A royal housekeeper reveals the three supermarket essentials used to spring clean Buckingham Palace bathrooms – and one of them is just 35p

This Sunday is Spring Clean Sunday, on which Brits will spend a collective 22 million hours sprucing their places up as we put winter behind us. And what better person to take tips from than a woman who spent 12 years cleaning Royal homes?

For more than a decade, 57-year-old Anne Simmons worked as a royal cleaner across Buckingham Palace’s 775 rooms. In that time, she learned plenty of nifty tricks for getting the place immaculate – in particular the 78 bathrooms, because you best believe the royals aren’t putting up with any of the dried toothpaste on their sinks.

Now, Simmons has told some of her favourites to Play Casino, so you can put them to use during this weekend’s spring clean. Here are her three must-buy, budget-friendly items to get your bathroom sparkling, all tested and trusted from palace to home.

You know those annoying water-level limescale lines you get around toilet basins and sinks? Well, budget cola is actually great for ridding them, because it contains phosphoric acid, which works to break down the stains.

Simmons says to ‘pour approximately 500ml (a quarter of a large bottle) of cola into the toilet bowl and sink, ensuring it covers stained areas. Let it sit for at least an hour, or overnight for tougher stains. Then, scrub the bowl clean with a brush and the sink with a rough sponge, and flush both with water to rinse.’

Bicarbonate of soda is a versatile bathroom cleaner known for its mildly abrasive properties, which means it’s great at stripping stains. It’s also great at getting rid of odours because it neutralises acidic compounds, and acidic itself, so eats away at persistent grime in bathroom grouting.

She recommends three supermarket budget buys to level up your bathroom cleaning

Simmons’ advice is to sprinkle around two tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda onto the surface you want to freshen up. ‘Let it sit for 15 minutes, which will be enough time to absorb odours and loosen grime,’ she suggests, ‘before scrubbing with a coarse sponge to remove any excess, and rinsing the area with water.’

White vinegar is acidic, which means it’s effective in dissolving mineral deposits, cutting through grime, and breaking down odours. It’s most effective when poured into the sink, toilet bowl, or diluted and poured into the bath, with a little more wiped over any areas that are particularly discoloured or have tough stains.

‘Allow the vinegar to sit in the area for between 30 minutes and an hour,’ Simmons says, ‘which is enough time for it to break down the stains. Rinse with some cold water on a sponge, and you should have a sparkling surface.’