Spoilt from young? Let MEIDE assist you with an “idiot-proof” guide on how to clean you house, step by step!

– MEIDE.SG

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR HOUSE: a dummies’ guide

To start off, we have to assume you are able-bodied and have access to what we deem as a necessary list of standard cleaning equipment: including a mop, bucket with wringer, Brooms and Dustpan, Rags, Cleaning liquids and detergents – eg. GIF , Glass Cleaning liquids, Scrubs, newspapers. A few additional and good-to have items are a feather duster, vacuum and gloves and masks and bleach.

So much to clean… where do I begin?

This is the perpetual compounding thought we have as we procrastinate commencing our clean up day after day… The bigger your headache, the bigger your house probably is. Perhaps having second thoughts now about upgrading to a bigger flat? 😉

Ease your headaches today! Get Professional Help for Cleaning from Singapore’s #1 Most Trusted Home Cleaning – MEIDE Home Services.

Get your cleaning done in two simple steps!

Step 1

Begin with your bedroom! Contrary to a few beliefs, MEIDE recommends starting with the most “protected” place of your living or working abode. This is because once you start to get all your hands, clothing and equipment dirty, you would not want any accidental transference of dirt or fomites from a dirtier place to a less dirty place. Hence we always recommend starting from your bedroom – which should be your cleanest place (unless you have additional walk-in clothing closets or safe closets).

Step 2

Systemically clean outwards towards your bedroom corridors or common walkway, and cleaning the other bedrooms and common rooms until you have reached the living room. For places with outdoor areas such as patio, balcony, or gardens, we recommend leaving it to the last. Once you are done with the living area, proceed to clean the dining area, the toilets, the kitchen, and lastly outdoor areas. One alternative option you may choose, is to clean your toilets whilst cleaning your common walkways or corridors if you have ensuite washrooms that are mostly dry and not very soiled.

Schema to Summarise:

Bedroom –> Ensuite features of bedroom like wardrobe and dressing area –> Corridor/Walkways –> Common Rooms –> Living Room –> Dining Area –> Kitchen –> Toilets –> Outdoor and Exterior

3 WAYS to TACKLE frequently missed spots during cleaning

Of course, all of us have had the experience of having just cleaned our house, only to find in shock the next day, of new spots of dust and dirt that we missed out! Just to list a few: the area behind and below the bed, the “gutter area” on one side of a bed (usually nearer to the wall), ledges of doors, windows and cabinets, and the floor area just behind a fully opened door. Yes! These areas are hard to reach, require additional effort in tidying up, and hence are commonly missed. Therefore, we espouse three concepts to aid you in making sure your entire space is cleaned and really fully cleared of dust and dirt!

(1) Clean Top to Bottom

Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation (read: gravity) states that dust and dirt will always fall to the ground. Since MEIDE.SG is not supporting cleaning services outside of earth at the moment, we feel it is best for you to always wipe the top shelves and tabletops, followed by the sides of them, before proceeding to sweep the floor. On this note, for venues that are more unkempt and already very dusty to begin with, like houses that are post renovation, post moving in, post moving out, or require deep cleaning like units for handover, sweeping the floor before initiating any other cleaning can benefit the overall clean-up. This ensures the person cleaning the place does not continuously transfer dust from one spot to another via his or her feet or footwear, making the sanitisation process overly tedious. Finally, we recommend saving moping the floor as the last step.

Hark back to our two simple steps of cleaning – our theory of cleaning from in to out, and you may be thinking – should I clean top to bottom first or in to out first? The answer is, both are alright. This means you may choose to simple clean all the top cabinets in all rooms before proceeding to sweep their floors, or your may choose to clean the entire bedroom (from the cleanest first) from top to bottom, before moving outwards to the corridor and so on. The former option may be easier since you do not have to keep switching between different types of equipment, but the latter helps increase efficiency and saves time as you may not need to move to another location and back again. Weigh the decision between cleaning effectively from the less to dirtier portions, to cleaning more efficiently – saving time and energy!

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Disclaimer to the fact that dust always fall to the ground: it would eventually settle down. However, always ensure your wiping of surfaces comprise of a wet cloth or sponge that is damp, so that dust particles will be entrapped in it. Otherwise, dust tend to hover and float around in the air for quite some time. Some may even drift upwards and to other spots if there is a breeze from outside, or your fan or air-conditioning!

(2) Clean Left to Right (or vice versa)

As easy as it may sound, some people just may not get it! Do not mop in a zig-zag fashion, do not sweep back and forth, and do not scrub the sink up and down aimlessly! Focus on directing all dirt to one side. Even if this means sweeping diagonally across, at least sweep diagonally from left to right, or vice versa, and continuously do this (ie. do not change direction)! However, you may make an exception if there are tough stains to remove, whereby rigorous scrubbing back and forth at a particular spot may be required. Do be careful, nevertheless, not to damage your hardware or tiles! Do note also that such exceptions should be conducted before the overall sweeping or wiping begins!

An Exception

During the cleansing of certain elliptical, conical, spherical or round items (eg. toilet bowl), it may not be practical to wipe left to right. Rather, wipe in a circular fashion (we recommend this over wiping in a radial spokes fashion) either clockwise or anti-clockwise. It does not matter if the circular pattern of wiping is inwards or outwards, as long as the entire surface is covered and the cleaning moves from the least to most soiled part.

Bottomline

Always clean from the less to more dirty area, in as little different directions as possible (ideally, just one!). This may well be our slogan of the article, for we have repeated it so many times. And we sincerely hope you have drilled it well in your practice!

(3) Start from the difficult areas, always!

Lastly, as mentioned before, there are several tight spots that are often missed! Starting from the bedroom and moving outwards, do remember to clean these frequently forgotten areas before the entire process of wiping, sweeping or dusting begins. Here, we would attempt to lay it out individually here as part of ours and your check list:

BEDROOM AND EN SUITE WARDROBE, DRESSING OR WASHROOM

• The top of your bed and bed frame – including the side poles and head and foot of the bed.
• The area surrounding your bed and bed frame – including narrow gutter areas between the bed and wall. This may involve your moving the bed or, if appropriate, getting on top of the bed itself to facilitate the reaching of the far ends and corners to clean!
• Your dressing area – the top surfaces of boxes, mirrors and appliances, behind the dressing table, and around it.
• The top shelves of your wardrobe, study area and rooms.
• The top aspect of your cabinet doors – yes these accumulate dust too!
• The poles in your wardrobe and washrooms.
• The narrow floor region that is behind your door, when you have fully opened a swinging door, or fully opened a sliding door.

corridor and walkways

• The narrow top aspect of a baseboard (also known as mopboard, skirtboard or floor molding)
• The narrow top aspect of switches and screens (if applicable)

living and dining area

• On top of appliances – especially your beloved electronics such as television and LCD screens, computers, speakers and telephones
• The back and sides of your dining table and seats
• The decorations such as potted plants and photo frames
• The area beneath and behind your furniture (eg. sofa, rocking chair, massage chair, bicycles etc)

others (outside the scope of this article!)

• Toilet and Kitchen Cleaning – there are numerous aspects to ensure a deep cleaning that we would dedicate these to a separate blog post, but for general cleaning – do refer to our general guide and checklist available just for you!
• Windows including the top frame of it, exteriors, window ledges, blinds, curtains, upholstery, carpets and special materials
• Exterior cleaning (gardens, patio, balcony, etc)
• Ceiling and wall fans
• Ceiling lights and installations (eg. screens, frames, ledges)
• Higher wall installations (eg. large photo frames, monuments, altars)
• Air conditioning units, connectors and condenser(s)

conclusion

Even with such a long list, we would not dare to label it exhaustive! Certainly, home cleaning is no easy feat. A good understanding of materials and interior design concepts is essential too to promote a thorough deep cleaning – and that is something MEIDE Home Services strives to achieve always. In addition to our detailed article presented here on how to clean your house, we also have a general checklist that you may find beneficial in not just ensuring your home helper does your household chores right, but also facilitate your own seasonal or yearly CNY spring cleaning!

Here is hoping that you finally have your perfectly clean home to relax and unwind in after all that hard work!