Most of us don’t enjoy domestic cleaning. In fact, we dread it. It feels so much easier to put it off rather than do it right away. But, like it or not, you have to get it done. It’s to keep you sane (messing up the house can mess your head up), and you want to be prepared, too, especially if a guest comes unannounced. Don’t fret, though. Below are some handy tips for efficient domestic cleaning.
How To Improve Your Cleaning Efficiency
Let’s begin with the easiest one to do. Clean one part at a time. Let’s take a fridge as an example. Pick one area to clean, remove all the items from that part, and then wipe the interior. After you are done, put all the items back together. Now you are done with one part. Do this every week and rotate with other parts of the refrigerator. You’ll be amazed when you see the whole refrigerator is clean after a few weeks. You can try this trick with your bathroom, too. Remember, do one part at a time.
If you live in a house with many people, divide the tasks among everyone. The load will be much lighter when the job is divided, and it can be rotated, too. Or everyone can do the cleaning together, focusing on one area at a time. Plan to make cleaning as part of the weekly or bi-weekly schedule. Thinking that cleaning can be done immediately will only make you procrastinate. Plan when you should do the cleaning. Cleaning regularly is much better than doing it all at once in who knows how many months when the mess is too much to handle.
One more way to go about domestic cleaning is to clear up your house’s clutter. That means you throw away or sell unused or unwanted items in your home. How can you decide if you still need the items or not? For things that you never use in one year and you think you won’t need them in the coming months, you can throw them away. You can sell items that still work but can live without them. The rest are keepers. Just remember this: if you need the item, you don’t need to contemplate whether you need it or not; you use it regularly. Clearing up the clutter will bring peace of mind as well. Can’t believe it? Try clearing up your desk today and feel the difference.
The next tip is to keep all the cleaning tools in one place. This may seem trivial, but it will save you time compared to randomly placing them. It may even affect your mood when cleaning. Imagine that you are thinking of cleaning, but after spending so much time looking for cleaning tools, you lose the will and go lazing around instead.
There, you have a few tips on how to clean the house right. Focus on one part at a time, set a schedule for cleaning, divide the chores, and keep all the tools in one place, and you are on your way to a cleaner and tidier house.
Cleaning Marble
For cleaning marble surfaces (e.g. chopping boards or ornaments), DON’T use vinegar, as this will damage the material. However, DO use plain water, with the possible addition of baking soda, as this can clean marble without scratching the surface.
Cleaning Blocked Drains
To clean a blocked drain, DON’T use ferocious chemicals based on caustic soda if you can help it. Instead, you have a range of things you can DO:
- First, try unblocking the drain manually by using a plunger and the force of air pressure to clean the blockage. If you don’t have a plunger (and small ones can be picked up quickly and cheaply enough at any good hardware store), you can improvise by cutting an old tennis ball in half and fitting it over the plughole. Push it up and down with the heel of your hand.
- After this, the next DO is to tip about a cup of baking soda down the plughole.
- Follow this with about a cup of vinegar (not diluted), preferably hot. The resulting reaction can shift the blockage.
- If things aren’t flowing freely, you can get busy under the sink with a wrench and remove the S-bend (have a bucket underneath where you’re working to catch the gunk). Then, you can physically remove the blockage.
- If you still haven’t had any luck, or if the pipe’s join is only accessible under the house, call the professionals.
Cleaning Wood
DO make your polish for cleaning wood. How do you think people managed to keep things clean and shiny in all the centuries (even the millennia) when people used wood in their homes before the invention of spray-on furniture polish?
The easiest homemade furniture polish is made by melting about one part of beeswax in two parts of olive oil (or some other good vegetable oil if you’re stingy), plus a bit of essential oil if you want it. Melt these together and allow them to cool before storing them in an airtight jar.
When cleaning furniture, apply the polish with one soft cloth, then allow it to dry and soak in a little before buffing up with another cloth.
Dusting Surfaces
Don’t pay any attention to Quentin Crisp’s cleaning advice that dust doesn’t get any worse after three years. It does. Moreover, dust left around makes it more likely for you, a family member or a visitor to have an asthma attack. Frequent dusting is the key, and a cleaning job is so easy that a child can do it.
Dusting is best done with a damp rag (rinse it frequently if you have a large house or office to clean), but you can also get one of those feather dusters like an old-fashioned maid uses for cleaning. Feather dusters work with static electricity. Clean a feather duster by giving it a good shake outside.
Natural Cleaning for Health and Feel-good Factor
DO use natural cleaning products as much as possible, and DON’T fall for the advertisers’ line that you need a specialised product for each cleaning job. Natural cleaning products are great multitaskers and easy on your pocket, skin, and wallet.