How Often Should You Clean Everything In Your Home?
Keeping a clean home doesn’t necessarily require having to clean everything in your home every single day. You don’t have to do a serious mopping, much less a deep cleaning of every room in the house. That will be quite a feat and of course, you wouldn’t have the luxury of time to finish all of them in a day. Besides, you most probably haven’t used every room and all the stuff in it, including the furniture and appliances.
It would be helpful though if you have an idea as to what needs cleaning more frequently and what are those that wouldn’t need as much. You should have a chore list just to keep your schedule more organized. In this way, you will be keeping your homes clean without compromising your time and energy.
The list will be chore-centred or task-centred and divided into daily, weekly, monthly and annual. There might be other chores that can be added to the list but this can be a good start.
1. Daily Cleaning Chores
Daily cleaning is needed for those that you use daily. You can now imagine what those things are and which rooms you frequent daily – before you leave the house for work or for errands and from the time you get back home.
Make your bed. This will be a good habit to build if you haven’t yet. Daily, we wake up with bed covers in disarray, blankets unfolded and pillows not straightened. If you are one that skips this ritual, it is most probably because you’re thinking no one’s going to see it anyway except you or, you don’t have time. But there are benefits in making your bed daily. It just starts your day right and motivates you to keep your room – your personal space tidy. Don’t you think it will be more inviting to sleep when a well-made bed welcomes you in your room?
Wash dirty dishes. When you keep dirty dishes soaking in your sink for a far longer time, you will be causing bacteria to grow and spread. Also, you will be inviting ants, roaches and other bugs. Along with the dishes, make sure that the sponges you use in cleaning is kept to dry after.
Clean kitchen counter tops and stove tops. If you’ve used these surfaces to prepare and cook your food, then expect morsels, spills and small food particles that will be left behind. This should be wiped down completely to avoid any bacteria growth and contamination.
Sweep kitchen floors. The kitchen would probably be one of the rooms frequented by everyone in the house daily. Here’s where they get their food, get water to drink, wash their hands after getting in from the outside. Imagine all the dirt that their shoes bring in and around the kitchen floor. It will be a good idea then to sweep them daily.
Wipe and sanitize bathroom sinks and other surfaces. Your bathroom is a haven for bacteria. It is moist and warm – the perfect ingredient for bacteria to grow. It is then important to wipe them dry and sanitize them daily to prevent bacteria, grime, mold and other like elements to grow.
Throw out trash. Some wait for a couple of days for their bins to be full before they take out the trash. This will be an unhygienic practice especially if your trash is composed of food scrapings, meat trimmings, fruit peels, dirty tissues and the sorts. Keeping them longer would again open chances for bacteria to grow. Also, they will begin to smell which will make everything worse and harder to clean as you would also need to deal with eliminating odors. Taking them out daily is very highly recommended.
2. Weekly Cleaning Chores
Those chores that you can do weekly are for things that while you use frequently that gets dirty after using it for a longer time.
Wash Clothes. It will be good if you can do your laundry daily. You can wash soiled clothes immediately so as spills or stains can be removed. But for practicality, you can schedule your laundry day weekly for a week’s worth of clothes. You will be saving on water and electricity to keep your washer and dryer running.
Change Beddings and towels. Your beddings and towels are a catchment of all your dead skins, falling hair, sweat and other body fluids. The more that they accumulate the more chances that dust, germs, bacteria and other particles can also accumulate. They can cause skin infections, nasal and respiratory infection because of the dust.
Mop kitchen & bathroom floors. These are daily high-traffic areas and the actions being done in tese rooms can create a window for bacteria to grow. They are thus more prone to build-up of grime and dirt that are not easily removed by daily sweeping.
Scrub bathroom surfaces. Weekly, instead of just merely wiping them dry, you have to scrub these bathroom surfaces including the counters, walls, handles. This is also to ensure that those dirt and grime that were not removed by the daily wipes be removed by scrubbing.
Dust all surfaces. While you don’t use them as often, they can still harbour and collect dust. If these are left unattended for a long time, dust accumulates and can produce more allergens that are harmful to those suffering of respiratory problems.
Clean Refrigerator and Freezer. Check weekly for leftover food that are already spoiled or for spills inside the fridge that needs cleaning. You should do this to prevent the build-up of moulds and grime that will leave a residue. It is thus important to do a weekly cleaning especially since the fridge and the freezer serve as our storage for food. If there are bacteria growth inside then there is a likely chance for the food stored in there to be contaminated.
3. Monthly Cleaning Chores
You can do monthly cleaning for things that are not often used and are not easily accessible for cleaning.
Clean ceiling light fixtures and appliances. By these we mean, small ceiling light and fans that would be hard to clean. You can wipe them down with furniture wipes or damp cloth especially the fan blades.
Vacuum vents and intricate woodworks. Dust accumulates in vents and intricate woodworks and is not easily removed by simple dusting. You can do an initial dusting then go on with the vacuum so all dust that have settled inside the vent or grooves of the woodwork can be removed.
Clean your washing machine and dishwasher. It is a fallacy that washing machines and dishwashers cannot get soiled or dirty because of the use of water and soap in running them. You have to remember that the soap residue, minerals and chemicals from detergents can get trapped inside your washers. A thin film will then be created and can clog your washers’ mechanisms and can get damaged. Not only that, the thin film will also become a breeding ground for bacteria.
Clean under and behind the furniture. These are also hard to reach areas for cleaning but can still accumulate dust if left unclean. You can do the sweeping but a vacuum will help guarantee that all dust is removed.
Clean range hood. You will agree that a range hood in the kitchen plays a vital role in keeping your kitchen clean. It diminishes smoke coming from the food that you are cooking, it eradicates gas and other odors. As helpful as they can be, they can also be a fire hazard especially if not being cleaned. Grease and oil can build-up and accumulate on them and could pose a danger of being ignited if the gets too hot. It is therefore important to clean them regularly.
4. Annual Cleaning Chores
These are tasks that you can do once a year or only when the season calls for it. Every time that these things are due for cleaning, a deep cleaning approach is necessary.
Deep clean your carpet and rugs. Your carpet is also a dust collector and can build-up more allergens that can cause allergies and respiratory infection to the members of your household. You can hire a professional carpet cleaner or you can do it yourself. You can do it with a steam cleaner or some carpet cleaners you can buy from most stores.
Deep clean your windows. We are not only talking about the inside of the windows but the outside as well. They should not only be simply wiped down. You have to use window cleaning solutions to effectively take out dirt, water marks, bird droppings, and all those that have stuck to your windows especially if they are made of glass.
Clean Chandeliers. Even if your chandelier is a beauty on its own, it still is a collector of dust. Chandeliers though require a very careful method of cleaning to avoid damage and breakage.
Turn area rugs 180 degrees. The goal for doing so is to even out the wear of these area rugs.