Happy 2016! By now, most people have either begun their new year’s resolutions, or at least thought about starting them. But according to StatisticsBrain.com only about 8% of new year’s resolutions are achieved and of those, only 46% last 6 months or more.
I have to admit, I do keep a clean home, and I am great at cleaning clutter. But because my life has gotten so busy, I just don’t have the time or the energy to devote to deep cleaning anymore. I know how. But if I can figure out how to implement what I know, I might really succeed.
I’ve decided, that instead of dreading cleaning, to embrace the inevitability of it. It must be done. Therefore I’m going to lean in to it. Or rather, clean in. I’m going to find a way to make cleaning fun, yet scientific, so I can spend less time doing it and get more enjoyment out of the time I do spend on it.
And this is why I am really excited and confident of my cleaning goals:
Click on the image to download the Checklist.
Through their website, blogs, Facebook page and Twitter account, Maid Brigade will be sharing cleaning tips throughout the year, through an exciting new CLEAN IN series. These wonderful tips will help us all maintain a clean home year round so we can spend more time doing what makes us happy. 🙂
One of the big tips on achieving goals is to approach them as a series of smaller more manageable chunks. So instead of bombarding you with all these great cleaning tips in the first month of the new year, I’ll start 2016 off with one task that I would like to incorporate into my life:
To wipe down the glass shower walls and door after every shower I take. Doing this one simple task would cut my bathroom cleaning time in half.
How? By spraying the walls and the door with a spray bottle filled with vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and some tea tree essential oil. A squeegee is needed to wipe the walls and glass doors down, and a microfiber cloth is needed to clean the shower floor. Believe me, wiping the shower down after every use is not as easy as you may think. I attempted to do this exact chore every day two years ago and I failed. My mornings were busy and I just couldn’t fit this cleaning task into my daily schedule. This time, I realized the benefits of this daily task far outweigh the bad, so this year, I have decided to try it again, and succeed!
With what? I clean with vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and tea tree oil. Acidic cleaners are known to clean rust, water spots, and soap and mineral deposits. They also act as disinfectants because they change the pH of the environment, making it hard for most microorganism to survive. Acidic cleaners have a pH less than 7 (with 7 being the neutral value of water). Vinegar and lemon juice are great acidic cleaners.
Cleaning solutions with a pH greater than 7, like Borax and baking soda, are considered alkaline, and they help clean oily, dirty, fatty grime and grease.
Tea tree oil is a natural fungicide and antiseptic. Tea tree oil can kill most of the bacteria found in soap scum and help prevent future growth. If the scent of tea tree oil is not your favorite, try using grapefruit seed extract instead.
Hydrogen peroxide works wonders on mold and mildew. Four parts of Hydrogen peroxide to one part water will keep any shower mold and mildew free!
Soap scum is one of the main culprits lurking in my shower. It is that white build-up consisting of minerals from the water, dirt, bacteria, and sloughed-off skin that seems to form on the wall and glass door. Because I have hard tap water, the soap scum forms quicker. The best time to clean soap scum is right after taking a warm shower. The heat and steam help loosen the scum so it is easier to wipe off, which is why incorporating this cleaning task after my morning shower every day can ultimately reduce my cleaning time at the end of each week by half. No more scrubbing!!!
Incorporating easy cleaning tips into our busy lives is a great way to maintain a clean home in less time. I am looking forward to sharing more useful tips throughout this year so that you, too, can have a happier, cleaner 2016!
