March 20, 2014 2.54 pm This story is over 135 months old

Lincoln residents biggest spring cleaners, survey finds

Clean water survey: Most Lincoln residents spend over five hours spring cleaning, more than other local areas.
Photo: Krishna Santhanam

Lincoln residents have topped a poll on how much time they spend spring cleaning their homes.

The survey by Anglian Water polled 1,000 residents and found 59% of Lincoln residents spent five hours or more spring cleaning their homes.

Anglian Water also predicts this year residents will spend more time than ever cleaning their homes, with one in five expected to spend nine hours cleaning.

The survey also found residents are most likely to spring clean the first weekend in April.

However, the survey also noticed that regionally a quarter could not tell if they included kitchen taps, showers and water dispensers in fridges within their cleaning regimes.

The survey was carried out as part of Anglian Water’s campaign to “Keep Water Healthy”.

The campaign recognises the queries the water company receives regarding odd tastes and smells from tap water, but the sources are usually in people’s homes.

Robin Price, Regional Water Quality Manager, said: “Before it gets to your tap, your drinking water is cleaned, disinfected and tested to make sure it is of the very highest standard.

“Yet we still receive thousands of calls every year about water issues that have been caused inside people’s homes – the majority of which are easily fixed and many of which could be avoided if included as part of a regular cleaning routine.”

Clean water tips

This year, in order to help, Anglian Water is providing some cleaning tips, explaining how to thoroughly clean showers or disinfect taps against bacteria.

Tips include:

  • Clean kitchen taps using a capful of bleach under the spout, leave it there for two minutes, then let the tap run for a further few minutes
  • Clean all household taps and showers with a solution of mild bleach, taking care to remove both mould and limescale
  • If you have a water dispenser in your fridge, clean it according to the manufacturer’s instructions
  • If you notice a spillage of fuel, oil or solvent on your driveway, seek advice to clean this away safely and quickly. These can seep into plastic water pipes and contaminate drinking water
  • If you have an outside tap, disconnect your hosepipe to prevent any backflow contaminating your drinking water