House Cleaning Tips - Home Cleaning Advice
When you're a working professional, you sometimes need a fairy Godmother to help you with your housework, especially if a holiday like Christmas or Easter is fast approaching. Setting everything in order, making sure the brass is polished, the wood is clean, the furniture fabric is dust-free, and keeping the floor and the walls spic 'n span is no walk in the park kind of job. It requires a little toil and getting your hands dirty, however, with the following home cleaning advice, you will be able to optimize your work and get the desired results with you not exerting yourself too much. A short search on the Internet will bring you a lot of tips and tricks to clean your house that are sure to make your life easier. Here are the basic tips that you need to follow.
Important Tips
Create a Checklist
First things first, you need to go about it with a plan in mind. Sit down and give this a thought - how much time can you dedicate to cleaning? With this in mind you can structure your chores, which means that the cleaning will be performed in an orderly fashion, which is important, because haphazard plans can increase frustration if a particular part of the house is missed. You can refer to this cleaning schedule to get an example of how you should go about formulating a plan.
Avoid Distractions
Try to start cleaning at such a time when there are no distractions whatsoever, and that includes keeping the television off too. This is because cleaning is hard-work hence, any sort of distraction is going to be welcomed by you which is going to either interrupt what you're doing, or completely stop it.
Throw Away Unnecessary Stuff
A very big hindrance to keeping a place clean and tidy is clutter. The more useless stuff you harbor in your house, the more demotivated you're going to get from cleaning your house. Hence just chuck everything that you don't need and start afresh.
Areas to Clean
Bathroom Cleaning
Disinfectants can be used for any object in the bathroom, except the mirror. Immediately after having a bath or a shower, clean the bathroom, as it is already heated by the steam. The walls, tiles, and the grit stone will clean more easily, as steam softens soil and gunk. In order to remove light colored stains, rub the wash basin with a fresh sliced lemon. Dark stains such as rust stains can be removed by using a solution made of borax and lemon. Clean the toilet by first pouring half a cup of bleach into it and then letting it take action. After giving it a few minutes, flush the commode and the area where you applied the bleach.
Window Cleaning
Clean the windows on a cloudy day, but not a rainy one. At the same time, if you clean your windows in the direct light of the sun, traces will appear on the window, as the cleaning solution will dry even before you start to wipe it off. Most professional window cleaners use cold and clean water. If the windows are very dirty, add 2-3 spoons of vinegar to every liter of water. In order to dry the windows, newspaper is as efficient as paper towels which are actually quite expensive. Protect your hands by wearing rubber gloves.
Floor Cleaning
Wooden Floors: If done right, hardwood floors are the easiest to clean and maintain. To get it done right get a special wood cleaning solution and a lightweight mop, something like a micro-fiber dust mop.
Vinyl Floors: Such floors need to be cleaned in such a way that they don't lose their shine. Hence you have to use a cleaner with a PH value that is neutral.
Stone Floors: Being the hardiest type of floor, once installed, it never needs to be replaced. That's also the reason why you have to maintain it properly. Basically any kind of cleaner will do for this type.
Kitchen Cleaning
The two most important things that need to be washed on a daily basis are the utensils and the counter-top. Here's one important cleaning tip for your kitchen - never ever leave your utensils pending for a wash, because (i) it's unhygienic hence unhealthy and (ii) dry gunk takes a longer time and requires more effort to be scrubbed off. In the weekends remember to empty the refrigerator of all the spoiled food and just run a wet cloth inside. The sink too will require your attention because the constant moisture will encourage growth of fungus.
Cleaning Stains on Carpets
Clean the stains immediately, before they dry. You'll have more of a chance to remove them if you attend to the stain as soon as it was made. Use a dish detergent for stains on the carpet. It does not contain chlorine, will dissolve the dirt very well, and it does not whiten the carpet. Only use a white duster to remove stains.
Furniture
As with all products bought, when you purchase your furniture there are always guidelines mentioned about how to maintain it. Following those guidelines is the best advice that you could get as regards cleaning your furniture. Even so, make sure that the wood is polished and the leather is thoroughly vacuumed.
The following is a list of ingredients that you can use to clean up different kinds of stains.
- Baby Oil - baking soda and cornstarch, let stay for 10 mins, vacuum.
- Toothpaste - hand-wash and water, blot and then sponge.
- Red Wine - first blot with soda, sprinkle a little salt.
- Gum - freeze area, then break or scrape off
- Ink Stain - apply liquid laundry detergent, let sit, warm water to wash.
- Blood Stain - wash normally with cold water or use club soda.
- Wax - cover and iron.
- Stains on Leather - always wash the whole fabric to avoid water stains.
- Urine Stains - any mild detergent is enough.
