The Christmas and New Year holidays are always an exciting time to get together with family and friends. But is your house ready to receive your guests? If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of housecleaning you need to do in preparation for the yuletide season, don’t fret. In this article, we give you some expert tips and cleaning hacks on how to make your home sparkling clean and party-proof for the holidays.
Divide the housecleaning jobs into doable segments
You don’t have to finish cleaning the entire house in one day. Start by taking a good, long look at every area of the house, listing down rooms and items that need cleaning. Once you have a list, allot tasks to do for the day. For example, living room and hallways on Monday or kitchen and bathrooms on Tuesday. Keep your schedule practical by assigning only the tasks that you can finish for that day.
Have a clean and clear entryway
Want to make a good first impression? The entryway is the first part of the house that your guests will see. Make sure that your floors are polished, rugs and furniture dusted and vacuumed. As an extra touch, clear your coat hanger to make room for your guests’ coats.
Polish your floors spotless
Make your home look impressive with spotless, polished floors. If you have hardwood floors, you can reinforce the brown colour of the floor by cleaning it with tea. Soak a cloth in tea and wash down the floors. If you have laminate floors, you can make your floor sparkle by adding two tablespoons of baby shampoo to a gallon of water and mopping the area with the mixture.
For carpeted areas, get rid of stubborn stains and any underlying dirt or grime by calling in a professional steam carpet cleaning service. We recommend scheduling a steam carpet cleaning service early as bookings tend to be full during this time of the year.
Pay attention to your kitchen
Your guests will mostly gather around food during the holidays, so make sure that your kitchen is cleaned thoroughly so that it looks and smells fresh. Sanitise and deodorise the sink and tiled surfaces. You can also flush sink drains with boiling water to help clear it. Is there an odour you can’t seem to get rid of? Brew some coffee and it will mask the smell.
Scrub and sanitise the bathroom and toilet
Aside from the kitchen, another area of your house that will have a lot of traffic will be the bathroom. Make sure that the sink and toilet have been scrubbed, sanitised and deodorised. Hang fresh hand towels too.
Stained toilet? A quick fix is to pour a 20 oz. bottle of cola into the toilet. Cover the entire inside of the commode with the soda. Allow it to sit there for 30 minutes. Then, take a scrubbing brush and give it a good scrub.
If you have stubborn stains on your tiled surfaces, you may need expert tile and grout cleaning. A tile and grout cleaning service from cleaning professionals gives tiled surfaces a detailed clean which can also get rid of germs and bacteria that can potentially cause diseases.
Make your china, glassware and silverware sparkle
This is an ideal time to get your china, glassware and silverware out of their hiding places, but give them a good clean! Modern china can be placed in a dishwasher, but they should be spaced far apart so that they don’t crash against each other. Heirloom china must be washed by hand.
To clean silverware, one cleaning hack is to rub the inside of a banana peel along your silver accents. This will give the silver a lovely shine. If you have stained glassware, scrub them with potato skins to get the stains out.
Let the light shine in with clean windows
Lights and decorations look beautiful on a streak-free window. When cleaning windows, mix one to two teaspoons of dish detergent in a large bucket of warm water. Dip a soft, clean cloth in the solution and scrub down the surface. Then, use a squeegee to remove the suds.
Housecleaning for the holidays can be fun!
Why not make cleaning something that you can do as a family? Designate tasks to your family members and perhaps play some Christmas carols as you go along your jobs. This will not only make housecleaning quick and easy, but it can also give the family some holiday cheer.
Finally, start cleaning as early as you can. Don’t procrastinate. The sooner you can finish preparing your home for the holidays, the more relaxed you’ll feel as the day of the party approaches. This means you can truly enjoy the celebration with your family and friends.
If you need expert help in ensuring that your home is both clean and healthy for your family and friends, don’t hesitate to give Wizard Cleaning a call. We offer professional steam carpet cleaning, tile and grout cleaning, rug cleaning and couch cleaning. Wizard may just be the partner you need in preparing your home for the holiday season. Call us on 9323 1474 and book our professional cleaning services.
