Everyone has unique criteria as to what makes a home pleasant. However, everyone can agree that cleanliness, orderliness, and lack of pests are non-negotiables. Thankfully, there are several cleaning hacks you can try to achieve such. Learn how to keep your house clean for a more comfortable living environment.
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Top House Cleaning Tips
1. Have a trash bin in each room and for a specific set of waste.
The first step on how to keep your house clean is minding your trash. Instead of leaving it lying around, drop it in a bin immediately. To help you master CLAYGO or clean as you go, put a trash bin in every room where you tend to accumulate clutter.
But don’t just stop at that. Designate a certain trash bin for a specific set of waste in your kitchen and yard. For your yard, you can have three bins and classify them for compostable waste, plastic bottles, and glass. For your kitchen, you can separate compostable waste, food packaging materials, and empty containers.
This simplifies segregation for your garbage collection day. At the same time, this lessens the risk of cross-contamination.
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2. Make sure trash bins are lined and covered.
Your trash bins may become the target of pests if they’re left open and unclean. Moreover, unpleasant odor may come out from the trash collected therein. To prevent these, line your waste bins with garbage bags or plastic bags. Secure their lids as well.
3. Before tossing out bottles, cups, and other liquid-filled containers, empty their contents first.
Just because they’re trash doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay attention as to how you dispose them. In addition to collection and segregation, you should mind how you toss trash like empty containers into the bin.
Spills may attract ants and mold. Their stains are unsightly as well. As such, you should get rid of as much liquid as possible when throwing away bottles, cups, and other containers. This extends to personal care products like shampoo, lotion, and liquid soap.
4. Avoid accumulating paper clutter.
Paper is one of the things that termites target in a house. Like wood, paper has cellulose which the aforementioned bugs love to eat.
Limiting paper at home is one of the house cleaning tips for preventing fire as well. Sell or donate old newspaper, magazine, and books. Save receipts for items that still have warranty and for the things you’ve bought within the month; throw away the rest. It also helps to double check your file before printing.
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5. Fix plumbing issues as soon as possible.
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Plumbing problems like broken pipes and clogged drains will make surrounding areas moist. When left broken even for a few days, you can expect mold to grow therein.
Faulty plumbing is likely to cause nasty smells, too. However, the worst thing it could do is trigger contamination.
If you encounter a plumbing problem, call for a plumber as soon as possible. Be on the lookout for early signs as well. These include strange noises from the pipes, slow-draining sinks, and stains on the wall or floor near the plumbing system.
6. Disinfect.
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A list of house cleaning tips won’t be complete without disinfecting. You can concoct your own cleaning solution that has anti-bacterial properties. You can tap ingredients like lemon, baking soda, and vinegar. Another option is to buy a disinfectant spray.
7. Cultivate air-purifying plants in your home.
Indoor plants are so in these days. Apart from conforming to the trend, air purification is another reason to bring home potted greens. Chinese evergreen, areca palm, and weeping fig are some of the best plants for such purpose.
8. Light a scented candle.
This is one of the quickest ways to make a room smell nice. There are many scents you can choose from, but if you don’t want to entice pests, stick to floral essences. Among fruit essences, citrus is your best choice.
9. Wash curtains and mantels regularly.
You don’t have to read about how to keep your house clean to know that washing your clothes, towels and beddings are a must-do. You don’t really need a reminder when you can smell these as you wear, use, and sleep on them, respectively. But what about the other fabrics in your place?
Curtains are prone to mold when moist after getting rained on. Mantels may also get wet due to spills from meals and drinks. To prevent mold from attaching therein, wash those fabrics at least once every two weeks.
10. Store and display food properly.
Food waste is among the potential source of unpleasant odors in the house and a risk factor for pest infestation. It should be a no-brainer to count proper food storage as one of house cleaning tips.
You can refrigerate most kinds of produce, but make sure they are still properly segregated inside the fridge. Fresh and processed meat should be on the freezer. For at least twice a week, check your fridge’s contents to ensure that nothing’s rotten. You should also toss out leftovers that have been there for more than 3 days.
For canned goods, you can store them on your cupboards. You can display your go-to spices and condiments and keep the remainder in your kitchen cabinets. Whether they’re on countertops, shelves, or fridge, go over the expiration dates of your goods. Get rid of expired ones.
If you’re going to display fruits on your dining table or countertop, make sure you only have one kind of fruit to feature. Don’t mix different ones as they might become more prone to rotting. This is due to ethylene. Fruits like apples, bananas, and mangoes are ethylene producers so it’s best to consume them immediately and avoid storing them with other produce.
11. Clean up right after you eat.
Photo by Skitterphoto from Pixabay
Washing dining and cooking wares right after a meal doesn’t sound pleasant at all. However, this practice prevents you from accumulating a pile of dishes. Aside from this, there aren’t many cleaning hacks related to dishwashing. Perhaps, you might want to invest in a dishwasher or use few items to spare yourself from this daunting chore.
12. Take advantage of citrus.
Photo by Monika Grabkowska from Unsplash
Sometimes, the secret on how to make your room smell good is just on your kitchen counter or dining table. Whether it’s calamansi, lemon, or any other citrus fruit, you can tap it for sanitizing and deodorizing.
With a slice of calamansi, you can get rid of unpleasant odors inside your fridge. Using lemon juice, vinegar, and water solution, you can tidy up glass surfaces. Even citrus leaves are a good deodorizer for your feline’s litter box. To counter the nasty smell in your bathroom trash bins, you may even put orange peelings.
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13. As much as possible, clean your footwear after each use or at night.
You don’t have to scrub and wash your shoes every day especially if you just went to the office. It’s enough to shake off as much dirt as possible on your doormat. There should also be a cloth on your shoe rack near your doorway. This way, you can clean up if your shoes are wet and muddy once you arrived home.
14. Get a carpet cleaner for your carpets, mats, and rugs. If much of your floor area is covered in carpets, you might want to hire instead.
Stepping on carpeted floors feels nice; cleansing them is an entirely different story. Vacuuming seems an enough way on how to keep your house clean. But more often than not, it only sucks surface dust.
A carpet cleaner is the most advisable tool for cleaning the said items. Unlike a regular vacuum cleaner, a carpet cleaner lets you apply shampoo and rinse off your carpets, mats, and rugs. If the majority of your floor area is carpeted, it’s better to hire instead. That way, you don’t have to manage the disposal of dirty water.
15. Dispose fabrics and any other items that have been severely damaged by mold, mildew, and other pests.
Some damaged items aren’t worth saving. Moreover, if these remain in your home, they may further spread mold spores. Additionally, the pest droppings in them may cause contamination. As always, one good solution on how to keep your house clean is to eliminate dirty and useless items.
16. Hire pest removal service for severe termite and rat infestations.
Termites and rats are notorious for causing structural damage to a home. Aside from that, they can also ravage documents, clothes and furniture. Rat infestation increases the risk for leptospirosis, too. What makes matters worse is that these pests aren’t easy to deal with.
You can place mouse traps or spray termite killers if there aren’t any sign of extensive infestation. It’s also best to remove and replace wooden parts that were ruined by termites or other wood-boring bugs. This way, the unharmed eggs within won’t have a chance to hatch and wreak havoc on wood, paper, and fabrics inside the house. You won’t have to collect dirt over again as well.
But if there are signs of pests in many rooms or in a large area in your home, the best thing to do is to seek professionals. Pest removal service is also advisable if you have many dogs or cats in the house that you won’t want to get stuck on mouse traps.
17. Use a dehumidifier and/or install exhaust fans in poorly ventilated areas.
Mold and mildew thrive in areas with high humidity and poor ventilation. Dehumidifiers and exhaust fans are there to deal with the said conditions.
While a dehumidifier is mainly for reducing humidity levels, it can also serve as a solution on how to make your room smell good. For a more long-lasting remedy, you can install exhaust fans for poorly ventilated rooms like basement and attic.
18. Mold may thrive under the sink and on the laundry area so clean these on a regular basis.
Open up these places at least
once or twice a month to clean them up and ventilate them. Using a flashlight,
inspect the nooks therein. Observe the pipes under the sink as well. Mold may
come out as black spots on the pipes’ joints so watch out for these. You can
scrub this off using baking soda and rinse it off.
19. Maintain organized storage spaces.
Cleaning hacks cover maintaining orderliness in your storage spaces. After all, messy nooks are potential breeding ground or hiding spot for pests.
20. Take care of your roof.
Your roof is your foremost protection against rains. Make sure it’s sturdy enough to withstand an upcoming storm by having it professionally inspected at least once a year, ideally before the monsoon season. During and after a storm, observe your ceiling or attic. Look for holes or water stains. Get those damages fixed as soon as possible.
Roof care is essential in your home’s cleanliness as it shields you from droppings, falling debris, and outdoor dust. Aside from that, it minimizes the risk of moisture buildup in the roofing system. This further prevents corrosion of the nails and other metals therein. For the wooden parts, minimal moisture means less likelihood for wood rot and wood-boring pests.
You may be wondering how do you keep your house clean without spending much time, money, and effort. You can start by buying less, reusing items, and opting for organic. Cleaning as you go and fixing problems as soon as spot the early signs are also better than dealing with piles of uncleaned things, severe damages, and costly repairs.
Keep in mind that your surroundings also matter, especially in preventing pest infestations. For this, you and your neighbors must cooperate with each other and with the local authorities.
The cleanliness and orderliness of the home should also be extended in the community. In Lessandra, the neighborhood is kept clean and orderly through the property manager. Residents and homeowners are assured of a maaliwalas surroundings when they step out of their homes.
In a Lessandra community, there isn’t much trouble maintaining cleanliness and orderliness of the environment. Get to know our housing options to discover the place that you’ll love to take care of.
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