It’s official, spring is here! Sunday 20 March was the first day of spring this year so we’ll soon be smelling freshly cut grass and newly blossoming flowers in the air. (Sorry, hayfever sufferers.) You may wish to celebrate the warmer weather by giving your home a fresh feeling with a seasonal deep clean. But when spring cleaning, don’t forget to clean outside areas too, to prepare your garden for summer entertaining and outdoor relaxation.

Cleaning Your Windows

Let the sun shine in! Cleaning the windows of your house, green house and garden shed is a simple way to let in more light and instantly make your house and garden look cleaner.

Spring is the ideal time for window cleaning, as winter rain would soon undo your hard work and really hot summer weather dries windows too quickly leaving them streaky. So grab a sponge and douse it in either diluted washing up liquid, a simple half and half solution of warm water and vinegar or a window cleaning detergent designed for the purpose and get to work!

Often the tricky part of getting perfectly clean windows is drying them. Newspaper is the traditional way to get a good finish, but a window vacuum cleaner is a great modern alternative. Window vacs are light and easy to use; they suck the water straight off your windows for a streak free finish.

If you have a window vacuum cleaner, don’t just use it for windows, get your money’s worth! Clean and dry mirrors, shower glass, oven doors and car windscreens too, leaving all the glass surfaces around your home sparkling.

Washing Your Patio

Smartening up your patio will also make a huge difference to your garden. Over the winter, a fair amount of mud and dirt will most likely have washed onto your patio slabs and you may even find patches of moss or lichen growing on them. You can clean your patio with a firm broom and a cleaner suited to the stone, but scrubbing by hand is quite labour intensive. Fear not, there is an easier way.

If you own the glorious invention that is the pressure washer (or can borrow or rent one) you can easily clean your patio without any scrubbing at all. Move plant pots and furniture out of the way, sweep up any loose leaves or debris and you’re ready to start your wash. (If you own a garden vacuum you can even remove the leaves without any sweeping.)

The pressurised water coming from your pressure washer will push dirt away from you. So direct the pressure washer nozzle downwards and start cleaning from one edge of your patio, working outwards in sweeping motions. You’ll can instantly see the difference between the clean and dirty areas of your patio, so you’ll be able to tell which areas you’ve yet to clean.

Here’s our demo of a pressure washer in action:

Once your patio is clean, rinse it to prevent mud from drying back onto the stones. Oh and if your lawn needs mowing, do that first to avoid ruining all your hard work with grass stains.

eSpares tip: If you only have the pressure washer for a short time you can also take the chance to clean decking, garden furniture or even your car with it.

Preparing Your BBQ

Oh how we Brits love a barbecue. As soon as the first weak glimmers of sunshine appear from behind the clouds we start to contemplate al fresco grilled feasts.

Warmer, sunnier weather will (hopefully) be here soon, so prepare your barbecue in advance. We’d hate for your first grill of the year to be delayed when you lift the barbecue hood to find it caked in last year’s charred remnants.

To make cleaning your barbecue less of a chore, buy a specialist cleaner to cut through grease and baked on food, so that your grill can be easily wiped clean.

An ash vacuum is another useful BBQ cleaning tool as it’s specifically designed to suck up fine ash particles and can also blow air, which is great for helping light your barbecue. You can use the vacuum if you have a fireplace or wood burning stove too, but always make sure to wait until the ash has cooled before vacuuming it up, to avoid damaging your appliance.

For more information about this great little cleaner watch our video:

Once you’ve completed all of the above and possibly done a bit of hedge trimming and pruning to keep your garden neat, you’re all set to relax outside and make the most of the glorious British sunshine. (Yes, we’re optimists.)

Tags: BBq cleaner, Cleaning, cleaning products, Pressure Washer, spring cleaning, window vacuum cleaner