5 Tips To Maintain Your Home in 2020
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One of the ways to start 2020 right is thinking about home maintenance. Keep your home clean throughout the year easily and effectively with our 5 tips.
1. Read before cleaning
Look for tips, tricks and hacks
Thanks to the power of the internet, any information you need is available and accessible online. Especially if you have specific cleaning tasks, try to search the internet for advice to make your tasks easier, like this article.
One added tip though, take everything with a grain of salt and get as much information as possible. Not all of the tips, tricks or hacks you see works. It might even ruin things. Cross-check and verify all information. For example, can you really use this or that on your counter?
Read the labels and instructions
No. You’re not a drongo for reading. If you want to do cleaning correctly, the best way is to consult the reference materials.
You might be surprised at the information you’ll get or the times you used a product wrong.
2. Set a detailed cleaning schedule
Let’s be honest. Cleaning can be a bit of a slog and we’d rather sometimes let someone just handle it for you. (Hint: We can handle it for you. 😉)
To combat this, you’ve got to plan out and schedule your cleaning. This way you’ll know exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
Humans are very habit-oriented by nature. Setting a day for cleaning makes you clean on that day if you stick to it.
We are also goal-oriented. We like ticking things off a list. Break down your tasks so you can tick them off as you do each one.
Have a simple checklist. It can be an app on your phone, a whiteboard on your wall or just a piece of paper. You’ll clearly see your progress, which will motivate you more to clean.
But don’t forget to schedule breaks and lunch.
3. Invest in the right products and materials
You might think that in order to save money, you should just skimp on cleaning products and materials. That may be true in the short-term but in the long-term, it can cost you more than you can afford.
Remember, cleaning is not just about looks. It’s also about health and safety. You don’t want to skimp on that.
At the very least, use household products to save money. But for the rest, if you have the budget, buy the right products. It will make cleaning easier and more effective.
One product that we highly recommend that you invest in are microfiber cloth rags. These are superstars in your home. These are very affordable and very flexible, you’ll end up using these rags all over your home.
4. Places for things
Clutter commonly forms if there are no permanent “homes” to place your things. You can reuse labelled boxes or use clear containers so you can easily see things that you need.
This mindset is also useful for cleaning itself. We highly suggest you buy a cleaning cart or container with all your cleaning materials organised and easily accessible. This will also lessen your tendency to go to other rooms which can double your cleaning efforts.
A bonus tip for this is to teach your children as early as you can to put their toys in their respective places. This will make them learn cleaning and being organized early on. You will also have less clutter to pick up, and if you clean, it can be a bonding experience for you and your children.
5. Don’t think that it’s a chore
Thinking of cleaning as a chore makes you less interested in doing it. As I have mentioned earlier, you can look at cleaning as a bonding experience with your children, or as goal items in your checklist.
Another way to make you forget that cleaning is a chore is to gamify it. This ties closely with making a schedule. Let’s say that if you reach a goal, you get to treat yourself. But if you missed a goal, your leisure time will also be cut short to compensate. You can be creative and involve your family members or flatmates.
