Top Cleaning Tips

• If you need to do some serious decluttering, you can’t beat the 3-pile system. Place your items into 1 of 3 piles: KEEP, GIVE AWAY or THROW AWAY. Then make the GIVEAWAY and THROW AWAY happen.  
• Reorganize your smaller amount of stuff into easy-to-find places or containers. 
• Get new bins or shelves that work for your stuff.

• Pack confidential papers into boxes to take to the shredding company or the next community shred event.

Always clean with the least harmful products first, especially if you don’t know what to do. Basic non-harmful cleaning products like water, dish soap, baking soda or vinegar may work and they are less harmful to you and to the environment.  

But sometimes these won’t work for the job you are doing, so you need to go on to stronger, maybe commercial cleaners.

These are the best thing for most of your cleaning projects and are one place where quality really does make a difference, so get the best you can find. 

• Microfibre cloths are made up of many more and smaller fibres than other cloths. Dirt and other things are more likely to stick to the smaller fibres and can be whisked away. Water droplets are broken up by the smaller fibres so that the water dries without leaving spots.  
• Smooth, fine microfibre cloths should be used for windows, mirrors and other shiny surfaces. Just wring out in hot water and wipe. Rougher microfibre cloths are great for washing and wiping up spills or soaking up liquids from carpets.  
• Use only light coloured or colour-fast cloths that won’t turn your wall or carpet into a coloured stain. 

• Dust and vacuum top to bottom in each area. This will prevent having to move around the same dust more than once.

• Wash walls only if dusting doesn’t give you what you need. All walls do not need to be washed every year. 
• Carefully touch up around high contact areas like light switches and door handles.  
• Wash walls by starting at the bottom and going up.

• Check and clean your refrigerator and freezer. Defrost if necessary.

• Go through your seasonal clothes and get rid of things you did not wear this year as well as items showing too much wear. You only need so many shirts with holes in them to paint the deck. Donate anything that still has some use left in it.

• Check and clean or replace all filters: furnace, air conditioner, vacuum, refrigerator and water softener. Filters have different life spans, so some need to be replaced more often.

• Check your manual to see how and what to use. Use a special fireplace glass cleaner - do not use regular window cleaning products.