A problem with moving is that you usually won’t have the chance to clean the whole place through and through before your stuff arrives. In ideal situation, there would be a week offline period, when your new home is vacated, and your things still at your old place. Still, people rarely move locally, so this is not an option. Instead, you have to clean around your stuff, which takes a little more time. I hope these tips will make it easier.
Start With the Kitchen
The kitchen is likely the most important room of a new home, as you’ll need to start preparing food there the very next day. The kitchen needs to be cleaned thoroughly. If the previous owners rarely used the stove, your job is easier by half. Most of the kitchen dirt comes from the stove. Clean every vertical and horizontal surface, including the cabinets.
House Appliances
For this stage you’ll be needing an aggressive cleaning product, like a scrubbing paste, a baking soda and a selection of sponges and cloths. After removing the stove elements clean the top area with the cleaning product. Use a brush that won’t’ scratch the glossy surface. You’ll clean the metal racks by soaking them in hot, soapy water in the sink and leave them while you finish the stove and oven. When tackling the fridge, it’s best to remove all removable elements and wash them in the sink. The back of the refrigerator can be very dusty and dirty.
Cabinets and Counters
If your kitchen cabinets are lined, remove the lining paper and clean the interior as well as the top of the cabinets. People often forget to clean the cabinet doors. There is a bog chance that the previous owners forgot it too. Use mild cleaner for the wood. Then re-line the cabinets using non-sticky lining paper. In a recent chat with established Sydney-based house cleaning experts, I discovered that baking soda and water paste works well for the grease stains on wood surfaces. When cleaning counters, remember to remove any dust and dirt between the cracks.
Floors
Unless the previous owners saw to the professional carpet cleaning, that is one of the first things you need to do, once you get the keys. Steam cleaning removes deeply set dirt, mites and parasites, if there was a pet involved. If the carpet arrived freshly from steam cleaner’s, give it a good vacuum. On the other hand, wood or faux wood floors should be swept and cleaned with a wood soap. Pay special attention to clean around the heating vents and under appliances.
Walls.jpg)
Now, this is a more time-consuming job. Ask the previous owners if they had painted them recently. In that case, you don’t need to clean them. Begin by dusting and removing cobwebs. You can easily tell if there were little children in the house by tiny fingerprints around the switches, corners and near doorways. You can remove them as well as other wall stains using liquid stick cleaners. Another trick is to use a small amount of fabric softener and gently rub the area, removing anything sticky, including duct tape residue. Finish by wiping the molding and baseboards and cleaning light switch plates and door frames.
