Keeping your house clean and tidy every day can be difficult, more so if you work full-time or have children around. Every person dreams of having their home impeccable and ready for any unexpected visitors. From time to time, we find ourselves checking for internet tips on saving time and money for cleaning our houses. This is the reason why we have decided to offer a guide to good housekeeping with 15 top tips.
The tips you will find below are easy to put into practice; anyone can use them, from the homeowner to a professional housekeeper. They will save you time to spend with your loved ones and friends. A house will bring different commitments, depending on its size - if you live in the city or in the country side, if you live in a flat or house, if you have garden, children or pets, you will find yourself spending from a little to a lot of time doing the cleaning. This is the reason why some people decide to clean their homes themselves and others to hire a professional to do the cleaning.
One of our favourite activities is decluttering our spaces. As in many areas of our life, we should apply the principle of “less is more”. If you are into doing weekly cleaning as fast and easy as you can, the first step that you need to do is to let go if all those things that you are no longer using; we are talking from those old tooth brushes that have been in your bathroom for years (we will give you another tip giving your tooth brush another use) to those shoes you said you were going to repair, plates and glasses that are broken, and anything that is cluttering up the view.
We advise you to do this when you are off from work - don’t forget any space. You will be surprised to find a lot of things you had forgotten were there. Going through every space of your house and letting go things that don’t have any use will help to make your weekly cleaning faster. Don’t forget to check every corner of your house.
When it comes to cleaning, there are some basic products that every household should have. We always recommend getting products that are environment friendly. We cannot forget that most cleaning products contain chemicals that are detrimental to our planet. The first tool we recommend getting is a pair of rubber gloves. Nothing is more important than looking after ourselves, so to prevent any damage to our hands when we are cleaning, we will need to use this tool. The second tool we should have is a duster to clean all surfaces. We will need a sponge and green scourer to rub those surfaces that need a bit more attention, like the toilet and kitchen areas. Glass, Kitchen and Toilet and Floor cleaners are products we cannot forget, like Clean and Shine Furniture Polish.
Don’t get overwhelmed with all the products that you can find on the market. Keep in mind that you need only basic products and tools to keep your home spotless. You can always buy products that target specific materials, but ask yourself first if you really need them. Having a vacuum cleaner at home is basic for cleaning the floors and carpets, as well as a mop.
As already mentioned, we need some tools and basic products to keep our home clean. In this article, our main goal is to help you to do everything as efficiently as you can do it. A cleaning caddy is the best option in which to have all your cleaning products organised and ready for use when you start the cleaning in the house. Most people will keep their cleaning products in the Laundry area or Kitchen.
Lately, people have been trying to make some changes in their lives in order to be more environmentally friendly environment with their actions. One small way to do this is to give that old toothbrush a second life. You can do this by using it to clean hard-to-reach places, like those corners in your bathroom or kitchen that need a bit more of attention when you clean.
Systems help to make your job efficient; using similar systems that we use when we are at work will make our daily or weekly cleaning easier. It’s important to make an agenda of how often the kitchen or toilet needs to be cleaned, which areas of the house need more attention than others, and how often I need to do the laundry, for example. Most people will use their weekends or days off to do the cleaning. You need to take into consideration the quantity of people that live in the house and how often you receive visitors; the toilet and kitchen area will need to be cleaned at least twice per week if we are talking about a family with 4 members who spend most of their time in the house.
Once you start cleaning an area, it’s important to finish the cleaning there before starting with other area. Making a calendar could help to keep the house clean; don’t forget to take into consideration when the rubbish needs to be put out or you could receive a fine; you may also need to separate plastics, cardboard and food waste.
Before buying a vacuum cleaner, you will need to considerer different factors: will you only clean tiles or carpets and the size of the space that will be cleaned. Spend some time reading different review before making an investment in a vacuum cleaner; getting the incorrect product could result in a waste of time and money. We recommend that you start cleaning those rooms with carpets that need more attention and then move on to the rooms that have tiles or wood.
Most people forget to wipe the electronics, like the TV, Wifi router, heaters and kitchen electronics. Before cleaning them with a microfiber cloth, make sure that they are turned off to avoid accidents.
One of the most important areas of the kitchen that needs to be cleaned is the fridge. Once per week, empty the fridge for a deep clean. At the same time, you can check the expiration date of the food products you are currently using and throw away those vegetables, fruit or meat that are off.
The best product to use to clean any part of your toilet is vinegar; it’s the best product to descale every week - give a wipe with a vinegar soaked cloth and you will notice the difference in seconds. If you are looking to remove scale that has been there for weeks, we recommend using a limescale removal.
Normally, we only focus on removing the grease from the kitchen, but we shouldn’t forget that there are other areas in the house than can have grease. In your weekly routine, add some cleaning to light switches and door handles, things that we touch every day.
One of the best and oldest tips is using a balled-up newspaper to clean any windows and mirrors; using this paper will help you to look after them without scratching the glass surface.
As we mentioned in our recommendation to clean toilets, one of the best products to use is vinegar, because we can give it different uses, like removing pet odours from carpets. To do this, you will need to fill a bottle with vinegar and spray it on the carpet; after this, cover the area that you are looking to clean with baking soda, and leave it to dry. When it’s dry, vacuum up the excess soda.
Spaces between the floor and the furniture are the most common areas for dust to gather, because we don’t normally clean these areas, as they are difficult to reach. Our advice is to check all these areas every fifteen days; move the furniture if it’s necessary.
As humans, we work with all our senses, one of them being smell. We associate some smells with memories, places and people. To give that final touch to our weekly cleaning, there is nothing better than having some fresh scent; this will help our minds to know when we are home and give a nice touch of cleaning to our house. You can get this in any supermarket or there are shops who only specialise making fresh scents.
After reading Guide to Good Housekeeping’s 14 Top Tips, you will probably ask yourself: “How can I find the perfect Housekeeper for me or my family if I don’t have time to clean my house?”
We truly believe that finding a housekeeper is an important decision. It is not just because you will have to invest some money, but because you will open the door of one of your most important places to someone outside of the family. You are not only looking for someone who will come to clean for a few hours a day, but also for someone who will become part of your family, someone who you will trust to be in your home and help you with any problem that might arise.
You can search for a nanny 1. By yourself, 2. Friend recommendation or 3. Through an Agency.
It’s here where Little Ones comes into the scenario to help you; we are a nanny and domestic staff agency with over 15 years of experience. Our specialist consultants will do their best to match the perfect housekeeper for you and your family. They will introduce you to housekeepers that will tick the majority of the requirements and qualifications that you need the person to have.
Call us for a free consultation, without compromise. Our consultant will be more than happy to assist you to find an amazing housekeeper. For more information about our services, please feel free to contact our direct line 020 7183 0309.
