Purge: Your First Task
The best way to have a clean house is to start with a clean house. This means purging all of the things that don’t belong. From your clothes to those dust-collecting knickknacks, give each room of your home its own day to clear things out. This is also a great opportunity to get rid of any oversized or excess furniture that doesn’t quite fit with the rest of your house. Don’t forget the garage, attic, and other areas that tend to get neglected. Purging here also means emptying the fridge, too.
The Big Clean
Once you have decluttered, you’ll want to tackle bigger cleaning projects. Two of these are cleaning the furniture and shampooing the carpets. You can Google or search on Angi “best upholstery cleaning service near me” or “local carpet shampooers” to find out who’s available in your area. Once you have narrowed down your potential service providers, spend a few minutes checking out reviews. When you make a decision, ask about their cleaning procedures. Do they schedule and guarantee times? Do they use specialized tools for each job? Ask for referrals, and move on to the next service provider if they can’t provide them or only offer a one-size-fits all solution to your cleaning needs.
Next, focus on the baseboards, walls, and hardwood floors. Importantly, clean and seal any grout seams in tile throughout your house. Sealing keeps mold, mildew, and dirt at bay, so you’ll have to clean less often.
Daily Cleaning Tips
Set a cleaning schedule. Not everything has to be done in a single day. You might, for example, do laundry on Tuesdays and Thursdays and clean the bathrooms every Saturday morning.
Make the bed. Making the bed is no fun first thing in the morning, but there are a few ways to make it simple. One tip is to do away with your flat sheet. Chances are, it winds up at the foot of the bed anyway.
Use hidden storage. Have company coming over in 30 minutes but still have Legos strewn all over the floor? Utilize unused space as creative hiding spots. A storage coffee table, drawers in the steps, or decorative bins under your entertainment center are all beautiful options.
Clean up immediately after dinner. Dishes in the sink not only look bad, but they also attract bugs.
Hire a housekeeper. Have someone come in once a month to do a deep cleaning. Not only will this motivate you to keep your home tidy the rest of the month, but it will also free you up to spend time with your friends and family.
Power clean. Set a timer, and have every member of your house clean for 15 minutes each night. For a family of four, this equates to an hour’s worth of tidying up.
Change your air filter. A clean filter will reduce dust in the air and on hard surfaces.
Keeping a clean house isn’t always easy. But when you start with a blank slate, you control what goes back into place. Once you have your house the way you want it, keep it that way by prioritizing daily cleaning tasks or, if all else fails, bringing in a helping hand when you need it most.
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Written by: Eleanor Wyatt