Today, we’re looking at some of the key maintenance tasks you need to do in and around your home. There is a selection of tasks that have to be done very regularly, some that need to be done quite regularly, and others that are less frequent. So, this guide will include all these different tasks, along with an indication of how frequently you should do them. In turn, this will help you keep a neat and organized home!
Wiping Down Surfaces (Daily)
Whenever you’re in the kitchen and you make a mess, you should look to wipe down the surfaces. It’s a simple task to do, and it keeps your kitchen as hygienic as possible. Also, it’s a lot easier to wipe away any stains when they’ve first been made, so they don’t have a chance to settle in. Always make sure you clean up after yourself every single day, and it starts by wiping down surfaces.
Sweeping Up (Daily)
Similarly, if you have hard flooring in your home, you should pretty much sweep it every single day. Get a long broom with a dustpan, and you’re sorted. This is something you can do after wiping down surfaces, and it’s not a long task at all. If you don’t do it every day, the debris and dirt will accumulate on the floor, meaning it becomes a much harder and longer task! So, doing it every day is actually more efficient.
Cleaning The Shower (Daily)
Cleaning the entire bathroom isn’t a daily task, but cleaning the shower is. Well, to be more specific, it’s more a case of drying the shower after you’ve used it. You need to wipe down the walls and try to get rid of as much moisture as possible. Leave the extractor fan on with a window open, if you can. This does an amazing job at making your shower easier to maintain. If you don’t do this every day, you may see mold forming in the shower tiles, which can be so hard to get rid of.
General Tidying Up (Daily)
Don’t forget to do some general tidying up every single day. If you have kids, pick up their toys when they’ve finished playing with them. If you eat, put the plates away. Simple things like this will keep your home as tidy as can be – particularly if everyone follows the same rule.
Vacuuming & Dusting (Weekly)
Some people will do this twice a week, but the modern homeowner may not have enough time on their hands to do so. Instead, you can vacuum and dust on the weekend, keeping your home nice and clean. The benefit of sweeping up and wiping surfaces every day is that it gives you less to vacuum up! So, the task should be much swifter than if you do it without the previous two maintenance tasks.
Either way, you should try to vacuum at least once a week as it really does help keep your home neat and clean. Any less than this and you’ll be amazed at how much dust and dirt will build up. It’s always smarter to dust surfaces before vacuuming, purely because you can wipe the dust onto the floor. Ideally, your vacuum cleaner will have an attachment that lets you suck dust off surfaces – this is so much better than using a feather duster!
Decluttering (Weekly)
That’s right, decluttering should be a weekly task, not something reserved for spring cleaning! When you think about it, this is genuinely the easiest task to adhere to. Why? Because you have to throw your bins out every week anyway. So, it makes sense to look around your home for any rubbish and clutter, throwing it away. If you keep this up week after week, you’ll be amazed at how clean your home stays. You avoid having loads of letters or newspapers lying around, there are no cardboard boxes everywhere – it’s great!
Mowing The Lawn (Weekly – In Spring/Summer)
During the warmer months of the year, you will need to mow the lawn fairly frequently. Most gardening experts say that once a week is the best frequency to aim for. Also, it’s encouraged to avoid cutting the grass too short. Doing this will cause scalping, which is where you have muddy patches in the grass because the blades cut too low. This is why cutting the grass weekly is a lot better as you can mow it down to a decent height, then keep trimming it so it doesn’t get too long. For those of you with lawns that take a long time to grow, feel free to switch this to a once every two weeks job.
Washing The Floors (Weekly)
This one kind of goes hand in hand with vacuuming as it should be done after you’ve finished with that task. For any flooring in your home that can be cleaned or wiped, you need to do it once a week. Get the mop out or use some floor wipes, ridding the flooring of any stains and marks. It keeps your floors in excellent condition and will prevent stains from sinking in!
Check HVAC Units (Monthly)
Those of you with HVAC systems should check all of the units at least once a month. Effectively, you’re looking to make sure the filters aren’t clogged, or that there are no leaks or warning lights to worry about. So many people forget to do this, which only leads to you calling up an HVAC repair and installation specialist to help you out. While yearly maintenance from a specialist is necessary, you want to avoid calling someone out to make repairs every few weeks! The easiest way to make sure this doesn’t happen is if you stay on track with your monthly checkups.
Clean The Windows (Monthly)
Monthly window cleaning may seem like quite a long time to leave between each cleaning session. However, there are reasons for this. Firstly, cleaning your windows is quite a long task as you have to clean them from the inside and outside. So, this isn’t a task you can realistically fit into your weekly schedule – though some of you might be able to do it every two weeks, and that’s fine.
Secondly, your windows simply get too dirty on the outside to warrant cleaning them more than once or twice a month. Dust and rain will make them pretty dirty, to the point where you can clean them one day and they look dirty again the next! Luck plays a huge role in how long your windows stay clean for, and it just makes more sense to do it once a month.
Trimming Hedges (Monthly)
Do you have any hedges in your garden? If so, give them a little trim once a month, just to keep things in order. Hedges won’t grow as quickly as grass, hence you don’t need to cut them every week. Still, doing this every month stops them from getting too overgrown.
In all honesty, these are pretty much the only maintenance tasks you need to think about. Some of you may wonder about cleaning specific rooms, but there’s no need to worry about that. If you follow the maintenance tasks in this post – and copy the frequency – every room in your home will naturally be a lot cleaner and more organized. Having said that, don’t take the cleaning frequencies as the absolute law! If you want to play around and do things more often, you can. Instead, think of them as more of a minimum frequency to follow.
Kori
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