There’s a lot to love about the Chinese New Year festive season – catching up with your family, feasting on delicious plates of bak kwa and other goodies and just the general hopefulness that greets every new year.
The one thing that most of us do not enjoy is the spring cleaning that precedes the festivities (and the nagging).
New year spring cleaner feels like a monumental task but it does not have to be unpleasant. We have prepared some of our favourite spring cleaning hacks to make it that much easier for you.
Prepare a Spring Cleaning List
This might sound basic but it’s something that most people tend to leave out.
If you’re the one who is essentially ‘in charge’ of house cleaning, then you’re already familiar with the tasks that need to be done and how to do them.
But this spring cleaning list is not only for you. It will also help you to split the work among the other members of your household.
Besides, you will only have to do this once and you can reuse it every year.
Clean Your Faucet with Lemon
Make your faucet sparkling clean by rubbing half a lemon on any hard water stains. The citric acid in the lemon will remove unsightly hard water stains and make it look as good as new.
Clean Your Microwave with Lemon Juice
Squeeze some lemon juice into a cup of water and place lemon rinds into it. Microwave this cleaning mix for three minutes and let it stay in your microwave (without opening the door) for another five minutes. The steam from the mix will loosen the stubborn stains in your microwave and make it much easier to clean.
Disinfect Your Sponge
Sponges are full of bacteria. Before you spread those germs to the rest of your house, you might want to disinfect your sponge first. This can be easily done by filling it with water and putting it in your microwave for two minutes. This should kill 99% of bacteria.
Seal Your Granite Countertops
If you’re using granite kitchen countertops, you should look at having them sealed frequently. Granite is a natural stone and as such, contain microscopic crevices where water and dirt can fall into. This is also another reason why you should clean stains as soon as possible.
Sealing prevents this and makes your kitchen countertop more hygienic.
You can test if your granite countertop is properly sealed if water beads and forms droplets on the granite surface.
If you are using quartz, then you have nothing to worry about. Quartz is a manmade material so it is non-porous and does not have to be resealed every year.
Freshen Your Fridge
Don’t you hate it when you’re hit with a waft of funky smells whenever you open your fridge?
Do not use chemicals or detergents to clean your fridge. These leave odours and chemical traces that your food might absorb.
Instead, combine two tablespoons of baking soda into a cup of hot water. Dip a sponge into it and use it to clean your fridge.
What are your favourite spring cleaning hacks? Share with us in the comments below.
