Clean Your Living Area's More Efficiently!

If you've been following along the past couple months, you’ll know we've gone over efficiently cleaning your Bathrooms (January) and efficiently cleaning your Kitchens (February). While Bathrooms and Kitchens tend to be at the top of the priority list for most people, we still have Living Areas to clean. Whether it be your Bedroom, Living Room, Dining Room, Family Room, Media Room, etc.; your biggest battle in these rooms is more than likely…DUST! Many people suffer from dust allergies so it is exceedingly important to make sure you keep your Living Areas dusted on a regular basis, especially in your Bedroom where you sleep at night. In rooms where you have TV’s and other electronics you will be fighting dust on a weekly basis because electronics attract dust like a magnet.

There are a couple tips that remain the same no matter which area you are cleaning:

-Always dust top to bottom to avoid dust and debris falling on an area you have already cleaned

-Work clockwise or counter clockwise, to avoid missing any areas

To begin in your Living Area’s complete all the dry dusting, top to bottom. Run a long handled duster along all wall/ceiling corners, around drapery rods, along baseboards, behind furniture, etc.

Next you will do all furniture polishing. Take a clean microfiber cloth and mist with furniture polish. Wipe down all wood furniture with your cloth, be sure to get UNDER lamps, alarm clocks, coasters, books and any other items. The most thorough way to dust a piece of furniture is to take everything off the surface. Polish the top, sides and lastly base of the furniture. This will give a much more even looking polish and will help to eliminate streaks. Wipe down each item you removed, as you replace it so as not to get dust on your clean surface.

The last step in dusting is sanitizing glass. Use the same process of removing all items off of any glass topped furniture. Spray the surface to be cleaned and wipe clean with a dry microfiber cloth, turning your cloth as necessary to buff out all streaks. Cleaning the glass wholly rather than trying to clean around things will give you an even, minimal streak finish. At this time you would also sanitize any glass mirrors in living areas, mirrored closet doors, glass in French doors, etc.

If you are cleaning your Bedroom(s) you would now make/straighten your bed and pillows. If you are cleaning Living room/Family room/Media room this is the time to vacuum all furniture and straighten blankets/pillows. If there is leather furniture present, wipe it down with a microfiber cloth dampened with water or a leather safe cleaner.

Lastly vacuum all carpet/area rugs, running the vacuum hose along baseboards for a detailed vacuuming job. Mop hard surface floors if applicable.

Cleaning Your Kitchen More Efficiently!

Last month we focused on Bathrooms and how to clean them in the most efficient way. This month we will turn our focus to Kitchens. Are you tired of seeing crumbs under your toaster or grime building up underneath your control knobs on your stove? Follow along below and I bet you will find at least one area you have been missing when you’ve cleaned your Kitchen in the past.

Let’s begin by taking a long handled duster around the ceiling and wall corners to knock down cobwebs, working clockwise until you have gone around the entire Kitchen.

Take a dry cloth and lightly mist it with all-purpose spray, dust all picture frames, blinds and tops of door jams.

Wipe down any light fixtures hanging in Kitchen, if there are can lights in the ceiling, run the duster in the can to get cob webs.

Remove any large items from the floor, (i.e. area rugs, pet food dishes, garbage cans/recycle cans, etc.)

Now we are going to start with the countertops, section your counters and remove all items from your first section (including small appliances, canisters, books, bottles, etc.). It is best to choose a section of countertop, say from the stove top to the refrigerator. You will take EVERYTHING off of the countertop in this section. You can place the items on another counter or on the floor.

Liberally spray this section of countertop with your cleaning product.

Wet a sponge/scour (ensure your chosen sponge/scour is of “no-scratch” variety so you don’t scratch your countertops) and scrub your countertops, be sure to pay special attention to the areas that have food/grease build up. Wipe countertop clean with a dry cleaning cloth. Next, crouch down so you are eye level with the countertop, and look across the area you just cleaned to ensure you got all the crumbs and grime off the countertop.

Now we are going to replace the items that you removed from the countertop in the beginning. Take your rag (should be dampened by now) and wipe all of your countertop items clean, paying attention to the bottom of all items, as you place them back on the counter you just cleaned. This is also a good time to wipe fingerprints, food and smudges off of any small appliances you have (toasters, microwave ovens, blenders, etc.)

Repeat the sectioning, removing and cleaning process until all counters have been cleaned.

Next, clean the inside of your microwave. It is best to do this every time you clean your Kitchen; since microwaves typically get a lot of use they won’t get as much build up if they are cleaned frequently. If you do have a lot of build up in your microwave, spray it liberally with all purpose spray and put a cup of water (in a microwave safe container) in the microwave and heat for 1 minute. This will help to loosen any build up. Once cooled enough to touch, wipe clean.

Clean and polish exterior appliances, pay special attention to the handles of appliances where food residue tends to build up. When cleaning your stove top be sure to pull the control knobs off so you can clean behind them. If you have stainless steel appliances and use a stainless steel polish/cleaner, make sure you apply the polish/cleaner liberally. Use one side of a clean microfiber cloth to spread the polish/cleaner across the surface, and then use another side to buff it out. This should reduce/eliminate streaking.

Using a wet cleaning cloth wipe your switch plate/outlet covers then cabinets and drawers, paying attention to knobs and corners for build up.

Now it is time to clean the floors. Sweep floor first to collect major debris. Take your vacuum hose and vacuum up pile of debris then take the hose around all edges to ensure all food, crumbs and dust is sucked up. If your baseboards don’t have much build up you can use the vacuum hose to clean them off. However if there is build up on them, take a damp cloth and wipe your baseboards clean. Vacuum any area rugs. Mop floor.

Spray your sink with cleaning product and scrub, paying attention to cracks and crevices around faucet and drain holes. Polish faucet and dry sink out, straighten any towels.

Once floor is dry replace all floor items you removed in the beginning. Be sure to clean the items before putting them back, wipe down garbage cans, put rugs in the dryer on air fluff to pull crumbs and dust off of them, etc.

All done! Enjoy your thoroughly cleaned Kitchen J

 

Clean Your Bathroom More Efficiently!

So it’s time to clean the almighty bathroom….there you stand armed with your gloves, arsenal of cleaning products and toilet brush. Now the question remains, where do I start? While everyone tends to clean their bathroom a little differently there is a standard procedure that most professionals use because it is the most efficient. Are you tired of getting your tub sparkling clean and then, wait, is that a cobweb above the shower? Shoot! So you carefully try to grab it but instead you knock it down and now your clean tub has a cob web in it. Better go grab another rag because the tub has to be wiped out again. I can’t promise the below process will make cleaning your Bathroom FUN but I can almost bet following the below process will get your Bathroom more clean than it has been in the past.

Ready to get started?? Let’s begin!

Prior to turning lights on in your bathroom take a cleaning cloth and wipe your light fixtures.  To avoid injury this needs to be done when lights and fixture are off and cool to the touch.

Turn on the lights and begin by removing all things possible from the floors and placing them outside of the bathroom. i.e. rugs, scales, garbage cans, magazine racks, toilet brushes/plungers, hampers, etc.

Next do all high dusting; run a long handled duster along all ceiling and wall corners to knock down cobwebs. Then either remove your ceiling vent to soak and clean (if there is a lot of buildup) or take your vacuum hose and vacuum the dust off of your vent. A broom also works well to knock down dust if your vacuum hose won’t reach.

Take a dry cloth and lightly mist it with all-purpose spray, dust all picture frames, blinds and tops of door jams.

Now comes the fun part! We are going to remove all items out of your shower/tub. Remove all shampoo bottles, shower gels, washcloths, bathmats and anything else that will come out. Liberally spray your shower/tub with cleaning spray and let sit.

Next you are going to do the same “removing” process for your countertops. Remove all items from your countertop (bet this will make you think twice about how much you put back on it J). If you have a soap dish on your counter, take the soap out of the dish and place the dish in the sink. Once everything has been removed liberally spray your countertop with cleaning spray and let sit. If you put a soap dish in the sink, fill the dish with water to loosen the built up soap residue.

Head back to the shower now that the cleaning spray has had time to disinfect, scrub the shower/tub with a no-scratch pad or scrub brush. Pay special attention to soap scum rings, drain holes, soap dishes, shower door tracks/edges if applicable, etc. Once it’s all scrubbed, rinse.

Now were going to let the shower/tub air dry a bit and head over to the countertop.

Scrub your countertop with a no-scratch pad, paying attention to any build up or residue spots. Scrub sink as well, paying attention to cracks and crevices around faucet, drain holes in sink and overflow holes. Scrub your soap dish if it’s in the sink as well.

Spray your mirror with glass cleaner; also spray sink faucets with glass cleaner. Wipe mirror clean with a dry cloth then polish faucets with same cleaning cloth. Wipe countertop clean and sinks last. Dry out soap dish if you have one in the sink. Your cleaning cloth should be pretty damp by now which makes it perfect for spot cleaning cabinet/drawer fronts and knobs.

Grab a clean cloth and lightly mist it with cleaning spray, put your countertop items back on countertop, using the cleaning cloth to wipe each item clean before putting it back on the countertop. Pay special attention to the front and bottom of soap bottles, hair product bottles, etc. and wipe the bottles clean so as not to dirty your clean countertop.

Head back over to the shower/tub with your cleaning cloth and dry it out. Spray the faucet and any fixtures in the shower/tub with glass cleaner and wipe with a dry cloth to polish. If you have a shower door this would be the time to clean the glass door and frame. Lightly spray your cleaning cloth, like the one for the countertop items, and wipe each shower item clean before putting them back in the shower. Again pay special attention to the bottom of bottles that collect residues as you don’t want these residues in your clean shower.

You’re almost there! Now were going to do the toilet, spray your toilet liberally with cleaning spray and put a bowl cleaner in the bowl. Grab your toilet brush and scrub bowl. Put down lid and start at top of toilet, wipe clean tank lid and tank. Clean around toilet seat hinges, toilet seat lid, bowl sides (exterior) and base of toilet where toilet meets floor. Open toilet lid and clean underside of lid, toilet seat, underside of toilet seat and lastly toilet rim. Flush toilet.

At this point I like to take a cleaning cloth lightly sprayed with all-purpose cleaner and polish all the accessory holders (toilet paper holder, bath towel holder, robe hooks, etc.) and switch plate/outlet covers. Straighten towels/washcloths.

Lastly clean the floors. Sweep floor first to collect major debris. Take your vacuum hose and vacuum up pile of debris then take the hose around all edges to ensure all hair, dust is sucked up. Check base of toilet and suck up any hair/dust that might be on base of toilet from sweeping. If your baseboards don’t have much build up you can use the vacuum hose to clean them off. However if there is build up on them, take a damp cloth and wipe your baseboards clean. Mop floor.

Once floor is dry replace all floor items you removed in the beginning. Be sure to clean the items before putting them back, wipe down scales, put rugs in the dryer on air fluff to pull hair and dust off of them, etc.

Voila! Your bathroom should be sparkling clean now!