Fall Cleaning Guide Provides Ideas and Tips for a Clean House
After a summer of outdoor activities with the kids running in and out of the house all of the time, it is time to freshen up the inside of your house for the upcoming holiday season. Blogger Jennifer, The Intentional Mom, has created a fall cleaning guide and even provides a printable checklist. As a mother of 9 children, as well as a blogger, author and writer, she had to become a master of cleaning and organizing. She must get a lot done in as little time as possible.
In her recent blog about fall cleaning, she provides some easy fall cleaning ideas and tips that are perfect for busy moms (and dads). Here are some of Jennifer’s thoughts from her fall cleaning guide.
The Right Tools
Having the right tools and supplies makes the cleaning process faster and easier while achieving better results. One of these tools is the pen-shaped non-scratch Scrigit Scraper. Jennifer describes the Scrigit Scraper as “my favorite cleaning tool of all time.” The tool is great for removing adhesive stickers, labels and tape. It is also very effective for removing dried food, dirt and grime from counter tops, floors, edges, corners, and grooves. It can get into tight spaces that your fingers can’t reach while keeping your fingers from getting cut, preventing your fingernails from getting damaged, and eliminating that awful feeling of gunk stuck under your fingernails.
Note that Jennifer discovered the benefits of using Scrigit Scrapers on her own. Then she approached me – Jay, the inventor of the tool – about sponsoring some of her cleaning blog posts. All of the opinions she expresses in the article are her own.
Clean Your Upholstered Furniture
Having your doors and windows open during the summer allows a lot of dust to enter the house and settle on everything. Along with cleaning the floors, you should also clean your upholstered furniture. Start by removing all removable pillows and cushions (and any dogs and cats). Check underneath the cushions and particularly in the crevices along the sides and back for lost food, pens, coins, and other objects. Use a vacuum cleaner with a hose and a crevice tool to thoroughly clean out all the crevices. Then use a wide-mouth upholstery tool on the hose to vacuum the flat part of the base where the cushions normally rest, the back, the arms, and all the surfaces of the cushions. This surface vacuuming goes rather quickly since the vacuum cleaner is doing most of the work. Then put the couch back together.
Smoke Detectors
Carefully remove each smoke detector from its mounting bracket. Check the date of manufacture on the bottom. It the unit is more than 10 years old or does not have a date (which means it is over 10 years old) replace the smoke detector. They become unreliable after 10 years even if the test button causes it to beep. For units under 10 years old, carefully remove dust from the exterior and vent openings using a brush tool on the vacuum hose. Use a damp cloth and a Scrigit Scraper to clean off any dust and grime left on the surface and in the vent openings. Install a fresh battery and reattach the detector to its mounting bracket.
Windows
Fall is a good time to clean windows because you can open the windows without it being too hot or cold outside. Start by vacuuming loose dirt from the window tracks. Gather a supply of clean, soft absorbent rags or microfiber cloths. You can make your own window washing solution in a clean bucket using 1 to 2 teaspoons of liquid dishwashing soap or 2 to 3 tablespoons of vinegar or clear household ammonia in a gallon of warm water. You can also combine the liquid soap with either the vinegar or ammonia. You can also use commercial window cleaning sprays. For dirty outside windows, a wet a rag with the cleaning solution from the bucket works best because you can keep rinsing off the rag in the cleaning solution. Then use a dry rag to clean the window. On inside surfaces, use either the wet rag technique or spray on window cleaner then wipe with a dry rag. Use a Scrigit Scraper to clean off any spots that don’t easily come off with the window cleaner, such as bird droppings and latex paint splatters. Use a Scrigit Scraper to clean sliding window and door tracks along with a cleaning solution. You can use this method HERE.
Refrigerator
By the fall, your refrigerator probably contains a lot of noticeably spoiled or outdated foods. Go through everything in the refrigerator to get rid of the old stuff and make room the food you will need to store for Thanksgiving and other holiday meals. Take out the drawers and shelves to wash then in the kitchen sink, if possible. Use a Scrigit Scraper to safely remove spots of dried food from the plastic and glass surfaces. Use the tool to remove the grime that builds up along the edges of the plastic frames around glass shelves. Remember to clean the crumbs and dirt out of the top of the door gaskets. The editors of Real Simple magazine named the Scrigit Scraper as one of their favorite tools for cleaning refrigerators and other kitchen cleaning tasks.
The Intentional Mom’s fall cleaning guide also includes ceiling fans, bathroom fans, and dryer vents. Links to other cleaning topics are also included. See Easy Fall Cleaning Ideas for Busy Moms for more details and a free printable checklist. Check out Jennifer’s blog for a wide range of useful information at TheIntentionalMom.com.
Leave A Comment