Holiday Home Cleaning to Cheer About
EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR
By Jennifer McMahan Diaz - Merry Maids® of Tehachapi
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hen the holidays approach, will your home be ready for guests? As most of us know, holiday entertaining can invoke a lot of cleaning, especially if you have a larger home. Amid all the joy and celebration, holiday cleaning can also add stress and put a serious damper on the festivities. Who wants to scrub floors and toilets when there are parties to plan? So, it’s never too soon to start planning for a holiday-perfect home. While you could buy the cleaning supplies yourself and toil over fixtures and floors leading up to your favorite holidays, it’s so much easier to let a professional do the work. We all want peace of mind so that the focus is on friends and family this time of year. HERE ARE SOME OBJECTS AND PLACES YOU MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN TO PUT ON YOUR HOLIDAY CLEANING CHECKLIST: Dishwasher. It may leave your dishes sparkling, but your dishwasher isn’t self-cleaning. If it’s been a while since you cleaned your dishwasher, you may need to dedicate some time to scouring the filters and loosening up old food and grime. Just turn your dial to the hottest wash setting and add a strong cleaning agent, such as baking soda. Lampshades. Lampshades are a magnet for dust and dirt. But because most of us don’t think to clean them, all that accumulated dust may be affecting the quality of your light and air. Depending on your lampshade fabric, you may need to use very specific cleaning methods. Throw pillows. From pet stains to food stains, throw pillows can attract a lot of unpleasant odors and bacteria over time. If your decorative pillows are not machine-washable, try a gentle handcleaning process with special upholstery shampoo instead. Doorknobs and handles. Our hands are always touching doorknobs and handles, so it’s important to rub those down often! Give them a thorough wipe with damp microfiber cloths and allpurpose cleaner to keep them sparkling. Light switches. Much like doorknobs and handles, light switches have the tendency to collect bacteria from our hands. Make sure to spray your all-purpose cleaner onto a microfiber cloth first, taking care to avoid spraying the lighting hardware. Baseboards. Baseboards likely encircle your entire home, but you probably never think about them! For a deep clean, give them a thorough dusting with a dry microfiber cloth, and then scrub away grime with a mixture of dish-washing liquid and warm water. Refrigerator drawers. The crisper in your refrigerator may look clean and transparent, but there could be any number of bacterial strains lurking in the corners. It’s important to wash out your refrigerator drawers often. Drip coffee maker. Mineral deposits and water stains aren’t the only things you have to worry about with your drip coffee maker: It can also be home to mold and mildew. To correct these problems, run a half-brew cycle with vinegar and water. For more information on Jennifer and her team cleaning services, call 760-301-5026 or visit her website: www.merrymaids.com/ridgecrest
TEHACHAPI LIVING
DECEMBER 2019 19