House Cleaning Tips

Wintertime is just around the corner and it's time to prepare for those cold days and nights and winter snowfalls. For many people winter is a time spent in the warmth of your home gathering with family and friends and enjoying the holiday season . Winter cleaning is basically preparing for the cold weather and is holiday specific. Here is a winter cleaning checklist you can follow to make this upcoming season clean and organized. Cleaning the Chimney This type of home upkeep is just too challenging to be done by yourself, plus the dangers are great if not done correctly. A chimney fire can destroy your home and its entire contents. So before you light your first fire in the hearth, get a professional chimney sweep to inspect your chimney. An expert will check for such things as a buildup of dirt, grime, creosote, and other chemicals that can be a hazard. Don't rely on cleaning logs; they can't do the job a professional can do. If you have a wood stove in your home th...

Up to now, once-a-year cleaning chores had been carried out in the spring. Through the years, I have gradually shifted many of these to the fall. It simply makes more sense. For those who have family or friends over for Thanksgiving or winter holidays, fall is the ideal time to perform these things. It's going to ensure you have a cleaner home and don't wind up putting things off until the last minute. It makes all the holiday seasons a lot less nerve-racking! The Three Big Fall Jobs Clean The Carpets According to carpet industry experts, you should have the carpets professionally cleaned every 6-18 months depending on the traffic in your home. If you do it once a year, fall is the ideal time. Your carpets are going to be beautiful for holiday family get togethers and parties. The majority of carpet cleaning businesses offer a special deal in which they will come back and deal with any stain within so many months of cleaning. If you clean in the fall and one of the kids ...

Upholstered furniture can be very expensive. If you have a couch, chair, loveseat, or other furnishings that is in good condition but just a little dirty, these upholstery cleaning tips will save you time and money. Instead of going out looking for new furniture, you can clean an existing piece of furniture and be absolutely amazed at how incredible it looks. Even aged furniture can benefit from a good cleaning. The main thing with upholstered furniture is choosing the appropriate type of cleaning method. For example, if you have an antique that has hand embroidered upholstery then it would require a different cleaning method than a sofa that was purchased from a store. Here are a number of cleaning tips to make your job easy and get the dirt and stains out. Get the Upholstery Stains Out. Maintaining your furniture is just one aspect of having a clean and happy home. More families are moving away from the dinner table and eating on the sofa dropping bits of food and drinks that le...

Moving is stressful and it’s a crazy time in your life. When you’ve lived in your home for many years you accumulate a lot of things that are personal to you, your grandchildren and children. I have a friend who has been in their home for 13 years and they’re moving to a new state. Thankfully she started packing early because she had collections of cookware, china, stuff for the grandkids, a store worth of furniture, stored items in the shed, and so on. When you move to a new state and you’re starting somewhere fresh, do you really want to bring all that stuff with you? No. You want to go through it first and see what goes, what gets donated, and what goes to family members. Packing Tips The problem is – you really do accumulate too much and because of this you don’t want to start packing a week before you move, start early, and give yourself at least a month so you can work on a little here and a little there. Before you start packing and putting things in boxes ask yourself: What...

What makes it easier for you to clean? What are some of the reasons why you clean? Here’s why I and others in my circle of friends and family clean. This one’s pretty obvious, it just looks better. Dirty dishes piled in the sink look bad and make me tired. Giving the bedroom a quick clean before bed eliminates tripping on the way to the bathroom It’s esthetically pleasing. A clean home smells fresh. I feel more efficient when the house is clean. If friends stop by unexpectedly. I don’t want them knowing my dirty little secrets. If I clean a little every day, and keep on top of it, I don’t have to do a major cleaning very often. (maybe until the holidays roll around.) I don’t like coming home to a messy house. If it’s clean and put away, I can’t break it. Therefore I don’t have to buy it again! I sleep better on clean sheets. I don’t feel stressed out. Company is coming. I've got energy or I'm bored and I don’t want to watch TV. I don't wear shoes in the house. I like knowin...

I have a few grandkids, but with the birth of the last one – cutest granddaughter ever by the way, but then aren’t they all? – it really hit me how important it is I help teach her about cleanliness. Especially now that she’s two, going to daycare, and coming home sick. I’m not a germaphobe but I am more cautious and I do notice how much I’ve stopped putting my hands on my face. I’m one of those when absorbed in working, I lean on an elbow and my face rests in my hand(s), near my mouth (Ick!). When you think about it, who knows what germs are on the surface of the computers keyboard, your cell phone, the loofah you shower with, the razor you shave with, etcetera and so on. Now that its summer (and where I’m at the temperatures have been soaring); I’m sure there are plenty of kids pleading for some pool time, outdoor activities, and other fun stuff. And who are we to spoil their fun and disappoint them? Spoiling the fun or not, here are some things you should be aware of. Its good i...

This post isn’t about cleaning or organizing; it’s more about how I’ve been spending some of my time over the past weekends. Something different to write about but none-the-less – it was fun and enjoyable! Over the past couple of weekends I have been spending some time with a friend making over her daughter’s (I’ll call her Dee) bedroom. The three of us have been putting our heads together to make this a special room, we want it to be something that can grow with her yet easily be changed as she gets older. There were some requests Dee made. She wanted her favorite colors incorporated into the room - a light aqua blue, grey, and pink. She also wants a bright and cheery bedroom to match her personality. Our Plan for Brightening up the Bedroom After much discussion, we decided we would paint the walls, trim, and window sill white. White is a color that will brighten up a room bright. The majority of the color used would be the light blue. We bought blue curtains for the windows that had ...