Let’s face it, cleaning isn’t everyone’s favorite weekend activity. While the reward of having a spotless home afterward is second to none, deep cleaning every room in your house is a ton of work. And on top of that, consider that the average home has almost 300,000 items in it! Many people will participate in spring cleaning to air out their homes after being cozied up for the long winter months. They’ll be set for the year after this, but dirt and dust rarely wait that long to gather in the corners of your home again.
Although it might not roll off the tongue quite as well, fall cleaning is an important chore that shouldn’t slip to the wayside in favor of haunted hayrides and pumpkin picking. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why you shouldn’t skip fall cleaning and a few important spots to hit when you finally get to it.
Clean Out Before You Close Up
Just as spring cleaning is a good way to clean up your home after being cooped up in it, fall cleaning is the perfect time to clean it up before you’re cooped up in it. As the temperatures begin to dip in the fall and get downright freezing in the winter, you won’t be opening up your windows or turning on your home’s air conditioning to refresh the air as you did in the summer. That means all the dirt and dust that made its way into your home since your spring cleaning will stay there until winter ends.
By cleaning in the fall, you can make sure that you start your winter hibernation in a home free of dust and grit. A fall cleaning can also help rid your house of any bugs or spiders that want to make your home their own during the chilly winter months. About 56% of homeowners said that they have had a problem with ants in the last year. A little cleaning can help stop these pesky bugs from ruining your holidays.
Prep For The Holidays
The holiday season can seem like a far-off concern, but it always comes much more quickly than you expect. Before you get swept up in hosting family from out-of-town and cooking food for days on end, dedicate a weekend to fall cleaning. When it gets closer to the time of your guests’ arrival, you’ll only have to do an easy surface cleaning.
During your fall cleaning, you might want to go through your closets and purge some of the clothes that you don’t wear as often. Not only can your unwanted clothing join the 14.3 million tons of donated American textiles that help families around the world, but you can clear out clutter to make room for your holiday guests. If you’re expecting to receive some gifts over the holidays, cleaning out your closets now will give you a bit more storage.
Create Healthy Habits
We all want to live a life filled with healthy habits, but it can be a challenge. When you commit to doing a fall cleaning as well as a spring cleaning, you’re making a change to build a habit of deep cleaning twice a year rather than just once. If you’re among the 50% of adults who visit the dentist every six months for teeth cleaning, don’t you think your home deserves the same dedication to twice-a-year cleaning? You can save yourself the trouble of tackling a year’s worth of dirt and grime all at once by making it a habit to do a fall cleaning.
Cleaning and decluttering your home more regularly can also help put you in a better state of mind. Clutter tends to exhaust us mentally. In prehistoric times, humans needed to survey their environment for survival and the more clutter that was in the way of that survey, the harder it was to spot danger. From a less evolutionarily-focused standpoint, people also tend to find clutter stressful because they can communicate who they are through the design of their homes. Excess objects and chaos can muddy the message you want to send with a space.
How To Start Fall Cleaning Today
If these reasons have convinced you to put some elbow grease into cleaning your home this fall, start off easy. Wipe down all surfaces that can collect grime, including windows, walls, countertops, blinds, and light fixtures. Next, break out the vacuum to tackle your home’s carpets. It’s recommended that you vacuum your carpet twice a week anyway, so going the extra step and having the professionally shampooed can be a good investment for fall cleaning. Give wood or tile flooring some TLC with the appropriate cleaners. Then, go through your closets and shelves to declutter and reorganize your belongings.
Beyond the more minute details of fall cleaning, there are a few maintenance tasks you should focus on as well. Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and replace them if necessary. If you need to replace them, consider investing in a security system. Homes without security systems are 300% more likely to be burglarized and many modern systems can detect fires as well as intruders. Other maintenance tasks you should do this fall include cleaning the gutters, changing the furnace filter, and checking your home’s insulation.
It may be a lot of work, but preparing your home now means that you have much less to worry about when winter comes around. Set yourself up for a happier and healthier holiday season with a little fall cleaning and you’ll reap the rewards all winter long.
