UNITED STATES—Oh, the notion of cleaning your home is not an easy task especially if you’re doing it thoroughly. I always say when it comes to cleaning you have to have a plan and if you can delegate tasks to people do so. Why? It shaves off some of the things that you have to do. With that said, I’m a firm believer you either start from the bottom of the home and work your way to the top or you start from the top and work your way to the bottom.
That means, if you have multiple levels don’t just bounce around from room to room, have a plan in place. If you start cleaning the basement first then you work your way to the top of the home. If you start upstairs, then work your way to the basement. You should be dusting and cleaning glass before you start vacuuming. If I am being honest, you should vacuum at the end because that means any moping, dusting or glass cleaning has been completed in its entirety.
Nothing annoys me more than seeing glass with dust or streaks on it. So I always dust the glass first then use glass cleaner, preferably in a can. Yes, you heard me glass cleaner in a can works absolutely wonders to clean your glass and there are no streaks left as a result. When it comes to moping, the thought of touching a dirty mop is not something I’m keen to doing, which means you should use clothes or if you’re lucky you can use one of those mops with a bucket that allows you to drain or squeeze out water without touching the actual mop itself.
Sweep, you have to sweep any floor you mop before you mop, but I have seen people who will mop a floor without sweeping it. That is totally backwards and makes absolutely no sense in my opinion to say the least. I think two of the most important rooms in the home are the bathroom and the kitchen. I tell people time and time again a lot is said about a person’s home and overall cleanliness based on how their bathrooms and kitchens look.
The bathroom is a place I tend to start cleaning a ton. I like a sparkling bathroom (sink, tub and that dreaded toilet). I don’t like lint or any dirt on the toilet in any capacity and a clean smelling bathroom says a lot about one’s home. The same applies for the kitchen, where I think it’s a lot more work to clean. You have the fridge, you have the dishwasher, the countertop, the stove, the microwave, the floor, the garbage can, the cabinets; you get the point. There is a lot more that has to be done inside the kitchen than any other room in the home if I’m being honest. It might take a good hour or longer to properly clean the kitchen.
That is where cleaning becomes a problem for most Americans, because we resort to surface cleaning compared to thorough cleaning. Surface cleaning allows the home to look presentable to potential guests that you might have coming to your home, whereas, a thorough cleaning really tackles those nooks and crannies that maybe you’ve ignored. In doing so you’re not doing a deep cleaning each week, maybe it’s every other week, this way you’re not in a situation where you’re cleaning your home from sunrise to sunset (that is not fun for anyone).
Don’t look at cleaning the home as a chore, it is part of life, you’re going to be cleaning until the day that you die. Yes, there are those who can hire people to clean their homes, but in my opinion I will NEVER let someone else clean my home. It is my place it is my responsibility.
Written By Zoe Mitchell
