What order to clean your house?

13779190 • 9 February 2022

What is the best order to clean your house?

At Charnie’s Angels Cleaning Services we have been cleaning housings in Loughborough, Leicestershire for over a decade! And from all the experience of our amazing cleaners we want to share our best tips.

 

One thing people ask, is what order should I clean my home in? 

 

Now each of our experienced cleaners has their own house cleaning process and so the answer would be different depending on who you ask but there are some common approaches. We’ve noted them down for you below and hope this helps you become more systematic and efficient in your cleaning. 

 

1.    “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” Mark Twain.

 

Eat the frog means, pick the most important job, or maybe the job you are putting off the most and get it done first. This will give you a big sense of achievement and stop you putting of bigger cleaning tasks that seem overwhelming. For me the ‘frog’ is always the family bathroom so I always clean this room first. It makes me more productive for the rest of the clean as I’ve got the hard job out the way.

 

2.    ‘I started at the top and worked my way down.’ Orson Welles

 

Often our cleaners work their way out of a home. So they start upstairs and work their way down and mop themselves out the front door. For cleaning your own home we don’t think what floor your start on matters but we recommend doing one floor at a time as you don’t want to be wasting time going up and down the stairs especially if you are carrying lots of cleaning kit.

 

We do recommend however, that in each room you always start high and finish low. Start with high dusting with an extendable microfibre duster if you have one on ceilings and walls. Then move to what’s on the walls, shelves, cabinets, picture frames and switches. Internal windows and window ledges after that. Then all your mid-level surfaces, counters, worktops, handles or baths sinks and toilets in a bathroom. Then socket and skirting boards and anything on the floor such as mats etc. This should then leave all dirt and dust that you have dislodged on the floor, so always clean floors last. We hoover first to pick up the dust and then mop, otherwise the mop just moves all that dirt around!

 

3.    ‘Spread kindness, not germs’ - Anon

 

One theory around the right order to clean a house is to leave all bathrooms until last. This is due to the fact that toilets contain the most bacteria and therefore you should leave them till last to avoid spreading to other rooms in the house. At our cleaning company, we don’t see this as a problem as we use separate equipment for different rooms. However, this may be something you want to keep in mind for cleaning your own home! Also, it may be more efficient to clean one bathroom after the other, as you are in the zone for cleaning all that porcelain and glass! 

 

4.    Not quite for this one but a tip from us is to always finishing your clean (after the floors!) with a nice finishing touch. Whether this be lighting a candle or putting out some flowers. These little things aren’t just good for a presentable home but are good for the soul! And are a less ‘frog-like’ task to finish on and to look forward to.

 

We hope you find this useful when you are next going to tackle your cleaning! 

My cleaner is rubbish!

6 September 2021
Are you sometimes not happy with the clean from your cleaner? Feel the clean isn’t very good? End up disappointed with your cleaning service? BUT you don’t know how to deal with telling your cleaner you aren’t happy? Then see our 10 top tips for improving your cleaning service from our expert experience running a cleaning business for over a decade. 1. Your Expectations - the length of clean: As though as it is sometime is good to look inward before looking outward when you aren’t happy with your clean from your cleaner. If you are asking for too much to be realistically achieved in the time, then you will always be disappointed and your cleaner will no doubt be disheartened too. As a rule of thumb from our experience to clean a 3 bed, 1 bathroom + 1 toilet well takes 2 hours. After kitchens, bathrooms take the most time! Expect at least 20 minutes per additional bathroom. 2. Your expectations - depth of clean: There is a different in service offerings from cleaners from a standard to a deep clean and we see a lot off issues with customer satisfaction as people’s expectations of a clean can vary along this spectrum. To illustrate this point, a standard weekly clean of a standard size kitchen should take 30-40 minutes. A deep clean of a kitchen we estimate 2-3 hours, including everything from internal windows, oven, inside the fridge, every cupboard front and kick board. To ensure you are on the same page always ask what’s included in the clean, good cleaners should have a list which shows you the differentiations between service. 3. Products & Equipment: A good cleaning job can not be done with bad tools! In all honestly although we all have our favourites cleaning products such as kitchen cleaner are all much the same but equipment makes a real difference - especially cloths! Have at least 4 good quality microfibre cloths for each clean and ensure to wash them every clean. This sounds obvious I’m sure but dirty cloths will massively impact the quality of what your cleaner is able to achieve. Also, have 2-3 good quality glass microfibre cloths, we’ve linked our favourites below. The same goes for mops, get microfibre ones and microfibre dusters instead of feather dusters that just move dust around. 4. Leave a list of priorities: One thing we have learned is that all our customers have different priorities and expectations. Be as concise as you can with what is important to you. If making sure the chrome is shiny in your home then say it! If streaky floors get to you say it. Also, we find it useful to have a report book at each home where our customers write what they want each clean and the cleaner responds with what she’s achieved. 5.Remove clutter: We all have clutter! But you would be surprised how this can impact the effectiveness of your cleaner. It takes a lot of time to move items and dust them and if your cleaner is spending their time tidying they are not spending it cleaning! 6, Giving feedback: This is hard but done correctly can be the most effective way to see an improvement from your cleaner. A good rule of thumb is first of all give credit for ‘what is going well’ which you can then follow up with a bit if would be ‘even better if’. Always be polite and then if the service doesn’t improve following feedback you can reference this conversation. If this would make you really uncomfortable it may be worth choosing a cleaning service from a company where you liaise directly with the company manager as it is there job to manage your cleaners performance and not you. We hope this helps you get the most out of your cleaner and cleaning service!

WANT SNUDGE-FREE NON-STREAKY GLASS?

18 June 2021
Being professional domestic cleaners with years of experience making people’s homes sparkle! We have many cleaning hacks to get the very best results as efficiently as possible. Glass cleaning is many people’s nemesis! You spend time and lots of elbow grease buffing those windows – to only step back and see streaks everywhere. Our cleaning tip – don’t buy glass cleaner! For us no matter what brand we try the smears always are worse with glass cleaning product and take a lots of buffing to get crystal clear windows. So what do you do instead? All you need is water and a better cloth. There is no cloth like Minky MCLOTH Anti-Bacterial for Glass and Windows . We recommend 3 per house, and use as follows… - Make one damp with water, use this first on window. - Next your second cloth keeping it dry and lightly buff dry the window or surface and look at the shine! - Once your second cloth becomes damp, get your third out to use as your dry cloth. Most glass cleaners do not contain disinfectant and therefore will not kill germs so using water and Minky cloths with their anti-bacterial properties will give you peace of mind and also will work out cheaper and better for the environment! The cloths are also great for bringing shine and ease to the cleaning of any glass furniture and any chrome or stainless steal cleaning. Also, if you have marble worktops, buff with the minky glass and windows cloth for perfect shiny snugde-free worktops. Final tip, if you machine wash your cloths, rinse out the cloth after your wash to remove any detergent that could give you smears before you dry. We have linked the best deal for 3 Minky cloths we can find below on our Amazon Affiliate account! Click, buy and let us know about the great results we know you will get!

What's in your cleaning kit?

7 May 2021
What do you need in your cleaning kit? We often get asked what you need to have stocked up in order for us to get your home sparkling! Here is our definitive list, with a few of our favourite brands and hints & tips. We do also offer a gold service where we bring all our favourite products and commercial equipment with us. EQUIPMENT 🧽 ▫️Vacuum Cleaner - we use the commercial version of the Henry hoover ▫️Mop & bucket or a steam mop ▫️Sweeping brush ▫️Dustpan & brush ▫️Feather duster - the microfibre ones are just brilliant, they collect the dust instead of moving it around ▫️Microfiber cloths ▫️Microfiber window cloth - not just good for glass, but great for buffing up stainless steel and gloss worktops! ▫️Cleaning sponges PRODUCTS 🧼 ▫️Kitchen Cleaner - we love The Pink Stuff cleaning range and it’s great value ▫️Bathroom Cleaner ▫️Multipurpose Cleaner ▫️Window Cleaner ▫️Polish - although in most cases microfiber cloths can do the job on their own. ▫️Floor Cleaner - make sure if you have wooden floors to buy a specific wood floor cleaner, Method Products have a beautiful smelling and effective one. ▫️Bleach or an eco-friendly alternative such as Ecover UK ▫️Mould & Mildew spray - Astonish mould and mildew blaster is great! ▫️Limescale remover - you can't beat Viakal EXTRAS ✨ ▫️The Pink Stuff Paste is a wonder product that can get rid of scuffs and stains you wouldn't have thought possible ▫️Always have bin bags for us to replace in your bins ▫️Don't forget toilet brushes! ▫️Toothbrush for cleaning any hard to reach grime. Charnie's Angels can provide our own favourite products and commercial equipment for your clean or use your own! It is completely up to you. For an experience, reliable and thorough domestic cleaning or commercial cleaning service in Loughborough and the surrounding areas please get in touch with us today!