This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of North American Property Services for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
image from pixabay.com
Winter is here, and it’s a great time to do some deep cleaning to help keep your home germ-free. Here are ten key tips for cleaning your home this winter:
1. Be extra careful about hand washing with soap so you do not spread germs from room to room.
Plain soap and water is really the best and most tried-and-true way to keep germ-free!
2. Routinely disinfect high touch areas.
These areas incldue door handles, TV remotes and keyboards for all devices, such as tablets and laptops. Don’t forget all of your phones, including the landline and cell phones.
I like using a very simple homemade disinfecting spray made with water, vinegar and a few essential oils. The very strongest yet non-toxic formula is made with thieves essential oil.
3. Dust carries germs and grime, so wiping down with disinfecting solutions will not only make your house cleaner, but it will remove germs that can cause the common cold and flu.
Look for places that dust settles, such as fan blades, window ledges, and walls to wipe away germs. Don’t forget to clean your light bulbs, which has the added benefit of brightening the house on these short winter days. Another thing to clean is the dust balls under furniture and in the corners of floors.
I will switch up using the homemade disinfectant spray with using a Norwex cloth, which has the antibacterial colloidal silver intertwined in its fabric.
4. Dust more often, as your heating system circulates dust, dirt and germs.
I’ll admit: I hate dusting! But, it does make sense to dust more in the winter! Much of that dust is old skin cells. Yuck!
5. Keep mops handy to dry-mop floors regularly, especially around high-traffic areas of the house.
We have a wood floor entryway and tiled kitchen.
6. On warmer days, clean interior windows, another germ collector in your house.
I wipe windows with either a Norwex cloth and water or a simple vinegar-water solution.
7. Deep clean your carpets every year to eliminate grime and germs.
A good time of year to do this is after the holidays, so any spills from your holiday celebrations will be washed away. Check out my post on how to get a set-in stain out of carpet!
8. Scrub the grout in your bathroom with a powerful disinfectant to remove germs that spread between family members.
Our new house has tile in the bathrooms and kitchen, and cleaning it is a brand new experience for me! I love adding essential oils to baking soda to make a paste to clean the grout.
9. Take your shoes off at the door.
Think about all the places you walk and the germs that hitch hike into your home. Taking your shoes off will greatly reduce indoor pollutants. We keep shoe cubbies right beside our front door to help us remember to take our shoes off! We also wear cozy socks or slippers inside the house!
10. The best winter floor care program is to continue to clean and maintain floor surfaces with extra mopping and scrubbing around the entryways.
The entryways are where so much dirt and germs get in the house! It’s key to keep those highly-trafficked areas germ free!
* I got many of these tips from North American Property Services. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
Becky
Can you use Apple C
Becky
Can you use Apple Cider vinegar? Some one gave me some cheap acv and I’m out of white vinegar.
Erin
I use plain white vinegar for cleaning.
Shallie
How do you like the norwex cloths? I was combing through your blog to see if you use them and gain more information about them before eI purchase some. Thanks!
April C
Which essential oils do you use for your disinfecting spray? Do you have a recipe that you use? I’ve never used Theives before, and and have been cautioned about using it topically when pregnant and around little babies. Tea tree is also a great disinfectant, but I’ve had straight tea tree oil literally melt plastic, so I would worry about using that over time even if it’s diluted, since it’s not going to get washed off of things like remotes or other electronics (that my toddler loves to steal and chew on!)