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The holidays are rapidly approaching, and if you’re planning on hosting a party this year, you’re probably starting to feel the pressure of wanting to do everything just right. Cleaning the house is probably one of the many tasks you have to complete in preparation for the party.
During the holiday season, it’s not just the decorations that should shine. When guests come to visit over the holidays, you want them to feel welcome in a spotless home. If you want your house to sparkle like a Christmas tree, you can apply these following suggestions.
Start Fresh
If you do a thorough cleaning before the holidays begin, your home will stay looking great during the celebrations. It’s true you might not have a lot of time to get this done, especially if you have to go from room to room and give everything a deep clean, but that’s why you could hire professionals instead. You can even get professional carpet cleaning experts to make sure every single inch of your home is fresh and clean.
There are many reasons why cleaning your home from top to bottom and really paying attention to what you are doing is a good idea. For one thing, you’ll be proud of your house when people stop by, whether they are coming in for a quick drink or staying for a couple of weeks. Plus, a property is much easier to keep clean once you get the momentum going, and nothing will do that quite like a top to bottom scrub.
Clear The Clutter
This piece of advice can be carried out before or during the big deep clean, but don’t leave it until afterwards. If you do that, you’ll already have cleaned all the things you then decide to remove from your home, and that will mean you wasted a lot of time. Either that, or you won’t have been able to get to all the areas you wanted to because there was so much stuff in the way.
Decluttering is hard work, and you do need to be in a good emotional state to do it, so starting the task just a few days before people are meant to be arriving when you have a million and one things still to tick off your to-do list and are feeling stressed, if not entirely overwhelmed, is probably not a good idea. Instead, it’s better to do this far in advance so you have the time to dedicate to it and you’re not stressed out by everything else that is going on.
The best way to tackle decluttering is to have three boxes. One box is stuff to donate, one is stuff to sell, and the other is stuff you need to throw out because it’s not good enough for the other two boxes. This should always be the smallest box if possible. In this way, you’ll feel as though you’re accomplishing something as you go through each room.
Be Mindful Of Your Decorations
Some people are just not really into Christmas decorations, but others absolutely adore covering everything they own in tinsel and lights. Most people fall somewhere in the middle. No matter what you intend to do with your decorations, the cleaning and decluttering has to come first. It’s hard to dust around tinsel. Of course, if you have a real tree, you’ll be doing a lot more vacuuming over the holidays, but at least the rest of the house will already be clean.
When it comes to your decorations, be mindful of what you’re doing and how much you’re doing. It will always be to your personal taste, of course, but the last thing you want is to have spent hours, maybe even days, cleaning the house only to make things look tacky with your sparkly décor. It’s true, if there is one time of the year when tacky is okay, it’s Christmas, but if you want things to look nice for guests, you might want to make sure you’re not overdoing things.
Have A Cleaning Schedule
As much as you might not want to do it, cleaning doesn’t stop just because it happens to be the festive period. This is why it’s a good idea to have a cleaning schedule in place so that you can be sure your home is tidy and clean at all times – or at least most of the time.
The thing with the holidays is that people tend to drop by unannounced, and therefore if you have a good schedule in place, you can be almost sure the house will be presentable when they do. And unless you live alone, don’t be the only one doing the tidying. Other household members, including children, can and should help out. If everyone has their own jobs to do, things become a lot easier, and you’ll have more time to enjoy the Christmas period.
Don’t Forget The Guest Room
It is a good idea to make some room in the closet before inviting people around for the holidays, especially if you plan on celebrating with friends and family. They will be bringing luggage, bags, and jackets, and you don’t want them to obstruct the corridor or any of your rooms with their belongings. This is true at any time of the year, but at Christmas, when there are always gifts and extra food and trinkets that come with your guests, there will be less room, so it’s crucial to tidy up and make space.
It’s also nice to ensure the bedding on the guest bed is fresh and clean and that there are clean towels laid out. If you really want to impress, you can add some toiletries like you would find in a hotel – small shampoos and shower gels – so your guests don’t have to worry about asking you for things if they need them. Not only will they feel more at home, but they’ll be more relaxed, and you’ll be able to have a lot more fun.
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