Get a more beautiful and organised home with tips from this incredible female cleaning and organising expert.
Mrs Hinch is Sophie Hinchcliffe, a British influencer who has created success for herself by making cleaning and organising fun. If you struggle with cleaning and you need some inspiration, Mrs Hinch could well be the person to help you progress in your hopes for a more hygienic home. To get you started, here are the top 10 Mrs Hinch tips for a clean and tidy house:
1. Scuffed Door Wonder Solution
During an appearance on This Morning a few years ago Mrs Hinch shared a really easy and cheap way to clean scuffed doors, which can be resistant to normal cleaning methods. All you have to do is mix fabric conditioner and water together (one cup to a large bowl of water) and using a dipped sponge of the mixture, gently rub the door to get rid of dirty marks and scuffs. This tip is only for painted wooden doors, though, so if you have a UPVC door or window frame that needs cleaning, try using a mixture of vinegar and hot water (50/50) and that should do the trick.
2. Dirty Drain Solution
Dirty drains can be stinky and very tricky to clean. Even with a cleaning rod or expensive foam solutions they can stay very smelly and hard to sort out. Mrs Hinch recommends pouring soda crystals down the plug hole, waiting a few seconds and then splashing down some white vinegar. This causes the crystals to fizz and foam, ideally cleaning away nasty debris and neutralising odours. For extra odour-neutralising power you can follow this with a disinfectant you like the smell of, left for a few minutes and then rinsed with hot water.
3. Storage White Board Labelling
Mrs Hinch shared a hack where she labels each section of her loft with whiteboards so that in a glance she can see what is stored where. For example: one corner might be Christmas decorations, another might be sentimental items, another might be for camping gear. This same method can be echoed anywhere you store your things, including your local self storage unit, or your garage. It’s a really good visual tool to use if you do struggle with itineraries, or you can’t be bothered to label individual boxes.
4. The Pillowcase Hack
Most of us struggle with storing bedding. It is big, bulky, it gets mixed up and disorganised, and it is really tricky to fold. Although there are techniques to show you how to fold it, Mrs Hinch has a much faster and easier solution – putting the whole set into one pillowcase. You simply organise a clean set – sheets, pillowcases and quilt cover – and put them all into one pillowcase. Even better, she adds a dryer sheet in there to keep things fresh smelling until it’s time to put the bedding on. This is a great hack you can also use when packing sheets and clothing into your local London storage unit. You can find out about storage prices here.
5. Baskets Inside Of Cupboards
One of the easiest tips Mrs Hinch has is to put ‘baskets inside of cupboards’. These can be see-through containers in the fridge to organise everything and enable you to see what you have, or baskets inside any drawers where the contents may have been scattered in one big pile. There’s a home for a basket or container in every cupboard and drawer.
6. Cleaning Kits
Mrs Hinch recommends having a cleaning basket which contains everything you need to clean a certain room. Some people choose to keep their baskets in each relevant room, and some keep the baskets in one place and take the relevant one when they go to clean the relevant room. It’s really handy as you don’t have to bumble around carrying everything, going back for something you forgot, getting halfway through the cleaning and then discovering you’ve run out of something. This is another tip that easily translates to your affordable self storage unit. You can fill a basket with items to clean your unit, and items you might need when you’re there like tape, packing materials, moth repellent bags and bin bags, and then you’ll be well set up every time you visit.
7. Laminate Floor Scrub
Mrs Hinch uses bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar mixed with disinfectant concentrate to clean laminate floors, removing grime and dirt and leaving everything smelling fresh in the process. She also recommends one extra tip – opening windows and doors afterwards to create air flow in the house, spreading the smell of the clean floor across every room.
8. Bicarb Mattress Magic
Have a spill on your mattress? Mrs Hinch recommends you rub bicarbonate of soda into the affected spot before leaving it for an hour or so to give the bicarb the chance to absorb the stain. After an hour, you can suck up the bicarbonate of soda and the stain should have improved or it may have disappeared altogether.
9. Floor Food Solution
Mrs Hinch has young children and so is no stranger to food mess being spilt on a wooden floor. It can be tricky to remove those kinds of spillages because they can be oily or greasy. Her top tip is to spray degreaser onto the wooden floor liberally and then use an electric toothbrush to dislodge the debris. You can then wipe everything away with some kitchen roll and it should leave the surface sparkling clean.
10. Fresh Bin Hack
Bins are prone to getting a bit smelly, and it can be hard to get them fresh with a simple spray and wipe down. Mrs Hinch recommends that you use disinfectant to wipe them down, followed by pouring disinfectant into the bottom of the bin. You can then rinse the bin down outside using a boiled kettle or a hose, followed by a washing up liquid soaked cloth or sponge wipe down and another rinse. After being left to air dry, the bin should be much fresher and cleaner.
Will You Hinch Yourself Happy?
Cleaning and organising is not fun for a lot of people, but little tips and tricks that make it easier can enable even the most hygiene hesitant of us to get the house in tip top condition. Whether you’re organising your local self storage unit, or giving your bathroom a spring clean, hopefully these handy tips from Mrs Hinch can help you get things looking and feeling much better soon.