Spring cleaning might get all the attention, but fall cleaning is just as important. Before you hunker down inside for the winter, it’s important to break out the vacuum cleaner, draw up your home maintenance checklist, and follow all the leading household cleaning tips. Whether you have your home professionally cleaned or follow all the home cleaning tips yourself, you need your home to be in decent condition before the winter sets in.
These are the essential autumn cleaning tips you should keep in mind as you work through your fall cleaning.
Wash Your Windows
During those long winter months, you might have to spend more time than you’d like to inside. With the air so cold and unpleasant, your only access to the outside world might be through your windows. That’s why it’s so important to get the glass nice and clean before fall comes to an end.
Make sure to wash both the inside and the outside of your windows. You should also dust your blinds and curtains to give the entire window a fresh, clean look. Dust the window sills, and consider painting the frames if you really want them to dazzle. Give the screens a thorough rinsing to wash out cobwebs and grim. When you’re through, you’ll have windows that will be a pleasure to look through all winter.
Clean Carpets and Floors
Carpets and floors are going to get a lot of use over the winter months with everyone inside, so why not give them a deep clean to get them good and ready? Get your mop ready and go deeper than you do on a normal weekly clean, making sure to reach those out-of-the-way spaces beneath tables and appliances.
Run the vacuum cleaner over every inch of rug or carpet in your home. Move furniture if necessary to make sure not a single spot is left untouched. If cords and unwieldy vacuums make this task a hassle, consider investing in a Dreame V11 Cordless Vacuum to make your life easier, and successfully reach every corner of your home.
Wash Your Doors
Doors are often overlooked when cleaning the home, and yet they’re the part of the house that we most often come into contact with. Whenever we go from one room to another, we invariably pass through a door. You might not consciously notice whether the doors are clean or dirty, but once you’ve brightened them up you’ll find yourself feeling much better about the cleanliness of your home.
Don’t forget about the exterior of the front door. This is the first part of your home most people will see, so you want it to make a good impression. Cleaning the surface takes only a minute, and it will give your house’s exterior a much better appearance.
Have Your Chimney Swept
If you use your fireplace or have a wood stove, then cleaning out your chimney should be a part of your home maintenance checklist. You should have your chimney swept when you’ve burned two or three cords of wood since your last cleaning. If you can’t remember when you last swept the chimney or how much wood you’ve burned, then it’s best to play it safe and have the job done.
When chimneys are left unswept, flammable ash and creosote can clog up the flue, leaving you at risk of a chimney fire. It is best to call in professionals since they’ll have the brushes to clean the chimney and the vacuums to keep soot off your carpets and furniture.
Clean Your Gutters
No list of home cleaning tips is complete without mentioning essential jobs on the home’s exterior. Cleaning gutters is much more than an aesthetic issue. It is also essential for keeping your gutters functioning properly and protecting your roof. If your gutters are clogged with leaves and debris, water will build up inside them. This will eventually damage the roofline, and if that water freezes in the winter your gutters could even crack.
If you’ve got a ladder and are comfortable with heights, you can get up there and clean your gutters yourself. If not, there are plenty of professional services that would be happy to do it for you.
Clean Up Your Yard
You might associate yard clean-up with the spring, but if you do the necessary work in the autumn, you’ll make your life a lot easier once March and April come around. If you leave your yard in rough shape in the fall, you’ll find it even worse in the spring. All those dead leaves will have deteriorated, making them almost impossible to clear. Your gardens will be full of weeds that have died, frozen, and thawed, creating a nasty mess to deal with. If you want to avoid these problems, you’re better off doing what it takes to whip your yard into shape before the holidays.
Rake leaves throughout the autumn to keep your lawn and gardens clear. Do all the weeding you can so that come spring your gardens will be ready for planting. Bring in and store any outdoor furniture so it won’t get damaged over the winter. These simple tasks will keep your yard’s condition from spiraling out of control.
Dust, Dust, Dust
Pollen is rampant in the spring while all the in-and-out activity of the summer tends to bring dirt into your home. These two factors combine to leave you with some seriously dusty surfaces by the start of the fall. If you don’t do anything about it, you’ll be stuck with these pesky particles for the entire winter.
In early autumn, take advantage of the mild temperatures to dust every single surface in your home. Open up your doors and windows so the dust can find its way out. Beat blankets and cushions with a broom handle. Dust every picture frame, decorative plate, and knick-knack. Put on your detective cap and think of any spot that was left untouched. Once you’ve finished with the entire home, you can rest assured that you’ve done your dusting duty.
Clean Out Your Pantry
There’s no sense hunkering down for winter with a pantry full of rotted or expired goods. Old potatoes or opened packets of food have a way of getting forced to the back of a shelf, where they’ll eventually cause a stink or attract unwanted pests.
Take everything out of your pantry and lay it on the kitchen counter. Then check every item in turn. Take a look at expiration dates and give the perishable goods a whiff. Everything that’s good to go gets placed back in the pantry in an organized manner. Everything else should be recycled, composted, or tossed.
Clean and Test Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
Much more than an item on a list of home cleaning tips, this is also an essential move for the safety of your family. Grimy or dusty detectors might not work as well as if they were perfectly clean. You also don’t want to rely on a detector that is broken or has dead batteries.
First of all, give all your smoke detectors a dusting and a wiping. Then check to make sure that they’re working properly. Any dead batteries should be changed, while any broken or faulty detectors should be thrown out and replaced. Repeat this same procedure with the carbon monoxide detectors in your home. Of all the household cleaning tips, this is by far the most important because it relates directly to your family’s safety.
Have Your Home Professionally Cleaned
You might be tenacious, hard-working, and determined to give your house a total cleaning, but you still don’t have the equipment or experience of a professional cleaner. If you really want to give your home a complete and thorough cleaning, you should consider having it professionally cleaned.
You might think you know what a clean house is like, but after a professional service is through you’ll find yourself amid a level of cleanliness you’d never even dreamed of. Every surface will be spotless, and the entire house will radiate an invigorating freshness. Subjecting your home to this type of deep clean can make it the perfect place to hole up for the winter.
Fall is an important time to whip your house into shape. All sorts of projects need doing before the winter makes them impossible. These ten autumn cleaning tips are a great place to start. From doors and windows to furniture and decorations, every surface in your home should be dusted or scrubbed. The carpets and floors need cleaning, as do the gutters and the yard outdoors. Don't forget about your chimney, and make sure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are ready to keep your family safe. Once all this is accomplished, you can sit back and prepare for a winter of hibernation.
