Deep Cleaning Our Homes!!!

Who doesn’t like a clean house. A house that is dust free and is immaculate always! Now wouldn’t that be a dream come true?

Unfortunately, things don’t work that way. We need to tire and toil to ensure our house is neat and clean. I had shared a few tips in one of my previous blogs. Those were more like daily tips to keep the house clean. This blog is dedicated to deep cleaning the house. Here I will talk about tackling the stain in between the tiles, the food stuck in small parts of the stove and the huge French windows. These are just some small things that I learnt over the years and that I follow. Some of them come from the internet, some I learnt from my parents and some I learnt while experimenting on my own. If you think this topic interests you, then do keep reading.

The Bathroom

Now, the bathroom is something I feel that has the most germs. During my weekly cleaning routine, I ensure I clean my bathroom nicely. I clean/scrub the toilet (using a good toilet cleaner), wipe the sink, the counter and the bathroom mirrors with some good cleaning sprays. I also sweep and mop the floor. That at least ensures a neat and clean toilet every week. But once every month I ensure I deep clean the entire bathroom. Apart from all that I mentioned above, I scrub the tiles of the bathroom walls. I take some detergent, make a thick paste out of it using water and slather this mixture onto the walls. Then I use a scrubber (Something like the one we use to wash dishes) and start scrubbing the walls paying special attention to the crevices between tiles. Then I scrub the tiles on the bathroom floor. Once I am satisfied, I ensure I clean the entire thing properly with water. We definitely need to ensure that there is no soap left over, especially on the floor. We don’t want anyone slipping and having a mishap. 😉

We have a glass screen in our bathroom that tends to accumulate a lot of scale from the hard water of the shower. I take a glass cleaning spray, take my window cleaner and clean the screen as well. Once satisfied, I again clean it entirely with water and then clean the floor with water again. Once all this is done, mopping the floor dry helps in the floor being stain and streak free.

You might be wondering, all this is good, but what happens if there is some stubborn mould or something that just refuses to go with detergent. Well, that’s when home remedies come in. That’s when I make a paste out of baking soda and vinegar. Honestly, this mixture is my go to solution for anything related to cleaning. So yeah, I just eyeball some baking soda and vinegar into a bowl and make a thick mixture. Then I place the mixture directly on the mouldy areas, let it sit for 10 – 15 mins and then scrub again. Most of the times the mould is cleared, and we have a clean surface left. In case this doesn’t work, try mixing Baking Soda with Hydrogen Peroxide. I have never really used this method but there are many videos proving that this works.

The Stove

Cleaning the stove seems like a continuous process. No matter how many times you clean it, it tends to get messy as soon as you cook even once. But then, cooking is something we can’t avoid right? So, here’s what I do to keep my stove clean. Apart from cleaning it frequently, once in a month I spend extra time cleaning it. During this time, I will take out all the burners and keep them aside. Then I take a tissue and dust off all the dry crumbs present on the stove. Then, I take my magic mixture (Baking soda and vinegar) and spread it all over the stove. Let it be for about 10 mins and then taking a soft sponge, clean the stove in rotating motions. I scrub a bit harder at the stubborn stains and then using water and kitchen sponges, clean the entire surface. Once all the mixture has been taken out, I take a cleaning spray and using a microfiber cloth, clean the entire stove once again. This just ensures everything is shining bright.

Remember, we had kept the magic mixture on the stove for 10 mins? During this time, I clean and wash the burner and the other parts of the stove that I took out at the start. This ensures that those parts are almost dry by the time we are done cleaning the stove. Before placing the parts back on the stove, I ensure I run a microfiber cloth over it, just to ensure that there are no wet spots.

Now for the most important part. Once all the parts of the stove are placed back, I light all the burners to ensure that they are all burning alright and that these is no water in them.

The French Windows

French Windows are amazing. They are convenient and look absolutely wonderful. They also help us look out without us having to actually go out. But then let’s face it. They are super super super difficult to maintain. Especially the outside part which faces the brunt of dust, rain and sun. But there are a few easy ways to tackle them. Here’s how I maintain them.

Once a month (Or whenever time permits), I keep time aside to clean these windows. Generally, I don’t do this on my own (Considering I can’t reach the top) and so involve my brother and my husband in this. We start by first cleaning the base of the windows. That’s where most of the dust is actually seen. So, we take a microfiber cloth and clean the base. This ensures that when we use water, the dust doesn’t leave streaks. Once that is done, we get our glass cleaning spray and the windows cleaner and get to work. The boys will then spray the windows and start scrubbing them with the sponge end of the cleaner. We then splash water on the frame and use the rubber strip end of the cleaner to get the entire water out as well. We generally do one frame completely and then go on to the next frame. This ensures that nothing dries up and everything gets clean easily.

Once all the windows are done, we just check all the fames to ensure there are no splashes (from cleaning the other frames) and ensure every window is dry. The last step then generally is to clean the balcony as by now there would be quite some dust and water that have come up as the residue after cleaning the windows.

Bonus:

Now that you have made it this far, here’s a small tip. You know how when we sweep and mop or even vacuum, there is some dust that is always left in the pointed corners? Well the easiest way to clean that is to take a Q-tip (ear-bud) and get out all the dust from the corners before starting to sweep or vacuum. This ensures that the dust in the corners come to a more accessible area and that can then be cleaned easily leaving us with a clean corner!

I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope you will try some of what I mentioned above. Keep looking at this space for more cleaning posts and other home decoration ideas.