Cleaning Gone Wild: Keeping Camp Clean

Lots of people get away from the nonstop busyness of everyday life by retiring to the woods for a few days. While going off the grid is relaxing, there’s no maid service in the wild. Keeping camp clean can be tricky; these cleaning gone wild tips will keep you on track.

Cleaning is Necessary, Even at Camp

Cleaning a camp, or even a tent, is necessary. Life is messy, no matter where we are. In the woods it’s especially important to clean up leftover food or anything that might attract insects or bears or other undesirable visitors.

Keep a Lid on Food

Store food in locking, airtight containers to keep out wildlife and insects as well as ensure the food’s freshness.

Keep Food Cool

Keep items that normally require refrigeration on ice.

Clean Up Leftovers

Never leave leftover food sitting around unattended. Seal it up in airtight containers or Ziplocs.

Don’t Leave Trash Lying Around

Corn cobs and dirty paper plates have the potential to attract unwanted attention. Keep them under wraps or in a locking trash can.

Bring Plenty of Water

If camp doesn’t have a supply of fresh water, be sure to bring plenty to use for cleaning up.

Wash Your Dishes

Dirty dishes don’t belong at camp any more than leftovers or open food. Pack a couple of plastic tubs specifically for dishwashing. If there’s no hot water, heat some up on a cookstove or over a fire (use a fire-proof pan).

Don’t Forget a Broom

Sand and dirt and pine needles are tracked inside all day long at camp. Plan to sweep at least once a day.

If There’s Power, Bring a Small Shop Vac

If camp has a power source, a small shop vac is useful for all kinds of jobs from cleaning up sand on the floor to removing cobwebs to vacuuming cushions or other furniture and cleaning up mouse leavings. Use your imagination.

About Cobwebs

The cobwebs at camp aren’t the same as the cobwebs at home. At camp, think of cobwebs as nature’s insect traps. Eliminate some, if you must, but leave a few cobwebs around to reduce the number of gnats and mosquitos.

Cleaning Wipes

This is the only time the Cleaning Pro will advocate the use of disposable cleaning wipes, with the caveat that they be disposed of properly. Nature’s call must be answered, and if the facilities lack running water, cleaning wipes may be the simplest choice to ensure a sanitary toileting experience.

It’s Camp, It’s Supposed to be (a little) Dirty

Finally, don’t try to eliminate every speck of dust at camp. This is the time to let it be. Keep up what’s necessary to promote safety and good health, and let the rest go. Relax and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Want more organizing and house cleaning tips and ideas? Check out my author page. My books include De-Clutter and Organize Your Home in 7 Simple Steps, Clean Like A Pro: Tips and Techniques for Cleaning Your Home Like a Seasoned Professional, and How to Become a Cleaning Pro: the Ultimate Guide to Starting and Operating Your Own House Cleaning Service.

House Cleaning Chores You Should Be Doing Every Day

Dirt and grime come into your home every day. It’s not realistic to expect that cleaning once every six months will keep your home in tip-top shape. Keeping a clean house is all about regular maintenance. And there are some chores that should never be neglected longer than a day or two. The following are some basic house cleaning chores you should be doing every day.

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Dishes

Don’t let dirty dishes sit around. Rinse them or wash dishes immediately after using them. Don’t ever allow food to harden, congeal, or crust onto dishes. It’s unhygienic.

Dirty dishes left even overnight attract bugs and create bad odors. Take a few minutes after each meal to deal with dirty dishes of all types. If you must, leave pots and pans to soak for a few minutes using warm water and dish detergent. But don’t leave them in this state indefinitely.

Burned-on messes need to be scrubbed cleaned. No amount of soaking will eliminate the need for scrubbing tough messes.

And don’t treat the dish washer as an out-of-sight-out-of-mind depository for those pans and dishes that can only be cleaned using elbow grease. Just roll up your sleeves and deal with the mess. Today.

Kitchen Cleanup

Do at least a minimal kitchen cleanup after food prep. Wipe up any food spills or crumbs and don’t let food sit around uncovered or unrefrigerated if it should be covered or refrigerated. If there’s anything that might attract bugs or start to smell, deal with it immediately. If it’s a spill that will get worse over time, deal with it.

Smelly Trash

Take out the trash regularly. Pay particular attention to malodorous garbage and move it out of the house ASAP.

Clutter

Toss junk mail immediately. Put away book bags and shoes right away. When you are done using the scissors, put them away. Don’t allow clutter to pile up.

Piles of clutter soon become invisible. Don’t let this happen. Clear surfaces are easy to clean. This means keeping clutter under control makes house cleaning a cinch.

Dirty Clothes

Pre-treat clothing stains as soon as possible. Smelly socks or damp towels should be washed right away. Don’t allow germs and bacteria to breed in dirty laundry.

Entryways

Sweep or quickly vacuum tracked dirt from entryways to prevent dirt and mud from being tracked all through your home. This is one of the quickest and easiest means of keeping floors clean, which means less time spent sweeping and vacuuming on cleaning day.

Regular daily cleanups not only ensure good health for your family, they keep your home looking and smelling good every day. These basic daily chores should never be left too long. So be sure to stay on track by getting into the habit of doing these basic chores every day.

Tips and Time Savers for the House-Cleaning Challenged

Keeping your home clean can be challenging. Some folks make it seem effortless, while others struggle every day to keep even the basics under control. While it’s true that some fortunate souls have a natural ability, anyone can learn what it takes to be a cleaning whiz. These tips and time savers for the house-cleaning challenged will get you there.

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Keep it Simple

House cleaning is a very straightforward process. To stay on track, don’t undermine yourself by making cleaning unnecessarily complicated or procrastinating getting started until the job looms large.

Don’t be the person who dillydallys as a mode of avoidance, so the minor mess that could have been easily converted into a gleaming space deteriorates into a minor hazmat event.

Get Busy

The best way to get yourself on the road to cleaning wizardry is to simply get busy. Dust off the vacuum cleaner, rustle up a few cleaning cloths, and get going. Don’t think about it. Just do it. Follow the trail of dirt, dust, and grime and erase it. When the dirt is gone, your job is done. My post Basic Lessons in House Cleaning might help.

Once you’ve mastered the basic process of cleaning, make it a habit. That’s really all there is to it. Do it, and do it often.

To fine-tune your cleaning skills, here are some time-saving tips and advice:

Clean Frequently

Get into a routine of cleaning up once a week or every day as you go along or whatever works for you. Cleaning often ensures that dirt never gets the opportunity to build up and settle in.

Eliminate Clutter

Cleaning is easier when surfaces are free of extraneous possessions. Furthermore, dust has less opportunity to take a foothold when there are fewer nooks and crannies for it to settle into.

Organize

Organize your stuff so you know where everything goes when it’s time to pick up.

Use a Dusting Tool

Dust with a long-handled dusting tool rather than a cloth or rag, and work swiftly, dusting everything with your tool. A tool with nubs that grab dust will work universally on all surfaces from chair rails to baseboards to lampshades to knick-knacks and books to tables and shelves.

The long handle means you won’t have to bend down to reach baseboards or strain to reach up high. Don’t move any objects that you don’t have to move in order to reach dust.

Rotate Tasks

Rotate tasks. Many chores shouldn’t have to be done every time you clean. You will soon get a feel for which ones you can do on a rotating basis. If it isn’t visibly dirty, you probably can put it off until next time or the time after.

Use the Right Stuff

Use appropriate cleaning agents. Use a cleaner that is strong enough to break down the grime you are aiming to eradicate. Don’t use a heavy-duty cleaner on a surface that isn’t particularly dirty or use more of a cleaning agent than is necessary.

Buy Good Supplies

Invest in good equipment: a faulty or ill-performing vacuum cleaner or mop will cost you time in the long run. For more advice about what to use, check out my post What Supplies do You Need to Clean a House?

Keep Your Supplies Straight

Keep track of your cleaning supplies. On cleaning day, you should be able to readily lay your hands on everything you need without spending a half hour hunting down the mop.

Don’t Rush the Job

Don’t try to rush while you’re cleaning. It’ll only cost you time in the long run if things get overlooked, or worse broken or spilled.

Do a Good Job

Do it right the first time. Having to go back over what you’ve already done is a waste of time and energy.

Home cleaning can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. Spending a little time every day or two and a couple of hours every week keeping the situation in hand is all it takes. There are many benefits of daily cleaning. Keep it simple, don’t make work for yourself, and don’t procrastinate. Establish good habits and in no time you, too, can be a cleaning whiz.

Getting Motivated to Clean Your Home

What do you do when you’ve lost your will to clean? You see the dust bunnies in the corners and toothpaste splatters on the mirrors but you just can’t work up the enthusiasm to get going. With each passing day, the job becomes bigger and in time you truly dread the thought of cleaning your house.

How do you get moving? Assuming you’re not suffering from anything more serious than a motivational issue, here are some suggestions for getting motivated to clean your home.

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Visualization

Imagine your home looking clean and beautiful. Think about how nice it would be to get ready for work tomorrow in a squeaky clean bathroom and come home to clean floors and prepare dinner in a spotless kitchen. These images might just light the spark you need to get your fire going.

Spur yourself to action by picturing your awesomely clean home and keep thinking about it as you power through the job.

Reward Yourself

If that’s not the right approach to spur you into action, try a reward system. Set some cleaning goals for yourself and promise yourself a treat when they are achieved.

For example, if you are trying to lose weight, dangle a chocolate ice cream cone out on the horizon. You can have it after you clean your house. The calories burned cleaning will equal out with the ice cream. It’s a good trade-off.

Or, if you think a hair treatment you’ve been considering is too extravagant for your budget, calculate how much it would cost to pay someone to clean your home (the going rate is probably somewhere between $25 and $45 per hour) and then reward yourself with a trip to the hairdresser after you do the job yourself.

Take Baby Steps

If that’s not doing it for you, try taking baby steps. Instead of looking at house cleaning as a great big job, think of it as a whole bunch of little jobs. Then tackle one little job, and then, later on, tackle another. Work at whatever pace you want.

Doing one little job, no matter how small, is better than doing nothing at all. So today you might clean the inside of the microwave and tomorrow you might clean the stove and the next day the kitchen countertops and so on. Eventually you might even begin to get motivated by all you’ve accomplished, get some momentum going, and tackle a whole room in one fell swoop.

Since house cleaning is a job that can build on itself, this is a great approach to take to kick your cleaning groove into action. It’s never essential to clean your whole house at once. Cleaning it in smaller increments works just as well. At some point, you’ll get into a routine. Then, spending fifteen minutes a day will become half an hour and before you know it your whole house will be in tip-top shape. Take some baby steps and you’ll be running in no time.

Make Cleaning a Habit

Cleaning isn’t supposed to be fun. Getting motivated can be tough. Housekeeping is a difficult job. Another suggestion I have for you with regard to getting motivated is to make house cleaning a habit. Working out a regular routine and then integrating it into your life is the best way to keep your home in shape.

Ideally, break down the large job of keeping an orderly home into many small tasks and take it in stages throughout your week. You’ll have to concentrate at first, but after a little while it’ll be part of your routine and you won’t mind doing it because you won’t give it a second thought.

If you haven’t got the time to break it down, a once weekly or every other week full house run-through will net you the same results. The same approach will work as well. Make it a priority to devote a block of time to cleaning your whole house periodically. Each time you complete the routine, it will get easier. In time, your routine will be so routine you won’t even think about it.

Whatever approach you take, it’s essential to get back into your cleaning groove ASAP. Continuing to let things slide makes the job loom larger and larger. It’s often the case that once you get started, you’ll find your enthusiasm pick up.

Just Do it

So, as a last-ditch option, just do it. Get up right now and start cleaning your kitchen. Don’t think about it, just do it. Once you get going, you might just find that your will to clean comes back with a vengeance. Ten hours later, your windows will sparkle, your garage will be immaculate, and even your sidewalks will glisten. Hey, you never know.

Tips for Cleaning Cluttered Spaces

If you’ve read any of my posts heretofore, you’ll know that The Cleaning Pro frowns upon clutter. Clutter makes cleaning difficult, breeds dust, and conceals necessary items. However, the reality is that some people are simply not organizers, and cluttered spaces still need to be dusted and vacuumed and generally spruced up. These tips for cleaning cluttered spaces will help get you there.

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Put Dirty Clothes in a Hamper

Don’t throw your clothes on the floor. Put them in a laundry basket or put them away if they’re not dirty. As a last resort, pile them up somewhere, and don’t let the pile get so high that it topples over. It’s impossible to vacuum or sweep floors that are buried in clothes.

Don’t Pile Things Haphazardly

Make your clutter as orderly as you can. Put papers that belong with other papers into piles: bills with bills, junk mail to sort later with other junk mail to sort later, newspapers with newspapers, magazines with magazines.

If it’s all in a big pile of nonsense, you can’t find anything, and bills will go unpaid, your car registration will expire, important papers will be forever lost in the abyss.

Separate Important Paperwork

On a related note, get a basket for the important paperwork that you need to sort through. When the basket is full you have reached your deadline. Deal with it.

Don’t Save Junk

Stop saving clippings, newspapers, magazines, etc. that you will never look at again. If you can’t find anything anyway, isn’t it easier to toss it out now rather than allow dust to settle onto it for the next fifteen years?

Don’t let stuff that’s just plain trash pile up. Move your recycling to the curb or the dump. Old newspapers, magazines, food wrappers, and similar items have no residual value.

Keep Fishing Gear Out of the Living Room

Tools, gardening equipment, parts for the car belong in the garage or the tool shed or the basement. You can’t pile all your fishing gear in the middle of the living room and expect to be able to clean around it (or live there). I’m sorry, but this is where a line has to be drawn.

Christmas Only Comes Once a Year

Take your Christmas tree down by the end of January at the latest. Especially if it was a live tree.

Keep the Kitchen Clean

Keep the countertops in your kitchen as free of clutter as possible so they can be wiped off periodically.

Throw out food containers. Don’t save leftovers indefinitely. Go through the fridge once a week and toss out food that’s no good.

Pay attention to your nose and if you smell a funky odor, you need to root out its source. Now.

Bathroom Clutter is a Big No-No

In the bathroom, don’t let stuff pile up on the counters. Put toiletries into drawers or cabinets. If your drawers and cabinets are full, set aside an hour to go through everything and throw out what’s no good.

Or put all that clutter into a basket when it’s time to clean. You can’t clean countertops that are covered in stuff, and all that clutter collects dust which, in humid bathrooms, turns into a crusty mess.

Minimize Clutter As Much As Possible

While some clutter is tolerable, don’t let it get out of control. Bear in mind that clutter accumulates dust and there’s no way to vacuum or sweep cluttered areas. Unchecked clutter spreads from corners outward until entire rooms disappear. So do your best to keep it to a minimum so you can move freely enough through your living space to clean (and live).

Do Your Best to Keep it Clean

On cleaning day, do what you can with what you’ve got. Dust ceilings and walls for cobwebs. Dust all flat surfaces and dust over and around any piles of stuff. Clean the kitchen and bathrooms. Follow the advice presented here and do your best. It’s not easy, but it is possible (and necessary) to clean cluttered spaces.

Keeping a Clean House When you Have Messy Roommates

Your roommates are slobs and it’s driving you crazy because you like to keep a neat and tidy home. Besides finding new living quarters, is there a solution to this dilemma? Keeping a clean house when you have messy roommates can be tough.

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Different Styles

People have many different attitudes toward house cleaning. Some can’t function in anything less than a perfectly ordered environment and therefore clean continually as a normal part of daily life. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the folks who are oblivious to piles of dirty dishes and masses of cobwebs. Most people fall somewhere in between these two extremes on the cleaning continuum.

If you’re faced with having to tell your roommate that their slovenly ways are driving you nuts, there are strategies that you can use to attempt to resolve the issue. Whatever you do, don’t resort to yelling. Coercion is never the answer.

Communicate

Step one is to assume that your roommate is simply unaware of their shortcomings in the housekeeping arena. Communication may quickly resolve the problem. Gently open a conversation in a non-accusatory manner and approach the situation as the mutual problem that it is. You might say something like: “I’m the type of person who functions optimally in an uncluttered environment, so I wonder if we could work out a system to keep our place a little more picked up than it has been.”

Hopefully this will start you talking about your different attitudes toward clutter, or dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, or dirty dishes in the sink. There are lots of people who never learned how to clean, and your unfortunate roommate may be one of them.

Make a Plan

Starting this discussion should lead you directly to step two, which involves you and your roommate setting up a cleaning plan. Getting your roommate involved in the solution both empowers them and holds them accountable.

This is the time to talk about cleaning goals. Is your beef chronic clutter or a dirty bathroom or a perpetual mess in the kitchen? Be as specific as possible about what needs to be done to bring your home up to code. It may be the case that a little bit of education will go a long way toward solving the problem. After all, most people don’t want to live in slovenly homes. So give your roommate the benefit of the doubt.

You might simply write up a list of the specific tasks that need to be done and then ask your roommate which ones they want to do. For example:

Wipe down kitchen counters, appliances, and clean sinks.
Throw out food that’s no longer any good.
Take out the trash.
Wash the kitchen floor.
Dust and vacuum the living area.
Clean the bathroom sinks, countertops, mirrors, tub, and toilet.
Do laundry.

Specifically spelling out what needs to be done to maintain order serves several purposes. It gives your roommate ideas in case they don’t actually know what to do. It also sets very clear goals about what needs to happen to make your living area clean. It gives you both a reference point in case tasks get lost in the shuffle of daily life. And it gives you both the ability to negotiate who does what as well as establishing accountability if things don’t get done.

Carry Out Your Plan

This takes you to step three: implementation of your plan. Once you’ve ironed out a solid contract, you and your roommate have to each carry out your parts. If you’ve both agreed to keep your individual clutter confined to particular areas and take care of certain chores, you must each follow through. Failure to do so violates your contract.

As a Last Result

Consistently failing to respect your agreement (on either end) might signify a more serious problem with your relationship. At the end of the day, the place where you live is your respite from the world. It should be a place where you can relax and unwind, not a constant source of irritation. If you’ve made an earnest attempt to resolve your issues and are unable to do so, then it might be time to consider rethinking your choice of roommates.

A Clean House is in the Details

A clean house is in the details. And there are many little details involved in cleaning. Yes, you can do a quickie cleaning job and it’ll be fine. Sometimes skimming off the top layer is all there’s time to do, and that’s better than doing nothing at all. But a really detailed cleaning job shines bright.

Many little details comprise the finishing touches that transform your ordinary cleaning routine into one that makes your home the envy of the neighborhood. The following are some examples of details that make a difference.

Get Rid of Cobwebs

Cobwebs hanging from your chandelier are unsightly and make your home look dirty. Look around for cobwebs on the ceiling, on light fixtures, in corners, and on the edges of furniture.

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Dust Baseboards

Take the time to use a dusting wand or your vacuum cleaner dusting tool to remove dust from baseboards, chair rails, window sills, window grates, and the ridges on louvered and paneled doors.

Spot Clean Doors and Walls

Use a damp cloth to eliminate fingerprints and smudges from door frames, doorknobs, walls, switch plates, and hand rails and banisters.

Clean Entry Door Glass

Make an excellent first impression on visitors by having spotless glass on your entry doors. If this area looks clean, people will notice.

Fluff Throw Pillows

For optimal presentation, fluff and artfully arrange throw pillows and throws.

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Vacuum Pet Hair from Furniture

Having pets means extra maintenance for you. Don’t allow pet hair to overrun your furniture. Use your vacuum upholstery tool to thoroughly remove hair from cushions, the backs that you lean against, arms, and any other areas to which you see hair clinging.

Spot Clean Cabinet Doors

Wipe away spills, spots, and fingerprints on cupboard doors in the kitchen, bathroom and anywhere else.

Clean Appliance Fronts

If you do nothing else, cleaning fingerprints and spills from the fronts of your microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, trash compactor, and stove give your kitchen a clean appearance.

Pick up Clutter

De-cluttering your space is one of the best ways to make it look clean. Surfaces that are covered in debris look messy and collect dust.

Eliminate Dust Bunnies

Be sure to clean up dust bunnies in corners. Noticeable globs of dust make your home look dirty, regardless of whether it actually is.

Spot Clean Insides of Windows

Clean any fingerprints and doggie nose prints on the insides of your windows. No one notices when they’re not there, but they do when they are.

There are countless little details that can make or break your house cleaning efforts. For more ideas, see my post Atypical Cleaning Jobs.

We often don’t notice things we see every day, so hone your skills of observation. Learning to clean is a hands-on endeavor and there’s always room for improvement. That’s what makes it interesting.

Whenever time permits, give the job the attention to detail that’ll make your home sparkly clean!

Cleaning a Really Dirty Bathroom

The toughest room in the house to clean when it hasn’t seen any recent attention is the bathroom. Cleaning a really dirty bathroom takes time and elbow grease.

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De-Clutter

The first order of business is to de-clutter. Pick up and/or discard extraneous items from all surfaces.

Rugs and Window Treatments

Next, remove rugs and shake out or wash. Finally, tackle window treatments.

Shower Curtain

Take down the shower curtain, if applicable. If you wish, try washing it in the washing machine on gentle cycle with a couple of towels in warm water and a little bit of detergent and some vinegar. Don’t dry a plastic or vinyl shower curtain in your clothes dryer, however. Air dry only.

Dust and Clean Woodwork

Dust the bathroom from the top down, including any furniture, shelves, etc. Clean woodwork, windows, light fixtures, etc. as in other rooms.

Sweep

Sweep or vacuum the floor. Do this step before tackling the shower. No matter how careful you are, cleaning a shower usually results in water splashes on the floor. It’s easier to sweep dry dust and dirt.

Tub and Shower

Next, tackle the tub/shower. Make sure to ventilate the bathroom by opening a window or turning on the vent fan. Then generously spray some tub and tile cleaner on shower walls and use a nylon scrubber or eraser-type sponge to scrub the areas you sprayed. Rinse thoroughly.

Alternatively, use cleansing powder and a non-abrasive scrub brush.

On showers made of Granite or other materials, use a product specifically made for the surface.
To remove mold or mildew, use a cleanser containing chlorine bleach. Alternatively put some 3% hydrogen peroxide into a spray bottle and spray onto the mildew areas. Allow to sit for an hour, scrub and rinse.
Remove rust stains with an eraser-type sponge or apply a thick paste of baking soda and water, allow to sit for an hour, then rinse.

Sinks

Clean the sink(s) with tub and tile cleaner, all-purpose spray, or a sudsy scrub. Stains can be removed using an eraser-type sponge.

Toilet

Clean the toilet. Remove tough stains with a pumice stone.

Mirror

Don’t forget to clean the mirror(s). To remove any type of film, spray with vinegar then buff clean.

Floor

Your bathroom should be in good shape at this point, with nothing left to clean but the floor. If it’s a small room, and the floor is extremely dirty, it might be easier to scrub it by hand, which allows you to reach into corners and clean the baseboards more easily.

Replace Rugs

After the floor dries, replace window treatments and rugs. Admire your handiwork. Your bathroom has been reborn!

Quick Checklist for Cleaning Your Kitchen

This cut-to-the-chase post contains a quick checklist for cleaning your kitchen. It’s easy to understand and easy to follow. So get busy!

To Begin

remove scatter rugs and wash
dust ceiling, walls, and corners for cobwebs
dust light fixtures
dust window treatments, window grates, window sills
dust chair rails, wall hangings, baseboards, baseboard heaters

Spot Clean These Areas

spot clean walls, door frames, switch plates
clean doorknobs
dust panels on doors
clean entry door glass
clean table and chairs, pay special attention to any sticky areas
spot clean cupboard doors and drawer fronts

Appliances

clean appliance fronts, paying special attention to keypads and handles
clean inside microwave
clean inside refrigerator
clean stove
clean oven

Countertops

clean and disinfect countertops
clean backsplash
clean countertop appliances
clean sinks

Rotate Food

clean food spills in cupboards
discard spoiled or expired food
bring older but not expired food to the front of cupboards

Finish

remove trash
clean trash container
clean floor
replace rugs

That’s it! Not every task on the list needs to be done every time you clean. Rotate things like cleaning out the refrigerator or cleaning the oven. Tackling one such chore each time you clean ensures that all areas get cleaned from time to time, which means your kitchen will always be in good shape.

Atypical House Cleaning Jobs

There are lots of tasks that fall outside the scope of a typical house cleaning routine. For this reason, it’s important to watch out for any areas that are starting to look dirty or smell funky. Sometimes when we see things every day we don’t notice the gradual changes that are right in front of us. Once in a while it’s important to tackle atypical house cleaning jobs.

Below the Kitchen Sink

One notoriously grungy and commonly overlooked area lies right below the epicenter of your kitchen: the sink. This space often holds things that are not food-related. Cleaning supplies are frequently stored here. Some people keep their garbage container in this space. Some use it as storage space for brushes, buckets, or other cleaning equipment.

It’s also a spot that sometimes ends up with moisture problems due to leaks. If for no other reason than this, keep an eye on the cupboard that lies below your kitchen sink. From time to time, make it a point to take everything out, wipe up any spills or other messes, discard anything that isn’t useful, and rearrange what’s left.

Kitchen Cupboards

Another kitchen hazard area is the pantry. Food cupboards harbor spills that can easily attract insects or rodents. They also often contain outdated products that ought to be tossed out so they’re not inadvertently served to friends or family. Making a practice of periodically removing all items from your pantry, cleaning and sorting as you go, reduces the likelihood of attracting unwanted visitors or poisoning the ones you asked in for lunch.

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The Refrigerator

Along similar lines, the refrigerator typically needs attention from time to time. Regularly get rid of anything that isn’t fresh. Any foul odor deserves your immediate attention. Every so often, wipe down the inside. Walls, shelves, the racks inside the door, as well as drawers, all need to be cleaned. Food spills, crumbs, and drips typically occur over time and won’t go away on their own.

Light Fixtures and Lampshades

Other areas of the house also need a little extra sprucing up on occasion. Light fixtures and lampshades often accumulate dust or cobwebs that we don’t notice. Dust lampshades gently with a clean paintbrush, a hair dryer, a microfiber dusting wand, or a clean, damp cloth. Alternatively, vacuum lampshades with your dusting tool attachment (use low suction). Light fixtures may be easily dusted with a dusting wand.

Glass shades that are cloudy from dust or dirt can be hand-washed with a little dish detergent in warm water. Glass prisms or shades that aren’t easily removed can be cleaned with a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water applied with a soft cloth and then buffed dry with a second, dry cloth.

Sofa Cushions

Couch and chair cushions often harbor objects, crumbs, dirt, and pet hair. Periodically vacuuming this space easily remedies this situation. It sometimes pays off, too, if there are loose coins among the paraphernalia.

Fingerprints on Walls

Fingerprints and smudges on walls, switch plates, door frames, and handrails often go unnoticed. Whatever doesn’t come clean with a damp cloth or sponge will easily be removed with an eraser-type sponge. Don’t scrub too hard or you’ll remove your paint along with the dirt.

Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans are the number one dust draws in your home, and are quite commonly overlooked on cleaning day. Dusting ceiling fan blades on a regular basis is an excellent way to remove dust from your environment. Use these dust traps to your advantage.

These are just a few of the many jobs that should be done from time to time in order to keep your home at its best. More ideas can be found in my post Cobweb Patrol: What Are You Missing When You Clean Your Home?

Hone your eye for detail by paying attention to things like dusty blinds and fingerprints on windows. Whatever house cleaning routine you generally adhere to, there’s always more stuff that needs attention. A little extra time spent here and there ensures that your home stays in great shape everywhere.