Everyone has heard of Spring Cleaning but keeping your home clean and fresh is truly a year-round job. A huge amount of dirt, moisture and grime slips into your home during the winter months, so it’s a great time to do some deep cleaning, and a good time to start is while you are packing away all those Christmas decorations – you have already made some space to start pulling the furniture out and will, I’m sure, be making room for all those presents (especially the kid’s toys) which have scattered our front rooms long enough now.
Snowy boots can drag in sediment and leave puddles on your floors, or if like us, the snow has managed to avoid your area then it’s mud being dragged in from long walks or on the bike/scooter wheels when you are heading out for some daily exercise having been stuck inside for far too long. Even worse, your home suffers from bad airflow while locked up tight to protect from the cold. That makes winter one of the most important times to pay attention to a regular cleaning schedule.
With so little natural ventilation in a house during the winter, dust, dirt and allergens can collect in a hurry. Along with regular daily cleaning, you should consider a deeper approach at the beginning of each new season. With Emmy suffering from Asthma and myself from Hayfever (I also have a pet hair allergy), which for the past few years seems just as bad in the winter as it is in the summer, I try to take more care to free the house from outside pollutants by cleaning frequently. I have found that by doing a little every day, it is far easier to keep on top of most areas of the house.
There are other things which can cause allergies, some of which lurk in the house including dust or pet hair – you can get home allergy tests to help determine the cause of your allergy. I became allergic to some types of pet hair in my 20’s, it was a strange development because it almost happened overnight, my skin became super sensitive to moulting finer pet hair such as my own pet Chinchilla and the Guinea Pigs fur from the pets of the children I looked after.
My allergies started off as sneezing and itching eyes so I used to shrug them off as a cold – easily done when symptoms as so similar, but knowing the difference between colds and allergy symptoms is key – you can’t treat an allergy with cold and flu medicine after all. I finally realised when my skin started to itch and I would get rashes after holding or cleaning out the pets. There are different type of allergy testing you could have done including blood tests or skin prick testing. Knowing your allergy will help you to either avoid that trigger or to treat it appropriately.
You can’t always stop pollutants from entering your home, but it doesn’t mean you have to keep suffering their effects. I help to combat these by hoovering daily and ensuring everyone takes off their shoes when entering the house – so they can’t spread the dirt, pollens and outside world throughout the house. Shoes are always left in the hallway in this house.
Other jobs I do daily to help the build up of mess and dirt include: wiping down the bathrooms daily and wiping down the kitchen worksurfaces every day – this helps to stop a need for a mass clean once a week and spread the work out meaning it’s less of a chore. Of course, with the kids home all the time pretty much most of last year, and homeschooling already on the cards for early this year at least, it’s a good thing as they make so much mess – doing a little a day makes it far more manageable.
Here are a few areas which can be tackled with a deeper clean to help get your house clean and fresh during the winter months.
The winter months can be messy, especially if you live in an area with snow or walk the dog over the muddy fields. Wet boots and shoes can drag all kinds of mess into your home and onto your floors. To stop things from getting out of hand you can steam clean your carpets at the start of each new season – many steam mops have a carpet attachment of them so this doesn’t always mean calling in the professionals.
Pay closer attention to the areas in your home that receive the most traffic. This will loosen and eliminate some of the traffic grime that can build up in your carpet fibres and wear them down prematurely.
Give your wood or tile floors a good steam clean as well. Weekly mopping is a good part of a regular cleaning routine, but during the winter months, your floors may need a bit more attention.
If you have fabric sofas/chairs it is also a good time to refresh those with a quick steam clean too.
Clean your Filters
If you are using an air purifier then you already know you need to change the filters or at least clean them regularly – this also goes for hoovers too. You are picking up all the dust, dirt and pollutants which are then trapped in the filters. If these become full or blocked they then can not do the job they are intended for and you’ll end up removing nothing from the air.
Dusting
With very little opportunity for fresh air circulating through the house in the winter, dust can seem to accumulate much faster. Keeping your furniture and surfaces clear of dust is the best way to battle allergies or breathing issues in the home. Make dusting a priority at least twice a week to let yourself breathe a bit easier.
You will also want to dust behind the radiators so that when they are turned on they aren’t heating up that dust and pushing it up into the air again. I like to add a little Zoflora to the tops of my rads once I have cleaned them as it makes the room smell beautiful when the radiators warm up.
Clean Your Windows
While improving your view, frequent window cleaning also helps to eliminate some health risks you may not think about such as mould beginning to form due to condensation.
Winter is the time most have fireplaces or candles burning that can leave a film of soot buildup on your glass windows. For a really good clean, use a mixture of vinegar and water to cut through the soot and leave your glass shining.
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Clare
Hi, I'm Clare (Emmy's Mummy). A former Nanny and Mother of 2 - Emmy (born February 2010) and Harry (born October 2012). We are Essex based and share our adventures and misadventures of a busy crazy life.
