Cleaning Your House Like A Professional

Cleaning and organizing go hand in hand.   Why even start organizing a room if you do not plan on cleaning it as well?  Here you will find my professional check list as well as the products I use in my own home.

 As we discussed in organizing “MASTER BEDROOM“

Deep Cleaning a Bedroom:  

 Before you start:

Prepare a cleaning bucket.  Everyone has their own favorite cleaning products but I professionally recommend the following for this project:

Swiffer Dusters are a must have for me.  I like the way you can capture the dust without spreading it around the room.  It also comes with an extension arm for reaching hard places like fan blades, baseboards, etc.

Pledge   Yes I am a huge fan of Pledge.  It cleans while it shines, leaves things clean and smells great.

Rubbing alcohol  Mix a couple of cap fulls into your Windex bottle to kill germs while you clean.

Windex  is a very versatile product.  It is not just for cleaning glass.  Use Windex for cleaning your remote controls, vases, light fixtures, mirrors etc. Do not use on wood or flat screen TV’s

Rubber gloves  I always use gloves when I am cleaning.  Keeps my hands protected. Always use powder free when cleaning!

Bounty paper towels  I am a huge fan of Bounty.  I use them for everything except dusting.  They are very strong and great for cleaning.  I even use these for cleaning my bathrooms.  Great for scrubbing and then you toss in trash.  No cleaning dirty rags.

Swiffer for floors  are not just for floors.  Yes I dust my hardwood floors with them but they are also great for dusting walls and getting behind furniture

A couple of extra garbage bags 

If you prepare a cleaning kit prior to your task, you will find that cleaning goes a lot smoother.  You are not running back and forth getting things you need.  Yes you can be organized while you clean too.

I have learned over the years that it is important to start at the top and work your way down.  This prevents dust from falling back onto something that has already been cleaned.   

Take my professional advice!!   Save yourself some work and follow this cleaning  check list, in the following order:

• Strip your bed down to the fitted sheet or mattress cover (leave it on for now)and remove all blankets, pillows and comforter to another room.  If your comforter, pillows and blankets are machine washable this would be a good time clean them as well.
• Remove all accessories (picture frames, floral arrangements, alarm clock, etc.)
• Clear away all trash or anything else that does not belong in the room.
• Knock down all cobwebs
• Dust ceiling fan and/or light fixture
• Remove glass globes on light fixture and wash
• Vacuum and/or dust blinds
• Vacuum draperies or take down for cleaning
• Wash inside of windows as well as window sill 
• Vacuum or dust all walls (a good washing wouldn’t hurt)
• Dust fronts and backs of all pictures hanging on the wall, and Windex the glass fronts
• Dust the exteriors of all furniture in your room including the back,  yes even the treadmill
• Dust lamps and vacuum lamp shades
• If you have an upholstered chair or bench give them a good vacuuming
• Dust and/or clean baseboards and vent registers
• Move any furniture that you can and clean behind and under it
• Carefully and slowly remove the fitted sheet from bed trying not to stir up the dust that has settled onto it.  Remove it from the room, shake it outside, and wash.  This keeps your mattress from getting dusty during the process
• If you have carpet, vacuum everything thoroughly from the farthest point in the room and vacuum your way out.  Make sure to use your tool to get around the edges of your baseboards
• Steam or shampoo carpet
• If you have hardwood floors vacuum thoroughly and then clean with wood floor cleaner working your way out of the room.
• Clean your accessories thoroughly before taking them back into your clean room.
• Put fresh linens as well as  clean blankets, pillows & comforter back on bed.
• Once the bed is made and the cleaning is finished lightly dust again to remove any settling dust.

Now you are cleaning like a professional

You will find once you have completed  deep cleaning and organizing any room, it will stay cleaner and be much easier to do your general routine cleaning.

Also see:

• GETTING YOURSELF ORGANIZED FIRST
• ORGANIZING BASICS