How to Clean Your Home Like a Professional Housekeeper
There will come a time in your life when you look around your home and decide that you need professional intervention for the mess you have created or accumulated over many, many years of ignoring the concept of deep cleaning. Here’s how to avoid it.
Reddit Experts
A Reddit thread started by u / mature-sensible-name asked a mature, sane question . What do the professional cleaners at AskReddit say are the most overlooked? Where is the dirt ?
The list of things we’re overlooking is long: baseboard, microwave, light switches, doorknobs, dish drainer, sink and bathtub taps, sink, toilet paper holder, shower curtain – even the blade of your can opener. In this list of disgusting household items, we find some very helpful tips on how to clean them.
How to clean your shower curtains , from u / Jules6146 :
Place two or three old towels along with your shower curtain in a delicate setting with warm or cold water. (You need medium spin, usually for delicacies.)
A terry cloth towel helps “clean” the plastic curtain. MUCH better than washing your shower curtain separately, and the towels also help balance the load so you don’t damage your washing machine.
Use the usual amount of detergent for a medium load. If the towels are white, I add a little bleach to remove mildew from the curtain.
I hang it back into the shower to dry, and I point a fan at it to dry.
How to remove crusty, running microwaves from u / freudian_nipslip :
If anyone is wondering how to clean the microwave: Take a bowl and add one part white vinegar and one part water. Place in the microwave for a few minutes until it boils. Wait a minute to avoid scalding yourself, then remove the bowl and dry the microwave with paper towels or something. Repeat as necessary. The steam and acid will soften caked food splashes and other debris and it will simply rinse off.
The redditor added that you don’t want the water to heat above its boiling point, and usually 1-2 minutes is enough. For added safety, toss a toothpick or lemon slice into the liquid so that it breaks and isn’t hit by the blast of hot steam. It totally works!
Most of the advice on the Reddit thread is as simple as “cleanliness,” which obviously isn’t a sufficient guide for many of us. That’s when you stop reading a pro’s advice and hire a real professional to criticize your filth. I spoke to Maria Leal, a professional cleaner, and Evan Burke, a cleaner-turned-cleaner, that they noticed customers neglecting cleaning and asked them what people should know before hiring someone to come and clean …
Top down
Burke wrote in an email that people mostly clean only at eye level, so their apartments are “average up to 6 feet and taller like your grandmother’s basement.” Plus, there is gravity, so if you’re trying to cover everything, start as high as possible.
“First clean the ceiling fans and the top of the shelves,” he writes. “Then keep going down, otherwise you could cover dust and debris in the areas you just cleaned. It sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t. “
Little maintenance counts
Leal told Lifehacker that one of her loyal clients basically gets her to do what she thinks “decorate” the place. She vacuums, dusts and lights up the bathroom. Since she walks weekly, things never get to such an emergency and she gets through quickly. Set aside an hour a week for decorating and you can maintain your space fairly easily.
Burke agrees, saying many of his clients are often worried about time (cost). Do some of these home / toilet jobs yourself, because “every now and then a little scrub with a brush is better than paying someone to pick the crusted shit off the toilet literally every six months.”
Prepare your supplies
Leal says that she often has problems with clients, she does not have everything she needs, despite the fact that they say that she does. They want the exact products they like but never get them.
“You get there and he’s not ready, and that slows things down,” she says.
Now think how much it slows you down when you finally get ready to mop and you run out of Mr. Wedge. Okay, you better watch TV!
Choosing accessories that smell good or you like is another way to get yourself to clean regularly. You don’t want (even more) if your entire house smells like a high school cafeteria after you graduate. Add what you like to your shopping list and be sure to mark it off when shopping, as you do with potato chips.
Develop a strategy
A weekly service is fine, but it gets even easier if you prepare and plan.
“Tidying up and tidying up is considered hard work, but getting it done well is physically challenging and requires a lot of planning,” says Burke.
Develop a strategy. Think of it as a big gamble, but you are given to cleanliness. And remember that there is something going on behind items like refrigerators, bookshelves, and other heavy furniture that can contribute to an overall damp feeling in your apartment, even if you can’t see it. Burke recommends moving everything away from the walls and sweeping it back. One final tip: When it comes down to it, it’s worth hiring someone to do a thorough cleaning from time to time.