Keeping the house and garden clean is a collective responsibility of the whole family. It’s always better if all the family members are well aware and active in their efforts to keep the house clean. Since it is a never ending job, you can use all the help you can get from your family members. As parents, you should encourage your children to take certain cleaning tasks and you should assign them small tasks like self cleaning of their own study desk, computers, key boards etc.
You know there are a number of housekeeping and facility management service companies in Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and other cities who offer annual house cleaning service as well as one time deep cleaning or spring cleaning services. It’s okay to engage them for deep cleaning of bathroom, kitchen, carpet or sofa set. But post cleanup, again it’s up to you to keep it clean by occasionally cleaning them yourself. It’s just about a few basic things like keep it clean and clean it every day, alternate day or week and stick to that schedule.
Like during holidays, you can encourage your kids to clean their rooms or their cupboards, switch on their favorite music or get a pack of popcorns and get them started. When they take on cleaning, just don’t forget to shower praises, they will love it and feel like doing it next time as well. Even if the job is not done properly, don’t make them redo it as by doing so you would be killing their enthusiasm. Later when they are in a listening mood you can gently point out the mistakes, so the next time around they can correct themselves. It is better to give the instructions in a friendly tone before they start the job, or to help them do it the first few times until they get the hang of it.
Check these easy to follow house cleaning tips
Important thing to note here is if you take it onto yourself to keep your house clean you can always get it right without lots of efforts. I am sharing a few house cleaning tips to help you get started with cleaning.
Keeping the right pillows or cushions on your couch
Use only those cushions that make you more comfortable. Groups of decorative pillows can sometime become a hiding place for TV remotes, mobile phones and other small items.
Cleaning the dresser tops
There are certain items best suited for the top of the dresser. Cosmetics may be essential if you do your makeup in a mirror over the dresser. An heirloom jewelry box can be used to be displayed on the dresser, and provides a place for your accessories. Whatever is on top of the dresser should be self-contained to prevent them from getting misplaced.
Keeping keys from getting lost
Keep your keys from getting lost by giving them a specific place where they go the minute you walk inside the door. You can just mount a hook for the keys on a wall or other nearby surface where you can reach them easily. If you have multiple sets of keys — including backup sets of your house keys, garage keys, car or bike keys, gate keys etc — keep them all in the same place.
Dealing with toys and other items
If you have kids at home you can’t tell them to stop playing with their toys and they will always leave toys anywhere they please. So to avoid running up and down the stairs or around you’re house all day, you can leave a basket at the foot of the stairs or some fixed place and toss in any toy or miscellaneous items that were brought downstairs or thrown across the floor during the day. Then you can go and dump all those stuffs at once.
Avoid clutters in your house
Capture your cords with a cord organizer or a simple rubber band. There are two types: flexible tubes that keep the cords concealed so you can run a bundle of cords wherever they need to go and rigid cord “channels” that also contain all your cords in one outer shell.
Removing pet hair
Many of us have pets at home and we cannot help cleaning the mess created by them as they are also like our family whom we have to take care of. Generally we have to deal with pet hair spilled all over our house. The easiest way is to pick them up by putting a wet rubber dishwashing glove and wipe your hand over the surfaces. The hair will stick right to it and you can easily get rid of them.
Reusing old cloths and rags for cleaning
You can wear an old, unmatched sock on your hand while dusting the house. Run your hand along chair rails, crown moldings, and doors until the sock is dusty enough to be discarded or wash and reuse.
Cleaning mirror
Mirror in your bedroom or bathroom should be cleaned literally everyday because you don’t want to look at the mirror which not clean. Use old newspaper instead of using towels or other relevant cloths to clean mirrors and windows. They work great, and you are recycling or you can use those common cleansers.
Removing unwanted stickers
To remove stubborn price tags from items like dishes and glassware, you can use a cotton pad or Q-tip soaked with rubbing alcohol. The alcohol dissolves the sticky glue and doesn’t mess up the manicure. Encourage your kids to remove stickers of cartoon like cartoon characters on their desk using cleansers.
Removing wax spills
To remove hardened wax from fabrics, place a paper towel or a brown paper bag on top of the wax and press with an iron on low heat. The paper absorbs the wax, and your iron stays clean.
Over to you
As I said it’s not a onetime affair, if you want to leave in healthy, hygienic and a clean house, you have to take on house cleaning as a collective responsibility and clean your house every now and then. It’s just okay to hire a professional house cleaning company to help you with deep cleaning or spring cleaning, but unless you take it seriously, it won’t be of much use.
