What Is Your Regular House Cleaning Routine?

As one of Vileda’s Ambassadors, I thought I would share some of the ways I (try to) keep on top of my cleaning routine whilst juggling a busy life with my family.  In case you didn’t know, I’m married and have 3 sons so we live in a very full-on household – we also have two cats, so between the kids and pets there’s always something to clean up!

I am passionate about home interiors and would love to live in a ‘show-home’, but that’s just not the reality of life, is it?  Laundry baskets overflowing, cat food dragged off the dish by messy moggies and muddy football boots left in the hallway are my every day normality.

I have to admit to not being a fan of cleaning either (who is, really?) but it has to be done and there’s nothing quite like a fresh, clean home (even if it only lasts for a half hour!).

So these are the things I do on a regular basis to try and stay on top of things:

For all our hard floors, I tend to sweep them or vacuum before mopping.  This long handled Vileda 3Action Broom is very effective when I can’t be bothered getting the vacuum out!  It’s light and easy to use, with a good head full of fibres for collecting up all sorts of dirt and dust.

 

We actually don’t have any carpet in our house; it would simply get ruined too quickly, so hard floors are a much more practical alternative for us.  Even rugs can be tricky and I’ve given up on wool rugs as I’ve found them difficult to keep pristine without quite a lot of effort, but our polypropylene rugs have been much easier to maintain.  They give a bit of texture and softness under foot where needed and simply spring back to life with the vacuum cleaner.

After the sweep up comes the mopping.  In the kitchen I tend to use my steam mop which tackles stuck on food spills etc.  The kitchen floor can take it, but the steam wouldn’t be good for our new laminate floor in the back room.  Although it is moisture resistant, getting it really wet could cause it to warp, so I just go over it with an occasional damp mop.

The kitchen worktops can become cluttered very easily, so after the kids have gone to school I put away all the breakfast things and wipe down the surfaces with a sponge and a surface cleanser.  The kitchen immediately looks better just by doing this!  As well as daily wipe downs with detergent, about once a week I’ll take everything off the counter and bleach it thoroughly.  As I worry about germs multiplying on our kitchen cloths, I tend to leave them in a bowl of bleach water, or I’ll pop them in the dishwasher for a regular clean.

Our only bathroom has to work hard with 5 people using it daily!  With all that traffic, it gets grimy quite quickly.  I wipe down the sink and surfaces with a surface spray and mop the tiled floor with my Vileda SuperMocio mop and bucket, adding a squirt of washing up liquid or disinfectant to the bucket.  I like the fact that the wringer is really strong so you can squeeze out the mop well.  Vileda are good at adding those little details that make life easier, like a comfortable handle and a lip on the edge of the bucket so you can empty out the contents neatly.

Next, toilet cleaner gets squirted in the loo and and I use kitchen towels with a suitable bathroom cleaner to tackle the seat and rim.

The shower screen can be a pain to keep free of watermarks, can’t it?  Sometimes I steam clean ours, but it doesn’t get it all off, not without a lot of elbow grease, too.  Luckily, more recently I discovered that the white sponges that are good for taking off pen marks and cleaning UPVC are actually really effective on the shower screen!  They really take the effort out of scrubbing off the water marks.

Our stairs are waiting to be carpeted at the moment, so they are like a magnet for dust bunnies in their natural state.  I sweep them with my broom or vacuum them fairly regularly.  Have you noticed how cobwebs can multiply, especially in the high places such as above the stairs and if you have a conservatory?  Also, how the dust collects on picture rails and tops of wardrobes or tall cupboards.  Every so often I’ll use an extendable duster to sweep these hard to reach areas.  We have a lot of wood in our home and I use a special wood soap from Method that smells like almonds for things like the table top and stair hand rail to get them gleaming.

Its essential to vacuum sofas and mattresses (also to turn mattresses over) regularly; as one of our children has asthma I feel this is even more important to remember to do and occasionally I will also steam clean them for a deeper freshen up.

So that’s my regular cleaning rota, what’s yours?  I’d love to hear any cleaning hacks or tips you may have to save time or take the effort out of it!