Spring cleaning hacks to impress relatives with during Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is just around the corner! Whilst we might be looking forward to all the good food and great company, we’re certainly not looking forward to the mandatory spring cleaning. Here are a few spring cleaning hacks to help speed up the process, and make it less tiring!

1. Assign rooms before spring cleaning starts

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and certainly not by one person. The idea of spring cleaning your whole home might feel overwhelming, so break down the process. Assign rooms and tasks to different members of the family. If you have kids, they can also help with simpler chores such as wiping the coffee table. You don’t have to do everything alone.

2.  Get a robot to vacuum for you

Why do something the old-school, manual way when you can get a robot to do your dirty work? If you haven’t tried robot vacuum cleaners before, now’s the time. You’ll be amazed at how effective these things are. And after some time, you won’t even notice them running in the background!

Robot vacuum cleaners are priced from around $200 onwards, and there is a wide range of them available on various online stores such as Amazon, Lazada and Shopee.

3. Polish your furniture

Wooden furniture and that Bali-esque vibe are all the rage nowadays. But if they have been sitting around for some time now, don’t forget to keep them in tip-top condition.

You may do so by buffing your wooden tables, chairs and armoires with furniture polish. If you want to go for the environmentally-friendly option, you can even DIY your furniture polish with a few simple ingredients such as vinegar and lemon juice.

4. Buy furniture that doubles up as a storage space

No matter how much you clean regularly, you’re bound to keep creating clutter – it’s a simple fact of life. So if you have a head start and can set aside some time to spruce up the house, that’s great. But if your relatives decide to drop by unexpectedly, there’s going to be a problem.

Save yourself the trouble (and the mini heart palpitations) by purchasing furniture that can niftily double up as storage space. If you have relatives arriving unannounced, you can easily sweep all your junk into your footstool (temporarily, of course!) and present a neat and clutter-free home to said guests.

5. Enlist the help of specialists

If you’re having a really busy week or month leading up to Chinese New Year, consider getting some expert help to do the spring cleaning.

There are plenty of part-time cleaners that you can engage in Singapore, starting at just over S$20 an hour. These include Helpling, Kaodim and Fuss. Just make sure you book an appointment a few days in advance!

6. Declutter your home

Before you actually start spring cleaning for Chinese New Year, objectively evaluate everything you’ve amassed over the years.

Do you still need that chair that no one uses anymore? Which items spark joy? Decide if it’s time to start binning and donating some of your stuff.

Can’t bear to part with them? Remember, the more things you have, the more cleaning you need to do and the more storage you’ll need to get.

7. Get rid of your exposed furniture

If you want to do less cleaning, you’ll have to sacrifice aesthetics for functionality. Case in point — having an entire wall of exposed bookshelves might be one of the #homegoals and make every bookworm on the planet drool with envy, but it’ll be a nightmare to dust and keep clean.

Running in the same vein, exposed modular wardrobes and standalone clothing racks are highly popular. But they’ll also collect plenty of dust, and require more cleaning. If you don’t want to create extra work for yourself, opt for traditional covered up cabinets instead.

Chinese New Year can be stressful if you need to host families and friends in your home. Even more so if you have relatives that like to ask questions such as “What’s your pay?” or Where’s the baby coming?”

Nevertheless, it’s also the reunion with our family and friends (some that we only meet once a year) that makes it such a special and meaningful event. Start spring cleaning and prepping your place in advance, and you’ll be sure to have a spick and span home by the time your relatives visit!

This article was first published in 99.co.