A Healthy Home is a Happy Home

We all know we need to clean our home. Still, we put it off. Life is so busy. Our priorities are pulling us in a million directions. Cleaning never really gets to the top of the list.

Today I’m talking about more than tidying or picking up after ourselves. I’m focused on removing dirt, grime, allergens, and mold from our homes. These disgusting yuckies are there and we tend to ignore them, which puts our health at risk. Let’s talk a moment about why it is important to keep a clean home.

Cleaning Tips

Breathing in dust and mold particles commonly trigger allergies. Here are a few ways to ensure you are removing these bad guys when you are cleaning.

1. Start from top to bottom to avoid spreading dust on areas you just cleaned.

2. Feather dusters and untreated cloths tend to move dust around, but they don’t trap and remove it. The best solution is to use a damp microfiber cloth to trap the dust more completely.

3. Remember to clean areas we don’t touch every day, such as blinds, curtains, windowsills, lamp shades, ceiling fans, and baseboards.

4. Invest in a good quality vacuum. It doesn’t need to be super expensive. It just needs to be a bagless version with a quality HEPA filter.

5. Get everything off of the floor when you vacuum. Going around ottomans, baskets, and floor lamps leaves dust behind. Clear as many of the items from the room as possible including light weight furniture.

Bathrooms are breeding grounds for mold and germs. Daily wiping of your sink and toilet with a disinfecting cleaner, plus a spray of daily cleaner in your bath or shower are a good start towards controlling the spread of germs. Moisture, which is necessary for mold growth, easily builds up in bathrooms when we shower or bathe. Here are some practices for controlling the moisture and potential for mold growth in your bathroom.

1. Make sure you have proper ventilation during and after a shower or bath. Turn on the fan in the bathroom. If you don’t have a fan, open a window or door.

2. If you have a shower curtain, once you are finished showering, spray the curtain with a daily cleaner and extend it fully across the tub. Do not seal or hug it to the walls. You want air to flow around the curtain to dry it as quickly as possible. Scrunching the curtain to one end of the shower creates folds which lock in moisture.

3. If you have a shower door, spray it with a daily cleaner and keep the door open for a few minutes after showering. This will allow for air to flow through the entire shower, especially the track of the door. This will help prevent the buildup of moisture.

4. Check your shower or bath area for cracks and gaps in the grout between the tile as well as for silicone which is not adhered to surfaces properly. Once water gets beyond the grout, it will erode the wall while the locked in moisture will grow mold. Once water gets under silicone, mold will grow trapped between the silicone and the grout causing ugly black stains which can’t be easily removed unless you remove the silicone, clean, and apply new silicone according to the manufacturer’s directions.

5. Remove soaps, shampoos, and other clutter from the shower/bath area. Water tends to get trapped under and around these items. In my house, each person has a basket with shower essentials which lives in the vanity. We bring our items in to the shower to use, dry them, and put them back in their basket. This extra few seconds each day keeps the shower/bath area so much cleaner.

6. Daily shower spray is essential to keeping your bathroom clean and sparkling. Opt for a cleaner made with natural ingredients or make your own. Spraying the bath area daily extends the time between deep cleanings and makes those cleanings a lot easier.

7. Do not leave wet or damp towels in the shower or on the bathroom floor. Used towels should be hung to dry or placed in the laundry.

8. BONUS TIP: To really remove excess moisture from your shower or bath area, use a squeegee to remove water from the walls prior to spraying your daily cleaner. The area will dry more quickly and completely.

Finally, remember the kitchen and dining area is the heart of the home. The last thing you want to find there are rodents and bugs. Springtime can bring pests searching for food. Don’t roll out the red carpet for them. Make sure any place you eat in your home is free from fallen food pieces and spills. The rule in our house is to eat food at the table. Also, drinks are carried in no-spill containers. This makes clean-up simple. Wipe down your table and kitchen countertops daily, then quickly vacuum or sweep the kitchen at the end of the day. Pests will pass you by for a much more appealing food source elsewhere.

So take a few minutes today to adopt these short daily practices which really make a difference in the cleanliness of your home and your overall health. Feeling too stressed to get in the time to clean your home, then sign up for the Spring Speed Cleaning course or The Complete Clean Up Course to learn how to get your home clean quickly while saving a ton of money on professional cleaners and repair people.