It's a Bit of a Cliche but...

I hate cliches.  Puffy white clouds? Bleugh! Clouds are always puffy.  How about swollen, for a change?At the very best, using cliches comes over as laziness, although the worst-case scenario indicates a complete lack of imagination and no self-respecting writer would want to take risks in either direction.

Write down your ten most hated cliches - dredge right down to the bottom of the barrel - and then see if you can provide a literary antidote to each of them: the most concise and revelatory description of which you are capable. This should help to sharpen your editorial eye so that you are alert to sloppy work, while at the same time providing you with creative stimulus.

NB There is only one situation in which it might conceivably be allowable to use a cliche and that is if it is a quirk one of your characters is prone to.  So I guess I'm saying it's okay to take stylistic risks like this if it is obviously something you consciously intend for literary effect, but not otherwise,

or you'll find yourself up shit creek without a paddle...