A Comprehensive Guide to House Cleaning in Melbourne

Most of you struggle daily in keeping our houses clean. Sometimes you are addicted to clean our homes regularly no matter how busy we are. You find it difficult sometimes to manage everything on our own.  There are different key factors which may include the tasks at home complicated. One of them is the kids. Sometimes lack of time and poor time management skills creates troubles in prioritising out our functions. Wouldn’t it be great to have some cleaning guide to direct you?

Apart from cleaning the houses regularly, you can stick to other comfortable and flexible plans too. More important is doing the right job at the perfect time for the ideal need to gain excellent results. This can be done promptly: daily, weekly, monthly or annually.

Some quick tips for getting started: 

• Check the already available cleaning products at home. Use them up. If appropriate, follow the safe disposal methods.  

• Organised the cleaning tasks. Collect all of the supplies available. Test tools, techniques and products in a small safety area to see the outcome of the results. Whether they are satisfactory or not.

• Keep the hazardous chemicals away from children and pets. Maintain a secure storage place for daily use.

Important Fact 

• Practice the habit of cleaning the house frequently. It may take only less effort as regular cleaning helps in removal of dirt, dust, harmful bacteria and mold from getting accumulated and grown. This also limits the pests such as ants, cockroaches and mites.
• Do not mix cleaning products and tools. Maintain them separately for kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms and floor areas.
• Wash the rags, sponges and brushes at- least once a week to keep away from bacteria. It is essential to keep them clean and dry.

Things to Remember:

• Frequently you may wash dishes, clean kitchen sink areas, counters, stovetops, wipe showers and taps after each use, sweep floors, vacuum carpets.
• Regularly you may clean hard surfaces of the floors, remove dust on furniture, clean the bathroom sink, bathtubs, shower and toilets.
• Occasionally clean the windows, clean the refrigerator, kitchen cabinets, pantry, garbage cans and oven.
• Immediately you may clean up spills. Use a sponge or a cloth to absorb spills on carpets, cushions, rugs and furniture. Later swap or wipe the spill with a damp cloth.

COMPREHENSIVE TIME-BASED HOUSE CLEANING STEPS 

You may require an average time frame of 15 -30 minutes. However, the size of the house and household will determine the time taken. Cleaning on a daily routine will help you to maintain order and cleanliness in your home. Here are some cleaning matters which you need to address daily no issue what comes first:

• Wash the dishes – to get rid of a cluttered sink
• Wipe down the kitchen tables and counters – keep bacteria away using a cleaning agent with disinfecting properties.
• Disinfect the cleaning tools (Sponges) – spray with a bleach solution or anti-bacterial agent
• Sweep the kitchen floor – remove the dust and visible debris
• Clean the toilets – use bowl cleaner to get under the inner ledge of the toilet bowl, and scrub it down using the toilet brush.
• Clean the showers and taps – if it’s a stall shower, use a squeegee to remove the moisture from shower doors and walls. If you have a bathtub and shower curtain set up, use a clean cloth to wipe down the walls and basins.

Quickly go for daily chores. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 

Your Weekly Chores

Apart from daily chores, it is essential to set some time once a week to give more time for cleaning a full area. This may be a tough cleaning yet worth the chores.

• Do laundry – Do not wait till baskets get to fill up. Make room for clean laundry piling up in baskets.

• Change your beddings- Remove the pillowcases and run a through the laundry. Regular cleaning and changing of linens will keep dust, dirt, mites making a living under your mattresses and bedcovers.
• Clean all kitchen appliances – wipe them with a safe cleaning product.
• Clean bathrooms thoroughly – clean all surfaces of the toilet and disinfect once a week.
• Remove dust – seven days is enough time for the dust to get accumulated on furniture and other surfaces.    Clean with a light moistened the soft cloth.
• Vacuum the floor and – vacuuming the floor and rugs helps in removal of dust and mites from home.

Your Monthly Chores

This kind of cleaning is not necessary for following days, however crucial at least to conduct once a month. This will ease off your stress in cleaning.

• Clean the interior of the appliances and furniture (accessible areas) – dishwasher, washing machine, microwave, oven.  Refer to the guide provided by manufacturers in cleaning the appliances.
• Light de-cluttering – get rid of unwanted things.
• Clean light fixtures – remove the dust on light fixtures once a month.
• Vacuum the floors, woodwork, air vents and baseboard heaters- use the extendable horse in cleaning correctly.

Your Annual Chores

The negative point is these are the most substantial chores which consume more time. However, the good fact is, they come just once a year. Therefore, never skip the tasks of the annual cleaning of the house no matter how busy you are.

• Check for the smoke alarms – check the batteries and replace if necessary.
• Clean the fireplace and chimney- handover this to a professional cleaning service. Keep the chimney clean to void any fire hazards.
• Deep cleaning of windows and window screens – hire a professional to handle exterior cleaning. Wipe off the dust and do a thorough cleaning on the surfaces.
• Clean carpets and upholstery – follow a steam cleaning.
• Duct cleaning – cleaning requires a professional. Make sure you clean the air ducts every 2-5 years.

Checklist of home cleaning utensils 

• Mop and mop bucket
• Broom and dustpan
• Soft clothes (microfiber) and sponges
• Appropriate cleaning products, cleaning solutions: all-purpose bathroom, floor, toilet, glass, furniture polish
• Dustin clothes or extension dusters(for cleaning the tops of tall furniture, shelving, cobwebs and ceiling fans)
• Laundry detergents, fabric softener, stain remover
• Vacuum with appropriate attachments, tools and extra bags (check for clogs, clean upholstery brushes)
• Trash bags /cans
• Storage containers
• Squeegee with replaceable blades for drying mirrors, glass doors, and windows
• Toilet  brushes for bathroom cleaning
• Contacts of Professional cleaning companies

Safety Tips : In Buying Retail Cleaning Products

Read the labels properly and look for the words: Caution, Warning, Danger or Poison

These words are placed on the product to create awareness among the consumers and to alert them on the toxicity of the products; caution is for least toxic and dangerous for more toxic. However, most of the time, labels do not provide long term hazards. Therefore, it is essential to be extra cautious on these.  Hence, avoid products labels that say:

• Use only in well- ventilated areas
• Harmful and fatal if swallowed
• Avoid using near heat or flame
• Flammable or combustible
• Do not smoke while using
• Cause burns when in contact
• Can burn eyes or skin