Summer Break

Change Your Cleaning Game For The Season

by Todd Nelson // July-August-September 2020

Even if you’re an outdoor-living kind of family, summer brings new home-cleaning priorities – especially with the kids home for the summer, and perhaps Mom and Dad working from home more these days. Some spaces and regular tasks need more attention, others less. Here’s a quick rundown of how to shift your cleaning game for summer.

Bathrooms. Bathrooms get a double-whammy in summer.

Toilet and sink usage goes way up, and so too does tub and shower use with post-pool, beach, lake, and plain old sweaty-body bathing. Due to high humidity in our area, bathrooms also become more susceptible to mold and mildew this time of year. But there’s no need to change your weekly cleaning routine; rather, just increase the frequency to every few days, and be sure to dry tile, grout, and shower walls after last use.

Kitchen. If your kids are old enough to help themselves to snacks and meals, certain areas of your kitchen need extra attention in summer. Think: microwave and refrigerator (inspect frequently for spills), countertops (sanitize more often for food safety), and floors (sweep or vacuum daily to pick up crumbs that attract bugs).

If you tend to grill outside and stick to lighter, cooler fare such as salads, fruits, and sandwiches inside, your stovetop can probably do with less cleaning this season. And, unless you accidentally boil over a summer pie when baking, heavy oven cleaning can wait until the fall.

High-touch spots. All the usual high-touch spots – door knobs, sink and toilet handles, remotes, phones, light switches – get more frequent touches this time of year, so be sure to keep up with at least weekly sanitizing or disinfecting of these zones.

Bedrooms. Dust mites – those tiny, allergy-implicated creatures that live in virtually every bedroom – thrive in summer’s heat and

humidity. You can make bedrooms less hospitable to these invisible pests by frequently laundering bed linens with hot water; re-moving unneeded textiles such as extra pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, even window treatments; and leaving beds either unmade or at least neatly turned down during summer months.

Upholstery and carpets. If you’re essentially an outdoor family, you can probably get away with less frequent vacuuming of rugs and upholstery (outside of bedrooms). If, on the other hand, you prefer staying in your A/C-filled house or you’ve got teens who love to hole up, munch chips, play video games, and binge-watch Netflix and Hulu, you’ll probably need to up your vacuuming game.

Floors. Regular floor cleaning is a must in spring, fall, and winter, when family members are more likely to wear treaded shoes like boots and sneakers that pick up gravel and tiny particles that slowly damage hardwood and tile floors. Summer’s smooth-soled sandals, flip flops, and bare feet mean you may be able to reduce frequency of floor cleaning or shift to spot versus thorough mopping.

Todd Nelson

Owner of MaidPro of the Triangle