3 Things to deep clean this November

Every month there are some things that you can deep clean in your home. There are also household cleanings that are done quarterly, twice a year or annually. Here are three things to deep clean for this month.

Housekeeping Calendar

Each month I publish a housekeeping calendar with tasks that help you manage your home. These tasks not only help you keep your home clean but also help by reducing illness-causing dust and dirt. Some tasks will appear on the calendar every month, some only every 3 months and some even less than that.
I am no expert, and I also don’t have a perfect magazine-worthy home, but hopefully, my home is clean enough.

1. Deep Cleaning Carpets

This month here in Johannesburg, we can expect rain along with our sunshine and heat.

It seems that it might not be the best time to deep clean your carpets. The truth is that there isn’t a good time!

I like to have my carpets cleaned twice a year, although it probably only needs to be done once a year. In March/April I do a decent clean but not a deep clean. I do my deep cleaning at the end of November because most carpet cleaning companies are quiet and can fit in the cleaning when I want it, not when they can do it.

Throughout the year we do spot cleaning, that is because I have a very full house and accidents happen, whether it is the dogs, cats or the young adults and adults living here, something invariably requires us to wash a part of the few carpets in the house.

If you don’t want to or can’t afford a professional cleaning company, you can hire carpet cleaners that really work well and do it yourself. Just remember that this will take you the whole day, depending on the size of your house and how many carpets you own.

It is also a good time to clean the grouting in the tiles while you are busy with the carpets. You can do this using Bicarbonate of soda (bicarb), water and spirit vinegar. This is also labour-intensive but works really well.

How to clean your grout

Make a paste out of the Bicarb and water and spread it between the tiles on the grout, use an old toothbrush or cloth. Leave it to work for about 5 minutes, then using a spray bottle with the spirit vinegar, spray onto the paste, it should bubble a little and then you can wash it off using your normal floor washing practice. I add some lemon juice to the vinegar because of the smell.

Clean Curtain Railings

When was the last time you washed your curtains? What about the curtain railings?

The problem with curtain railings is you can’t see what is on top and so like the top of most fridges they are ignored in the routine of cleaning your house and are gathering dust.

I have certain curtains that are dry clean only, so I don’t wash those. The cost of having them dry-cleaned is also prohibitive. What happens in my house is that the vacuum cleaner is used for not only cleaning the curtains but also the dust on the rails.

We do wash the lace and the washable curtains once a year. I am privileged to have a very large washing machine so washing the curtains one room at a time is doable. We can do the whole house in 2 days. Having space to dry them is a different story!

Take down your curtains before dusting the railings. Using the vacuum cleaner on the first layer of dust will make washing the railings easier. We use dishwashing liquid to clean our railings, but if you have wood railings I would suggest a cloth dampened with a multipurpose cleaner and then drying the wood immediately so as not to damage it.

Here is a video from Cleaning How To on how to dry clean your curtains at home https://youtu.be/Ld42UWTQS2s

Ceiling fans and Airconditioning units

Here in the Southern Hemisphere it is heating up and to beat the heat a lot of homes have either ceiling fans or air conditioning.

Air conditioners need to be professionally serviced but most brands have filters that you can replace yourself. The main reason for cleaning your air conditioner and replacing the filter is to reduce allergies.
When the unit is on you are going to be blowing dust as well as cool air around your home.

Cleaning your air conditioning unit yourself may invalidate any warranties or guarantees you have.

It is recommended that your filters be changed seasonally. https://youtu.be/pzDNFuiAESE Here is a video on how to clean air conditioners.

Ceiling fans are a bit easier to clean in that you can do it yourself. Mostly you need a really tall ladder! Metal blades can be cleaned with soap and warm water, the wood blades need to be cleaned with a damp cloth and dried immediately.
Remember to wear a mask and eye protection of some sort when doing this as you don’t want dust getting into your eyes or airway.

Ceiling fans tend not to accumulate too much dust because every time you turn them on, they spray the dust that has settled all over the room.

Just because you can’t see the dust, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.