Another New Year’s Eve represents yet another opportunity to improve your life with a raft of resolutions. If you’re someone who prides yourself on a clean and tidy home, you might want to make some of this year’s resolutions about cleanliness.
Whether you already keep a clean home or you’re striving towards that goal, there are ways to work smarter and give yourself more time to do the things in life that really matter.
So pop on your party hat, pour a glass of champagne and look forward to a cleaner, tidier home this New Year.
1. I WILL DECLUTTER MY LIFE
We all amass a huge amount of ‘stuff’ during the course of our lives. Without us noticing, this ‘stuff’ lies on our shelves, in our cupboards and tucked away under things. In other words, we forget it’s there — or at least we pretend to. But having redundant possessions taking up precious space in our homes is probably making our lives harder when it comes to cleaning.
This year, resolve to declutter your house on a room-by-room basis. Throw out those free plastic containers you always get from the Chinese take-away; discard those old magazines you can’t live your life without; give to charity those toys your children have outgrown. Generally, sweep through your home and be ruthless in your decisions. The less ‘stuff’ you have in your home, the easier your household cleaning tasks will be.
2. I WILL IMPROVE THE AIR QUALITY IN MY HOME
Although you may not realise it, the air in your home could be significantly below par, and this could be having profound effects on your health. Radioactive particles, dust, carbon monoxide, gas, chemicals and lint are just a few of the things that can make your home toxic. Fortunately, there are some very good air quality monitoring systems on the market — some of which link up to a mobile app.
Once you have identified a particular problem, you can make the necessary changes to improve the situation. This might involve removing certain appliances, improving ventilation and introducing equipment such as a dehumidifier.
3. I WILL KEEP MY HOME ‘VISITOR READY’
How many times have you been forced to spring to action and start cleaning because you’ve just learned a visitor is en route? How many times have you winced with embarrassment when an unexpected visitor has scanned the devastation and dirt in your home? Make sure this never happens again by keeping your home in a constant state of visitor readiness.
Compile a minimum daily cleaning list that includes essential jobs such as cleaning the toilet bowl, vacuuming the floors and decluttering. Keeping your home tidy and relatively clean at all times should reduce both your stress and your workload.
4. I WILL TAKE A MORE ORGANISED APPROACH TO CLEANING
Cleaning should become a daily and weekly task in your home — one that needs attention on an ongoing basis. And you can make the job easier and less time-consuming by taking a structured, organised approach.
Among the things you can do to achieve this resolution include:
- Keep a cleaning stash in each room, filled with the cleaning agents and tools you need
- Make yourself mobile with a cleaning trolley, the Shark Rocket Lightweight Corded Handstick Vacuum Cleaner and the Shark Lift-Away 2 in 1 Steam Pocket Mop
- Focus on one type of cleaning at a time; ie. vacuuming, polishing and polishing
- Devise a cleaning schedule… and stick to it!
- Distribute essential cleaning tasks evenly amongst all the people in your home
5. I WILL REDUCE MY HOME’S CARBON FOOTPRINT… AND MY HOUSEHOLD BILLS
When it comes to reducing the amount of energy you use in your home, cutting your home’s carbon footprint really is a win-win situation. Not only do you do your little bit for the planet, you save a significant amount of money on gas, electricity and water too. And making significant savings is probably easier than you think.
The changes you can make on January 1st include turning off all lights when they’re not in use, switching off unused electrical appliances at the wall when they’re not in use and installing energy-saving light-bulbs throughout your home.
Other ways to save energy easily include:
- Air drying washing instead of using a tumble dryer
- Using less water (a huge amount of energy is needed to deliver clean water to homes)
- Switch to energy-efficient appliances
- Cut out needless draughts in your home
Don’t let your New Year’s resolutions fall by the wayside by the time February arrives. Stick to these commitments permanently, and both your home and your general quality of life will receive a huge boost next year.
