Ask Lucy: I've answered your cleaning conundrums to ensure your home always sparkles

A colour-drenched green-painted living room with a fringed table lamp and lit candle sticks on a side cabinet.

Content creator Lucy Kalice is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on cleaning, home decor and making the most of small spaces. See the rest of her articles here.

We’ve just moved into our first home and I’d love to know what cleaning tasks you do daily vs weekly?

First of all, congratulations! Picking up the keys to your first home is so exciting and I love that you’re getting organised thinking about the cleaning jobs (you're a person after my own heart).

I live in a 3 bedroom house with 1 dog and no children, so I think it’s important to start by saying that my non-negotiable daily jobs might be different to someone else’s. This is just what work for me and my home and might not work for you…so without further ado, here are my non-negotiables:

Daily cleaning jobs:

1. Make the bed
2. Wash all your plates/cutlery/saucepans you’ve used that day (trust me, coming downstairs in the morning to last nights dirty dishes is an instant mood killer)
3. Wipe down the kitchen countertops
4. Vacuum the kitchen floor
5. Disinfect sink and cloth/sponge

Weekly cleaning jobs:

1. Wash/change your bed sheets
2. Wash/change your towels
3. Clean your bathroom
4. Vacuum the whole house
5. Mop hard floors
6. Clean mirrors

There are also cleaning jobs that I do once a month but I spread these out across the whole month. These tend to be the bigger cleaning jobs such as cleaning the dishwasher, washing machine and fridge.

Help, my mirrors always come out streaky! What is the best way to clean glass/mirrors?

(Image credit: Future PLC/Polly Eltes)

I hate to say it but I don’t think there’s a one size fits all when it comes to cleaning glass and mirrors. I speak to some people that swear by vinegar, some people that swear by using newspaper…and to be honest I really think it’s personal preference and finding the method that works for you. So of course I’m going to share with you some of the most popular methods below:

1. Use a mixture of 50/50 water and white vinegar and spray this onto your mirror as a cleaner, then wipe dry.
2. Use a standard glass cleaner and a window vac to give a streak free finish (window vac is a cleaning gadget that sucks up water) - I don’t have one of these but I’ve heard great things.
3. Using a glass cleaning spray and wiping the mirrors with newspaper (I have tried this but it doesn’t work for me…some people do swear by it though).
4. Using a standard glass cleaner and a microfibre cloth.

The one thing that I have found makes the biggest difference is buffing the windows and mirrors completely dry. Don’t let them air dry as then you will get streaks.

I find it so hard to keep our ceramic sink sparkling white, what’s the best way to do this?

(Image credit: Davonport/Darren Chung)

You’ve come to the right person because my ceramic sink is my pride and joy in the kitchen. It’s safe to say I have tested many many ways to keep it looking brand new and sparkling white and I know just the product for the job…

Bar Keeper’s Friend powder (yes that is the name of the brand) is the closest you’ll get to magic on this earth. It’s a white powder that removes marks and stains on glass, metal and ceramic, which makes it the perfect product to get rid of those annoying stubborn marks on your kitchen sink.

It comes in a few forms but I like the powder form best.

How to apply it: you put some of the powder onto a cloth or straight onto the mark, and use a sponge or cloth to buff out the mark.

For tough marks it can take a couple of attempts but one thing I can be sure of, it will always do the job.

I hope the above has been helpful and if you have some domestic dilemmas you know where to find me. I’ll see you for more tips, tricks and hacks next time!