With windows closed all winter, dust, pet dander, and mold/mildew spores are often trapped within a home. When spring arrives, you can start airing out the house and tackle spring cleaning chores. Which rooms need the most attention?
Clean the Bathroom First
The bathroom is the most important room to keep clean. It’s the room where bacteria from toilet flushing end up airborne and spreading to other rooms. While closing the lid to the toilet before flushing will help, you still need to keep the bathroom clean.
Look for mold or mildew growth in grout or on the walls or ceilings. If it’s there, ventilation needs to be improved to help reduce steam that builds up during a bath or shower. Use a mildew killing agent to get those stains under control and keep them from spreading. A mildew-killing paint will take care of stains on ceilings or walls.
Wipe down all fixtures with a homemade or store-bought bleach cleaner. Don’t overlook fixtures like light switches and the toilet handle. Use the same bleach cleaner to clean the tub, shower, sinks, and toilet. Make sure you clean the floor around the toilet, too.
Finally, mop the flooring with the same bleach mixture if it’s tile or linoleum flooring. If it’s wood, get a cleaner designed for wood flooring.
Move to the Kitchen
The kitchen is the other room where a thorough cleaning is essential. It’s the room where food is prepared, so a sterile environment is key to protecting your parents. All counters need to be cleaned and sterilized with a bleach cleaner. The stove and oven need to be scoured to remove stains and built-on grease.
Put around a quarter cup of white vinegar in a plastic sandwich bag. Use a rubber band to secure that over the kitchen sink sprayer. Let it sit overnight. That removes build-up and kills germs. Use a bleach cleaner to clean the end of the kitchen faucet. Make sure the refrigerator door handles, cabinet handles, and microwave and stove/oven controls have been disinfected with a bleach cleaner.
If your parents have a dishwasher, put a few bleach tabs into it and run it without any dishes. This helps to disinfect it. After that, sweep and mop the floor with the appropriate cleaner.
How well do your parents clean when they don’t have help? If it’s becoming harder for them to manage routine cleaning tasks, it’s time for elder care. With elder care services, you have caregivers stopping by on a schedule to keep the kitchen, bathroom, and other areas of the home dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned.