Christmas And Cleaning – And Why It Works

Wait, what?! Cleaning on Christmas? Isn’t that the time of the year when you are supposed to put your feet on the couch, make yourself a hot cup of cappuccino, and enjoy a well-earned rest? I must have lost my mind! 

And yet, I have found, to my surprise, that those two things work surprisingly well. You must be thinking that I am something of a Grinch and don’t like the holidays. While I admit that I am not into the whole festive bruhaha, giving and receiving gifts and gathering the entire family around the table is a pretty special occasion.

The Two Types Of Christmas Cleaning

So how does cleaning fit into the picture? First, I will have to define the two types of Christmas cleaning and how you can approach them most effectively. Of course, there is the inevitable post-dinner doing of the dishes, sweeping the food leftovers, and dealing with the occasional stain or two. On Boxing Day, you will have a lot of gift wrapping flying all over the floor, and God knows what else – depending on the presents. While these chores are tiresome and time-consuming, they are also mundane, and you should be able to deal with them in a couple of hours. Moreover, unless you are celebrating in someone else’s house, they are inevitable – so no matter how much you detest them, put your big-girl pants on and get to work.

The second type of Christmas cleaning, however, is more interesting and will be the main topic of this post. It is the kind of housekeeping tour de force that you usually do in the spring or whenever you get the inspiration for it. I am talking about a thorough and detailed cleaning of as many rooms in the house as you can get your hands on – the more, the better.

Why Cleaning During The Holidays Works For My Family

Before I go on, I must admit a couple of peculiar points concerning my family. First, what is the point of cleaning around Christmas if you throw a big New Years party, you may ask? Well, we rarely celebrate New Year’s Eve at home – we either go to my husband’s or my parents’ house and have a nice meal with a few family friends and close relatives, or we decide to book a guest house with a couple of other families, and we leave London. 

Second, the idea of doing anything related to housekeeping around the Holidays if you have small kids in the household is ludicrous. It is the most special time of the year for young children, and you do not want to miss the chance to spend every minute you can spare with them. However, my kids are already teenagers, and the least appealing prospect is to spend the whole day with their inquisitive mom. Gosh, even convincing them to sit still and without their phones during the Christmas Eve meal is a tremendous feat! They are usually out with their friends or in the living room, plugged into their smartphone world of social media and games. 

Cleaning Tour de Force – Roll Up The Sleeves

So I have the whole house for myself – my husband tactfully retreats in the living-room, and spends most of the day in front of the telly (fine by me). Since it’s Christmas and there is not much else to do, putting the place in order sounds like a decent enough job. Think about it – the gift buying is over, the cacophony of preparing the Christmas meal is behind you, and most of your friends have some other plans for the day. Besides, when will you have so much free time and lack other duties again? 

Now that you have set your mind on the job, do not waver or procrastinate. It would be a good idea to make sure nothing surprising would spring out of the open – like your sister dropping by for a quick visit. Clean quickly and decisively, and use as much of your initial energy before it wears off. My tip is to start from the most challenging room in the house – in my case, it is the bathroom. I do not believe in making lists of tasks – as if I do not know my home well enough so that I need a reminder of what to clean.

If all this sounds like an unbearable hassle and the most abhorring way to spend Christmas, I will give you the perfect alternative. A good friend of mine who lives in Fulham mentioned a great deal she found on the Internet. Apparently, a local company has come up with a special one-off house cleaning holiday deal that offers some excellent discounts. What can I say – some people will always look for the easy way out, LOL!

Some Words For The Way We Have To Maintain Household Cleaning Tools

Clean status of your property depends on the way you keep the tools for washing surfaces and appliances. One of the essential household habits must be their proper and frequent thorough care. Only then you can maintain the entire home clean and fresh.

How to Maintain Your Favourite and So Practical Broom?

The necessary steps are:

– to remove at first all of the residues among the fibres;

– to comb them.

Remember to rinse it always after each use. Soak it in soapy water every month and then let it dry in an upright position.

Take Care of the Cotton Mops After Each Usage

They will be in tip-top shape. You can saturate them in hot water, vinegar and a drop of liquid detergent. Once every two months, you may use bleach to disinfect them thoroughly.

Sponges Are Useful and Comfortable Home Cleaning Tools

Unfortunately, if we neglect their condition, can collect a considerable amount of grime, crumbs and other pathogens. Because of the constant humidity, they may contain mildew spores. Wash regularly with mild soap. Disinfect in the dishwasher and hang them to dry.

If you maintain and store household washing instruments properly, they will save your time, efforts and money and return the favour.

Why Is My House Always Dusty? A Professional Cleaner Answers

“I do the vacuum cleaning at least once per week, I polish all surfaces, and keep the windows open as often and long as the weather permits. So why is my house always dirty?!” I have heard the question countless times from exasperated homeowners who do not know that they do wrong. More often than not, you do nothing wrong – however, there are reasons beyond your control that let dust accumulate despite your best efforts. 

What Is Your Type Of Residence?

If you live in a modern apartment on the 10th floor of a high-rise residential building, it is doubtful that you will ever face a severe dust problem. If you live in a Victorian terraced house in Chelsea, however, the issue will persist no matter what you do. Older houses “produce” more dust for several reasons. They are built of wood, brick and mortar and not concrete; there is more hollow space between the floors, which is a perfect depot for any type of home residue; the window sills are usually made of wood, which cannot provide the level of insolation that a double PVC window frame brings. 

Such houses possess incomparable style, atmosphere, warmth, and personal character – unlike the somewhat sterilised uniformity of modern architecture. These advantages come at a price, though – anybody who has lived in an older residence will attest that its maintenance is more challenging and requires more time and effort. However, there are a few things that you can check if you notice an increase in the levels of dust. It may be a sign of termite infestation or some other bug that has fallen in love with the carpentry at home. Also, if you have a fireplace and burn real wood (not the decorative electronic or gas ones), you should not be surprised by the abundance of soot and ash around it.

Where Is Your Location?

I have served homeowners all around London and the suburban belt throughout my long years in the house cleaning business. Let me start with an absolute rule – the closer your home is to ground level, the more dust it will accumulate. The easiest places to clean in my experience are upper-floor apartments – the street dirt cannot reach them, and though you may find it ridiculous, the wind draft keeps the air cleaner 60 or 80 feet above the ground (not to mention even bigger heights).

I call this “the relative location rule”, but there is also an absolute one. Nobody can convince me that street traffic does not directly correlate to dust accumulation levels at home. In other words, you are much more likely to vacuum and polish to oblivion with no visible results in Central London or busy areas like Kensington and Hammersmith than in green suburbs like Hampstead or Richmond. How close is your house located to major thoroughfares or transportation hubs? And even more important – is there a sizeable active construction site nearby? You don’t have to be a cleaning specialist to imagine the negative effect of construction debris on the air in the immediate vicinity.

Taken individually, none of these characteristics should be of decisive importance. When you combine them all, however, the picture becomes a bit too bleak. And when you think about it, the busiest London areas usually have the most traffic and the greatest number of building sites – something of a perfect dust storm. 

Is It Just Me, Or Is There More Dust At Home During The Winter? 

No, you are not going insane. In many houses I clean, you can notice a visible increase in the dust accumulation during the cold months of the year. There are two possible explanations – one offers an easy solution, the other a more difficult one. The first explanation is that many people do not ventilate their residence enough. You have to turn off the AC and open your windows for at least fifteen to twenty minutes early in the morning when the air outside is the cleanest. It is the doctors’ first advice to people with chronic respiratory problems – and whatever works for your lungs will work for the rooms too.

Speaking of air conditioners, they are the most common culprit in dust accumulation during the winter. Their filters attract huge amounts of it and then blast it back in the air circulation. What sounds like a serious problem has a very straightforward solution. AC filters are elementary to remove – open the front panel of the interior body and carefully take them down. Use your shower head to rinse them profusely with water and allow up to two hours for them to dry. You should repeat the procedure at least once per month – even more often if you live in an older house (check the first point). 

Vacuum Cleaning Is No Longer Effective. What Am I Doing Wrong? 

If you do the exact same thing but get different results, you should first check your equipment. Surprisingly many people take their vacuum cleaners for granted. But you should never forget they are just electric appliances and as such have a certain lifespan of efficiency. The more you employ them, the worse they will function – and it is perfectly OK. 

If your vacuum cleaner is relatively new, however, there are a couple of things you should check. First, make sure the dust filter is correctly placed inside the appliance – it sometimes gets loose, and the cleaning capacity deteriorates. Second, clean the dust bag after every vacuuming. Suppose you procrastinate and do it every two or three times. In that case, dirt will accumulate surprisingly quickly in the interior panels and instead of cleaning, you will be redistributing the dust all over your home.

These are just the most common reasons for increased dust accumulation in your house. It might be one or a combination of them – but if you tackle them all, you will likely achieve impressive results in a few weeks’ time!