While we’re past the spring cleaning phase of the year, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work hard to keep your home clean. It doesn’t matter if you live in a massive apartment prone to weekly guests, or are enjoying life in a small, single bedroom unit. A dirty home can attract pests, harmful bacteria, and even affect your mental health.
However, cleaning your home or apartment may not be as straight forward as you think. We’re here to help streamline your process. Take a look at our apartment cleaning checklist of the top seven dos and don’ts.
Dos
First, let’s take a look at all of the things you should do when cleaning your apartment. These are the sometimes obvious, but often overlooked, steps to ensuring you’re doing things right. If you can’t commit to these cleaning tips, you may want to explore the benefits of professional cleaning services.
1. Make Cleaning a Part of Your Daily and Weekly Schedule
Have you ever heard the phrase, “It’s easier to keep up than to catch up”? This bit of advise applies as much to apartment cleaning as it does to keeping up with school or work assignments.
Create an apartment cleaning schedule that covers three major categories:
- Daily maintenance and pickup
- Weekly cleaning
- Monthly deep cleaning
The more you stay on top of this schedule, the less overwhelming cleaning days will be!
2. Take Your Time Vacuuming Carpets
Next, remember that vacuuming your carpets and rugs isn’t a race. You don’t get any extra points for doing it quickly. In fact, the faster you vacuum, the more dust, dirt, sand and allergens you’ll leave behind!
3. Sanitize Kitchens and Bathrooms
There are two places most vulnerable to germs and bacteria in your home – the kitchen and the bathroom! Take extra time in these rooms to ensure you’re sanitizing as well as cleaning. This will help keep you and your family safe from harmful bacteria and unpleasant odors.
4. Focus on Appliance Cleanliness
Speaking of the kitchen, make sure you’re cleaning out your appliances each week. Cooking is a messy process, whether you’re using the stove, the oven, or the microwave. Food and grease can quickly build up and be burned onto these appliances. Additionally, don’t forget to clean out your fridge regularly and get rid of those old and expired foods. Finally, make sure your dishwasher is regularly cleared of any leftover food particles.
5. Keep Your Home Decluttered
As mentioned above, a messy home can actually affect your mental health. For example, clutter has been known to increase anxiety. Not only that, but the more clutter you have in your home, the harder it will be to adequately clean your space.
6. Deep Clean Once a Month
We mentioned deep cleaning your apartment earlier when talking about your apartment cleaning schedule. This is a vital step to ensure dirt, grime and gunk don’t build up in hard to reach places.
Deep cleaning includes:
- Shampooing carpets
- Cleaning behind and under furniture
- Hard to reach ledges/ceiling fans
- Vacuuming furniture
- Cleaning out the fridge
- Cleaning out the pantry and cabinets
- Etc.
7. Report Any Damages or Bigger Issues to Your Landlord
Finally, one of the most important things on your apartment cleaning checklist is making sure you’re reporting bigger issues to your landlord. This includes things like broken appliances, water damage, leaky pipes, damaged drywall, etc. They often have their own repair services they call on to handle these types of issues.
Don’ts
Now, let’s talk about all the things you shouldn’t do when cleaning your apartment. Whether you’re too busy or just feeling lazy, you need to avoid these apartment cleaning no-nos.
1. Let the Dishes Pile Up in the Sink
One of the worst things you can do as a homeowner is let dirty dishes pile up in the sink. This leads to a lot of problems, such as:
- Cemented-on food particles
- Pests
- Unpleasant odors
We’d recommend rinsing off your dishes (at the very least) immediately after using them. Ideally, you’d rinse them off and put them in the dishware or handwash them once you’re done with them.
2. Leave Piles of Laundry on the Floor
Another item people neglect on the apartment cleaning list is laundry. Too many people let dirty laundry pile up on the floor, which is a great place for common desert pests to hide, such as scorpions, snakes, and spiders. Also, don’t be the homeowner who has a “clean” pile and a “dirty” pile. Put your laundry away as soon as it comes out of the dryer.
3. Try to Handle Pests or Wildlife on Your Own
Speaking of desert pests and wildlife, don’t rely on DIY extermination or removal. Not only can it be ineffective, but it can also be dangerous. If you have pests, call your local pest control company. If you encounter wildlife in your home, call wildlife control.
4. Let Soap Scum Build Up in the Shower
One of the hardest areas to clean if left unattended is the shower. Soap scum, mildew, and water spots can be incredibly difficult to clean if allowed to build up over time. Stay on top of it!
5. Ignore the Furniture
One of the most important tips on our apartment cleaning checklist is learning how to get rid of dust the right way. This includes your hard-surfaced furniture as well as your couches, sofas and chairs. The longer you ignore your furniture, the dingier and dirtier they will become.
6. Forget to Wash Your Bedding
When cleaning your apartment and doing your laundry, don’t forget about your bedding. Even if you shower every night before bed, our bodies produce oils and sweat while we sleep. We recommend washing your sheets once every one to two weeks.
7. Ignore Small Leaks or Water Damage
Finally, it’s important not to shrug off small issues that have the potential to become big issues. For example, small water leaks can lead to major water damage, pests and even harmful mold. When living in an apartment or rental home, these damages could come out of your deposit if you don’t report them.
Need Help With Your Apartment Cleaning Checklist?
We know the average American is way too busy to devote all of their time cleaning their homes. Between work, kids, friends, significant others, and hobbies, finding time to complete an apartment cleaning checklist can be a challenge.
We’re here to help. If you need help with weekly cleaning or are looking for someone to come by once in a while to handle the deep cleaning process, we’re here for you! Contact us today for a free estimate from HomeHappy Cleaning Services of Tucson.