Everything You Need To Know To Start Spring Cleaning The Right Way
Well, spring is in the air, and with that said, it’s time to break out the old broom, the old mop, the old vacuum, and the old cleaning gloves and get to work! It’s everyone’s favorite time of year. You can finally open up the windows, turn down the heat, and turn up the music to get the whole family involved. Spring cleaning is more than a simple cleaning process – it’s a way of passage. It’s a ritual. And most importantly, it’s a tradition. Each and every year, millions of people around the world see the spring time as a way to freshen up their spaces with the mindset of “out with the old, in with the new!”
However, there are some dos and don’ts that you’ll certainly want to keep in mind this spring cleaning season in order to stay on track, stay efficient, and of course, make the most out of your cleaning experience. Take a look below to learn more!
DO – Make A Schedule
First and foremost, spring cleaners tend to get quite ambitious. After all, we don’t blame you! There’s just something about the warmer weather, the longer days, and the fresh air that makes us want to clean out all of our closets, organize the attic, paint the living room walls, and do a yard cleanup all in the span of 48 hours. And even though your motivated mind might think you can do it, the fact of the matter is that you’re going to have to space things out to be most effective.
Instead of trying to do everything all at once, simply make a schedule. If you’re going to be tackling your spring cleaning list with a partner or a family, delegate tasks and give everyone their own schedules to ensure that you maximize your time.
DON’T – Avoid Impulse Junking
If you fell in love with Marie Kondo and started asking yourself, “does this item spark joy?” only to find yourself saying “ehhh…” to most items and then immediately throwing them out, you wouldn’t be alone. However, we would like to encourage you to avoid impulse junking. Spring cleaning season might feel like the best time to go through your closet, your wardrobe, or your basement storage area to find anything and everything that can be thrown away.
It’s just something about spring cleaning that brings out the trash monster in all of us. Do your best to refrain from doing so. Keep the old photo albums, save the old baby clothes, keep your high school yearbook – all you have to do is get things organized. Spring cleaning doesn’t mean impulse junking – it means tidying things up, organizing them, and storing them in a way that prevents clutter.
DO – Embrace A Good Deep Cleaning
We can’t simply ignore the fact that the world is still in the midst of the worst global pandemic in more than 100 years. With that in mind, this spring cleaning season would be a good time to do a deep cleaning all around your home. This means disinfecting all of your most frequently touched surfaces. It means sanitizing your bathroom from top to bottom, cleaning your kitchen and hitting every nook and cranny, and scrubbing those floors as hard as you possibly can.
This past year has been rough on all of us, and it’s likely been quite rough on your home as well! Think about it – you likely spent much more time at home this year than ever before, so take the time this spring cleaning season to really revitalize your home and bring it back to a healthy state.
DON’T – Don’t Try To Get Another Year Out of Your Air Filters
Regardless if you have a window AC unit, a wall-mounted unit, or a comprehensive HVAC system complete with vents in every room, skipping out on new air filters during spring cleaning season is a big mistake. The fact of the matter is that your furnace filters and HVAC filters are critically important components to your home heating and cooling systems. Over time, they build up with dust, toxins, allergens, and so much more.
When you replace them, you give them the chance to operate at peak performance. You’re taking the time to clean your home from top to bottom, so why not ensure that the air you’re breathing is clean and fresh too?
DO – Ask For Help If You Need It
Last, but certainly not least, it’s okay to ask for help with your spring cleaning list. After all, sometimes our list might be a bit bigger than we first imagined – and that’s precisely where friends and family come into play. See if your in-laws would be able to come over and help with the yard cleanup. Maybe your retired uncle can come over and give you a hand moving around some big boxes in the basement.
When you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. After all, we’re all in this together – but don’t worry, we’ll get through it.
And with that, you now have your list of spring cleaning dos and don’ts. So, what are you waiting for? Grab that broom, mop, and vacuum and let’s get started. Don’t forget to share your dos and don’ts in the comments down below. We’d love to hear all about your spring cleaning strategy.
If you need additional help with your spring cleaning, Long Island Maids offers a cleaning service for everyone
Keywords: Spring, Spring Cleaning, Spring Cleaning Dos & Don’ts, Home, Cleaning.
When it comes to your furniture, nothing can be more devastating then watching spill after spill leave stain after stain. Leather furniture can be quite expensive, and the last thing that you’ll ever want is a stubborn stain that just can’t come out. Taking good care of your leather furniture means removing stains quickly, before they have enough time to really settle into the fibers and leave a lasting mark, and here at Long Island Maids, we want to help you learn just how to remove stains from your leather furniture.
Before we begin, remember that spills, marks, and stains are inevitable! We live with – and on – our furniture, and accidents are bound to happen! With that said, knowing the right steps to remove stains from leather furniture will be your saving grace!
Always Keep Leather Primer Handy
It’s important to remember that not all leather is created equally – in that there are different types of leather, and each piece of leather furniture you own might be made up of a different type of leather. For instance, there is semi-aniline leather, or pigmented leather – and there is also aniline leather, too.
Prime your leather furniture for cleaning with a non-ammonia or non-alkaline leather primer to ensure that the fibers are prepped for cleaning. Just a few dabs will do.
Basic Cleaning Supplies
Next, you’ll want to grab some basic cleaning supplies. Make sure that you have a nice-sized container of distilled water, along with some white microfiber cloths – the softer the better, some mild non-detergent soap, and a non-ammonia or non-alkaline leather cleaner. All you really need to remove stains from leather furniture are a few trusty and reliable products – this isn’t about reinventing the wheel, it’s just about having the right tools by your side.
Cleaning Protected & Non-Protected Leather Is A Different Process
Again, not all leather furniture is created equal! Cleaning aniline – or non-protected leather – is a different process than cleaning protected leather like pigmented or semi-aniline leather. Analine leather does not contain a protective layer over its surface, which means it looks and feels much softer – which might appeal to the interior designer in you, but it’s surely not the most durable surface, especially when it comes to stains.
Because of this, you should be able to find some information on how to clean your aniline leather sofa in your manufacturer’s manual, guide, or website. From there, follow their recommendations and be sure to use the right types of products.
On the other hand, cleaning semi-aniline and pigmented leather furniture isn’t nearly as intensive. In fact, it’s quite simple! All you have to do is dampen that white microfiber cloth that you grabbed earlier with some of the distilled water that you have handy. Dab the spot and let it air dry – this is your first course of action.
If the stain remains after it finishes drying, it’s time to take things up a notch. Now, mix a little bit of that mild non-detergent soap with some lukewarm distilled water. Dab the spot with your microfiber cloth again, but then dry it with a different cloth.
That should do the trick! That is, unless the stain that you’re battling is an oil-based stain. In this case, you’ll want to begin with dabbing the stain itself dry with your white microfiber cloth. From there, sprinkle a little bit of baking soda on the area and leave it for a couple of hours. After a few hours go by, return back to it, wipe off the baking soda, and see your stain magically disappear.
And with that, you now know just how to clean stains from leather furniture! And as always, give Long Island Maids a call, and our team can come and pay you a visit to give you a hand.
Keywords: Leather Furniture, Clean Leather, Furniture, Remove Stains From Leather Furniture, How To Remove Stains From Leather Furniture, Long Island, Long Island Maids.
We are all different, some people like packing and hate unpacking and the reverse is the case for others.
If you often ask the question; how long does it take to unpack after moving?
The answer is simple, the volume of your items will determine how long it will take to unpack.
One of the most important moving house tips is that you need to get all necessary packing boxes and then pack the essential stuff first, while you declutter the old home.
Here are some tips on packing and unpacking boxes:
#1: Write down your moving checklist
One of the most important tips for moving into a new home is to have a moving checklist. Your checklist should comprise of the following;
– Checklists for 4-2 weeks until the moving day,
– Checklist for 1 week before moving day,
– 3 days to the move day,
– 2 days before you move,
– 1 day before you move
– The moving day (loading), and
– The moving day (unloading).
Every component you are moving or loading and unloading and all other arrangements must be included in one of the components of the moving house checklist.
For instance, throwing a housewarming party may happen a day after moving into the new home, while new home cleaning may occur the week before living room setup.
You need different organization ideas to help you follow your checklist wisely – try out different setups when organizing a new home.
#2: Be time conscious
The golden rule of moving into a new home or unpacking is to ensure you leave sufficient time to do it.
You need to book enough time from your busy schedules to unpack and not just dedicate a weekend to moving house.
You may take an entire week off from work to unpack, and even get a babysitter for your children to help you focus.
If you don’t have sufficient time to unpack then you can fix a schedule in-between, for instance, you can focus on unpacking 5 boxes a night.
You must set a schedule for your children to unpack too in order to make your job easier.
Try and save the weekend to unpack the most difficult boxes.
#3: Always start with larger items and end with smaller ones
Whether you are packing or unpacking, you need to start with larger items such as beds, dressers, and armoires before you end such unpacking with smaller items such as bedclothes, books, toys, and sundries.
#4: Pay attention to the essentials
Whether you are thinking of a new living room furniture layout or kitchen organization, you must pay attention to all essential items.
You need to have a box and label it “essential” and each member of the family must have one.
The essential items must be unpacked first and this will make your first few nights in the new home more peasant.
#5: Which room must be unpacked first?
Home organization experts suggest that the kitchen should be unpacked only after you assemble all pieces of furniture and beddings.
The kitchen is usually the most complicated and the one that requires a critical re-structuring when settling into a new home.
Once the unpacking and arrangement of the kitchen have been completed, the next is the bedrooms.
Make sure all seasonal clothing are unpacked and well organized while most important ones like kids school uniform and office clothing are properly hanged in their respective places in the wardrobes.
The living room should be the last place to unpack, before the yard, garage, and other external components.
#6: Unpack for function before decoration
Whether you are making furniture arrangement or adjusting your bedroom components, you need to ensure that you need to unpack those items that will help you and your family members eat, sleep and bathe first before other things.
For this reason, your bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom must be sorted first before moving to other areas. Installation of functional items during unpacking will make the job of accessorizing much easier.
Organizing a housewarming party
A housewarming party will help you announce to your friends, family, and colleagues that you have changed address.
While some people prefer to do such parties before they moved into their new homes, others choose to organize such parties a week or two when adjusting to a new home.
Regardless of the time you choose for organizing a house-moving party, it is important to send housewarming party invitations not later than 2 weeks before you move to a new home so that the invitees will keep you in their schedule.
It is important that you settle into your new home and relax from the stress caused by the moving before you start preparing for the housewarming party.
If you are financially sound, you may want to hire a caterer to handle your housewarming party, otherwise, you have to spend extra in handling such.
In conclusion, house moving should not be a fearful thing for couples, especially those who have larger families.
Financially stable families often hire house moving companies to handle such process for them, however, such companies will only unpack your house items and deliver them to your doorstep.
This means you will still have to figure out how you will rearrange the items to make them fit perfectly into your new home.
When figuring out or planning to move, it is ideal to approach a packing company to help you figure out the best packing materials that can handle some vital items (most especially breakable and other valuable accessories or items).
This may cost some money but it will worth the effort in the long run because your items must be delivered unbroken and without any scratch.
Most moving companies do have different packaging stuff for handling household and keep in mind that you still have to hire trucks and pay for the workmanship.
You must probably make a budget before you start preparing for moving, this will help you avoid any likely emergency funding and if you want a clean home to move into, Long Island Maids are always there to help.
