TIPS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR ANNUAL DEEP CLEAN
Not only does an annual deep cleaning scour your place of hidden dust mites and mold spores, it also helps protect you against viruses and bacteria. With the potential for COVID-19 floating in the air and clinging to surfaces, there’s plenty of motivation to set about spring cleaning coronavirus out of your home.
Traditional spring cleaning includes chores like dusting, window cleaning, giving your carpets a proper wash, and a fair share of polishing and waxing. With this home cleaning checklist, we’ll give you all the best spring cleaning tips, plus a boost for combatting coronavirus.
BE SURE TO BOTH CLEAN AND DISINFECT FOR A CORONAVIRUS SPRING CLEANING
Did you know there’s a difference between cleaning and disinfecting?
Cleaning is the removal of grime and germs from surfaces. Cleaning doesn’t kill viruses, but it lowers their numbers. You can clean a surface using a simple combination of soap and water, which is very effective against COVID-19.
Disinfecting involves using a chemical to kill germs on surfaces after you clean it, which lowers the risk of spreading infection. You can use a simple bleach combination to disinfect, which is ⅓ cup of bleach per gallon of water, or 4 teaspoons of bleach per quart of water. Let the bleach sit on the surface for at least one minute before you dry it completely.
regularly cleaning and disinfecting areas of your home which are touched frequently — three times per day if someone in your house is sick. This includes:
Kitchen and bathroom counters
Light switches
Doorknobs
Faucets
Toilets
Electronics
USE THE RIGHT PRODUCTS FOR CORONAVIRUS CLEANING
Bummed out by the empty shelves in the cleaning products aisle of the grocery store? Don’t despair. There are tons of products out there that can get rid of the nasty coronavirus. Luckily, the EPA released a list of the chemicals you can use, which include common household items like hydrogen peroxide, isopropyl alcohol that’s 70% alcohol (rubbing alcohol), and even certain Lysol toilet bowl cleaners.
DUST YOUR HOME THOROUGHLY
Spring cleaning is a great time to both clean and declutter your home. If you’ve got major clutter to deal with, getting a portable container delivered to your driveway may be just what you need to get the job done, especially if you need to make room as you work. Having temporary at-home storage can also help if you need to separate items to go to relatives, donations, or a garage sale
How to Clean a House
Cleaning your house seems like a fairly self-explanatory task, but when you sit down to think about it, you might realize that you have a lot of questions. And how do you clean a toilet, anyway? We’ll work it down into a streamlined process that seems simple enough to tackle and instantly gratifying. Once you get started, you won’t want to stop until the whole house is spick and span.
Decide how clean you want your house to be and how much time you have. This will help you decide how to set up your cleaning schedule. Be honest with yourself about what you can do, how much time you have, and how motivated you’re feeling.
Work from the top down, if at all possible. You don’t want to vacuum and then get crumbs all over the floor, or dust the bottom of something and knock more dust down when you work your way up onto the previously uncleaned areas. If you don’t have much time, start with the clutter first and work your way to more serious things from there.
For the “average” busy person it works better to do a little bit every day so that the work doesn’t pile up, and also have major-cleaning day a few times a month. What style you prefer is up to you (unless you have roommates, of course).
Keep a check on areas of the kitchen subject to grease and grime buildup that need regular but less frequent cleaning, such as the tops of cabinets and the kitchen exhaust fan. It can be easy to overlook higher features in the kitchen but grease and grime gather in these areas and attract dust and insects.
Make a checklist and a plan of attack. Know which rooms you plan to start and finish your cleaning in (generally back to front door works best). This will help expedite the process and ensure you are not duplicating your efforts, especially if more than one person is involved in the cleaning.
You can follow the steps in the cleaning part in order. This way, you’ll have a checklist already written out for you.
Make a plan so that you can vacuum, sweep, and mop all rooms at the same time (and so that your hot water doesn’t get cold) so you won’t have to go from one task and then repeat the same thing again.
Attempt to delegate tasks. If you live with other people, cleaning the house should not be exclusively your responsibility! You may have to take on leadership by setting up a rotational cleaning schedule, but it’s far better than having to do this backbreaking work alone.
Clean the toilet. Ugh. Cleaning the toilet is never fun, so it’s best to get it over with as soon as possible. Put on a pair of rubber gloves (not the ones you use to clean the dishes!) to keep your hands safe from the grime and bacteria. Give the toilet a gentle wash-down with a sponge and hot water to loosen everything up. Let it soak in the hot water while you move onto the bowl.
After that, squirt toilet cleaner into the inside of the bowl and around the rim. Let it soak for a minute and then scrub it with a toilet brush. When you’re finished, give it a flush.
When you’re done with the bowl, return back to the outside surfaces. Spray them down with a disinfectant spray and wipe dry with a cloth or paper towel.
SECRETS THAT WILL HELP YOU KEEP YOUR HOUSE CLEAN AND ORGANIZED ONCE AND FOR ALL
When I clean I attack one room at a time and don’t lose focus. It’s so easy for me to get sidetracked when I’m cleaning! I’ve found that I get more accomplished if I focus on one room at at time and keep working until it’s done. If I pick up something from the kitchen that belongs in the office and then when I get there I start tidying up my office, before long I’m all over the place starting everything and not really finishing anything. By focusing on one room at a time I always get a least a few spaces completely clean.
While I’m doing my daily clean-up, I’m constantly getting rid of things. I think this is the number one secret to keeping your home clean and organized! Less stuff in your house means less stuff you have to manage. While I’m cleaning if I come across clothes we aren’t wearing, kitchen supplies I don’t cook with, toys my kids have out grown, decor that is outdated.. I toss it in a good will bag in the garage and don’t look back! Aside from a few sentimental items, I seriously have NO problem getting rid of things. I always have a few black sacks in my garage that are ongoing “take to good will bags.” Often friends will say to me “I need you to come and organize my house!” I always tell them they’d actually hate that because I would make them toss 80% of what they own.
I have a place for most things we keep. I work really hard to only keep what we use and love. Then I make sure that everything we use and love has a happy home. I also make sure my kids and husband know where things belong so that when it’s time to clean up we all know where everything needs to go.
I have some help. I first hired house cleaners to help me clean in my previous house years ago when I was pregnant with my second child. I don’t mind cleaning at all and had always done all of our housework, but I was having serious back problems in my 3rd trimester and just couldn’t bend over to scrub and deep clean. My husband was working around the clock getting his career established and couldn’t help much, so we looked at our budget and found things we could cut so that we could afford some help with the deep cleaning. It was a sacrifice at first, but so worth it! Together the cleaners and I could clean in hours what it would take me four days to do alone. Ever since then I’ve loved having some help with the deep cleaning and it’s something we make sure to prioritize when we figure out our budget.
I have a cleaning routine. There are a few things I do daily and weekly so that our house never gets completely out of control. I do most of my laundry on Mondays and Fridays. Monday because I like to have it caught up by Tuesday (my main cleaning day) and then I do laundry again on Friday as part of my Week Ahead Prep. Tuesday mornings I wake up at 6:00, get ready and pick up my bathroom. Then I throw a set of sheets in my washer. I wake my kids around 6:45 and get them ready for school and dropped off by 8:00. Around 9:00 on most Tuesdays my cleaners come and we get to work! They start deep cleaning in my bathroom (which is why I pick it up first thing that morning) and then for the next two hours they basically follow me through my house. I hit each room putting things away where they go, loading and washing any dishes in the kitchen, straightening the pantry, going through papers that need to be tossed, etc.
Deep Cleaning Services
Deep cleaning –– it’s one of those things always lingering at the bottom of the to-do list but it never quite happens. There’s just always something that takes priority. Who has the time? Who even knows what to deep clean or in what order? Experienced deep cleaning Taskers, that’s who.
What’s included in a house deep cleaning?
The short answer: anything you want. Just communicate your to-do list with your Tasker, and prepare to be amazed. The long answer: think of all the places that build up with a little extra dirt and grime over time. That’s what will get cleaned during a deep cleaning service. Think scrubbing the freezer, cleaning the inside and tops of cabinets, cleaning behind the toilet and under the sink, and more. This is all in addition to what a typical house cleaning entails.
We are renovating our house and it’s a mess. Can TaskRabbit help?
Sure can! Whether it’s a renovation you’re recovering from, or just daily life, deep cleaning Taskers will roll up their sleeves and really use their muscles to get into all the nooks and crannies to make them shine like new. Tops of cabinets, inside of freezers, window sashes –– oh my! You name it, deep cleaning Taskers can clean it
Do I need to provide cleaning supplies for my deep clean?
Nope. If you have favorite cleaning go-to products, feel free to provide them to your Tasker, but you don’t have to. Just let the Tasker know to bring supplies, and get ready to watch your house sparkle from top to bottom. Taskers usually have their favorite deep cleaning products with extra muscle to cut through that last layer of buildup we all have in our homes, so no shame in relying on their experience.
Do I need to be home during the cleaning?
No, you don’t. But you’re welcome to stick around if that’s what works for you. No matter what’s on your to-do list, whether that’s scrubbing the laundry room floor and behind the toilets or sweeping out the garage, deep cleaning can take a long time so do whatever works best for your schedule.
Best Car Cleaning Tips and Tricks
Wash your car with the right suds
Even though liquid dish soap is a great degreaser, it’s not the thing to use on your vehicle’s finish. Yes, it removes dirt, grease and old wax. But it also sucks important oils right out of the paint’s finish. Use it repeatedly and you shorten the life of your paint job.
Pluck the finish
A car hurtling down the road at 100 km/h becomes a dartboard for any crud in the air. Your vehicle’s clear coat deflects some of it but can hold the sharper grit. Washing removes the surface dirt, but clay-barring is the only way to pluck out the embedded stuff.
Polish the finish
Many car owners confuse polishing with waxing. But they’re separate steps. Polishing removes small surface imperfections and scratches and buffs the finish to a shine. Waxing adds more gloss and protects the finish from the elements. Most DIY-ers skip polishing because they don’t want to invest the money for a polisher or the elbow grease for a hand polish. But polishing your vehicle’s finish is the key to getting the best gloss (pros would never skip it).
Get a mirror finish with synthetic wax
Some people swear by carnauba wax. It produces a deep, warm shine. But we prefer the wet-gloss look of the newer synthetic polymer waxes (also known as paint sealant) such as Meguiar’s Ultimate Liquid Wax. It’s pricier than other synthetics, but it doesn’t leave a white film on plastic or trim-which is a real advantage. Plus, it’s really easy to apply
Suck up the dust as you go
Most DIY-ers start cleaning their car interior by shampooing the carpet. That’s a mistake-you’ll just get it dirty again as you clean the upper surfaces. Instead, start at the top and work your way down. Vacuum the headliner, dash, console and door panels. Then clean all the glass, and dust the nooks and crannies. Sweep the dust out of the cracks with a detailing brush. Catch all that crud right away with your vacuum.