Getting our house ready to go on the market has been no small task, and has involved major spring cleaning.
While we’ve resorted to the cheat’s guide to housework in the past, knowing our home would be subject to close scrutiny by potential buyers really motivated us to clean up our act (excuse the pun)!
So over the past couple of months I have scrubbed nine years’ worth of grease and grime from:
- the top of our kitchen cupboards, using a broom, a bucket of water and some washing powder;
- every window in the house (and cursed every time it rained and ruined my handiwork!);
- the ceiling cornices as it’s amazing how many old cobwebs and insects gather there.
Along the way I discovered some amazing chemical free cleaning hacks – and now I’m going to share them with you! (You’re welcome 😉 )
My Top 5 Chemical Free Cleaning Hacks
1 – To Clean Ceiling Fans – Place an old pillow case over one blade of the fan, and gently wipe. All the mess is then captured in the pillow case, instead of setting dust bunnies free to romp all over your house. Then it’s just a matter of taking the pillow case outside and shaking to remove dust and debris, before laundering as normal.
2 – To Clean the Oven – My oven has been neglected it’s true, mainly because I loathe the horrible chemically sprays that are needed to clean it.
But do you know what works really well? Gumption! While it does mean using a bit of elbow grease, it’s very rewarding as you see the results. And I didn’t choke on the fumes once!
3 – To Clean Kitchen Counter Tops and Cook Tops – My secret ingredient for cleaning stuck on mess from counter tops and cook tops? Water. Just good old, plain, garden variety, water!
You can either spritz the surface with a spray bottle, or place a damp cloth over the mess, and let it sit for about five minutes. When you come back, it wipes clean easily!
4 – To Clean Showers – I found a razor blade was the best way to remove soap scum from the floor tiles. Yes, really! You can actually see the caked-up soap that’s been removed, on the blade below:
I was so inspired that I then decided to try it on the glass shower screens and again, was really pleased with the results – and it didn’t seem to scratch them either! It’s the only thing I’ve ever found to bring a glass shower screen back to almost new condition. No matter how much I’ve scrubbed or how many horrible sprays I’ve used (which always make me cough), they always looked cloudy. Not anymore … our purchasers will think they’re buying a brand new house!
5 – To Clean Walls and Doors – We de-cluttered and removed a lot of our furniture and belongings prior to listing our house, just like the property experts advise.
However that revealed all the marks on the walls and doors … what to do? Well, it’s amazing what you can accomplish with a microfibre cloth and a bucket of water with washing powder added – and for really stubborn marks or stains, a Magic Eraser usually does the trick.
Actually, Magic Erasers are my new best friends. I also used them to bring the white vinyl on the stools at the breakfast bar back to pristine condition, and to clean the grubby mitt marks off light switches.
And don’t even get me started on cleaning the EXTERIOR of the house … I figure that’s the husbear’s department, fortunately he loves to do a bit of pressure cleaning of the driveway and paths around the house. (Much more fun to do in this summer heat too!)
What a major project it is to move house – I feel like all I’ve done since we signed the contract on the new house in mid-August, is pack, clean and get ready to move. I’m really looking forward to having my life back again, so I can bring you much more interesting blog posts than my top house-cleaning hacks!
And if you want to check out the end results, here’s what our home looked like once it was ready for sale.
Were any of my chemical-free cleaning hacks news to you – and which one (if any!) are you keen to try?!