Classic’s Tips for Maintaining Your Home This Spring
Getting your home into top shape, especially if you know you want to list your home for sale soon. But if you’re like most people, cleaning isn’t something you want to spend lots of extra time on, so you want the most effective cleaning for the time you invest. Here are some spring cleaning tips to help get your home in top shape and keep it that way while buyers are forming those crucial first impressions.
1. Start With a Checklist, But Be Able to Add as You Go
Don’t underestimate the mood boost you get when you check off a task! Use a to-do list app or an old-fashioned pen-and-paper to make a checklist. If you finish something, enthusiastically cross it off and revel in the feeling, letting that mood propel you further. Keep in mind that you’ll probably discover other tasks: rather than feeling like there’s “too much to do,” just know that you’ll eventually get to everything on the list.
2. Work Your Way Down to Avoid Redoing Cleaning
One tip that many everyday tidiers don’t think about is that you should clean from the top-down since gravity moves dust and dirt downward. Start with the top of cabinets in your kitchen, for example, and then the cabinets, countertops, and lower cabinets, since, by the end, you will have only been moving dust and dirt downward. While it doesn’t save wild amounts of time, it’s very disappointing to clean a floor and then go up to get the ceiling fan clean only to realize you’ve dirtied the floor again.
3. Look Through a Stranger’s Eyes
Many of us get used to certain things, from a cluttery kids’ room to the constant smudges on a glass door from the dog’s nose pressed against it. One way to identify what to work on next is to imagine how a friend, family member, or stranger might look at this room – if they didn’t live here, what would seem orderly and neat generally, and which things really could be redone? It may be sobering to realize that “good enough for our every day” is different from “ready for homebuyers to visit,” but better to do it while you’re in spring-cleaning mode!
4. Tackle a Whole Room in a Sitting, If Possible
Often, the boost of seeing a whole room get finished will be much better than doing small tasks in each room of your home. If you can carve out time to knock out a whole room, you may find that it motivates you to move to the next room when you have time again.
5. Airing Out and Reducing Moisture Save Time In the Future
Remember that areas that collect moisture develop smells, mold, and mildew, so even just the act of keeping airflow good and avoiding trapped moisture can save you a lot of cleaning. If you get a nice spring day with low humidity, try opening all the windows for a few hours while you’re cleaning – it’s good for any cleaning products with fumes too.
6. Invest in a Tool That Really Levels You Up
If you’ve been struggling with a low-suction vacuum or streaky wash rags for a while, invest in a nicer vacuum or some microfiber cloths that really make the work a pleasure and go faster. Yes, tools cost money, but if you are working to make your home really sparkle for sale, you may make up the small costs of new cleaning products by having a stronger sale.
In Conclusion
If you’re thinking of selling, or possibly updating your home or commercial property, you want to make sure you’re keeping it in tip-top shape! If you deep clean and find mold or other water damage, Classic Construction can help with remediation. Keeping a tidy space can also help you spot damage before it becomes structurally damaging. Call us today for a free estimate for damage repair!