Spring cleaning advice for your new home

New build or pre-owned property?

If you’ve bought a new build property, every room will be empty, although they will probably be in need of a clean. If you’ve brought a pre-owned property, you may find that it hasn’t been left in the best condition by the previous owners. No matter how the property has been left, you might still want to give it a quick clean so that you feel comfortable moving in.  

Top cleaning tips

Fully stock a cleaning box In the weeks leading up to your move, start putting together a box full of all the cleaning essentials that you’ll need such as bathroom cleaners, multi purpose sprays, glass cleaner, bleach, and microfibre cloths. You’ll go through a lot of cloths because of the dust, so it’s a good idea to stockpile some. Other essentials include:

• Broom with dustpan
• Bin bags
• Disinfectant buckets
• Sponges
• Bathroom scrub brush
• Extendable cobweb brush
• Standard hoover
• Handheld hoover
• Rubber gloves
• Mops
• Paper towels
• Oven cleaner

The more cleaning materials you have the better, as you don’t want to have to rush out for more supplies. If anyone volunteers to help with the big clean, you’ll have spares that you can hand out and you’ll get through the task much quicker.  

Start with the kitchen

Decide in advance what rooms you want to tackle first. It’s a good idea to clean your kitchen first, as you’ll be using it to make hot drinks and prepare snacks and meals. Give your new appliances and oven a wipe with a damp cloth and multi purpose spray, as they might not have been cleaned before. Make sure you take off any plastic film, and keep any manuals in a drawer to read later on. However, if it’s late in the day, and you’re planning on sleeping in the property overnight, cleaning the bedrooms might be a higher priority. Whatever room you’re cleaning, it’s a good idea to clean the ceiling first, then the walls, before finally tackling the floor. Try not to cut corners, as there will be areas in your home that you probably won’t clean again for a long while.  

Cleaning your bathrooms

Initially, you may have to remove stickers from the toilet seats and sinks, but cleaning your bathrooms should be an easy job. Get some multi purpose bathroom cleaning spray and bleach, and give the bath, sink, walls, ceiling and floor the once over. Don’t forget to leave a toilet roll or two, a bottle of hand wash and a hand towel in there, so the bathroom is ready to be used straight away.  

Cleaning efflorescence

Efflorescence is a white crystalline deposit on surfaces such as masonry, stucco or concrete, which can appear as your property dries out. There might be some efflorescence marks already when you move in, but they are really easy to get rid of. You just need to give your walls a quick wipe or use a firm brush to brush it off.

Get a babysitter

Finally, if you have young children, trying to clean your new home thoroughly will probably take you much longer than if you were simply focused on the task at hand. If you can, ask a grandparent or other family member to take them out for the day, and perhaps even let them stay overnight, so you can concentrate on cleaning and then unpack, before they arrive back  

The next step

Once you’re happy that your new home is clean enough, you’ll be ready to start unpacking your boxes and belongings. Decorating might not be top of your to do list, but you’ll want to put your mark on your property at some point and moving into a clean house is the best way to do that and feel comfortable from the start.