How to clean up your apartment: methods and methods of cleaning, keeping the house clean

How to clean up your home

For every home, two aspects are important - order and cleanliness. However, one does not always go hand in hand with the other. For example, if the kitchen is perfectly washed and sparkling clean, but the kitchen utensils remain unorganized, then the desired success will not be achieved.

It will be easier to do cleaning if you develop and instill in your home the habit of putting things in their place.

IMPORTANT! Cleanliness in the house is certainly important. But we must not forget about establishing general order in the apartment and proper organization of things. Only then will the home actually look ideal.

In the kitchen

14. Hang some of your utensils on hooks: this will free up space in your drawers.

15. Store what you need most often - salt, pepper, oil - on the edge of the most convenient shelf.

16. Store foods of the same type nearby: cereals on one shelf, canned vegetables on another, canned meat on a third.

Photo: Sleek Steak House

Where to start cleaning

Before you start cleaning, it is important to determine the order of your actions. All accessible surfaces must be cleaned: if small objects are scattered on shelves and tables, they should be removed. Unnecessary items must be disposed of.

Getting rid of unnecessary things will make your home cleaner.

Each room is cleaned from top to bottom: from the top shelves, cabinets, mezzanines. Next, they move on to upholstered furniture, tables, and only then begin to wash the floor.

How to get rid of junk

When deciding how to maintain order and cleanliness in the apartment, an important thing is to get rid of everything unnecessary. Someone easily and even with pleasure gets rid of such objects or things. But if this task is difficult, you need to find your own decluttering method.

Unclutter your closet to make your apartment cleaner.

So it is possible:

do this daily and little by little;
decide on a global decluttering operation, that is, get rid of unnecessary things at once in one fell swoop.

Each piece of advice has both pros and cons. Therefore, you need to look at what is most suitable. It’s better to start the analysis with clear and simple categories of things:

dishes;
cosmetics;
clothes.

Come up with your own cleaning plan.
Because if you start with old photos or letters, you can get stuck in it for a long time, if not forever.

NOTE! When decluttering, you get the main bonus - free space. This is what is often lacking in our homes.

Decluttering is carried out every one and a half to two months. Otherwise, cleaning becomes a Sisyphean task: if the drawers and shelves are overflowing, and the house is “overpopulated” with things, a mess will arise within a few hours.

Life hacks on how to do everything quickly and not get tired

There are many life hacks and tricks on how to clean your home faster with minimal cost. Advice from experienced housewives:

make a plan in advance and follow it;
start work early in the morning to get the most done in a day;
during the general cleaning process, throw away everything unnecessary from “warehouses” (from the balcony, from storage rooms, from mezzanines and closets);
distribute responsibilities between household members;
prepare funds and equipment in advance so as not to be distracted by purchasing what is missing in the process;
combine several tasks (for example, while waiting for the washing to complete, which the hostess managed to start, the waiting time for detergents to remain on the surfaces of plumbing fixtures, stoves, you can wash cabinets or shelves).

Important! Clear planning and adherence to timing help not only in the office, but also in the effective organization of housework.

How to create a cozy atmosphere

Creating a cozy and beautiful home is a leisurely task. A unique aura in a home is formed by many details woven together. There are many ways to create an atmosphere of comfort. It's always in our hands. And of course, important components of a pleasant, peaceful atmosphere in the house are order, cleanliness and convenience. If they exist, then comfort will follow.

Cleanliness is first and foremost comfort.

The secret to creating coziness is a little carelessness. For example, you shouldn’t hang towels evenly, as if under a ruler, etc. There should be a slight asymmetry. The rooms will feel more homey and welcoming.

It will be easier to do cleaning if you develop and instill in your home the habit of putting things in their place.

In addition to cleanliness, a pleasant smell in the house is also important. And to ensure that such a feeling reigns in your home, you can use fragrances with natural oils, scented candles, and sachets. The smells in the house affect the mood and psyche of its inhabitants. Therefore, it is important that the apartment is always well ventilated, and fresh air is combined with a pleasant aroma.

Use additional cleaning products to clean the room.

To create a homely feel, it is ideal to fill the room with different textures and textures. A cozy apartment is bright, all the colors in it are harmoniously combined: they, first of all, should please the eye.

Maintaining home comfort is a continuous process. It is important to improve the arrangement of the apartment, for which, among other things, it is worth thinking carefully about storing things. And, of course, keep it clean.

Cleanliness at home: tips

Things accumulate in the wrong places because they do not have their own storage space.

House cleanliness, tips:

Define zones and the exact location of things. For clothes that you wear all the time, get a special base or support that holds several items. Of course, under no circumstances should you hang out all the things you have in your wardrobe.
This rack is for the items you are wearing now, this week. It is allowed to have one or two sets of clothing.
Be sure to come up with small organizers for storing things. These could be boxes for underwear or jewelry.
Get boxes for them, small containers in which you will put them.
Toys should always be in their place, which is not always possible if there are small children in the family. Usually kids like to stretch all their toys around the house and scatter them in the most inappropriate places.

Hostesses

How to visually increase space

This question worries many. One of the main design principles for visually expanding space is the preference for light colors.

Light colors will help increase the space in the room.

So, a light floor and walls will visually increase the space. And, of course, such surfaces require the most thorough cleaning. You should clean your house regularly: then it will be easy to maintain cleanliness.

How to clean an apartment

For ease of cleaning and keeping your apartment perfectly clean, you will need:

for the kitchen - a microfiber cloth;
for glass – 2 rags (will help wipe any surface dry).

Microfiber cloths help clean your apartment efficiently.
A cloth made of artificial suede will speed up the work, since it is better than others at absorbing moisture.

Cleaning equipment

Quick cleaning of an apartment means, first of all, the right equipment. Today, every housewife has the opportunity to choose functional, effective and high-quality equipment in order to keep the house clean, speed up and simplify the cleaning process.

The lightness of the equipment, ease of use and longevity of the result after its use are very important.

So, an excellent solution for dry floor cleaning would be a brush equipped with a long handle and a folding dustpan. This device easily removes dust or cobwebs from the ceiling and walls.

Cleaning is best done at regular intervals.

Ideally, use a vacuum cleaner often, then you can wash the floors less often. If servicing a vacuum cleaner (for example, a washing one) is a long process, then it is better to use it for fundamental cleaning. And a simple vertical vacuum cleaner will help you collect dust quickly enough: 5 – 10 minutes of using it, and the apartment becomes cleaner.

Clean with your children.

But if you put your house in order according to all the rules, you cannot do without wet cleaning. To do this, it is worth considering special cleaning kits: mop, attachments, bucket.

Use white vinegar to keep your windows sparkling clean.

Convenient mop attachments will perfectly cope with any dirt. In addition, with the help of such devices you can wash glass efficiently (and therefore without streaks). Compact buckets in such sets have a spin function for mops. Therefore, during the cleaning process there is no need to touch the nozzle with your hands - you just need to press the pedal.

Folk remedies

House cleaning using folk remedies has its advantages. Natural cleaning products that are easy to make yourself can at least partially reduce family expenses.

We must not forget that household chemicals pollute the air in our homes.

High-quality household chemicals will not affect human health.
Not all of it is safe for health and can cause allergies. Therefore, ideally, when cleaning the house, use folk remedies. So it is possible:

prepare a cleaning product from vinegar, soda and liquid soap;
make a water-vinegar solution;
disinfect with soda;
wash the floor by adding citric acid to the water.

Another fairly effective folk remedy for cleaning is powdered mustard: even the most corrosive fat cannot resist its cleansing power.

Regular table salt can also serve as an excellent cleaning agent. It is especially strong in “fighting” burnt grease stains on the kitchen stove.

IMPORTANT! The surface of the stove must be hot when washing.

If you litter less, it will be easier to clean up.
And if table salt is combined with turpentine (proportion 1:1), then the housewife can easily remove yellowness from the surface of the plumbing fixtures.

Special means

But if you still use household chemicals, for cleaning a standard sample, cleaning products intended for the kitchen and plumbing are quite sufficient:

In the kitchen, it is good to use creamy cleaners to clean various surfaces. They must be environmentally friendly, leave no odor and pose no danger to children;
A suitable option for the bathroom are gel products or those available in the form of pastes. In this case, their environmental friendliness is also important.

Cleaning together is more fun.
When washing the floor, it is ideal to add low-foaming products to a bucket of water (this is an absolute time saver, since it takes no less time to wash off the foam than to wash it directly).

Organize everything on the shelves and don't hoard unnecessary things.

If the housewife uses a washing vacuum cleaner, you can use shampoos when cleaning.

Features of general cleaning of an apartment or house

You need to clean your apartment or house regularly, and generalize your home depending on the season or the work being carried out, after which a lot of dirt and debris is generated.

How often to carry out

There are several types of general cleaning:

seasonal is usually carried out with the onset of spring and autumn;
special - after completion of repairs;
periodic - depending on the needs of the household (but at least once a year).

Seasonal work involves cleaning double-glazed windows and window units with the installation or dismantling of mosquito nets, insulating windows, cleaning heating appliances and ventilation shafts, and preparing basements. Special post-repair cleaning aims to completely clean the living space from accumulated construction dust, dirt, and material residues. The technology is different in each case, but the general algorithm is as follows:

Remove dust, dirt, grease, lime and other deposits from surfaces, including in hard-to-reach corners.
Refresh textiles (upholstered furniture, curtains, carpets, towels, bed linen, tablecloths).
Wash glass and mirror surfaces.
Clean the space in three dimensions (ceilings, floors, walls).

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What to use

General cleaning of an apartment requires preliminary preparation. You need to stock up on patience, time, tools, materials. It is important to properly tune in to the process, because without a positive charge it will not be possible to carry out quality work.

Good helpers would be:

disposable cloth and paper napkins for cleaning surfaces;
special detergents and polishes for different materials (wood, glass, tiles, laminate, linoleum, stainless steel, sanitary ware and others);
vacuum cleaner with a set of attachments;
broom with dustpan;
brushes for plumbing;
mops (classic or steam) for floors;
air fresheners and odor absorbers for the final stage of work.

Important! To protect the skin of your hands, be sure to use gloves.

Every housewife has her own secrets - home remedies and devices to do the job more efficiently.

Where to begin

When deciding where to start cleaning your apartment, you need to be guided by a general principle: from the cleanest rooms to the most polluted.

Regardless of whether general cleaning is carried out in a one-room Khrushchev house or in a private house, the sequence of putting the premises in order is maintained.

You need to start from the bedroom, then move to the living room or nursery, then to the kitchen and hallway. The finale will be cleaning the bathroom and toilet, since this is where housewives wash rags, shoes, buckets, bringing in dirt.

What is emergency cleaning

Emergency cleaning is a special case when you need to get your house clean in the shortest possible time. For example, when friends or relatives called with a message about their arrival for a visit, but the apartment was not tidy.

Do emergency cleaning not only quickly, but also efficiently.

The main thing here is not to panic, to do without fuss. We need to pull ourselves together and calm down. It is important to outline a work plan that will help save both effort and time. And, of course, everything should be organized correctly.

It is worth dividing the apartment into zones and acting consistently, following the plan.

The kitchen is the place to start cleaning.

It’s better to start with the kitchen, then switch to the bathroom, then move to the hallway and living room with cleaning. It is not necessary to clean all rooms. It is important to focus on those areas that will be visible to guests.

Tips for keeping things clean and tidy

Of course, tidying up the house is not difficult, especially if everything is at hand and things have their place.
The easiest way to clean an apartment is where things are all put in their places. In this case, it is enough to brush off the dust, vacuum and wet clean. Tips for keeping things clean and tidy:

However, most often things are worse, because there is a mountain of things in the wardrobe, on the bed, on the sofa. In every home there are places where garbage accumulates. In the kitchen it can be a mountain with bills, in the bedroom it can be a hated chair or armchair with a lot of things. All this needs to be put in place right away.
In this case, it is necessary not only to carry out cleaning, but to do it methodically. Sometimes you can spend the whole day cleaning without really doing anything. This happens because we organize the process itself incorrectly.
At the first stage, you need to think about everything and understand in which area you will be cleaning.
Under no circumstances should you clean multiple areas at the same time. You need to deal with the first zone, and then move on to the next one.
A smartphone can help you with this. Take photos of the room from four angles and sort out the areas that have the most clutter and debris. It is from these areas that you start working. However, before this, organize your workspace correctly so that you don’t have to run from the bedroom to the kitchen to the bathroom 10 times.

Cleaning procedure

What not to do

But what you need to give up is cleaning upholstered furniture yourself: in this case we are talking about complex stains. You should not start cleaning even if you are fully confident that you have purchased an excellent product. Most likely, the situation will only get worse. Ideally, such tasks should be entrusted to specialists who clean furniture and carpets.

Order in the apartment should become a way of life. Then you won’t have to force yourself to clean, and the house will always sparkle with cleanliness.