New Year, clean house

Does your home look as if Santa and all eight of his reindeer have ploughed through it? If so here’s how to get your house spick and span after the festive season

The post-Christmas clean-up can feel overwhelming, what with torn wrapping paper everywhere, new toys already discarded, and grease and food scraps all over the kitchen. But with a simple routine and the right products, you can get it done quickly and efficiently.

First, get your little elves to help by tidying up the surface mess, asking them to find a home for their new toys and put the wrapping paper in the recycling.

Then it’s onto the deep clean. Instead of taking one room at a time – which means you’re already bored and exhausted by room two – start with the surfaces, then the walls and finally the floors. You could do one per day if you want to make it more manageable.

Here are the steps to take, and the products to use, for each stage:

The surfaces

First, wipe the kitchen counters down (you don’t even have to worry about catching the crumbs if you’re cleaning the floors later), then run a clean, dry cloth over the surfaces in the bathroom, and polish or dust all the tables, lamps, TVs, windowsills and other surfaces around your home.

Now it’s time to arm yourself with the right cleaning products. If you want to blitz the surfaces in one, grab Flash Lemon All-Purpose Spray. Spray and wipe your kitchen and bathroom surfaces and tiled walls for clean, fresh-smelling rooms.

For a deeper clean, use Flash Multi-Purpose Concentrated Cleaner. You can use this to cut through grease on your cooker, in your microwave and around your oven.

Flash Bathroom Spray will kill germs and grime in the bath, shower, sinks and toilet. Then blitz any limescale crust and streaks with Viakal.

The walls and windows

Chances are, with guests coming and going and over-excited kids tearing around the house, your walls have fallen victim to scuff marks and even the occasional creative crayon “drawing”.

This is a job for the Flash Magic Eraser, a sponge that, when damp, is powerful enough to lift stains but gentle enough not to effect the paintwork.

Next, use a window cleaner or white vinegar and water solution (one part vinegar to four parts water) to clean windows and mirrors. Spray the solution on the window or dampen the cloth with it, and wipe in a circular motion, then vertically then horizontally. Finish by polishing it with a cotton cloth – or you could even use an old T-shirt or sheet of newspaper.

The floors

Once all the dust and dirt has shifted onto the floor, give the carpets a good hoover, lifting rugs and getting under furniture.

For tiled floors, sweep the area first and then fill a bucket with hot water and a cap of Flash Multi-Surface Concentrated Cleaner This targets dirt and grease and will leave your floors sparkling clean. If there’s a particularly stubborn mark, try treating it directly with the undiluted Flash.

For more tips on what products suits your needs, see our Flash product finder flow chart.

Do you use Flash’s cleaning range? Let us know in the comments section below or on our tried and tested page.