The holidays have come to a close, and after ringing in the New Year with your loved ones, you’ve probably found yourself with a list of resolutions for 2020. If keeping your home clean and tidy is on that list of goals, you are not alone. Some cultures even believe that starting the new year off with a clean home will help rid them of any bad luck of the previous year.
Keeping your home clean not only can be a goal for the new year, but a reality, with the help of our cleaning tips.
Clear the Clutter
It is very common to acquire a lot of stuff throughout the year (especially during the holidays). What better time to get rid of any unnecessary or unused items around your house as you put away the decorations. Clutter can make your home look dated and dirty, plus with so much stuff it becomes difficult to find the things you use and enjoy the most. Try making some room in storage and clear your counters of things you don’t use on a daily basis. and Children’s Shelter.
Set up a donate bin or box in a central area of your home and ask members of your family to go through their belongings and clear out the things they haven’t used in the past year. For kiddos, follow the one in / one out rule to avoid an overflow of toys. Outside of individual belongings: clear your pantry and fridge of expired items, bathroom of old medicine, lotions and sunscreen and cabinets of out-of-date cleaning products.
Unsure where to donate? Some of our favorite local donation stations around San Antonio are the Children’s Shelter and The Battered Women.
This is also a good time to develop habits of not letting clutter pile up. Â Little things you can do on a daily basis like throwing away or sorting the mail after its opened can lead to less clutter developing in your home over the course of the year.
Clean Smarter Not Harder
Cleaning doesn’t have to be an all-day activity that you dread. Cleaning more efficiently will not only reduce the amount of time spent but will help leave you with a cleaner home at the end.
First rule of thumb, clean from top to bottom. For example: if you sweep your floors before dusting your bookshelf you are pushing all the dust into the air that will eventually land back on your floor. If you start from the top and dust any shelves or wipe counters before cleaning the floors you will pick-up all the dust, dirt and crumbs that have landed there earlier in the cleaning process.
Focus on one type of cleaning at a time. Rather than cleaning your home room by room, pick one task (like cleaning windows) and complete it in every room of your home. Pick the next task (keeping in mind the top to bottom rule) and do the same. Keeping all your cleaning supplies in a portable carry-all that moves with you from room to room will help you move between rooms and tasks more easily and efficiently.
Enlist the help of your family. We know this is easier said than done, but the more hands you have cleaning the quicker things get done.
Clean the Less Obvious Items in Your Home
Most cleaning schedules tackle the same high-level items like sweeping floors and doing laundry, even ceiling fans get some attention every once in a while. But when was the last time your drapes were cleaned? Or your air ducts? These larger and less obvious items in your home also need cleaning throughout the year to stay looking and performing their best. Professional cleaning services like Aladdin Cleaning and Restoration have over 60 years of experience in residential cleaning and can help with items in your home such as carpet, upholstery, drapes, air ducts and floors.
Call us today, or schedule an appointment online to have our trained cleaning specialist help keep your home clean in the new year.
