House Cleaning Tips

Are you Cleaning the Following?

Bacteria and viruses don’t live exceptionally long on hard surfaces outside of the body. However, given the right conditions these bugs can live long enough to spread around disease. Often times the dirtiest spot in the home gets missed when house cleaning. Here are a few spots in your home that are seemingly clean but really are not.

TV Remote:
What do you do when stuck sick at home? You binge catch up with all the series you are behind on. Your remote won’t look dirty but you can be sure there is a party of germs going on. A quick wipe with a sanitized towelette will stop germs from spreading around.

Keyboard/Laptop:
Are you the type of person that works and eats at their desk? You can imagine what that keyboard is covered with. Make sure to wipe down your keyboard every once in a while.

Door knobs:
Call it a flaw in its design if you want, but door knobs are touched by everybody and therefor gross. Door knobs at home are not much different from the one at the office. Clean them up to avoid the spread of unwanted viruses like Flu causing Influenza.

Toilet Handle:
It just makes sense. Not to get graphic, but if you think about it, nobody washes their hands before flushing the toilet. You may focus all the cleaning efforts into the bowl, but don’t forget to clean and disinfect the handles too.

Refrigerator Handle:
Your refrigerator is magnet for bacteria, think of all the food particles you leave all over its surface while cooking and eating. You probably worry about cleaning the inside of your refrigerator, next time spend some extra time on the outside of your refrigerator

Make a Simple House Cleaning Schedule

The simplest way to keep your home reliably clean is by sticking to a predetermined schedule. No worries, it’s not as hard as it sounds. A complete home cleaning schedule can help you to feel less stressed. By sticking to a cleaning schedule, it’s easier to get things cleaned, and quicker too. The trick to keeping your house cleaning while keeping it easy lies in making a realistic schedule that really works for you and your home.

Here is a cleaning checklist that you can use or customize to your liking!

Step 1: Prep Work

The first step is to get a good idea of exactly what must be done for you to have a clean home. To get started, grab a pen and paper and walk through your home, room by room, and make a list of the areas and tasks that will make up your schedule.

Step 2: List Your Rooms
Next, let’s break that list down into more specifics. List all of rooms and areas in your home that need regular cleaning, including the most commonly used areas such as stairs, halls, and entryways. Leave out the areas that you don’t often use, such as a guest or storage room, from this regular cleaning list. Instead, place them on a monthly or seasonal cleaning checklist.

Step 3: Identify Tasks
Make sure to look through each room on your schedule, one at a time. Take a couple minutes to list all the cleaning tasks you need to perform regularly in that room. When listing these items, order the items from top to bottom, meaning that you start with the ceiling and work you way down to the floor, as this will be the same order in which you will clean.

Step 4: Build From This List
To get your list started, here is a basic checklist that you can build on.

All Rooms

Dust light fixtures
Dust ceiling fan
Dust corner cobwebs
Clean door handles and
Dust doorframes
Dust window ledges and windowsills,
Dust blinds
Dust picture frames, lampshades and furniture
Dust knickknacks, books, etc.
Vacuum or shake out rugs
Sweep or vacuum floors
Mop floors

Add for Kitchen

Dust cabinet exteriors
Clean and sanitize counters
Clean and sanitize sink
Clean stove, oven, and range hood
Clean microwave inside and out
Wipe down appliances

Add for Bathrooms

Dust lights (while not hot)
Whip and clean mirrors
Clean and sanitize counters and sink
Wipe down cabinet fronts
Clean and sanitize toilet
Clean and sanitize shower, shower door,
Clean and sanitize tub
Vacuum and mop floor

Step 5. Select Frequency

Decide how often you want and need to clean each room. Most areas probably need a weekly or biweekly cleaning. When thinking about frequency, you should consider your lifestyle. Depending on your living style and who is in the home, the schedule for the cleaning the areas in your home may differ drastically.

Step 6: Practice Your Schedule
Schedule and start your round of cleaning. Limit the time spent in each room so that you do not over work yourself. The purpose is to find a happy balance of time and cleaning. By limiting your time, you will be able to reevaluate the schedule you created and make adjustments as needed.

Step 7: Stay On Schedule
Print out your task list so that you have it with you. It would be helpful to put a plastic sheet protector over it as well, so that it does not fall apart as you take it with you on your cleaning journeys.

Just like appointments with people, mark your cleaning appointments down on your calendar to make sure they become an automatic part of your routine.

If you can’t finish your cleaning tasks on a scheduled day, don’t worry about it. You can choose to complete a quick version of your cleaning tasks or reschedule. Just make sure you follow through.

Step 8: Reevaluate Your Schedule
After the practice month is over, take a few minutes to review how things went. During your review, think about what worked and what didn’t. Make adjustments with the things that didn’t work for the following month. Continue reevaluating monthly until you work out a schedule that works for you.

Step 9: Make It a Habit
Stick to your schedule and make it a habit. Once it’s a habit, the real time savings will start kicking in and you will have a clean house with minimal effort.

House Cleaning Tip #341: Keeping the Laundry Room Clean

A lot of work goes on in the laundry room, but how often does that work include keeping the laundry room itself clean? If you’re like most people, very little time is ever spent keeping the laundry room clean. These simple steps are an easy way to make sure your laundry room space is just as clean as your whites.

Keep it Clean!

Where do you start? From the top and work your way down.

• Wipe down any shelves with a wet microfiber cloth. Starting from the top allows the dust and dirt that you don’t collect fall down to the ground, where you will take care of it later. On those shelves, over spray and splashes of detergent can leave surfaces sticking and gross, making them a great spot for dust, link, and even bugs to accumulate.
• Next, run your washing machine with an empty load an don a hot cycle.  Use two cups of vinegar to keep the machine fresh and clean inside. After completing the load, wipe down the interior where soap has accumulated.
• Remove the lint trap from your dryer and soak the trap in hot water and a quality soap.   After it has soaked for a few minutes, you can scrub the trap to remove any extra buildup.  If you are feeling super motivated, you can also soak the knobs from your washer and dryer as well (if they are removeable).  This will put a nice clean touch to your laundry room.
• Wipe the outside surfaces of your washer and dryer with a microfiber cloth and a quality glass cleaner.  This will help to make them shine and repel dust.
• Don’t forget to remove the dryer hose and use your vacuum to remove link that has built up on the inside of the hose.  Not only is this a good cleaning tip, it is a good safety tip as well, as it keeps your hose from turning into a fire hazard.
• Use a vacuum that has a good attachment that can clean behind, under, and between your washer and dryer.
• Sweep and mop the floors.

Keep it organized

If you’re like most people, you have a small laundry space with huge piles of laundry.  There are also probably way too many products in the room and not enough time to get everything done.   As a result, it’s easy to let a laundry room go so long without a proper cleaning.  If you can add organization to your laundry room, it can make your life and laundry chores much easier.

• If possible,  extra shelving can be very helpful with organization.  Add shelving where it’s most convenient.  This often times would be right above your washer and dryer.  This allows you to store bleaches and detergents out of the way, along with other products you might use.
• Periodically sort through the products you have and discard the ones that you do not use.
• When not in use, hang your ironing board on the wall.   This will free up a lot of extra space.
• Hang hooks from shelving or you can install a retractable drying line for a place to hang clothes.  This helps to keep them from wrinkling and doesn’t take up extra space.
• Use several laundry baskets for storing and separating dirty and clean laundry.
• Keep a small container somewhere safe for storing items left in pockets.
• Keep a trash can in the laundry room!  This will help keep clutter down so you have a place for lint, dryer sheets, and many other items that might just end up on your floor.

Clean clothes and clean environment

Yes we all love the feel and smell of clean laundry. The sensation of warmth and serenity that putting on pajamas straight out of the dryer gives. Not surprisingly the process of washing and drying your pajamas is very energy-intensive not to mention the gallons upon gallons of water that this involves. Here are some tips to get your “green on” in your laundry job.

Cold/Cold:

A large percentage of the energy used doing laundry is spent warming up water. Advances in Appliance and detergent technology have made to the point were washing with cold water is just as effective as hot water. Plus cold water prevents color bleed and is not as damaging to textile fabrics. So next time you start your washer, turn the temperature setting to cold.

No to the Dryer

Nothing beats the feel of fresh laundry out of the dryer. Unfortunately this comes to a huge cost to the air quality. The amount of energy spent in the drying of clothes can equate to 15% of your home’s energy consumption. Luckily for us, there is always the sun to take care of our clothes drying needs. A clothesline will do the trick, just remember to keep you clothes in the shade to avoid color and fabric decay. If this outside don’t look so sunny, you can always hang your clothes inside your home.

Use “Green” Products

There is different ways for detergent to be “green” or environmentally friendly. Like I mentioned above, detergent formulas are now designed to work well with cold water and the concentrated formulas require less product to perform a similar job. The chemical compounds found in regular detergents can be harmful to the environment. Look for products that do not include phosphate and dioxanes.

Recycling

This may not be as closely related to your laundry, but it is little things that make the difference. Be sure you are properly disposing of any containers. Some bottles and boxes can be recycled while others can’t. Read and follow the labels and things should all fall in place.

Energy Star Appliances

Energy Star appliances will almost always be more energy efficient than other option. It is their washers water economy that really makes the difference. Buying a newer more energy efficient model can reduce your water consumption by up to 50%. This of course is for the people who are already into buying new appliances. If you are going to make a purchase, make sure you are at least getting something more efficient than your old model.

Cleaning Your Home Makes You Healthier

When trying to avoid sickness cleanliness is basic. There is of course factors outside our homes that will inevitably lead to sickness a couple times a year, if not more. The fact of life is that you will get sick, and if you do not take the appropriate measures the rest of your family will get sick too. Getting sick may be inevitable, but you can always prevent disease from spreading by disinfecting surfaces and following healthy habits.

You probably already know that hand-washing is the single most efficient way to prevent the spreading of illnesses like the common cold. What you might be forgetting is that in most homes people use the same towels to dry everyone’s hands. Hand towels should be replaced as often as possible during this time to avoid spreading bugs around. Consider paper using paper towels as well; this is not a very ecologically friendly approach, but it is an option to be considered.

Our second recommendation would be to maintain a clean bathroom. After all that is where most of us will be washing our hands. Keep your sink handles and toilets clean to avoid more cross contamination. Another good idea would be to limit yourself to use one bathroom and avoid maintain this habit until everybody is feeling better.

If you have little ones that have fallen ill, a good thing to do would be to clean and disinfect toys and play areas. You may do this on a regular basis already, but it is especially important to maintain toys and common areas disinfected. Along with the idea of cleaning toys, make sure the “toys” of the older children are also clean. Of course we are talking electronics: Keyboards, TV remote, and video game controllers are great things to keep in mind.

If you are sick enough to miss work, you will probably spend a good time of your “time-off” stuck in bed. You need to make sure your sheets and pillow are clean and disinfected after your get better. You want eliminate the source of the illness altogether; you probably don’t want to sleep on dirty sheets anyways. While you’re at it you might also want to flip your mattress.

Another benefit of maintaining a clean home is the comfortable feeling you get walking into a tidy place. If you are already feeling down, the last thing you need is to feel even sick in the space that you are in. Nobody wants to clean while under the weather, but the feeling afterwards is totally worth it.

Cleaning your home is not a bulletproof way to stay healthy, there are external factors that will eventually get you sick. Cleaning will make sure that you are not spreading the bug around your family and hopefully will shorten the time you spend under the weather.

How to use your vacuum correctly.

A lot of us will think of do not think that there is much to vacuuming, how hard can it really be? I mean, the vacuum is already doing all of the work, I just have to push it back and forward right? While that is not wrong there is a lot more to vacuuming your floors than just running the cleaner around your home. With the right knowledge you can not only keep your floors and surfaces clean, but you can also make sure your vacuum cleaner will last for years.

The First thing to consider is what type of vacuum cleaner you need. Yes, there is many different types of vacuum cleaner and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. There is going to be vacuums that outperform others in certain tasks, the key is figuring what capabilities you are in need of. But we won’t get too into the different types of vacuums; you can always look at reviews of these on the internet.

For a normal house cleaning vacuuming should be pretty straight forward. You choose a room or area to clean, you find a power outlet, you clean. The truth is that we often forget to do the little things that really make the difference. Whenever you are cleaning hard floors (tile or hardwood) make sure to get those corners with the crevice attachment on your vacuum.

If your home is like most Arizona homes, a portion of your home’s floor is carpet. Very comfortable and soft but also great at attracting and hiding dirt within its fibers. To make sure that you get all of that dirt off your floors you have to make sure that your vacuum really gets in between the carpets fibers. You have to start by the corner that is the farthest from the door. Start by vacuuming parallel to the door, once you get to the door go ahead start all-over again only that this time you’ll do it on a perpendicular motion. This will really moves those fibers around and gets that dirt off your floor.

Now that you’re making sure that your carpets and floors will stay clean and will last long; now it is time to make sure your vacuum will too. A brand new vacuum can run anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to almost $1000, so it is in everyone’s best interest that these piece of equipment last for more than a couple months.

First make sure to unplug the vacuum, this is probably a good time to check the power cord for any wear and tear, if there is make sure to cover it up with some electrical tape. Check your vacuum’s bin or bag for any debris, the cleaner the inside of your machine, the better suction it will provide. If your vacuum has any filter make sure to inspect and clean those as these also have an effect on the vacuum’s ability to pick up dust and dirt.

Clean the brush roll, that spinning part that sweeps the extra dirt in. It will most likely be covered with hair and gunk. Make sure to clear the brush of any hair as this can reduce its cleaning effectivity.Probably the last to do would be to make sure that nothing is obstructing the way from the brush to the bin or bag. Making sure that the hose isn’t block will make sure that you does a good job cleaning without causing any extra strain on the motor.

If you follow these simple tips you can be sure that your home cleaning goes great and a vacuum that will last for years.

Tile flooring is easy to clean but definitely needs to be done daily. No one likes walking barefoot into a kitchen and feeling of the sticky or crumby tile beneath their feet, wishing they had put on socks. You have to stay on top of it! Here some basic cleaning suggestions, deep cleaning methods as well as a list of how to get rid of the build up in the grout to make your life easier.

Basic Care
-Vacuum or sweep daily
-Clean tile with a mild detergent and warm water, using a rag or chamois-type mop, rather than a sponge mop
-Exchange the water frequently throughout the process; this will increase the shine and glossy look of your floors
-For everyday simple clean up you may use a clean damp dust cloth
-Make sure to dry the floor with a dry mop whenever you use water wile cleaning; this will help prevent future dirt from building up

Deep Clean
-Mop the floor using a gallon of warm water and ½ cup of vinegar
-Rinse the floor with clean warm water afterwards
-Dry using a dry mop

Ways to get rid of Grout
-Use a #2 pencil eraser to remove dirt in small sections
-Use baking soda and water to make a paste, and then scrub with a toothbrush
-If either of these don’t do the trick, using bleach is always an option. Mix beach and water at a 1:3 ratio, then e a toothbrush or sponge to scrub
-After the stains are removed, wait until the grout is dry and then use a grout sealer to finish it off