5 Little-Known House Cleaning Tips
House cleaning is one big part of taking care of the home that house owners and occupants just don’t like to do most of the time. The entire process of house cleaning can be strenuous, most especially if you have a large home with small children running around. Given the option, most people would love to employ a maid service, but that’s not an option for every budget.
However, there are certain things you can do to have a cleaner house and make that time dedicated to house cleaning easier and more enjoyable. It might be that you’ve just been going about the cleaning of your house the wrong way, and that’s the reason you find it increasingly stressful.
To get you in the groove of cleaning, here are five house cleaning tips that you can start using today.
1. Clean from Up to Down, Section by Section
When conducting a general house cleaning, a good rule of thumb is to treat your house like it were a formal organization where hierarchy. Just as high-level decisions must come from the senior managers at the top of the pyramid and filter down to the employees below, no cleaning should be done on the ground without first taking care of the appliances up above.
For instance, if you sweep the floor and dust the tables before cleaning your ceiling fan or spider webs from the upper corners of your house, all that’s going to happen is a layer of dust, dirt and cobwebs on your newly cleaned surfaces. It may seem like common sense, but it’s something that’s easy to forget when you’re facing a full to-do list of household chores.
Also, if you conduct your house cleaning in a haphazard and disorganized manner, you’ll find cleaning to be a challenge – as you are bound to skip some areas. Inefficient cleaning can be frustrating and might tempt you to give up on house cleaning altogether. If that sounds like you, sticking a cleaning plan might be the way to go.
2. Develop Your Own Technique
House owners and occupants who do their own cleaning should try coming up with their own systems and patterns of cleaning. This is because a personalized plan devised by yourself is easier to remember and execute than something your next-door neighbor told you or something you read off the internet (though the internet isn’t a bad place to start).
Your technique could be anything. It might be a systemized action plan designed for maximum efficiency, using music and singing to keep things fun, or even putting the kids to work.
Having your own pattern of cleaning (provided it is not haphazard or ineffective) ultimately makes house cleaning easier for you.
As time goes by, you become so familiar with said pattern that it is almost as if you are doing a hobby rather than a chore. Such consistency has the potential to help you on your journey to achieving a cleaner house.
3. Dust the Dust Away
Sometimes, all you need to do to have a cleaner house is to get a feather duster or piece of cloth that can be used to effectively dust surfaces and dust away. The sprays and wipes we expend a lot of our earnings on are not really needed. Most of the times the average person carrying out house cleaning chores rarely uses them.
This is not to say sprays and wipes are useless, no, they definitely have their use and are of paramount importance if you are looking for ways to keep your house clean. However, when all you need to do is wipe the dust off the window blinds, all you really need is a feather duster or a cloth that won’t leave behind crumbs of wool or cotton on the surface.
Regular dusting of the house will make general house cleaning a whole lot easier and even save you money you would have otherwise spent on wipes and sprays to get rid of accumulated stains.
4. Get the Right Cleaning Tools and Equipment
Investing in the right cleaning tools and equipment now will to a large extent make your house cleaning a lot easier. Investing in the right cleaning tools now will also save you money in the long run. Ask yourself if you would rather have a slightly more expensive spray that effortlessly cleans off stains with one spray and wipe, or a cheap one that requires about ten sprays and some applied pressure to get rid of the same stain.
Of course, taking the expensive and easier option is not always in the budget, so you may need to ask yourself some tough questions. The answer you provide will help you decide what type of products and equipment you get.
5. Follow Up
Follow up on your weekly general house cleaning with some light cleaning every now and then.
This means that cleaning of your house shouldn’t be done only once a week or month. A little of your time should be devoted to dusting tables and removal of cobwebs at least two or three times a week.
However, to follow this tip, house owners and occupants have to be hardworking and avoid procrastination.
If you sweep and carry out light cleaning regularly, you would find house cleaning a lot easier and less stressful when you decide to carry out general house cleaning at the end of the week. If you don’t give dirt and messes time to build up, they’re easier to get rid of.
House cleaning is never easy as it can feel unending, frustrating, and just plain annoying. However, now that you have these tips at the back of your hand, you will find house cleaning easier.