How to clean up your apartment: methods and methods of cleaning, keeping the house clean

In this topic we will talk about how to keep your home tidy and clean.

“It’s clean where they don’t litter and don’t clean up” is a fairly well-known phrase, but it’s worth adding: where cleanliness is constantly maintained. A cozy and tidy home is the dream of every housewife. But not everyone knows how to achieve this while spending a minimum of time and effort.

Especially if a woman works and can devote only one day a week to cleaning, or if there are children living in your house who are guarding order in it. Therefore, we will talk in this material about how to constantly and easily keep your home clean.

How to clean up your home

For every home, two aspects are important - order and cleanliness. However, one does not always go hand in hand with the other. For example, if the kitchen is perfectly washed and sparkling clean, but the kitchen utensils remain unorganized, then the desired success will not be achieved.

It will be easier to do cleaning if you develop and instill in your home the habit of putting things in their place.

IMPORTANT! Cleanliness in the house is certainly important. But we must not forget about establishing general order in the apartment and proper organization of things. Only then will the home actually look ideal.

Where to start cleaning

Before you start cleaning, it is important to determine the order of your actions. All accessible surfaces must be cleaned: if small objects are scattered on shelves and tables, they should be removed. Unnecessary items must be disposed of.

Getting rid of unnecessary things will make your home cleaner.

Each room is cleaned from top to bottom: from the top shelves, cabinets, mezzanines. Next, they move on to upholstered furniture, tables, and only then begin to wash the floor.

How to get rid of junk

When deciding how to maintain order and cleanliness in the apartment, an important thing is to get rid of everything unnecessary. Someone easily and even with pleasure gets rid of such objects or things. But if this task is difficult, you need to find your own decluttering method.

Unclutter your closet to make your apartment cleaner.

So it is possible:

do this daily and little by little;
decide on a global decluttering operation, that is, get rid of unnecessary things at once in one fell swoop.

Each piece of advice has both pros and cons. Therefore, you need to look at what is most suitable. It’s better to start the analysis with clear and simple categories of things:

dishes;
cosmetics;
clothes.

Come up with your own cleaning plan.
Because if you start with old photos or letters, you can get stuck in it for a long time, if not forever.

NOTE! When decluttering, you get the main bonus - free space. This is what is often lacking in our homes.

Decluttering is carried out every one and a half to two months. Otherwise, cleaning becomes a Sisyphean task: if the drawers and shelves are overflowing, and the house is “overpopulated” with things, a mess will arise within a few hours.

Interior decoration and interior

Modern legislation establishes a number of requirements for interior decoration of premises. They are aimed at ensuring the safety of everyone in the home. This is especially important for individual construction.

When installing floors, no potholes, chips or cracks are allowed. The clearance when checking with a rack should not be more than 4 mm. Voids under the tiles are unacceptable.

There are also a number of requirements for wall decoration. Most attention is paid to humidity. It is unacceptable to carry out finishing, painting, or wallpaper on walls whose humidity exceeds 8%. Wallpapering skirting boards, doorways, and electrical communication devices is prohibited.

When creating an interior, you should pay attention to several points. It is necessary to take into account lighting standards in residential premises. Lack of light can greatly affect the health of residents. Combining a gasified kitchen and bedroom is unacceptable. You should not go too far with installing multi-level ceilings in small rooms.

IMPORTANT: The minimum ceiling height in Russia is 2.4 meters.

How to create a cozy atmosphere

Creating a cozy and beautiful home is a leisurely task. A unique aura in a home is formed by many details woven together. There are many ways to create an atmosphere of comfort. It's always in our hands. And of course, important components of a pleasant, peaceful atmosphere in the house are order, cleanliness and convenience. If they exist, then comfort will follow.

Cleanliness is first and foremost comfort.

The secret to creating coziness is a little carelessness. For example, you shouldn’t hang towels evenly, as if under a ruler, etc. There should be a slight asymmetry. The rooms will feel more homey and welcoming.

It will be easier to do cleaning if you develop and instill in your home the habit of putting things in their place.

In addition to cleanliness, a pleasant smell in the house is also important. And to ensure that such a feeling reigns in your home, you can use fragrances with natural oils, scented candles, and sachets. The smells in the house affect the mood and psyche of its inhabitants. Therefore, it is important that the apartment is always well ventilated, and fresh air is combined with a pleasant aroma.

Use additional cleaning products to clean the room.

To create a homely feel, it is ideal to fill the room with different textures and textures. A cozy apartment is bright, all the colors in it are harmoniously combined: they, first of all, should please the eye.

Maintaining home comfort is a continuous process. It is important to improve the arrangement of the apartment, for which, among other things, it is worth thinking carefully about storing things. And, of course, keep it clean.

Where to store things to keep things organized

Store items in baskets or drawers. They will save the situation when you need to fold and put things away in a short time. These baskets are convenient for storing children's toys, clothes, and dirty laundry. It is important that they are combined in some way to form a single style. You can choose products of different shapes, but of the same color.

You don't have to use classic hooks to store things in the bathroom. Today, coil batteries are popular, where they can functionally dry clothes and towels. Place or hang plastic or wicker baskets in the bathroom. And you can hang compact drawers on hooks. Drawers and baskets are functional for storing household chemicals, cosmetics or towels.

Such storage looks aesthetically pleasing and orderly. Be sure to use a place under the sink where you can hide the same drawers or baskets. Such a bathroom always looks tidy and clean. And neatly hung or laid out snow-white towels will add freshness and style to the room.

We hang clothes in the closet or lay them out on shelves, and put underwear in dresser drawers. We store shoes in boxes or containers, which we put on the bottom shelf in the closet or on the mezzanine. If you don't have much space in your apartment, use the space under your bed. But the boxes should not be visible! For seasonal shoes that you wear regularly, use shelves and racks in the hallway. Wash and dry your pair after every wear!

How to visually increase space

This question worries many. One of the main design principles for visually expanding space is the preference for light colors.

Light colors will help increase the space in the room.

So, a light floor and walls will visually increase the space. And, of course, such surfaces require the most thorough cleaning. You should clean your house regularly: then it will be easy to maintain cleanliness.

Home microclimate

The degree of comfort of a living space most often depends on the microclimate. It includes several components: temperature, humidity and air speed, sound insulation.

Comfortable home temperatures vary depending on climatic conditions. In the northern regions it should be within 20-21 °C, in temperate latitudes - 18-19 °C, in the hot zone - 17-18 °C.

IMPORTANT: The difference between the room air temperature and the temperature of the inner surface of the heated wall should not exceed 3-5 °C, and the difference in air temperature near the floor and ceiling, as well as in adjacent rooms of the same apartment - 2 °C.

High humidity in the home is a definite problem. Dampness leads not only to frequent colds for residents, but also to the appearance of mold, destruction of wood coverings, and a persistent unpleasant odor. Food products begin to spoil more often. Humidity in the home should be between 40-60%.

The air speed should not exceed 0.2-0.3 m/s. Otherwise, everyone living in this room risks catching a cold.

Excessive noise also adds problems to the residents of the house. For inter-apartment walls and interfloor ceilings, the sound insulation level should be 52 dB, impact noise - 58 dB.

How to clean an apartment

For ease of cleaning and keeping your apartment perfectly clean, you will need:

for the kitchen - a microfiber cloth;
for glass – 2 rags (will help wipe any surface dry).

Microfiber cloths help clean your apartment efficiently.
A cloth made of artificial suede will speed up the work, since it is better than others at absorbing moisture.

Cleaning equipment

Quick cleaning of an apartment means, first of all, the right equipment. Today, every housewife has the opportunity to choose functional, effective and high-quality equipment in order to keep the house clean, speed up and simplify the cleaning process.

The lightness of the equipment, ease of use and longevity of the result after its use are very important.

So, an excellent solution for dry floor cleaning would be a brush equipped with a long handle and a folding dustpan. This device easily removes dust or cobwebs from the ceiling and walls.

Cleaning is best done at regular intervals.

Ideally, use a vacuum cleaner often, then you can wash the floors less often. If servicing a vacuum cleaner (for example, a washing one) is a long process, then it is better to use it for fundamental cleaning. And a simple vertical vacuum cleaner will help you collect dust quickly enough: 5 – 10 minutes of using it, and the apartment becomes cleaner.

Clean with your children.

But if you put your house in order according to all the rules, you cannot do without wet cleaning. To do this, it is worth considering special cleaning kits: mop, attachments, bucket.

Use white vinegar to keep your windows sparkling clean.

Convenient mop attachments will perfectly cope with any dirt. In addition, with the help of such devices you can wash glass efficiently (and therefore without streaks). Compact buckets in such sets have a spin function for mops. Therefore, during the cleaning process there is no need to touch the nozzle with your hands - you just need to press the pedal.

Folk remedies

House cleaning using folk remedies has its advantages. Natural cleaning products that are easy to make yourself can at least partially reduce family expenses.

We must not forget that household chemicals pollute the air in our homes.

High-quality household chemicals will not affect human health.
Not all of it is safe for health and can cause allergies. Therefore, ideally, when cleaning the house, use folk remedies. So it is possible:

prepare a cleaning product from vinegar, soda and liquid soap;
make a water-vinegar solution;
disinfect with soda;
wash the floor by adding citric acid to the water.

Another fairly effective folk remedy for cleaning is powdered mustard: even the most corrosive fat cannot resist its cleansing power.

Regular table salt can also serve as an excellent cleaning agent. It is especially strong in “fighting” burnt grease stains on the kitchen stove.

IMPORTANT! The surface of the stove must be hot when washing.

If you litter less, it will be easier to clean up.
And if table salt is combined with turpentine (proportion 1:1), then the housewife can easily remove yellowness from the surface of the plumbing fixtures.

Special means

But if you still use household chemicals, for cleaning a standard sample, cleaning products intended for the kitchen and plumbing are quite sufficient:

In the kitchen, it is good to use creamy cleaners to clean various surfaces. They must be environmentally friendly, leave no odor and pose no danger to children;
A suitable option for the bathroom are gel products or those available in the form of pastes. In this case, their environmental friendliness is also important.

Cleaning together is more fun.
When washing the floor, it is ideal to add low-foaming products to a bucket of water (this is an absolute time saver, since it takes no less time to wash off the foam than to wash it directly).

Organize everything on the shelves and don't hoard unnecessary things.

If the housewife uses a washing vacuum cleaner, you can use shampoos when cleaning.

Standards

To be considered comfortable, each home must meet a number of criteria:

Temperature. This criterion depends on climatic conditions. On average, the temperature should be 18-19 degrees.
Air humidity. The norm is considered to be 40-60%.
Air speed. It should be no higher than 0.3 m/s. Strong drafts threaten a cold.
Illumination. The natural light coefficient is calculated as the ratio of the window glazing area to the floor area. The norm is between 1/6 and 1/8.
Ventilation. The room should be ventilated without problems.
Purity. Hygiene for any room is one of the most important criteria.

Each country house must comply with state sanitary standards and construction rules (SNIP):

The residential building itself must be located on the front side of the territory.
A distance of 6-7 meters is required between the house and the street. The ideal option would be to plant trees there. They will subsequently become a barrier to noise and dust.
There must be water supply and sewerage. In areas where water cannot be supplied, wells and boreholes are used. After construction of water supply facilities, water analysis is carried out.
Constant waste removal is required. Improvised landfills create a favorable environment for the development of infections.

What is emergency cleaning

Emergency cleaning is a special case when you need to get your house clean in the shortest possible time. For example, when friends or relatives called with a message about their arrival for a visit, but the apartment was not tidy.

Do emergency cleaning not only quickly, but also efficiently.

The main thing here is not to panic, to do without fuss. We need to pull ourselves together and calm down. It is important to outline a work plan that will help save both effort and time. And, of course, everything should be organized correctly.

It is worth dividing the apartment into zones and acting consistently, following the plan.

The kitchen is the place to start cleaning.

It’s better to start with the kitchen, then switch to the bathroom, then move to the hallway and living room with cleaning. It is not necessary to clean all rooms. It is important to focus on those areas that will be visible to guests.

Lighting

Comfortable light is necessary for visual health, general well-being and the mood of everyone living in the room. Light levels are measured in lux. One lux is equal to one lumen per square meter. There are a number of requirements for the level of lighting in a home. They depend on the type of room:

attic and basement passage – 20;
toilet, shower, bath – 50;
hall, corridor – 50;
wardrobe – 75;
bathhouse, swimming pool – 100;
bedroom, kitchen – 150;
children's - 200;
personal office, library, utility room, room with billiards - 300.

To simplify the installation of lighting fixtures, there is a system for determining the number of lamps required. One regular light bulb has a power of 25 W. For a bedroom you need 10-12 W/m2, for a study and a nursery - 15-18 W/m2, for a living room - 20 W/m2.

What not to do

But what you need to give up is cleaning upholstered furniture yourself: in this case we are talking about complex stains. You should not start cleaning even if you are fully confident that you have purchased an excellent product. Most likely, the situation will only get worse. Ideally, such tasks should be entrusted to specialists who clean furniture and carpets.

Order in the apartment should become a way of life. Then you won’t have to force yourself to clean, and the house will always sparkle with cleanliness.

Cleanliness is the key to good health

Pathogenic microbes, stale air and other nuances of a room in which cleanliness has long been forgotten are the cause of health problems.

Many people who have problem skin have been able to significantly improve their condition by changing bed linen more often. This phenomenon is explained as follows: bed linen is a real breeding ground for bacteria.

Spending a lot of time in bed, a person literally “bathes” in his own dead cells, germs and dirt. As a result, the skin suffers.

This example demonstrates the practical benefits of keeping things clean.