Spring cleaning with Tzveta Ivanova

Tzveta Ivanova is Executive Head Housekeeper & Wellness Director at The Milestone Hotel & Residences. Tzveta has worked at The Milestone for over 12 years and won the Hotel Cateys 'Housekeeper of the Year' award in 2019. 

Getting started

Tzveta suggests the below tips to help you tackle your tasks.

1. Make a schedule: Which areas do you normally neglect and what needs the most work? These are the best places to start. Regardless of where you start, having a plan for when you’re tackling each room will keep you focused on the task at hand.
2. Remove all clutter: You will be much more efficient without things in your way.
3. Top to bottom: Regardless of which room you do, it’s important to start from the ceiling down. This will force debris downward and keep you from having to re-dust or re-clean your space. If you have a vacuum with an extension hose, use it to get cobwebs and dust from your ceilings and fans first. Then dust your furniture and other items before vacuuming all the dust and debris off your floors. It will save you time.

Natural solutions

• Lemon juice is a much better ingredient to use to descale your kettle instead of strong and harmful descaler products. Boil some water in the kettle and empty it (so the internal base is still very hot) and pour in around half a cup lemon juice, shake it carefully so it goes as much on the side as possible and leave it for as long as you need. Half an hour or one hour, it won't damage your kettle. Then rinse it and you will have a sparkling new kettle (using a natural solution like lemon also uses less water to rinse it than if you had used strong/chemical descaler)
• A paste of baking soda and water cleans your oven without the chemicals. Just make a paste on the bottom of the oven (add drops of water to baking soda until a thick consistency) and leave for a few hours. Wipe it off for a shiny, chemical-free oven
• Vinegar is an effective way to clean your dishwasher effortlessly. Fill a dishwasher safe bowl or jar with two cups of vinegar and set it on the top rack of the dishwasher. Put the dishwasher on a hot cycle with no other dishes in the dishwasher to clean and remove the musty odour.
• For windows and mirrors, you can use a water and vinegar solution, but also hot water with a drop of Fairy Liquid – which works miracles for me. A small tip for your windows from me – avoid cleaning them under direct sunlight or artificial light; you will always have smears as the heat dries the glass immediately.

Outdoor and garden space

Don't forget your indoor/outdoor garden space, it needs love too! Many indoor plants benefit from a cold/tepid shower to revive them.