The Cheat's Guide to Spring Cleaning by Cassie White

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The cheat's guide to spring cleaning This story was published: 24 DAYS AGO

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NOVEMBER 18, 2013 11:12AM

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STORY BY

CASSIE WHITE

RIGHT NOWIN LIFESTYLE You don't need all of this stuff ... or a great deal of time. Use the cheat's guide. Source: News Corp Australia

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YOU'VE spent the last few months hibernating. But now the sun's out and shining its big, bright light on the cave that is your home.

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Cue the spring clean. Ugh.

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Face it: you don't want to do it, but you're also too tight to pay someone to do it for you. So suck it up.

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Here are the top five tips to see you through.

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Establish a pattern

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If all else fails, just get the kids to do it. Source: News Corp Australia

Danielle Robertson, from professional cleaning service DIAL-AN-ANGEL, says cleaning methodically will get the job over and done with much quicker.

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"Start each room to the left of the doorway at the top, then move clockwise and down," she says. "As you clean a room, leave the light on. Once done, you can retrace your steps to know which rooms are clean and give them one last glance as you turn the light off."

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To save any future demoralisation, cleaning guru Shannon Lush, author of Stainless, says it's much better to clean one room every day, rather than save everything up for the post-winter scrub. "It only takes 15 minutes to clean a room. By the time you get to the end of the house, you just start again," she says. Must-have supplies

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Pantyhose should be a staple of your cleaning basket. And you thought they just made your legs look great. Source: News Corp Australia

Don't spend hard-earned coin on expensive cleaning products. Lush and Robertson say bicarb soda and white vinegar (or a mixture of both) are natural, all-purpose products that'll clean pretty much anything, except marble. Robertson's tips: • A 1:1 ratio of water and vinegar will clean most surfaces, floors and walls. • Undiluted vinegar is a powerful toilet bowl cleaner. • Neutralise pet and general household smells by sprinkling bicarb soda over the carpet and leaving for 10-15 minutes before vacuuming. • Pour ½ cup bicarb soda into the bottom of the dishwasher for extra-clean dishes. And Lush's favourite secret cleaning weapon? Pantyhose. "All those expensive microfibre clothes are made out of pantyhose, yet you can get four pairs for $1.25 and they last forever. You just keep washing them," she says. The worst of the worst

Your toilet can look this pristine. Source: Supplied Advertisement

Lush has cleaned a lot of houses in her career and reckons beside the stove and under the fridge are the places most people never clean.