Timesaving Tips From Professional House Cleaners
Skip seldom-used rooms—this time around
For most households, says Brown, an every-other-week cleaning schedule is enough. “After all, you’re still going to wipe down counters after dinner every night, right?” she asks. But some chores need only be done monthly. Her team at Harmony Clean divides less-frequent tasks between the first and second clean of the month. They clean first-floor baseboards and ceilings in one visit, and tackle the second floor in the next. Likewise with seldom-used guest bedrooms or formal living rooms.
Give your vacuum a tune-up
Canister, upright, bagless, bagged—use whatever suits your preference and floor surface, but keep your vacuum well maintained for maximum suction power and efficiency. Every month, Brown suggests, change disposable bags, wipe the inside and bottom of the machine, and clean out the rotating brush (you know, the part that attracts and tangles hair). Then get it serviced by a professional yearly. “Once a year I drop off my vacuum at the local repair store before we go on vacation,” Brown says. “Then I pick it up when we get back.”
Shake crumbs on the floor
…and dust, and pet hair. Follow the top-to-bottom rule of cleaning every room, and knock dust and debris from curtains, bookshelves, lampshades and mantles onto the floor as you work your way down, says Reichert, then vacuum it up after. You’ll clean faster if you don’t have to worry where the dust goes, and as long as you have a good vacuum—preferably one with a HEPA filter—Reichert promises you’ll suck it all up in the end.
Steam your microwave
Maybe you took a cleaning break to heat up some tea. Maybe you always check the microwave on your kitchen-cleaning circuit. Either way, you’ve opened the door and now it’s impossible to un-see the baked-on food splatters on the walls, ceiling, and floor of this appliance. Don’t stress; follow Lane’s trick: Fill a mug or measuring cup with water and microwave for 2-3 minutes, so it gets nice and steamy. The steam will soften the residue, making the wipe-down easier. (Now go enjoy your Earl Grey.)
Develop a squeegee habit
Show of hands: Who enjoys cleaning the tub and shower? Thought so. The easiest way to reduce the frequency of this much-loathed chore is to buy a squeegee and encourage everyone in the house to use it after a shower or bath, says Lane. Wipe the walls (top to bottom), the sides of the tub—even the floor itself (send the water straight toward the drain). Soap and shampoo residue will be washed away with the water, rather than evaporating and leaving a film on your porcelain or stone. Stick with this habit and you can get away with cleaning the tub and shower just once a month. You’re welcome.
Clever Cleaning Hacks from Professional Housecleaners
Clean the toilet daily
If you swish your toilet every day with your cleaning brush, you’ll keep it relatively clean without a ton of hard labor. Use the water already in the toilet to swish the entire toilet bowl. Your bathroom probably gets dirtiest the fastest and is the hardest to clean. By the way, these everyday items are dirtier than your toilet seat!
Cleaning solutions
Want to know the secret to streak-free mirrors and windows? Well, it’s an easy at-home solution you can make yourself. According to Rapinchuk, all you need is:
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons rubbing alcohol
3 drops peppermint essential oil
Washing windows and mirrors is probably the least favorite cleaning tasks. These clever solutions will work for even the most annoying cleaning problems.
Use your dishwasher
Dishwashers are for so much more than just washing dishes. Reichert recommends using yours to dust off knickknacks like mason jars and glass candle globes. Pretty much anything glass or ceramic should be fine going in the dishwasher, but you do want to stay away from putting meltable plastics, and these eight objects in your dishwasher at all costs.
Create a cleaning plan
We all have those random cleaning bursts, but having a plan beforehand will make your cleaning process smoother. “Cleaning is really like a dance. You start high, work down and around, and carefully observe anything that needs attention,” says McGee. “As you move around, wipe light switches, door frames, baseboards, walls, working in a circle around a room and not back and forth from one thing across the room to another. Don’t get distracted, keep a smooth motion around your home.”
A pillowcase can be a cleaner
Obviously, you don’t want to use the pillowcase you sleep on every night, but using a pillowcase to clean your ceiling fans is a hack that you need to try ASAP. “The pillowcase holds the dust so it doesn’t fall on a table or bed,” says Reichert. “A very clean way to dust a fan.” Here are 11 brilliant cleaning shortcuts lazy people will appreciate.
Fast House Cleaning Tips
Make cleaning a group activity
Making cleaning a team effort is one of the best ways to clean a house fast. Schedule a time in advance with your family, and assign tasks to each person. Working together can add some fun to cleaning, and your house will be sparkling in no time.
Don’t forget to routinely wash your cleaning tools
An often overlooked part of cleaning the house is maintaining your cleaning tools. Using a dirty mop or a vacuum with a full bag is much less effective, and you’ll end up spending more time trying to clean.
Keep moving when you vacuum
Don’t worry about getting every nook and cranny when you vacuum. Just keep moving through the house, running the vacuum in every carpeted room in one pass through.
Sweep, then mop
Sweep the kitchen and bathroom floors. Start mopping from the farthest corner of the room and move backwards towards the doorway (that is, don’t mop yourself into a corner). Rinse the mop every time you complete a 4-by-4-foot area.
Focus on tubs, sinks and toilets
Spray cleaner on the kitchen sink then on bathroom sinks, tubs and toilets. Let it sit for a few minutes so the cleaner has time to dissolve dirt and stains. Then return to the kitchen and start scrubbing. Don’t forget to wipe down the inside of the microwave. Clean toilets last.
Natural Ways to Make Your Home Smell Amazing
Cranberry-Orange Stove-Top Potpourri
Pantry items can be used to make all sorts of stove-top potpourris. But this cranberry-orange potpourri with cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and rosemary gives a cozy and warm Christmas scent.
Cinnamon-Orange Air Freshener
Not a fan of smoky candles? Then this cinnamon-orange air freshener is for you. Made with water-absorbing polymer, cinnamon oil, orange oil, and water, this air freshener will have your house smelling like fall in no time.
Plug-In Refill
Don’t throw out your empty plug-in air fresheners. Instead, save some money and reuse the glass plug-in container. All you’ll need is some essential oil and water.
Spring Simmering Pot Recipes
Simmering pot recipes are a natural way to add fragrance to your home. These premade spring simmering pot recipes are perfect for gift-giving. Or you could make some for yourself to have on hand.
Rosemary and Lavender Carpet Powder
Freshen your carpets naturally with this rosemary and lavender carpet powder. Just sprinkle the mixture of baking soda, dried rosemary, and lavender oil on your carpets, let it sit for 15-20 minutes, and vacuum it up for a fresh-smelling room.
Benefits of Hiring a Professional House Cleaning Service
Attracts New Customers
If you’re a landlord looking to put you houses on renting lists and attracting new customers, keeping a full tract record and cleaning every house manually isn’t beneficial for you at all.
You can try hiring a professional service of house cleaning in Denver and other surrounding areas by a reputable company to keep your houses cleaned. This will help you attract more customers, and you’ll be earning a lot more that expected due to the cleanliness of your houses. Well maintained houses also sell fast, and they often win a biggest price tag, because the buyer usually overestimates a well-maintained property and bids a high price. So, you better be hiring someone professional and well trained to take care of your property, and increase its value at the same time.
Less Insurance Disputes
Most of the landlords these days get their property completely insured before renting it to someone else, that is why if your make any mistake during the cleaning work, you might be paying him big bucks.
Professional cleaning service providers are usually well aware of these possibilities, and they are well trained to avoid them. However, if your cleaning provider dies any mistake to incur an insurance dispute, they’ll be fully responsible for that (but this must be mentioned in the contract to be viable).
Can Save You a Lot of Money
When you’re cleaning the house yourself, there are certain things that you’ll need to buy in the process, but they’re useless for you afterwards. That is where the cleaning service can save you a lot of money, because they usually have all the requisite material, machines and tools to finish the job neatly.
There is another area where these cleaning services can save you some bucks. If you’re moving out of a rental property, there’s a big chance that your landlord would inspect the quality and cleanliness of you home. He might hire a cleaning service himself, get the house cleaned and cut the charges from your advance deposit amount if he finds the house dirty. That is why it is advised to hire the service yourself and avoid the charges.
Get The Unreachable Places Cleaned
Most of the times when we decide to do the house cleaning job ourselves instead of hiring the professionals, we end up leaving the dirtiest parts of house that are often unreachable, or simply out of your eye sight.
A major benefit of the professional house cleaning services is that they know about those dirty unreachable areas, and have all the required equipment to clean them down to the last inch. So, you must hire a professional to clean the mentioned areas at least every three months to keep the environment hygienic.
Increases Your Productivity
Getting the cleaning responsibility out of the way gives you a mental clarity, and allows you to just focus on the things you need to take care of. Increased productivity enables you to focus on bigger goals and the things you want to accomplish in your life, rather than freaking out about smaller tasks as a cleaning service.
Getting this distraction out of the way and handling the work to some of the most trained and skillful professionals in the industry gives you the much-needed peace of mind, and focuses your mind on more significant tasks ahead.