How many of us love having a clean home but hate doing the cleaning? Well, this list of 6 time-saving cleaning hacks are for you. We’ll help you get your house ship-shape for the warm weather so that you can focus on enjoying the sunshine instead of stressing over chores.

1. A bucket for every bathroom

The ensuite, the half bath, the main room. All of these lavatories are going to need your undivided attention while you scrub and scour your way through the built-up grime from another long winter. But as you’re moving from one bathroom to the next, there’s a decent chance you’ll be distracted by any of the other dozen or so spring cleaning tasks that have made their way onto your list.

Or, even if you’re a focused cleaner, it might not make sense for you to tackle all the bathrooms at once! Maybe you’re a one-floor-at-a-time type cleaner.

No matter what your distractions or your cleaning philosophy, you’re going to thank yourself for putting together a cleaning bucket for each of your bathrooms. Stock it with everything you need to get the salle de bain spotless, and you’ll save yourself from running back and forth from your cleaning HQ every time you enter a porcelain palace!

2. Newspapers and cloudy days are what clean windows really want

Sometimes it seems like the more you wipe a window the more you smear it. You check the Windex, check your cloth, wipe some more, and throw your head back in dismay. Or, worse yet, you wipe, wipe, wipe, walk away, and only when the company arrives do your realize that your freshly cleaned windows are actually a splatter away from being a translucent Jackson Pollok painting. So frustrating!

Well, the next time you go to clean your windows save the paper towel for spilled soup, and don’t wipe away on sunny days.

Newspaper is your best friend for cleaning your troubled windows. The paper will do a better job of trapping the oils that cause streaks in the first place. Just crush it into a ball and wipe away.

Why wait for the clouds to close in? No, it’s not because cleaning will brighten you mood on an otherwise dreary day, it’s because you’ll have a much easier time seeing the streaks!

3. Paint away those nasty window tracks

Whoever designed modern windows seems to have created the perfect trap for guck and grime. After a few months dust has settled in with moisture and created dark streaks of dirt that look nasty against your otherwise white window frames. How can you get rid of them? The same way Bob Ross makes happy little trees. Use a paint brush!

Your best bet is going to be a foam brush, and you might have to do a quick measurement to make sure you buy a size that’s perfect for the task at hand. But, once this tool is a part of your arsenal you’ll never again have to fight for supremacy in those awkward trenches.

Pair Pine Sol with your paint brush to get those messes cleaned up in no time. If you have a real sticky situation on your hands, mix some baking soda and vinegar together, let the guck soak for five minutes, and then brush it away with satisfying ease.

4. Put your screens back on and use a lint roller.

You packed your screens up for the winter, right? If not, consider this simple view-enhancing chore next time the temperatures dip. Since you probably aren’t opening your windows when the snow is flying, taking your screens off will give you a cleaner view for those few precious hours of winter daylight.

But, when it comes time to put them back on, pull out the lint roller for a simple de-fuzzing. It can be tricky to clean all of the dust and dirt out of that fine wire mesh, but the lint roller (one of those disposable ones with the sticky sheets) does a great job of tidying things up.

5. Oil Your Steel

We’re not talking about your knife set. We’re talking about your always-smudged easy-to-smear stainless steel appliances.

An effective way to get a good and lasting shine out of them is with white vinegar and olive oil. First, take a close look at your stainless steel and see which way the grain runs. This is important, as your always going to want to wipe and buff with the grain. Now, pour your vinegar into a spray bottle and give the appliance a liberal application. Wipe it nice and clean (always wiping with the grain) with a microfiber cloth. Once the vinegar is all cleaned off, dip your cloth into your olive oil (coconut oil also works quite well) and begin to polish your appliance still buffing with the grain. Keep rubbing the oil into the steel until it’s no longer greasy.

The oil will help keep your steel looking great without attracting copious amounts of fingerprints and other smudges.

6. Use your dishwasher for more than dishes

That oh-so-useful appliance sitting in the centre of your kitchen is a cleaning workhorse, and there’s no need to limit its potential to your knives and forks. We’ll close out our list with another list: things you can clean in your dishwasher!

• Clean your flip flops
• Put them in the top rack, and make sure they’re not lined with leather or other materials that might be damaged.
• Clean your make-up brushes
• When’s the last time these brushes got a good clean? Throw them in the utensil compartment and let the heat and detergent kill any fungus and bacteria.
• Disinfect kids toys
• Kids are wonderfully messy, and chances are their toys could use a good disinfecting.
• Clean faux flowers
• You could dust off each petal individually, or you could throw them into the top rack.
• Wash your keys
• We grab our keys all the time, yet rarely do they get any cleaning attention. Take off any fancy key chains that might be attached and toss them into the utensil compartment. Once the cycle is over, make sure you dry them off to prevent rusting!
• Light fixtures
• Light fixtures love to gather dust, and if you’re already taking them down for spring cleaning, consider putting them all in the dishwasher together. Run them through a cycle and have them come out cleaner than they’ve ever been.
• Lots of bathroom stuff
• Make things easy on yourself while you’re cleaning out your bathroom and toss soap dishes and toothbrush holders into the dishwasher. You can even grab your shower puffs, sponges, and brushes to kill any bacteria that might be growing on them. Round things off by washing your hair brushes and combs as well!

Spring is such an uplifting time of year, and it’s even easier to enjoy the new leaves on trees, budding flowers, and fresh breezes when your house is clean and tidy.

We hope these six spring cleaning hacks will help you get the most out of your home and your summer!