Hi everyone,
It’s that time of year again. Actually, it’s my favorite season. Autumn is in the air and I can just about taste the pumpkin pie and the turkey. Unfortunately my house is a disaster from three years of living in it and only small amounts of deep cleaning. This year I decided I have had enough and some things have got to go and I really need to deep clean the place.
Now I live in a one bedroom apartment and am going to post my list below, but you may want to add some things or take off some things depending on the type of space you have. I suggest you light a pumpkin candle, get a good cup of coffee, and turn on some music. It also helps if your kids and your husband are not at home, for maximum efficiency.
Kitchen
- Do general pick up and cleaning in the room before starting the deep clean. This will help keep your regular messes from interfering with your cleaning.
- Start with your pantry. First, go through all of the old food in your cupboard, is any of it expired? THROW IT OUT! Next, decide if there is anything your family absolutely won’t eat. Set this aside to be donated to the nearest food bank. When you are done with that, take things one shelf at a time. I like to organize them by type. I use a shelf for baking products, a shelf for canned food, a shelf for noodles, rice, and bread products, a shelf for snacks, and a shelf for breakfast cereal and oatmeal. Pull the items off the shelf, wipe it down, and then replace them in an orderly fashion. I won’t give you instructions for that. I’m sure you have a system you like. If you don’t, then the way I do it is to sort by food type. For example, I have a lot of canned beans, tomato sauce, etc. I put all of the same types of beans together, all of the tomato items together, all the soup together. It just minimizes confusion when you are looking for something for dinner.
- Next, move on to your refrigerator. Get rid of old papers, notices, pictures, magnets, etc. on the fridge that you don’t use or don’t care for anymore. Wipe down the front of the fridge. You may opt to pull the fridge out and sweep and mop underneath. I don’t do this because I can’t move my fridge. Open the fridge and toss anything that’s expired, shouldn’t be eaten, or has been in the fridge for an unsafe period of time. Make sure there isn’t anything in there that you won’t eat anymore, if there is, toss it. I like to put my drinks on one shelf, my lunch and leftover items on another, produce in the drawer, and meat items that are thawing on the bottom shelf. I never put meat on the top shelf because of the potential for it to drip on items below. Take the time to wipe off the shelves, wipe out the egg keeper, the butter keeper, and the front of the fridge where the door sits. Then open the freezer and repeat the process. I also like to dust off the top of my refrigerator because believe it or not… it gets REALLY gross!
- The next thing to do is go through your drawers. I have a silverware drawer, Junk/Utensil drawer, and two drawers that hold container lids and ziploc baggies, napkins, etc. Take the time to go through them and toss anything that is old and unuseable (i.e. old birthday candles, junk that you won’t use, etc.). If there is something that is salvageable that you don’t want, place it in a donation box for your local Salvation Army or Goodwill. When you are all finished sorting, place everything neatly back in the drawers.
- Go through your cabinets and put any pans that you won’t or don’t use (you know the one that Aunt Sally bought for your wedding 15 years ago that you’ve used once? Time to go!) into the donation box. Arrange things neatly and make sure there aren’t any crumbs or anything that’s spilled in the cabinet.
- Wipe off your dishwasher and take the time to run a clean cycle if you can.
- Are there any appliances on your counter tops that you haven’t used in two weeks (or a month? Or six months?)? See if you can find a place to put them in the cupboards so that they are not taking up valuable counter space.
- Wipe down the inside and the outside of your microwave. Clean tip: Use a container of water, set for a few minutes to make it hot, and let it sit inside the microwave. The steam will help loosen gunk!
- Wipe the counters down, making sure to get under appliances, around the edges, and especially around the sink.
- Toss old sponges, which are a harbor for nasty bacteria.
- Clean out the sink and wipe it down until it looks polished.
- Wipe the front of the oven door. Put it through a clean cycle if you have time. Take the boiler plates out and soak them. Then try to scrub them off. If you are like me and they have been there for awhile and you can’t get them clean, I’ve been told that you can buy a new set for cheap. That might save time and be worth it if the cost of the cleaner will outweigh the cost of a new set.
- Underneath my sink is where I keep my cleaner. Go through your cleaners (and other misc. stuff under the sink) and toss things that are old, pretty much gone, and cleaners that you don’t use anymore. Organize the ones you have. If you have small children, try to get some mr. yuk stickers and/or put cabinet locks on your cupboard.
- Also, wipe down wall hangings with windex and clean the outside of appliances, as necessary.
- Last but not least, sweep and mop your kitchen, taking extra care to get in all the corners, wiping dust off baseboards, and wiping down walls (if there are spills). Make sure that your kitchen trash gets taken out and then wash the trashcan if it needs it.
Bedroom
- Take the sheets off of the beds and put them in the dirty laundry. Put clean sheets on the beds and make the beds so that they are completely wrinkle free. Replace the pillowcases, as well.
- Place the clean laundry on the bed for folding later.
- Take any dirty laundry out of the room and place it in a laundry basket or hamper (ideally, you should be running laundry while you are cleaning…).
- Put away any clutter or things that need picking up before moving onto the next steps.
- Is your closet used for storage? What’s being stored there? If there is anything you are unlikely to use then donate it, sell it, or put it in the trash. For example, I have tons of baby things from when my son was born. I listed what was sellable on Craigslist and the rest is going to Goodwill. It freed up TONS of closet space! Organize the rest.
- Go through your drawers in your nightstands and toss or donate items that you won’t use. Organize the rest.
- Dust off all surfaces, including underneath jewelry boxes, clocks, radios, etc.
- Use windex to wipe down the windows and windowsill. If there is mold in the windows or along the track, consider using bleach to keep it at bay. Mom-tip: Use “Damp-Rid”, a moisture absorber, to keep the mold at bay. So far, we’ve had ours for a week or two and it’s already absorbed tons of moisture!
- Go through the dresser drawers and weed out clothes that are too small, old, have holes, or are no longer being worn. Sort them into the trash and donate bins. Fold the rest and put them back in the drawers in an organized manner.
- Vacuum the carpets or sweep/mop if you have hardwoods.
- Optionally, you can dust the tops of picture frames, wipe the pictures down with windex, sort old jewelry in the jewelry boxes, put old clothes in space saver bags, and/or repaint if these are things you need to do at your house.
Okay, that’s it for today. I’ll post another post another day about deep cleaning your craft room and family room. Stay tuned!
Tags: bedroom cleaning, cleaning tips, deep clean, fall, kitchen cleaning, mom tips, scrub
Wow! Thanks for the comprehensive list. I feel tired just reading it.
My husband and I are preparing to move, so I know I will need to do all of this soon.