after a shower, so that steaminess can work for you.

One of the places that many of us don't exactly relish is cleaning is the toilet. However, this is certainly a must do task. Use a squirt of bleach and get that sucker clean, leave the bleach for around five minutes (while you do other things around the bathroom) and then give it a flush. An antibacterial wipe is a fab and quick way to disinfect the seat area - until you have time to give it a good scrub.

Another tip, when cleaning the bathroom, is to leave a plastic bag on the door handle. This way as you pick up any rubbish from the floor, you have an easy place to put them. On your way out you can whip this off and discard it.

Just like storage is your friend, vinegar is also your ally. Soak tissues in vinegar, and place around bathroom taps, and shower heads to clean and remove limescale fast.

So that's it folks, some simple cleaning tricks to make cleaning more palatable and a lot easier.