Being a homeowner is an all-around job. Because aside from paying the bills to keep everything running, homeowners must remember to clean their houses. Otherwise, all kinds of bacteria and unsavory organisms could spread around the house, causing illnesses in the family.
However, it’s challenging to clean up the entire house, regardless of size. So, others hire day porter services to ensure more efficient cleaning. But you can still do the cleaning independently if you think you can. Given that you must find time in the middle of your schedule, it takes careful planning to ensure you get everything.
To accomplish that, consider making a checklist for everything you need to clean up within a set timeframe:
Weekly Cleaning Checklist
Unlike daily tasks, the ones included here are much more intensive. After all, they mostly prevent mold buildup and bacterial growth from happening. This way, it’ll take another few weeks until it’s time to clean them up again.
1. Sweep And Mop
Doing a weekly sweep inside the house is an excellent way to eliminate all that dust. It’s even a great opportunity to find any possessions that suddenly got lost since you’ll be moving some of the furniture to get the dust they must’ve been hiding. Once you’ve swept up most of it, proceed with mopping to protect your flooring better down the road.
2. Dust Furniture
Aside from the floor, dust settles the most on furniture. The longer dust stays there, the more likely it is to ruin the furniture’s quality and even compromise the air quality. Dusting the furniture every week prevents dust from staying too long.
3. Clean Bathroom
Considering that it’s one of the areas in the house with the most traffic, cleaning the bathroom is a no-brainer. With people coming in every day, you can imagine how many bacteria and viruses are living there under your nose. Toilets, counters, and sinks are often used by different people regularly. Hence, scheduling them for a weekly cleaning will hinder bacterial growth.
4. Freshen Up Bedroom
Given it’s the one place you retire to, ensuring your bedroom stays spick-and-span is likely to give you a good night’s rest in exchange. Even doing something as simple as making your bed and learning to maintain it helps improve your sleep quality. Although, there’s nothing quite like resting on freshly washed sheets after laundering them every week. Because despite showering at night, unwanted organisms, be they dust or dirt, still cling to you.
5. Clean Out Microwave
Almost all households own a microwave oven. Although common, microwave ovens are typically overlooked compared to the rest of the house. But little did they know unwanted organisms thrive in humid temperatures and where there’s food. By cleaning up microwave ovens regularly, different sicknesses could be avoided.
Monthly Cleaning Checklist
Unlike weekly cleaning, monthly home cleaning demands your fullest attention. After all, what you often clean for this category goes overlooked. But once it’s been taken care of, any signs of unwanted organisms that took advantage of how unnoticeable their ‘birthing ground’ is will be dealt with.
1. Deal With Fabric Coverings
Although one of the most comfortable materials in the industry, the fabric is often notorious for letting unwanted organisms grow. However, that can only happen once you’ve neglected to clean it. Put all your fabric coverings in the laundry to prevent buildup from taking place, whether they’re carpets or pillowcases.
2. Clean The Walls
Over time, walls have seen their fair share of dirt and grime. After all, being exposed to messy accidents and other mishaps can easily dirty the wall. Although not obvious, you’ll only realize how much dirt they’ve accumulated once you’re wiping down the walls.
3. Deep Clean Essential Appliances
Since they’re used frequently, essential appliances (such as the fridge or dishwasher) must be cleaned thoroughly. Considering most of these essentials are found in the kitchen, leaving them alone for too long might be an opportunity for bacteria to worsen. Scheduling a monthly deep clean for each one will stop that.
4. Wipe Down Windows
Given their transparency, dirty windows are a sight for sore eyes. With how difficult it is to remove streaks on the surface, use a glass cleaner before wiping them down. When done, a crevice brush can clear off dirt lingering across the window sill.
Yearly Cleaning Checklist
Given there’s a pattern, it’s only inevitable for the yearly clean-up to consist of the most time-consuming and most involved tasks on your checklist. Still, despite how demanding yearly clean-up tasks are, they’re well worth the trouble when bacteria have around a year to accumulate again.
1. Move Appliances Around
Dusting and mopping the same places don’t guarantee that the entire place is clean. Moving your appliances and furniture around would do the trick to get everything done properly. In doing so, you can reach places hidden from you in the first place and clean them up.
2. Deep Clean Upholstery
As mentioned, the fabric may be soft but often attracts dirt the most. Upholstery that uses fabric is likely one of the most effective magnets for dust and dirt, especially with how many people interact with them. Even if they come with dark colors, simply hiding their stains can’t change how dirty your upholstery is. Depending on how much fabric upholstery you got, washing them clean might take most of the day.
3. Declutter The House
With plenty of months passing by, there’s no doubt about how many things you’ve accumulated over time. However, that doesn’t mean they’re all valuable. After all, you can’t guarantee that you’re using everything you’ve collected throughout the year. Schedule a few days in advance to separate your things from the non-valuable ones, and organize them according to what you want to do to them.
Takeaway
Cleaning the house is a demanding project. Considering how long it’ll take, squeezing it into your schedule might seem impossible on the surface. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Instead of doing everything in one fell swoop, consider dividing the tasks into timeframes. Keep a checklist of each timeframe to make it easier to track everything. That way, clean-up will be much more manageable.
Not ready to start cleaning your home on a monthly basis? Consider house cleaning service in Sydney, or in your local area, to avoid having to waste any precious time cleaning your own house.