Summer with a family should be filled with exciting and productive activities. This is a time to spend with the people you love, and a time for fun. But cleaning has a habit of getting in the way. After all, it’s often hard to unwind and truly relax when your home is dirty or messy.
But by changing your approach to cleaning slightly, you can do both. You can have lots of time for fun — while keeping your home looking spick and span. How? By following these simple summer cleaning tips.
1. Stop dust and dirt getting in
Prevention is always the best cure, as they say. You can prevent dust and dirt from getting into your home by placing thick nylon mats at all of the entrances to your home. People often don’t think to wipe their feet before entering a home during the summer, as there’s usually less moisture, mud and general nastiness on shoes. Don’t let this happen in your home. If you really want to get tough on dirt, enforce a no-shoes rule.
2. Stop scrubbing your life away
The heat and humidity of summer can make bathrooms even more difficult and time-consuming to clean. But you can actually take advantage of the humidity by using shower and bath sprays that don’t require in elbow grease. Simply spray your bath or shower with a specialist spray, and let it dry naturally. Dirt, mould and grime will be removed, and there’ll be no unsightly streaks or watermarks left behind. No scrubbing required!
It’s also a good idea to have a handheld steam cleaner at hand too. Fire a jet of superheated steam at almost any unwanted accumulation in your bathroom, and you won’t need to waste time and energy scrubbing.
3. Hit the mirrors hard
If you’ve performed a deep spring clean, you’ve given yourself a great basis from which to continue throughout the summer months. Everything now should be maintenance — and only tackling the cleaning priorities in your home. There are several ways of creating the illusion of a much cleaner home, and one of them is making all of the mirrors and glass spotless.
Glass requires constant monitoring during the summer, as heat and humidity can leave it foggy and discoloured. Wipe all glass surfaces as often as possible. In fact, make this something you do when you’re passing. Use a spray of white vinegar and water, applied with a paper towel or a microfibre cloth. You can even use your handheld steam cleaner, which is the perfect glass cleaner when combined with a squeegee attachment.
4. Make toilets a priority
Don’t wait until your toilets are dirty before you clean them. Assemble mini cleaning stations in each of your toilets, so you can give everything a quick once-over when you’re in the vicinity and have a few moments to spare. Cleaning a toilet can be a nasty job at the best of times, but more so when the heat and humidity sap your energy and make unpleasant smells worse. When it comes to summer toilet cleaning, little and often is the best policy.
5. Summer-proof your bins
The warmer, more humid weather of summer can play havoc on rubbish bins. Not only does it make food degrade more quickly (creating more unwanted odours than ever), it tends to attract a lot of unwanted wildlife too. Make sure all of your bins are closed at all times. If you have inquisitive children or pets, it’s also a good idea to lock your bin lids in place. To minimise unwanted odours, line your bins with paper towels, and throw some baking soda in them — to absorb liquids and bad smells.
6. Prepare for dust
The chances are your windows are left open a lot more than usual during the height of summer. While this is great for ventilation, it can invite outdoor dust into your home. But if you’re ready for it, you can keep it to a minimum. For example, you can use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter to trap dust and allergens that fly in from outside. Cover upholstered furniture with throws, so you can simply remove them and taken them outside when dust needs to be removed.
While it might seem counterintuitive it might be best to keep windows closed as much as possible during the summer — particularly if you have allergy sufferers in the home. To keep your home cool, use blinds and curtains at the sunniest times of the day. Dehumidifiers and air conditioning units not only keep homes cool, they filter the air too — trapping dust particles before they can land on your surfaces.
The less time you have to spend on cleaning during the summer, the better. Invest in the best vacuum cleaner for carpets, and you should have a cleaning system that is capable of removing summer dust from just about every surface in your home. And most importantly, keep on top of things.