Hi there,

I’m Julie Yarwood, and I’m the in-house interior designer at Housing Units.

I hope you all had a lovely, fun-filled Christmas and are looking forward to what the year ahead brings. We can all fall into the trap of hoarding over the festive season, but the New Year brings with it the opportunity to de-clutter and spring clean our homes. Below I have given a few top tips for making a potentially arduous task as easy and enjoyable as possible.

Work in an organised manner

It’s a good idea to work from the top of your house to the bottom, or from one room to the adjacent one in a flat or apartment. This ensures that you stay organised and don’t undo your work accidentally as you go along. In the same way, if you are tidying outside, prioritise this before you start cleaning indoors to avoid causing any unnecessary mess. You should focus on one space or room in your home at a time to avoid unfinished or half-done jobs.

Keep wooden furniture as good as new
Luckily for a lot of families, distressed furniture is in! No matter what your kids throw at it, nicks, bumps and scratches just add to its charm. However, if you’re looking to preserve less-distressed furniture, consistency is key. Whether you use an oil polish or a wax polish to keep your tables and dressers sparkling, stick with the same product from then on, as using multiple products may give a cloudy finish to your furniture.

Make kitchen appliances sparkle
Over time, white appliances have a tendency to fade to a yellow colour. To prevent this from happening, mix ½ a cup of bleach, ¼ cup of baking soda and 4 cups of warm water. You can then apply this mixture with a sponge and leave for 10 minutes before rinsing and drying thoroughly. Car wax is also handy for using on larger stainless steel appliances to make them shine and remove small scratches.

Time flies when you’re having fun!
You’ll find the entire process a lot easier if you aren’t dreading it and make it as fun as possible. Music is a great way of improving your mood while cleaning so choose your favourite CD to keep you going. Upbeat music has been proven to motivate and improve productivity in a variety of situations, so give it a go! If you’re able to drag them away from other activities, it’s great to get the family involved. You can introduce incentives to encourage hard work and help get the job done in half the time!