Once again, as the weather warms up and we start putting our winter clothes away (perhaps optimistically!) and we find all sorts of items stored away in our homes gathering dust and so we start the traditional Spring Clean.  We all try to de-clutter our homes and make them neat and tidy, whilst also taking the opportunity to deep clean those now-empty cupboards and shelves, perhaps even giving a lick of paint to a tired room.  Most of these jobs require a ladder of some sort, and depending on the scale of your sort out and redecoration, you may even need two or more different types of ladder.  We take a look at the most versatile domestic ladders for spring cleaning, DIY and decorating that are able to perform virtually any function and not take up too much of that valuable storage space.

Of course, a step ladder is almost essential in any home and a good sturdy one with a tall handrail for support will cope admirably with most jobs, from turning out high cupboards and shelves to hanging curtains and cleaning windows.  They also provide a stable seat on which to perch while you take a break, so you don’t sit on the sofa and get a too comfortable.  A good step ladder can actually be very flexible but it will not cope with being used on stairs, and can be cumbersome to use when hanging wallpaper, as the wet sheet must be manoeuvred past the legs and handrail of the ladder before it reaches the wall, giving plenty of opportunities for it to get caught up and stuck to everything but the wall.

For decorating jobs a hop up or platform is ideal, as the space between you and the wall is entirely free and not take up by a step ladder.  Builders and decorators often use hop ups in the workplace as they offer a much larger surface area on which to stand, which allows the user to cover more of the wall before they have to move it.  Painters trestles are a more heavy-duty version of the same concept, but these offer a variety of heights so can be used externally as well as internally and in places with high ceilings.  Decorating a stairwell requires a specialist stairway ladder in order to safely access the extra height of the walls; a step ladder cannot be properly set up on stairs, nor can a trestle or hop up.  It may be tempting to improvise but regular readers of this blog know that this is a bad idea.  At worst you will end up badly injured in hospital, at best you will be featured as a ladder loser on this blog, so be sensible and use a stairway ladder for these jobs.

For exterior work, such as window cleaning or gutter maintenance an extension ladder is best, as even the tallest step ladders will not reach and are not suitable for reaching the wall in any case.  Some people may not bother with the outside of their house whilst they are doing a spring clean, but some will, but these jobs will need doing at some point.  Just looking at the range of jobs that comprise a full spring clean it would appear that the average person will need two ladders at the very least, but potentially four different types.  Storing four ladders takes up a lot of space, so what can homeowners do to make sure they have all the ladder types they need without sacrificing their valuable storage space?  Join us in part two to find out.