Jasmine Birtles
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Save money with our 2024 cleaning guide
Jasmine Birtles
7th Aug 2024
Save money on cleaning with these simple hacks
Like everything else right now, cleaning products and cleaning services are rocketing with inflation. But you don’t need to spend a fortune to give your home a good spring clean. Follow our money-saving tips and clean your entire home for just a few quid.
We’ve also rounded up some top cleaning and cleaning adjacent items we love, from hoovers to space-saving washing lines.
- Duvets and pillows
- Washing machines
- Toilets
- Microwave and ovens
- Kettles and coffee machines
- Dishwasher
- Product Round-Up
Duvets and pillows
The majority of people rarely – if ever – wash their duvets and pillows. It’s important though to clean your bedding regularly to kill off any mites or bacteria living in these warm, moist bacteria-breeding grounds.
Dry cleaning your duvet and pillows each year is the obvious solution to keeping your bedding clean. But you don’t have to fork out £40 or more having them professionally laundered.
Instead, put the duvet in the washing machine – even if it’s a feather one – along with a small amount of powder or liquid. Set it on a low, relatively short wash, ideally with a cap of anti-bacterial laundry cleanser to help kill of any germs (Tesco’s own-brand, for instance, will set you back just £3 and is enough to do 19 loads).
Don’t panic if the duvet or pillows look lumpy when you take them out. Simply put them them out to dry in the sun or on some form of dryer, shake them regularly, and after a day or two they should fluff up better than before.
Whatever you do, though, don’t try to dry your bedding in a tumbledryer (even with a tennis ball or other gadget that allegedly “helps” prevent clumping). The tumble dryer will almost certainly ruin the stuffing in your duvet and pillows.
Washing machines
Washing machines are costly when they start breaking down, so it’s important to not only regularly clean your washing machine’s drawer, drum, seal and door to prevent bacteria building up (mould and germs can quickly multiply inside a washing machine, even if you dry it out after every use) but to also help prevent the pipes “gumming up” from the grime and fibers released each time you wash.
This build-up can quickly block the pipes and result in a costly call-out from an engineer or plumber.
Prevent this by cleaning out the inside of your washing machine once a month. You can either do this using a specialist cleaning agent or by creating your own cut-price alternative using baking soda (£1.25 for 500g) and white vinegar (which costs just £8.49 for a 5 litre bottle).
Start by spraying white vinegar around the inside of the drum, including the rubber door seal, then pour 500ml of white vinegar into the detergent drawer and set to a standard hot wash.
Next, run a wash with about 60-70gm of baking soda in the drawer.
Finally, wipe the drawer and drum to make sure any residue is removed.
Repeat this every month or so and you should extend the length of your washing machine.
Toilets
Forget expensive sprays and liquids, you can dislodge baked-in limescale in the toilet by simply pouring a bucket of hot water (not boiling) into the bowl, followed by a cup of citric acid (£2.30 for 250g at Ocado).
Leave it to soak for an hour, and you should be okay to flush.
For really tough stains, leave overnight if possible, and by the morning those calcified deposits should be gone.
Microwave and ovens
The best way to keep the microwave clean is to always cover whatever you’re cooking either with an old Tupperware lid or one of those inexpensive, plastic, microwavable covers sold in most stores (you can grab one at the tills in Ikea for just £1). You should also dry it out after every use, if possible, to prevent it from rusting or becoming a breeding ground for bacteria.
If there is a build up of exploded food debris inside your microwave that you’re struggling to remove, simply place a glass bowl full of water, with two tablespoons of baking soda in it, and set on full power for three to five minutes.
It should produce steam that helps to dislodge backed-on dirt in all the corners that can then be easily wiped away.
Cleaning the main oven is slightly trickier – although, again, you can help reduce the amount of cleaning required by wiping down the shelves, door and bottom of the oven after each use.
Steam cleaners are the best way to dislodged baked–in dirt, but if you don’t know anyone with one of those, you can create your own heavy duty oven cleaner for less than £1.
Start by mixing some of your leftover baking soda with water to create a thick paste. Smear the paste across the metal and glass in the over and leave it for 20 minutes.
For the racks, place them in the bath with hot water and a few own-brand dishwasher tablets. Leave them to soak for as long as possible and wipe the grease and grime off.
Once you’ve cleaned and scrubbed the oven it’s helpful to put special lining paper at the bottom to catch drips and crumbs. Lakeland has a 50cm roll for £11.99.
That’s why it’s important to tackle the problem at the first sign of any flakes.
Descaling a kettle, even with store-bought solutions, is relatively cheap: Ecozone descaler, for example, costs just £2.88 for three sachets.
However, you can do it even cheaper with the leftover white vinegar you bought previously.
Simply fill the kettle with half white vinegar and half water, boil the kettle as usual, then pour the water away. Next, refill the kettle and boil it again with water only.
Keep doing it until the limescale has gone.
Descaling the kettle this way shouldn’t cost you more than 50p a go – about half the price of an Ecozone sachet.
An effective way to cut down on cleaning costs is by making the most of your dishwasher. Only run the dishwasher when it’s fully loaded to conserve water and energy, which reduces utility bills. Using energy-efficient settings or eco modes can further decrease electricity consumption. Instead of buying pricey dishwasher detergents, you can make a homemade cleaner using common household items like baking soda and vinegar. Regular maintenance, such as cleaning the filters and checking the spray arms, ensures your dishwasher operates efficiently and lasts longer, saving you money on repairs or replacements in the long run. If you’re planning to add a dishwasher to your kitchen, a quick Google search for something like “dishwasher nz” should give you a list of options that you can check out.
Product Round-Up
Hoovers
The Hoover Cordless Vacuum Cleaner with CORNER GENIE™ is a phenomenal vacuum cleaner, and we never thought we’d say this but we actually enjoy doing the hoovering now! The innovative nozzle allows effortless manoeuvring and reaches hard-to-reach places, the flat shape cleaning under furniture with ease. We’ve cleaned places in our home we’ve never even seen before.
It’s so easy and quick to empty too, via a quick-release pedal, and there’s an LED display showing battery level and mode selection (normal/turbo) at the touch of a button: the removable battery allows 30 minutes of runtime (10 minutes in turbo mode).
The stick vacuum cleaner can be stored hanging & standing, and there are a ton of accessories including the motorised mini power nozzle, which is perfect for pet hair and fur. There’s a flexible crevice nozzle, a 2-in-1 dust & furniture attachment, a handheld vacuum container, and a wall mount with screws and instruction manual. Or you can just store this sitting upright in your cupboard or stand it in the corner.
The Henry Quick is a nifty stick hoover with one-click, dust-free emptying: includes 6 Pods that you just pop into the machine for factory-fresh performance and powerful suction, time after time. A powerful airflow compacts dust for more capacity than other leading vacuums, and what’s more the Pods are climate positive and made from recycled material: Hoover as carbon offsetting their pods globally, reducing carbon impact.
It has a really good power and runtime, this one: 25.2V for a runtime of 70 min Low / 16 min High; a charge time of 150 mins – 100%, and a litre pod capacity.
The amazing Hoover Robot Vacuum Cleaner HG4 has a rotating brush uses a combination of bristles and rubber blades to pick up dust and dirt from all types of flooring, whilst the side brush sweeps corners and edges. Suction power of up to 4000 Pa pulls the dust and debris up into the robot’s dust chamber, leaving your floors clean.
Download the HG Robot app to control your HG4 from anywhere, even when you’re not at home. You’ll be able to create the first map of your home in under 10 minutes, then you can personalise it to suit your needs. Give a name to each room, split or merge them, add no-go areas or virtual walls in places where you don’t want the robot to clean.
Laundry
We’ve got a couple of great recommendations for washing lines, whether you have a garden, a yard, or a corner somewhere to hang your laundry. We know wet laundry can dominate the house and garden, particularly if you have a family.
The Vileda Cordomatic – 15 metre retractable washing line is a great space-saving washing line. The wall mountable unit has 15 metres of retractable line which can be locked at any length. Once used, the line can be put back in to the unit so it doesn’t get in the way, and it’s a very sturdy product that easily holds up to 15kg of laundry.
The Vileda Viva Air 45m 4 Arm Rotary Dryer might give you some childhood nostalgia, as it’s reminiscent of the one your folks used to use to hang piles of laundry in a compact space. With a line length of 45m, the dryer can easily hold 4 loads of washing. The lightweight steel 4 arm rotary dryer comes with a split pole, so it can be transported with ease, and assembled quickly before installation.
Where do you start with furniture cleaners? We’d recommend the VAX SpotWash Max Pet-Design to clean, revive and restore your home, car and pet-loved areas. This powerful SpotWasher with 30% more suction power than other products, combined with the SpinScrub Hand tool gives the best cleaning results when tackling stubborn pet messes and household spills and stains. Heavy-traffic areas can be harder to keep clean, but VAX SpotWash Max Pet-Design’s powerful extraction and double the tank capacity make cleaning mud-trodden and rain-soaked spaces easy.
Interchangeable tools make tackling any surface hassle-free. The dedicated Messy Clean Up Tool is ideal for pets, allowing you to deep clean without any cross-contamination, the Crevice Tool reaches tight spaces and the Wide Path Tool cleans carpets and upholstery faster.
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