The cheat's guide to spring cleaning

HEY lazybones, there's just over a week of spring left. If you haven't done your big annual clean yet, don't sweat. We've got the timesaving tips you need.

You don't need all of this stuff ... or a great deal of time. Use the cheat's guide.

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.

Cue the spring clean. Ugh.

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.

Here are the top five tips to see you through.

Establish a pattern

If all else fails, just get the kids to do it.

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

"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."

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

Pantyhose should be a staple of your cleaning basket. And you thought they just made your legs look great.

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.

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.

"Just wrap a pair of pantyhose over a broom handle and secure it on really tight, then spray the end of it with white vinegar," she advises.

"Run it backwards and forwards in the gap. If you sprinkle salt in there, it'll stop cockroaches, too."

For Robertson, it's the s-bend of the toilet, refrigerator door handles, light switches, and the toilet flush button.

And don't forget above the kitchen cupboards, either, she warns.

"It's a wasteland that stores dust, rodent nests and droppings, long-forgotten food, and dead plants - all just waiting to become airborne," she says.

Stain, stain, go away

Lush's tip for whitening your sheets is ... umm ... surprising.

Use Lush's sure-fire ways of getting rid of common household stains and grime.

Red wine on carpet

Cover with paper towel and stand on it to remove excess wine. Sprinkle with bicarb soda and wait for it to turn grey. Wet a cloth with white vinegar and tightly ring it out, then use it to remove the bicarb soda - it should turn pale pink. Repeat the process once more.

Shower mould

Pour ¼ teaspoon oil of cloves and one litre of water into a big spray bottle. Mist the area and leave for 24-48 hours. Now scrub off with a scourer.

Dirty walls

Mix one teaspoon of lavender oil per one litre of water and pour into a spray bottle. Lightly mist the walls, then scrub with a pair of clean pantyhose.

Pet hair

Wearing a pair of disposable surgical gloves, wet your hands with soap and water, then shake them dry. Now wipe them all over the furniture. The static charge will make the hair collect into one ball. While you're at it, rub your hands over Buster, too.

Yellowing sheets

Here's a new one for getting crisp white sheets: rotten female urine. Sit it in a container in the sun until it diminishes by half and becomes brown. The ultraviolet light will have converted it to ammonia. Soak your sheets in a bucket containing water and two tablespoons of the urine for 24 hours. Then wash normally.

Close enough is good enough

Don't have much time on your hands? Just cheat.

If you're a bit of a grub and really can't be bothered to clean the whole house, Robertson says just give high-traffic areas a once-over and it'll look like you've put in some effort.

"Focus on the tabletops and the TV - the hub of any household - and you should be safe," she says.

Lush recommends investing in a hula hoop to help you out.

"Throw it over the messiest thing you can see, then only clean inside that area," she says.

"Anyone can clean a three-foot circle and all you have to do is clean one circle every day. By the end of the week, you've cleaned a room."

What are your cleaning tips and cheats? Continue the conversation via Twitter @newscomauHQ | @cassie_white