Essential Tips for Effectively Cleaning Your Home

We all want our home to be neat and tidy. However, it sometimes happens that we are under so much pressure at work or have a sick kid we need to take care of and our house instantly turns into a huge mess. Don’t worry if you find yourself in this situation, as there are plenty of quick and easy ways to get your home looking spotless.

Now, regardless of whether you are looking for some seasonal cleaning tips or some hacks how you can spruce up your home in no time, you’ve come to the right place. Here, we will give you all sorts of advice on how to make your home immaculate in a jiffy. Take note of these essentials for effectively cleaning your whole house.

Create a game plan to handle the problem

Once you decide you are going to tackle the problem at hand, you need to create a plan. The first thing you should do is sit down and list all the issues you need to deal with. Go through every room and see what has to be done. Having everything on paper will make it much easier to get a grasp of the situation and move forward.

Now that you have everything written down, you can decide on your approach. Are you cleaning the whole home in a day? Can you spread it over several days? Do you only have to spruce up one room? By having in mind all that you have to do, you can see whether you should clean one room at a time before moving on to another or if you should group similar chores.

Ask for help from household members

After you’ve listed all the assignments, you should delegate them if you’re living with other people. It’s vital to understand that this is not only your duty but of other household members as well. If you live with your family, ask your partner to help with certain tasks. You can come to an agreement to see who should do what. Furthermore, if you have kids, they can also help around. Unless they are really young, this is a great way to learn about responsibility. Have them do some small tasks around the house which are not dangerous.

If you live with friends, you need to have a serious conversation about the house’s hygiene. Everyone should clean up after themselves in the common areas. They can have their room as messy as they please but the kitchen, bathroom and living room should be taken care of. So, try to delegate these tasks among you.

Declutter every room

Now that we’ve gone through the preparation stages, we can finally get down to the issue at hand. The first step you need to take when cleaning your home is decluttering. In order to be able to get anything done, you need a clean slate in front of you. This is why you need to go through everything and see whether you actually need these things and whether they have a purpose and place in your home. You don’t have to become a minimalist but having too many possessions can make it that much harder to clean your living space.

So, go through every room and see which items you need and which you can dispose of. Put them in a few different piles – for instance, keeping, selling, donating and throwing away. Find a proper place to keep those that you need. If you live in Queensland, for example, you can easily get a skip bin hire in Brisbane and put everything you no longer need in a container. For the things you plan on selling, you can do it online or post a newspaper ad, and when donating, look for local charities such as the Red Cross.

Organize your belongings

Like we previously said, you need to find a place for everything you own as that will help you stay organized. So, start by systematizing your papers so that you always know where important documents are located. During your decluttering phase, you should have also gone through your closet and tossed the items you don’t use anymore. That means that your closet probably needs rearranging, so do that as well. Your kitchen and bathroom might also need new supplies and some reshuffling. Other than that, organize your books, video games, kids’ toys and whatever else you use for entertainment.

Wash your curtains and carpets

Before you can start washing windows and vacuuming the rooms, you should first remove curtains and rugs. You can either vacuum the rugs and carpets before taking them outside, or you can beat them with a carpet beater. If there are any stains, look for some solutions online or just take it to a professional cleaner. When it comes to curtains, wash them and either let them dry outside or wait until you’re done with everything and let them dry inside.

Dust all areas

For some reason, we always forget about dusting. Don’t let that happen to you too. So, start from the walls and ceilings and remove cobwebs, and don’t neglect light fixtures and various wall decorations. Then, move on to other surfaces, such as tables, desks, shelves and items on them, appliances and so on. Don’t ignore those surfaces that are too tall and dust them on top as well. Using a duster and microfiber cloth is the best approach here.

Vacuum the whole house

When vacuuming, it’s important to remember that there are many hidden areas that collect a lot of dust, fluff and dirt. Vacuuming carpets and floors is simply not enough – you should also move certain pieces of furniture so that you can get the space beneath them clean as well. This will ensure that every inch of the home is spotless.

Mop the floors

Having a quality mop is essential in order to prevent various smudges. Additionally, it’s important to get the type of product that suits your floors. After you have the right tools, you should mix some water and detergent and start mopping. Rinse and repeat until you are sure there are no more spots and let the floor dry.

Wash the windows

Let’s move on to the windows. You will need a squeegee or newspapers and a streak-free glass cleaner. Pro-tip for washing windows: Don’t do it on sunny days – cloudy weather is best for seeing whether you’ve cleaned them properly. After you’re done with the windows, you can also wipe down other surfaces as well as TV and computer screen.

Scrub appliances and fixtures

The last task we will mention is the thorough scrubbing of your appliances and fixtures. Most of your appliances are located in the kitchen and sometimes we don’t even notice how dirty they are. Seeing as how we mostly use them to make meals, you should scrub your fridge, oven and microwave to ensure they are clean. Then, you can move on to the bathroom. From the toilet to the bath and sink, you need to apply some cleaning products to all the fixtures and scrub them with a brush after 20 minutes or so. Rinse everything and ensure proper hygiene of both your bathroom and your family.

Keep in mind that if you do these tasks on a regular basis, you will not be faced with a huge mess all at once. Certain things you need to do daily, such as putting items back where they belong, making the bed and washing the dishes. Other than that, dust, mop and vacuum once or twice a week and scrub your appliances at least once a month. You’ll have a flawless home in no time!

Mike is an Australian business consulting specialist. He’s working with companies that outsource their IT maintenance. He often writes about technology, business and marketing and is a regular contributor on several sites.