Introduction
Vacation season is almost over, and schools are about to open up again. That means things are going to get messy and you’ll need to stay at the top of your cleaning game. Fortunately, you can search for “cleaning services near me” and hire professionals to take care of that. Let’s check out a few back-to-school cleaning tips.
Tips & Tricks
- Iron clothes – Ironing seems like a tiresome and dull chore. However, it doesn’t need to be that way. You can brave through that dull period by simply setting up the ironing board in front of the TV and watching your favorite shows while you iron your kid’s clothes. Just make sure that the iron doesn’t have any sticky residue stuck to it. Otherwise, all that effort is going to be washed down the drain and leave some nasty marks on the clean clothes.
To clean up the iron, you’ll need a soleplate cleaner or use a homemade solution of vinegar and salt. If you choose the latter, mix equal parts of salt and vinegar in a bowl and heat it up in the microwave for half a minute. Damp a clean cotton rag with the mixture and rub it on the iron till the residue is removed. Once the iron is sparkling smooth, you can glide it over those clothes and get them looking prim and proper while you binge on the latest Netflix shows.
- Clean up outdoor toys – During the summer vacation, your kids get a lot of fresh air and play around in the open. That means spending a lot of time at sandpits, seesaws, or the park with a bunch of outdoor toys. When the summer season is over and school resumes, it’s tempting to shove away all those toys in the closet without cleaning them properly.
However, that’s only going to delay the problem until next year as your kids start a tantrum since they have to wait for their toys to be cleaned up. Moreover, the toys would become harder to clean as the dirt and organic residue hardens and sticks to the plastic surfaces. Fortunately, you don’t need to scrub those toys for hours to clean them right now.
Instead, get the pressure washer you use for your car or rent one from the hardware store and hose down all the outdoor toys and equipment. You can also foam wash those toys and after they are clean, leave them out in the sun to dry them off. Now you can store away those clean toys so that your future self can thank you one year later.
- Make the laundry smell fresh – During the summer vacation you’re in control and you have been able to keep the laundry baskets empty with your best efforts. However, during the school semester, the basket can fill up pretty quickly if you look back for just two minutes. You need a different strategy to stay on top of those dirty school clothes.
Regular washing cycles don’t get the job done since even clean clothes can start to smell funny. Hot cycles on a regular basis aren’t an option either since it increases the wear and tear on the fabric and reduces its life. That’s why you need to choose the middle ground and run a monthly hot wash to get rid of those damp odors. It also frees up the limescale and mold build-up in the washer. You can also go one step ahead and add a few drops of fragrant essential oils on cotton wool balls and throw them inside the dryer.
- Wipe down personal electronics – Most kids nowadays need to get a Chromebook for schoolwork, and they have their phones. You also lend your powerful laptop to them sometimes to keep them entertained. However, kids are messy, and they touch those electronic devices with their adorable yet greasy little hands.
That’s why electronic devices are full of germs. They can spread all kinds of diseases if they aren’t cleaned properly. You can get a special electronic cleaner and screen wipes or buy a bottle of 70 percent isopropyl alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is usually the cheaper and superior solution since it kills most germs and bacteria on electronic devices.
Moreover, alcohol doesn’t have any free ions and that’s why it’s a bad conductor of electricity. You don’t have to worry about frying up those electronics while cleaning them. Just make sure to spray the alcohol on the microfiber cloth and wipe those devices down instead of spraying it directly on phones and computers.
- Make cleanup fun for the kids – You know how you listen to music or podcasts or watch a TV show or movies while doing your chores? Well, kids are more distracted and easily bored and that’s why it’s difficult to get them to clean after themselves. That’s why you need to make cleanup fun for the kids. Make it a fun activity for them and turn cleaning into a game.
You can turn on some kid’s music and make it a competition where you both dance while doing cleaning chores and try to finish off your tasks before each other. You can also incentivize your kids to clean up after themselves. For young kids, you can offer an extra candy bar if they are able to finish their chores in a set amount of time. Make sure that you use healthy candy bars that are made from whole grains and sweetened with honey instead of corn syrup.
For older kids, the good old dollar bill works fine. You can also establish a point system where kids get to score points for finishing cleaning chores and redeem them at the end of the school semester for a gift.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned cleaning tips are going to help you always stay one step ahead of your kids and take care of their mess with minimal effort. However, things can get overwhelming if you have a busy schedule. That’s when you may consider professional help and hire someone for the job by searching for “cleaning services near me”.
If you’re looking for a reliable pressure washing company, look no further than North West Exteriors, LLC. Their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction is unmatched in the industry.