Clean Along 2025
January 13, 2025
Should we deep clean together? My past cleaning and organizing posts have always been popular, so why the heck not? If you join me in this deep cleaning challenge, we'll take it slowly and most importantly we'll be thorough. We'll get to those hard to reach and neglected areas. We will also declutter along the way. We won't be marathon cleaning in the traditional sense, but rather work only an hour a day, but on some days we'll work for several hours if time allows, and we'll take days off because we want to avoid burn out. Depending on the size of your home, the time you can allow, and whether or not you have to declutter, I imagine we'll be in this for one, two or three months. I'll be here on Mondays through March to cheer you along. So there I've said it. I'm making a commitment to myself and to you that I'll be here every Monday and I hope you'll join me. We're on our way to creating a more beautiful and pleasant living environment thus lowering stress, reducing allergies, and positively impacting our self esteem and sense of control.
I am always inspired when I see others tidying up and my intention with these blog posts is to inspire you. I'm hardly a cleaning expert but I can show you what I do every week with the hopes that if you want to begin the new year with a clean home, you'll be able to find some gentle motivation in these words.
If this interests you, check back every Monday for cleaning inspo. If you are a subscriber, the post will arrive in your inbox. My knitting, gardening and entertaining posts will be published at the end of the week. So if you're in, let's begin!
- Work in one room at a time and finish it completely before moving on to the next room in whatever order that suits you.
- Start with the room that makes most sense to you. I will start with our master bedroom. I recommend doing the kitchen last because for me it is by far the biggest project. Just remember that at least a few weeks before you are to deep clean your kitchen, do a version of the October Challenge to make it easier to clean your pantry, freezer and refrigerator.
- It should be no surprise to know that cleaning is much easier if you have decluttered, and I have done that. If you haven't already decluttered, now is the perfect time and we'll do that as we clean.
- A tidy room doesn't mean it couldn't use a deep clean. Don't laugh, but these pictures below are of our bedroom prior to deep cleaning. It looks clean doesn't it? It's not. It's just tidy. There are spider webs and dirt hiding everywhere. My regular daily routine is to make the bed and tidy up, and weekly I dust and vacuum, but this week is about the hidden grime.
- Gather your tools. For my bedroom I need my step stool, broom, vacuum, mop, flat dry mop for dusting walls, window cleaner, furniture polish, magic eraser, and lots of microfiber cleaning cloths. Also, two buckets of warm soapy water, one for the walls and surfaces and one for the floor. I add a few drops of Dawn to each bucket.
- Set up a donation box and a trash can.
- Quickly glance through the room and if you see anything that does not belong there, take it to its home now or put it in the donation box. Throw out all visible trash.
- Take any decor items that need to be washed and move to the kitchen for a good clean.
- Move area rugs to outdoors if possible, or at least to another room. Vacuum, then flip and vacuum the underside as well. If your rugs need to be professionally cleaned, make the appointment now. (In the summer, we take our rugs to the driveway and clean them with our portable rug cleaner. They dry in a few hours in the summer heat.)
- Remove all wall hangings and pictures and polish the glass and wipe down the frames, sides and back.
- Working one wall at a time, move furniture out from wall, dust walls and and remove any marks with a good scrub using microfiber cloth or magic eraser. Rehang art. Sweep and mop floor, scrub baseboard. With a damp microfiber cloth, wipe the top, back, front and sides of furniture. Dusting is fine all year, but this one day we are going to wet wipe it. Wood will survive (and love!) a yearly wet wipe. Finish with your favorite wood polish for a nice glow. Replace furniture and go to the next wall and repeat, taking special care to high traffic areas.
- Take down the curtains to either wash or dry clean. If your drapes cannot be washed and you cannot spend the money on dry cleaning at this time, take each panel out one by one and shake the daylights out of them to remove dust, checking for cobwebs too.
- Polish windows and rehang window coverings. I hang mine sightly damp from the dryer to avoid both shrinkage and ironing. We will wash the outside of windows in early spring before Easter.
- Wash all bedding, including the pillows. As an aside, we bought our first set of heavy cotton flannel sheets this fall. What a game changer! They keep us so warm and we don't use our heating blanket anymore. Totally in love with these for winter. We'll switch back to percale when the weather warms up.
- Vacuum the mattress and flip, wiping down the bed rails, slats, frame, etc.
- Remove lamp shades and clean. If you have delicate silk shades you may be more comfortable having them dry cleaned. You can vacuum them but I put mine in the tub and spray with warm water and put them on the patio for a few hours to dry, but they are not silk. Follow your manufacturers recommendations, but do clean them!
- Vacuum upholstered pieces.
- Wash all the decor items. To wash faux greens and flowers, swish in a sink of warm soapy water, then spray lightly with water to remove soap residue. Take outside and shake to remove excess water and allow to dry in the shade. This removes all the dirt and I've never injured any. If you cannot clean them and they are dirty, toss them and replace with something you can wash.
- Lastly, reassemble the room, but don't add back the decor just yet. Give yourself several days to live in a decor free room. After a few days of experiencing the quiet of having no decor, add one or two pieces back every day and stop when you feel you've got the look you love. Donate the rest. I can tell you that it's wonderful to come into a clutter free room at the end of the evening and a heck of a lot easier to maintain throughout the year.
- Admire your clean room. It may look no different, but YOU'LL know how many buckets of dirty water you threw out and how many cobwebs you have banished.
7 Comments
I spent all of 2024 decluttering. I gave away or sold hundreds of items. Cleaning has become so much easier. My husband thinks I go overboard too. I actually enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteYay you! You'd think our husbands would be happy with all our hard work, but I am the chief cleaner around here so I guess making an easier cleaning routine only benefits me.
DeleteI'm so in! This is just the kick in the keister that I need! LOL
ReplyDeleteHaha! When I clicked the publish button on this post, I gulped a little bit knowing that it would mean I would be committed. That was my kick in the keester! I'm so glad you are with me!
DeleteI will be happy to get Half as much done. And considerate it a success! Chloe
ReplyDeleteYou are too funny! xo
DeleteI’m all in! Your post is just what I needed to get started. Can’t wait for the cLeaning post but love them all.
ReplyDeleteYou make my day when you make a comment!