The Winter months have a big impact on your home. Carpets and furniture suffer much more in the winter, because mud, snow and salt are tracked into your house and deposited on your rugs and carpets. The holidays bring family and friends to visit and your carpets and upholstery are going to get more stains than usual. Cold rainy days make your doormats sopping wet and they have no chance to dry out in the cold air. Condensation leaves pools of water on your window sills and mould and mildew start breaking out in corners and in your bathroom.
If you take some prevenatative measures now you won’t have nearly as much spring cleaning to do when March comes around and in the meantime your home will look as beautiful as it does in Summer.
Here are some key cleaning tips for your home this Winter
1. Floor Mats at Every Outdoor Entrance:
Waterproof floor mats inside and outside every outside door prevent melting snow, mud, leaves, wet and road salt from getting into your house. Mats remind family and friends to wipe their feet before entering the house.
We recommend 2 mats, one outside and one inside the door. The outside mat should be synthetic and weatherproof, to withstand the rain and bad weather, these mats last longer and wear better and can absorb dirt for many years.
2. Shoes Off at the Door Rule
The easiest way to keep up to 80% of the dirt that would normally be brought into the
house out… then introduce the “shoes off at the door rule”
Make it easy for your family by putting a basket out for their shoes and another basket with slippers or socks for them to put on instead. A polite sign asking visitors to remove their shoes is another great idea, you will be surprised how most people are happy to do this.
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3. Tray for Dirty Shoes
In the winter months put a tray beside the front door for very dirty or wet shoes or boots. If
you don’t then the mud and moisture will be all over your floor and that creates more time-consuming cleaning for you! A tray keeps dirty or muddy shoes in one place and lets them dry until you can brush off the mud outside or until someone wants to put them on again. Its easy and it saves you time and clean up
4. Wipe up spills and stains quickly
No matter what stain or spill happens to your carpet or furniture the impact will be much less if you clean it up as quickly as possible. A dark or coloured stain like a soft drink can be cleaned completely if you tackle it in the first few minutes but if you leave it to dry then any dye in the stain will bind to the fibres and this can be permanent.
If you can prepare a stain basket with your favourite stain remover and a spray bottle of water and some clean microfibre clothes, this is a great way to tackle stains quickly. It saves you time hunting for clean cloths and lets you deal with the stain immediately.
Make it a habit to bring out the stain basket when you do the vacuuming, then you can remove any stains you come across as you go.
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5. Keep mildew and mould out
It seems that no house in the UK is free from mould or mildew in some area of the house and Winter brings an epidemic almost. Behind curtains, around the window areas and in the bathroom are typical places where mould and mildew seem to appear.
The problem is often a lack of ventilation combined with an increase in warmth and humidity. Mould and mildew need warmth and humidity to grow. The house is warmer in winter with central heating and if there is condensation on windowsills and in the bathroom this provides a perfect environment for mould growth.
Keep things drier with moisture absorbers, they are cheap and effective and you can put one on every window sill. You will be astonished to see how much water they collect.
Open the window a crack in the bathroom if you don’t have an extractor fan , while you shower and open it more when you leave the bathroom to allow steam to escape.
Turn on the extractor to prevent the kitchen from becoming steamy, if you are boiling or steaming food in the kitchen . Open a window or door to let the condensation out.
Don’t dry clothes on radiators – this just contributes to the humidity and will worsen the mould and mildew problems, use the tumble dryer.