Many people like to go away for birthdays and anniversaries – away from the routine of homelife, a bit of an adventure or a change of scene, but when it comes to Christmas, well, that’s a different matter! Most of us want to be ‘home for Christmas’ – it’s where the heart and soul of our families are, where happy memories are made, and festive cheer is abundant.
However much Christmas is a joyous occasion, it can also be a stressful one in terms of preparation for the big day. So, here’s our guide to getting a clean and organised home in the run up to the holiday period, that hopefully, will enable you to enjoy a relaxed, happy and serene festive break.
- The Guest Bedroom
It’s always a good idea to get your guest bedrooms clean and tidy first. Why? Because these are the rooms that won’t need to be touched again, won’t get dirty or cluttered again before your guests arrive. There’s no point having to clean twice, especially when you’ve got so many other things to do! Sort out the linen, towels and arrange adequate hanging space. It can then be left alone and you can get on with other tasks. If you have an en-suite for your guests, this can be cleaned and ready for use too.
- The Dining Room
It’s worth getting your dining room clean, dust free and free from cobwebs early in the process – the quicker you’re organised, the better! You could even check out your cutlery, crockery and serving plates ready for the big day. As you probably don’t use your dining room every day, you can clean it early in the proceedings so that it stays clean and tidy in the run up to the festivities starting.
- Bedrooms
Your bedroom should be your sanctuary, away from the hustle and bustle of the day’s festivities and a place where you can retreat for a good nights rest. A bit of tidying and decluttering will help you keep organised and calm.
Equally, with children’s bedrooms, it’s important to get them in ship shape prior to Father Christmas calling – remember that there’s going to be a frenzy of packaging, wrapping paper and toys galore on Christmas morning, so by tidying everything else up beforehand will allow the kids to fully concentrate of what Santa’s dropped off for them through the night!
- Living Room
A thorough clean before the decorations go up is always a good idea. Your decorations are going to be up for at least 3 weeks, so with a bit of forward planning, there’ll be no need to move them until they come down.
- Kitchen
One of our main suggestions is to have your oven professionally cleaned before the big day. Grease and grime that’s built up over the year can actually harm your oven’s functionality – and even break it. No-one wants the oven to fail on Christmas Day. It’s a good idea to put it through its paces, make sure it can handle hours of use and that the knobs work properly.
A thorough clean of your kitchen is worth doing early – then you can just whip round the surfaces nearer to the day.
- Get the Laundry done
Organisation is key and if you can get on top of the laundry, all praise to you!! An empty laundry basket is the aim of the game. It’ll be another less thing to worry about. You’ll be over-run with everything else, so it’s best not to let the washing pile up and stress you out further!
- Dealing with spills
A good tip in the run-up to Christmas is to consider any spills and dribbles that may arise during the day. Grease from cooking in the kitchen, dribbles from the gravy boat on the tablecloth or red wine being spilled on the carpet. Consider getting some cleaning agents in that’ll deal specifically with these mishaps – lemon juice for grease, salt for red wine etc.
It’s not difficult to get your house clean in the run-up to Christmas, it just takes a bit of forward planning. If you get the bulk of the work out the way before Christmas, then a quick flick round with the hoover in the morning is all you need to do to make your day happy, relaxing and hassle-free!
We are Clean Shield – Your Gloucestershire based, commercial cleaners with over 30 years’ experience. For more information about what we do, take a look at our website www.clean-shield.co.uk or give us a call on 01452 260 922 – we’d be happy to help!