The Ultimate Cleaning Hacks To Save You Time

Cleaning, tidying, housework, chores. Whatever you call it, it’s a necessity for everyone, especially right now. Some people love it, while others hate it, but we could all do with a few handy hints and hacks to lighten the load right now.

tombola have surveyed the British public and their 160,000 strong Facebook community to uncover the most detested and time-consuming chores across the country. Based on this investigation they’ve curated some top tricks, tips and hacks around the home. The result is the ultimate time-saving hacks to make your regular cleaning that little bit easier.

Cleaning The Oven is Britain’s Most Hated Chore

It’s official. Brits hate cleaning the oven more than any other chore. Over a third (35%) voted for this time-consuming bit of housework, with ironing in second place and washing/drying the dishes in third. But while cleaning the oven might be a bit of a difficult task, it scored the lowest on our ten most time-consuming chores. Do people clean the oven less because they hate it more?

But the room they hate to clean more than any other is the bathroom. 38% voted for the home of the toilet, bath and shower, but in 2nd place was the outdoors. More than a quarter of Brits say they hate external cleaning, such as windows, gutters and pressure washing. Perhaps that’s because the British weather is so unpredictable?

The Top 10 Most Hated Chores*

1. Cleaning the oven

2. Ironing

3. Washing/drying dishes

4. Cleaning the windows

5. Cleaning blinds

6. Unclogging the sink

7. Doing laundry

8. Cleaning the fridge/freezer

9. Cleaning the toilet

10. Changing the bed

*As voted for by tombola’s Facebook audience.

Laundry Is The Most Time Consuming Housework Brits Face

The most time-consuming chore is laundry, taking up almost a quarter of weekly cleaning time. Washing and drying dishes and ironing came in second and third, but they’re also in the top 3 most hated chores.

28% Of Brits Spend 470 Days Over Their Working Life Cleaning

Relaxing, working on a hobby, socialising and sleeping, are all things that Brits said they’d rather be doing than cleaning. But for over a quarter of Brits who spend more than 3 hours a week cleaning, that adds up to 470 days over a working lifetime. That’s the equivalent of an extra 34 fortnight breaks!

The Top Ten Time-Saving Cleaning Hacks

If you’re one of the many who hate those daily chores, tombola has you covered. We’ve taken the 10 most hated chores and found some amazing cleaning hacks to save you time.

1. Cleaning the oven

To remove stubborn stains, mix white wine vinegar and baking soda into a paste.
Spread over the inside of the oven and glass door.
Leave for at least 30 minutes but ideally overnight.
Wipe clean.

2. Ironing

Remove the ironing board cover and spread tin foil over the board, tucking the foil underneath.
Replace the cover.
The foil will now reflect the heat onto the underside of the garments, acting as a second iron.

3. Washing/drying the dishes

Work from the cleanest dishes to the dirtiest in this order;

Glasses
Cutlery
Plates
Pots and pans

4. Cleaning the windows

Spray window with cleaning spray.
Wipe away excess moisture with kitchen towel.
Buff dry with a coffee filter.

5. Dusting non-fabric blinds

Wrap a microfiber cloth around a set of kitchen pincers/tongs.
Then wrap a tumble dryer sheet around the microfiber cloth.
Secure with elastic bands.
Sweep across each horizontal blind remove dust on both sides.

6. Unclogging the sink

Pour a cup of baking soda down the sink.
Leave for 1 hour.
Boil 3 cups of white vinegar and pour down the sink.
The fizzing action will help to remove built up grime.

7. Laundry

Pop a capful of white vinegar in the drum after the detergent.
The vinegar helps to keep colours bold and whites white.

8. Cleaning the fridge/freezer

Brown stains in a fridge can be from dirt, rust and food residue.
Rub some baking soda over the mark and leave.
It will help to reduce their appearance and remove bad odours.

9. Cleaning the toilet

Add white vinegar to the cistern.
Also pour some into the bowl and scrub.
Soak some kitchen roll in the vinegar and push under the rim of the toilet.
Leave for 15 minutes.
Remove the kitchen roll and flush.
The vinegar will remove odours and keep the bowl clean with no harsh, overpowering chemicals.
The vinegar in the cistern will keep on cleaning with every flush.

10. Changing the bed

Step 1

Place your duvet on top of the duvet cover inside out. Now roll the two together so you have a sausage shape.

Step 2

Put your hands in the open end of the duvet cover, into the corners and grab the end of the duvet and then grab the roll too.

Step 3

Pull the whole lot through and then turn over and close the end of the cover. So now it should look like a sausage shape still, but the duvet will be enclosed in the cover.

Step 4

The other end of the duvet is just tucked inside the roll, so pull that out on both ends so that you're separating the top and bottom ends of the duvet and simply unroll.

With more Brits working from home, these cleaning hacks should help keep your home in tip-top shape in no time at all.