House Spiders

[winstonmin]

I moved into this house 3 years ago and up until now I've had no spiders at all in the house in this August/September period, for which I have been really grateful, as I really don't like them. But suddenly I've got some monsters in the house. The other evening I had 3 in the living room - 2 average size, and one monster. The big one was being attacked by a smaller one, at least that's what it looked like. Is the reason they're back this year because I'm not cleaning enough? Is there anything I can do to discourage them? I know they do a lot of good, but the big ones are so scary. Can anyone help this gibbering arachnaphobe please?

[albaqwerty]

We had 2 large-ish ones in our previous house, named Cecil and Cecilia.
They never bothered us, we never bothered them.

I've heard that spiders like clean places, so that sums up my excuse for the housework.

However, we do have one the size of a shetland pony in the coal bunker.