Think of it this way: If the phrase or term we use is something we've heard or read before, revise it. Careful, creative writers find new expressions for old ideas.
In most pieces of advice by writers on clichés, they usually write, "Avoid clichés like the plague." Someone said it, others found it humorous, and copied it. By the time writers have encountered the phrase 900 times, the humor has been sucked out of it.
Here's an exercise I devised for myself early in my in my writing career. I looked for clichés in my writing and in what I read. I copied them and tried to devise a better, sharper way of making the same point.
Don't we want readers to think of us as clever? Original? If our writing is like everyone else's, why do we write?
I am a growing writer;
I learn new ways to say old things.