VALPARAISO, IN – With the holiday season just a few weeks away, many folks often find themselves scrambling to prepare their home for guests at the last minute. This is why we have put together a comprehensive guide filled with tips, tricks, and ideas to get your home ready for guests.
A clean home is incredibly important when it comes to hosting friends and family. Not only does cleaning maintain the health of your home and family, it also makes for a more comfortable experience. Your guests will appreciate that you put time and effort into ensuring their comfort while visiting your home.
Preparing Your Home for Guests
Decluttering and Organizing
Decluttering is the clean before the clean. Moving items from one place they don’t belong to the place they call home. For many, decluttering is the most stressful and discouraging part of cleaning because it is the first step. Clutter is the most visible aspect of a room that needs to be cleaned, so it can feel as though it is the biggest challenge of cleaning.
Begin decluttering by removing the largest pieces of clutter first (looking at you, Amazon boxes). If you do have a small empty box, save it for later, as it will come in handy later in the decluttering process.
Once larger items and trash are out of the way, begin putting smaller items back where they belong. Group belongings based on the room they need to end up. Use that small box from earlier to transport the items between rooms to prevent taking multiple trips and wearing yourself out.
While decluttering, keep in mind that living spaces will need to accommodate more people than usual. Take this opportunity to plan out making more space for guests.
Deep Cleaning High-Traffic Areas
The big three areas to focus most of your time and energy on are the living room, kitchen, and bathrooms. These are the areas that your guests will frequent.
The primary tool for deep cleaning is a microfiber cloth. If you don’t already have some, we highly recommend investing in a package of them. Not only are they the best at removing buildup, they also work great on glass and are machine washable.
Using a dry microfiber has its advantages occasionally, but you will want to pair your cloth with a multi surface cleaner. We recommend Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds Biodegradable Cleaner, as it is safe on any hard surface, biodegradable, and USDA Certified Organic. Our Cleaning Professionals use this duo to clean 90% of areas in homes each and every day. This combination will carry you through cleaning baseboards, doors, trim, ceiling fans, light fixtures, and virtually any flat surface in your home.
For cleaning bathrooms, our cleaners use microfiber cloths paired with Spic & Span All-purpose Disinfectant. We use this rather than Sal Suds because bathrooms typically have a higher presence of bacteria. Remember to use a scrubbing toilet bowl brush to remove any rings, stains, and odor.
If you are too busy with party-planning or are unable to deep clean your home, Brilliant Results Cleaning Service offers a Deluxe Cleaning that hundreds of satisfied customers have booked to prepare their home for guests and holiday parties.
Guest Room Readiness
If you are hosting any of your guests overnight in a guest room, don’t forget to prepare that space as well. If your guest room is typically closed up for extended periods of time, be sure to open the door and let in fresh air while cleaning in order to eliminate the odor of stale air.
Replace the linens on the bed with fresh sheets and pillow-cases, and remember to leave a couple of clean towels for showering. A nice touch to a guest room is to turn on a wax warmer or light a candle providing a comforting scent and welcoming environment.
Reducing Mess During the Gathering
Make Cleaning Messes Easy
We have all seen a beverage topple over and then people scramble for napkins and towels as the mess spreads across the table. Spills happen frequently in the presence of children (and adults sharing a few glasses of wine). Creating “cleaning stations” is a great way to minimize the impact of a spill. Place paper towel or napkin holders in areas where guests will be eating and gathering as a way to shrink the time from mess to cleanup.
Purchase a stain-removing solution to have on-hand in the event of a spill on carpet or furniture. Stores are not usually open on holidays, and a minute of staining and a couple days of staining could mean the difference between temporary and permanent.
Easy-To-Clean Decor
When choosing decorations, put out decor that is easy to clean or replace. It is probably not the best idea to use a family heirloom as a table decoration. Instead, opt for recyclable paper decorations that have no attachment. Use placemats and cloths to protect dining tables. Cover tables with tablecloths to prevent scratches from silverware and sweat rings from unattended drinks. You may use cheap, disposable tablecloths, or opt to invest in washable table linens that can be reused year after year.
After the Festivities: Post-Party Cleanup
Quick Kitchen Cleanup
Usually the most heavily impacted area of a home after a party, kitchen cleanup can seem like a daunting task. When it comes to kitchen cleaning, do not wait until the next day. It may seem like a good idea at the time, but many kitchen messes contain fats and grease that become more and more difficult to clean the longer they are ignored.
Strategize the post-dinner kitchen cleanup process beforehand. Clean out your refrigerator ahead of time to make sure you have plenty of room for storing leftovers. Having space in your fridge will significantly reduce the stress of kitchen cleanup. Send leftovers home with guests and toss out anything that doesn’t hold well for longer than a day.
Make sure you have plenty of trash bags on hand to collect cups, cans, and plates left by guests.
Addressing Stains and Spills
In the event of a spill that resulted in a stain on furniture or carpet, you will want to address this as soon as possible to reduce the chance of permanent staining. Many hardware stores, and even Dollar General locations, offer very affordable same-day rental of carpet cleaning tools. Use these to shampoo and extract stains from upholstery and carpeting.
Don’t Put Off Cleaning
Cleaning up a mess immediately will not only result in a cleaner house sooner, but it also prevents additional stress. When you put off cleaning, the mess will only continue to build and become more difficult to clean later. This is a very vicious cycle that you do not want to fall into.
Clean up the kitchen the night of the party, and address trash and messes on flat surfaces. Most everything else can wait until the next morning if you are too exhausted by that point.
Conclusion
Following this guide will help you conquer the holiday season with ease. If you are hosting a party and don’t have time to worry about the cleaning, give us a call! Brilliant Results Cleaning Service is here to help get your home ready for the holidays and maintain a clean & healthy environment all year long.
