On average, you spend ⅓ of your life sleeping. That means more than ⅓ of your life is spent in your home. For the health of you and your family, you should consider your home a sanctuary. There are small things you can regularly do that will help to keep you healthy - especially as cold season approaches.
Get rid of the allergens, dust, and mold in your house today to keep you and your family healthy throughout flu season. Additionally - keeping your home clean and clutter-free will help you mentally attack the upcoming busy holiday season. Everyone talks about spring cleaning, but all year round cleaning is equally important.
Here are the 5 places you should start cleaning today for a happy, healthy family:
1. Duct Cleaning
Cleaning out your ducts won’t necessarily improve the dust situation in your house, unless you’ve just done a renovation or you’ve built a new house. But it will improve energy efficiency, improve air quality in certain circumstances, and will improve air flow throughout your home - making it more comfortable.
If you live in an old house, there’s a very good possibility that you have mice. For anyone living in an old house - this is often just a fact of life. These mice and vermin are probably in your ducts and removing their feces will improve air quality in your home.
If you have mold in your ducts, you’ll definitely want to get them cleaned as soon as possible. If the situation is bad, you might actually consider cutting out the affected area and replace it.
Your duct cleaning should be done by an HVAC specialist.
2. Junk Removal
Clearing the clutter from your home is great for your mental health. All that piled up junk can easily make you feel overwhelmed. All that clutter can be causing you to be less productive, irritable, and easily distracted.
Go through your house room by room and remove anything that you and your family aren’t using. Donate what you can, and if there’s a lot left over - get rid of it.
If you’re tackling a big area, like a cluttered basement - consider getting a dumpster delivered to your house for a week while you go through it all.
And of course, all of that clutter in your home is collecting dust. Get rid of the stuff that isn’t being used to decrease the dust and allergens in your home so you can breathe easier physically and mentally.
3. Carpet Cleaning
After the summer season of kids running around on your carpet, tracking in who knows what from outside - it’s probably a good idea to give your carpets a thorough clean.
Cleaning your carpets regularly removes the embedded dust and allergens that aren’t removed with a simple vacuum. Additionally, each time you spill something on your carpet - even if you immediately clean it up, mold and grime can start to build up that is not great for your health. Especially if you have small children who are crawling around the carpet - it’s best to clean them approximately once a year.
Not only will following these tips be great for the health of you and your family - it will also make your carpets last much longer. A well cared for carpet should last (nearly) a lifetime.
Most carpet cleaning professionals can also clean upholstery. While you're at it - give your most used furniture a thorough clean - you'll experience the same benefits.
4. Clean Out Your Fridge, Cupboards, & Dishwasher
Your fridge works hard. It’s always on and it’s keeping your food safe for you and your family to eat. It deserves to be treated well for all the work it does.
So clean it out. Like really clean it out. Take everything out, throw out the things that are questionably old, take out the drawers and shelves and give them a good cleaning.
You eat the food that goes into your fridge. I know you wash your produce before you eat it or feed it to your family, but a clean fridge is imperative for a healthy life. There’s old, moldy stuff in there and it has to go.
Of course, this also helps with the mental decluttering. If every time you open your fridge to see a nicely organized area of your home - it will help you mentally.
This is a great time to clean out your cupboards as well. Remove everything, throw out the food that has expired, or that you can’t remember purchasing or what it was for. Then wipe down all the shelves and food containers you put back in the cupboard. Keep an eye out for vermin feces - if you find some - you’ll need to check all of your packaging for bite marks. Toss anything that has bite marks and head to the store to buy some traps immediately.
While you’re at it - clean and deodorize your dishwasher! Put a cup of vinegar on the top shelf of an empty dishwasher and run a full setting on hot. Then put some baking soda on the bottom of the washer and run a half cycle on hot. Then just leave it open to dry for a few hours.
5. Check for Leaky Pipes, Faucets, and Appliances
Check your kitchen and bathroom pipes for leaks. These leaks, if left unattended can seep into your floors and cause mold that you and your family will breathe in. Additionally, now’s a great time to fix any leaky faucets in your home. Leaky faucets get mildew buildup and are incredibly wasteful.
While you’re going through the rooms in your house - why not take a look at your washer, dishwasher, toilets, and fridge. Look underneath them after they run, make sure there’s no evidence of leaks.
To test your toilet for a leak - put a drop of food colouring in the tank - if it shows up in the bowl a few minutes later without you touching the toilet - you may have a leak. Make sure to flush the toilet right after this test so that the food colouring doesn’t stain the bowl or tank.
Contact a plumber to fix any of these leaks. They are very skilled in these types of (probably) routine fixes and therefore it shouldn’t take them too long.
Get rid of the allergens, dust, and mold in your house today to keep you and your family healthy throughout flu season. Additionally - keeping your home clean and clutter-free will help you mentally attack the upcoming busy holiday season. Everyone talks about spring cleaning, but all year round cleaning is equally important.
Here are the 5 places you should start cleaning today for a happy, healthy family:
Cleaning out your ducts won’t necessarily improve the dust situation in your house, unless you’ve just done a renovation or you’ve built a new house. But it will improve energy efficiency, improve air quality in certain circumstances, and will improve air flow throughout your home - making it more comfortable.
If you live in an old house, there’s a very good possibility that you have mice. For anyone living in an old house - this is often just a fact of life. These mice and vermin are probably in your ducts and removing their feces will improve air quality in your home.
If you have mold in your ducts, you’ll definitely want to get them cleaned as soon as possible. If the situation is bad, you might actually consider cutting out the affected area and replace it.
Your duct cleaning should be done by an HVAC specialist.
Clearing the clutter from your home is great for your mental health. All that piled up junk can easily make you feel overwhelmed. All that clutter can be causing you to be less productive, irritable, and easily distracted.
Go through your house room by room and remove anything that you and your family aren’t using. Donate what you can, and if there’s a lot left over - get rid of it.
If you’re tackling a big area, like a cluttered basement - consider getting a dumpster delivered to your house for a week while you go through it all.
And of course, all of that clutter in your home is collecting dust. Get rid of the stuff that isn’t being used to decrease the dust and allergens in your home so you can breathe easier physically and mentally.
After the summer season of kids running around on your carpet, tracking in who knows what from outside - it’s probably a good idea to give your carpets a thorough clean.
Cleaning your carpets regularly removes the embedded dust and allergens that aren’t removed with a simple vacuum. Additionally, each time you spill something on your carpet - even if you immediately clean it up, mold and grime can start to build up that is not great for your health. Especially if you have small children who are crawling around the carpet - it’s best to clean them approximately once a year.
Not only will following these tips be great for the health of you and your family - it will also make your carpets last much longer. A well cared for carpet should last (nearly) a lifetime.
Most carpet cleaning professionals can also clean upholstery. While you're at it - give your most used furniture a thorough clean - you'll experience the same benefits.
Your fridge works hard. It’s always on and it’s keeping your food safe for you and your family to eat. It deserves to be treated well for all the work it does.
So clean it out. Like really clean it out. Take everything out, throw out the things that are questionably old, take out the drawers and shelves and give them a good cleaning.
You eat the food that goes into your fridge. I know you wash your produce before you eat it or feed it to your family, but a clean fridge is imperative for a healthy life. There’s old, moldy stuff in there and it has to go.
Of course, this also helps with the mental decluttering. If every time you open your fridge to see a nicely organized area of your home - it will help you mentally.
This is a great time to clean out your cupboards as well. Remove everything, throw out the food that has expired, or that you can’t remember purchasing or what it was for. Then wipe down all the shelves and food containers you put back in the cupboard. Keep an eye out for vermin feces - if you find some - you’ll need to check all of your packaging for bite marks. Toss anything that has bite marks and head to the store to buy some traps immediately.
While you’re at it - clean and deodorize your dishwasher! Put a cup of vinegar on the top shelf of an empty dishwasher and run a full setting on hot. Then put some baking soda on the bottom of the washer and run a half cycle on hot. Then just leave it open to dry for a few hours.
Check your kitchen and bathroom pipes for leaks. These leaks, if left unattended can seep into your floors and cause mold that you and your family will breathe in. Additionally, now’s a great time to fix any leaky faucets in your home. Leaky faucets get mildew buildup and are incredibly wasteful.
While you’re going through the rooms in your house - why not take a look at your washer, dishwasher, toilets, and fridge. Look underneath them after they run, make sure there’s no evidence of leaks.
To test your toilet for a leak - put a drop of food colouring in the tank - if it shows up in the bowl a few minutes later without you touching the toilet - you may have a leak. Make sure to flush the toilet right after this test so that the food colouring doesn’t stain the bowl or tank.
Contact a plumber to fix any of these leaks. They are very skilled in these types of (probably) routine fixes and therefore it shouldn’t take them too long.
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