Do you ever wonder whether you’re cleaning certain things in your home too often or too irregularly? The truth is that not everything needs frequent cleaning, yet so many homeowners spend a lot of time and energy doing so. Now, this may seem like a good thing while in reality, you’re only doing more harm than good! For example, vacuuming carpets every single day can damage the fibres, or weaken the weave altogether. So yes, knowing what to clean and how often to clean it can be rather tricky.
What you need is an ideal schedule that doesn’t take up all of our time and energy, yet meets the ultimate goal of keeping a clean and sanitary home. With that said, here’s what you should clean daily, weekly, and monthly!
Daily Cleaning Tasks
As much as we may dislike doing them, these daily cleaning tasks are perhaps, the most important ones to keep a home neat and clean. Fortunately, they don’t take up a lot of time and energy because cleaning everyday keeps dirt and stains around your house to a minimum. Now, let’s look at what these tasks are:
Dusting – Dust is a recurring pollutant in any home. You’ll find it settled on your furniture everyday (no matter what measures you’ve taken to remove it). Hence, dusting on a daily basis is a must.
Sweep & Mop Kitchen Floor – While the rest of your home’s flooring may not get dirty on a daily basis, it’s hard to keep your kitchen floor clean for a long time. Particularly for those who cook everyday, chances are that the kitchen floor will be stained and dirty by the end of it.
Speed Clean Bathrooms – By this we mean simply rinsing the bathroom floor and bathroom components after you’ve showered. This includes giving the sink and toilet bowl exteriors a swift swipe down using all-purpose cleaner and separate scrubbers. Over all, daily cleaning of a single bathroom shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes.
Wipe Down Counters – Again, kitchen counters are bound to get dirty, even if only a sandwich was made over it. A quick wipe down with a damp cloth after every use is all it takes to keep your counters clean!
Make Beds – It’s a habit worth developing because making your bed every morning motivates you to do more cleaning and tidying up around your house.
Clean & Tidy Tables – Clutter tends to accumulate on tabletops rather quickly (daily, in other words). Therefore, it’s best to tidy up a table when you find things that don’t belong on it, or objects that are simply placed in a disorderly manner.
Wipe Dining Table – A dining table left with food spills or crumbs on it will attract ants and other creepy crawlies into your home. Apart from this, it’s quite unsanitary to keep your dining table dirty! We advise wiping your table after every meal to maintain cleanliness.
Clean Floors – For non-carpet flooring, daily sweeping or vacuuming is advised. Of course, if you don’t have a lot of foot traffic in your home, cleaning your floors every 2-3 days is fine, too.
Weekly Cleaning Tasks
Ahh, the weekly cleaning tasks. There are two ways to look at them; on the one hand, they only require attention ONCE a week; on the other, they require more time and effort to complete (most of them, at least). Nevertheless, weekly cleaning tasks are part of the deal if you want to keep your home in tiptop condition. Here’s what you should be cleaning every week:
Deep Clean Stovetop – While a daily wipe down of your stovetop is recommended to maintain its clean appearance, not everyone has time for that. A weekly deep cleaning, however, is enough to keep your stovetop looking good and functioning properly!
Vacuuming Carpets – Again, depending on how much activity your carpets are prone to, they will need to be vacuumed every week (or maybe sooner than later).
Clean Bathrooms Thoroughly – Once a week, you have to avoid the shortcuts to cleaning your bathroom and give it a deep clean instead. This includes cleaning the toilet bowl inside and outside, the shower tiles, bathroom fittings, etc.
Do Laundry – Most people don’t enjoy doing laundry and hence, make it a weekly task. While you may prefer to do laundry twice (or thrice) a week, the alternative here is to do 1 or 2 loads on the weekend. Remember, this task includes folding and putting away clean laundry!
Clean Appliances – If it isn’t a deep clean, a regular clean in the form of wiping or scrubbing with the appropriate cleaning tools and products is a must. These appliances include your oven (if used regularly), microwave, coffee machine, and refrigerator exteriors.
Clean Under Beds – A lot of dust (and junk) can accumulate under your bed in a week’s time; therefore, this is one area that definitely requires weekly attention. Make sure that you pull out any rubbish or objects pushed underneath in order to clean the area thoroughly.
Clean Switchboards & Baseboards – A slightly damp cloth is all you need to wipe switchboards and baseboards clean. Of course, if there are stains present, an all-purpose cleaner and a microfibre cloth will do the trick!
Monthly Cleaning Tasks
As each month passes, there are certain things and areas in your home that demand attention. Some require deep cleaning while others just need a little tidying up. What are they? Read on to find out!
Ceiling Fans – After collecting dust for a month, your ceiling fans will definitely need to be cleaned. Although it seems tiresome and inconvenient, we’ve got a trick up our sleeves to make this task quick and easy! Simply take an old pillowcase and pull it over each fan blade; hold the top and bottom of the blade with each hand and slide the pillowcase off, wiping both sides of the blade as you do this. Just like that, the blade will be clean and the dust, trapped inside the pillowcase!
Deep Clean Refrigerator – For sanitary reasons, as well as maintaining the working condition of your fridge, a monthly deep clean is advised. To do this in a safe manner, the fridge must be switched off and unplugged at least 4 hours before you begin cleaning the interiors.
Clean Showerheads – Mineral deposits get lodged between the pores of showerheads, interfering with the stream of the water. Moreover, clogged showerheads also promote bacteria. You can unclog and clean your showerheads by soaking the fitting (the head) in vinegar for a few hours before thoroughly rinsing and replacing it.
Deep Clean Microwave – Assuming that you use this appliance regularly, the interiors are bound to have food spills and splatters all around. Again, this promotes bacteria and makes for an unsanitary environment (where you heat up or prepare food). Deep cleaning your microwave is not something you might enjoy doing but it is necessary at least once a month.
Replace Dirty Upholstery – From your bed sheets to your curtains; you should replace dirty upholstery with fresh fabrics every month for hygienic reasons. This includes cushion covers, pillowcases, table runners, etc.
Deep Clean Garbage Disposal/Dustbin – It’s a nasty job but someone’s got to do it! Fortunately, we’ve found that cleaning your garbage disposal and/or dustbin once a month isn’t “too irregular”. It will, however, take a bit of time but remember, this is necessary for sanitary reasons!
Clean Out Medicine Cabinets – As you put more and more things into your medicine cabinets, you tend to overlook products/medication that may have passed their expiration date. This can be dangerous for household members that refrain from checking the dates before consuming medicines. Hence, cleaning out medicine cabinets on a monthly basis is highly advised.
Deep Clean Dishwasher – Food bits and grease tend to stick around your dishwasher, literally and figuratively! This dirt and grime isn’t going to clean itself up; hence, a monthly deep clean will sanitise your dishwasher and keep it running smoothly.
So, the next time you wonder what you need to clean daily, weekly, and monthly, come back to this guide and you won’t miss a thing!
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