7 Tasks for a Cleaner Home: Week 1

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I love Fall.  The cooler temperatures, the changing leaves, the excitement of upcoming holidays, and the smell of pumpkin spice. 🙂  When school starts every year, I go into Fall cleaning mode.  I usually don’t do much spring cleaning because I know my kids will be home for the summer.  Fall is a great time to tackle tasks that aren’t done on a weekly basis.

When I was a younger mom, I followed Flylady.net through daily emails (years before Facebook).  Although I haven’t followed her for years, many of the habits I learned stuck with me.  I am excited to launch this new series of posts every Monday: 7 Tasks for a Cleaner Home.  These tasks will be things that tend to be overlooked in our homes.

I realize that everyone’s homes are different and that everyone is busy.  Daily tasks can get overwhelming, so this post series will just list 7 tasks for the week. Some tasks will be quick 10 minute tasks, some will be longer depending on how much time you want to put in. Whether you only have time to complete one or two or all seven, your home will be one step closer to a deeper clean each week.  Let’s get started in the kitchen!

Task #1

Task #1-Clean your kitchen sink. The kitchen is usually the main hub of the home where we eat and spend time as a family.  The first habit I learned from Flylady years ago is to start with shining the sink. When your sink is clean, it has a positive effect on the rest of the kitchen.  My sink tends to get gross every couple weeks.  It is a great feeling to scrub it down and make it shine.  I have a quartz sink so I use THIS cleaner to polish it and make it really shine.

Task #2

Task #2-Clean your refrigerator. This includes cleaning out old food and wiping down all the shelves.  It has been a while since I wiped down my fridge, and it was long overdue. What a great feeling to open the fridge and see clean shelves!

Task #3

Task #3-Straighten your storage area.  This task may be a big one depending on how messy it is.  Break it into smaller tasks if you need to.  Focus on donating unused items and getting rid of expired food.

The storage room is one area of my house that tends to get neglected.  Things that don’t have a home or clothes that have been outgrown collect in this area.  A few weeks ago, one of my kids left the freezer door cracked open when they got a popsicle.  When we discovered it the next morning, water was all over the floor. Defrosting the freezer had been on my to-do list for about a year.  It had several inches of ice on the shelves and wasn’t running well.  I decided the best course of action would be to completely defrost the freezer and clean the storage room.  It took a couple days, but the result was well worth it.  This room just makes me smile now when I walk in, and the freezer is working better than ever.  Bonus task for the week-Clean out and defrost your deep freeze if it needs it!

Task #4

Task #4-Clean under your couches.  This post is definitely showing the good, the bad, and the ugly in my home. 🙂 Let’s just say, it has been a while since we cleaned under our family room couches.  Of course, the kids aren’t supposed to eat downstairs, and yet I found this when we moved the couches.  Yikes!  Lots of treasures under there (socks, popcorn, goldfish, jelly beans, Cadbury mini eggs…..yep it has been a while).  Hopefully, yours aren’t as bad as mine. Obvious, this is a 2 person job so get some help if you are moving furniture. 🙂

Task #5

Task #5-Look up in your bathroom.  Check for dust on your light fixture and bathroom fan.  Um, gross.  I would recommend doing this BEFORE you do the regular cleaning in your bathroom because the dust will go everywhere. Wipe down the lights, and I suggest using the vacuum to clean the fan.

Task #6

Task #6-Clean the ceiling fans.  We are continuing with looking up, so we are going to dust those ceiling fans.  If you have to use a ladder, make sure you have some help or assign this task to your spouse. 🙂 Wipe down the blades and dust for cobwebs.

Task #7

Task #7-Take care of a task that you have been procrastinating.  For me, this task is changing the filter in our furnace.  The thermostat has been flashing the change filter light for almost 3 weeks (oops!), so it is time to take care of it.  New vs. old-that is seriously gross (although not surprising with the amount of smoke we had here from the fires in Montana).

That’s it for this week.  Hopefully, this post gives you the motivation to tackle some of these tasks in your home.  I love the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I take care of something that I have been procrastinating, and I know it makes life a little easier when things are clean.  I would love to hear what you accomplished this week! Comment below or leave a comment on Facebook or Instagram.