From Christmas craft afternoons that leave your home covered in glue and glitter, to mince pie-baking sessions that leave sugar on every surface in the house, you’re not alone if you feel like you spend most of the Christmas period cleaning up after everyone else. With the festive season fast approaching, we’re sharing our top tips for keeping your home clean at Christmas, so you can keep your focus firmly on enjoying yourself.

If you’ve got friends or family staying this Christmas, make sure everyone shares responsibility for keeping communal areas clean. Guests can show their appreciation for your wonderful hospitality by taking over dish-washing duties, and older children can take the ‘fun’ tasks like dusting off your hands. Younger children shouldn’t be excluded either - they could play the role of Christmas elves taking care of recycling the wrapper paper, and they'll want to keep their rooms tidy if they're expecting a visit from Father Christmas. Cleaning doesn’t have to get in the way of the festive spirit: crank up the Christmas tunes and reward everyone with a chocolate off the tree once you’re done.

Clean as you go

Any job is easier when broken down, and this is especially true for keeping your home clean at Christmas. There’s no need to set aside hours for scrubbing the house down. That’s the last thing you want to do when there’s so much festive fun to be had. Instead, try to clean as you go. Encourage everyone to clean up after themselves, so an afternoon of snacking in front of classic Christmas movies doesn’t lead to a mountain of dishes that need washing up. If you walk past a shelf covered in clutter, try to sort it out right away, so the mess doesn’t build up. Even better, ask someone else to give you a hand as well, to halve the time it’ll take! And you don’t need to clean the whole bathroom, for example  - a quick wipe of the sink with a sponge and some cleaning spray will work wonders if you’ve only got 5 minutes to spare. The same goes for the living room: if you don't have time to dust and hoover and de-clutter the coffee table and clean the couch, pick one of these things. Over time, you’ll find it’s much easier to keep your home looking neat and tidy - without having to dedicate precious hours to cleaning during the Christmas period.

Stock up on cleaning products

We all know how busy it gets over the Christmas period, and with shops on limited opening hours, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re stocked up on cleaning products far in advance.

That way, when you’re in the mood to spritz the kitchen or scrub the tub, you’ll have what you need. No one wants to have to pop out for emergency cleaning purchases, when your family’s favourite Christmas programme is due to start within the hour. 

We recommend having on hand:

• Eco-friendly reusable cleaning cloths that you can pop in the washing machine when they need freshening up. Bamboo fibre gets our vote!

• Extra washing up liquid. With all the festive cooking going on, you can never have too much washing up liquid in the house. Try Colt & Willow’s rhubarb scented Washing Up Liquid, formulated to take on even the greasiest of pans. 

• Potty spray. Got younger guests staying with you this Christmas? Make sure you’re ready to clean up with kid-safe products after they’ve done their business.

• A great all-purpose cleaner. Your go-to for any mess, an All-purpose Cleaner will help you out no matter how sticky the situation. Go for one that’s beautiful enough to sit on your countertop, so it’s ready and waiting when those mulled wine-induced accidents happen - and why is it always the mulled wine that spills

Go easy on yourself

Take it easy and put your feet up over Christmas, rather than feeling that everything has to be back to spick and span every minute of the day. We all know that there’s nothing more refreshing - or rewarding - than a spring clean, so pick a date in early January to deep clean your home. That way, you’ll feel better knowing that the festive mess isn’t here to stay and you can allow yourself to relax more during the festive season. With all the new presents and stuff in the house, a spring clean is the perfect chance to take down the Christmas decorations, deep clean everything, and sort out which clutter you’d like to donate to a new home or to charity. Just plan it in your diary and then put it out of your mind.

Christmas only comes once a year, and the last thing you want to do is spend the season worrying about the little elves’ sticky fingerprints on your couch.