Year: 2020

As many people prepare to embrace the bitter cold weather and spend more time indoors, it’s always helpful when the home feels inviting and happy. Even if you’re not a homebody, one of the best ways to make sure your home remains a place you’d like to stay involves the intentional effort of keeping it clean and cozy. In order to turn your house into a cozy home, consider the following tips.

 

1. Switch to Warmer Fabrics

It’s time to pack up the thin linens and look for fabrics like fleece and cashmere. Anything that feels extremely soft to the touch will work perfectly. If the family room is the perfect area for watching movies, conversations, and game nights, find a large basket that can hold a bunch of comfortable throws and blankets for the couches.

2. Keep Up With Cleaning Tasks

To maintain a high level of cleanliness in your home, it’s a good idea to stay on top of all of the surfaces. Whether it’s the surface of your coffee table, the kitchen countertops, or the bathroom vanity, take a few disinfecting wipes and walk through the house with them. As you wipe down these surfaces, you’ll eliminate the chances of dust piling up. It’ll also be helpful in getting rid of germs or debris. Carpet stain removal should be tackled as soon as the stain happens.

 

3. Pinpoint the Disorganized Areas

For many people, it’s not uncommon for the kitchen countertop to become the area where the mail piles up. Instead, create a mail system for immediate management and efficiency. When you bring the mail in, sort through it immediately. When you’re able to keep areas organized, it’s a lot easier for a home to look clean. Clutter can do a lot to bring down the morale of those who need a sense of order.

 

4. Tackle a Little Each Day

Instead of waiting until the weekend to deep-clean the entire home, it’s a better idea to do a little bit each day. On Monday evenings, make sure all of the showers are scrubbed and sanitized. On Tuesdays, vacuum, and mop all of the floors. For areas that get the most traffic, sweep, and mop on a more consistent basis. As you work on doing a little each day, you’ll never end up with a monstrous mess at the end of a week.

 

5. Hang the Right Curtains

The cold air can seep through closed windows throughout the house. This is one of the reasons why it’s wise to change your curtains during the colder months. Hang heavier curtains as they can absorb more of the cold air. Thicker fabrics like velvet can easily provide a luxurious look to a room.

 

6. Keep Decor Simplistic yet Personal

Simplicity is best as it pertains to your decor. When there are too many accessories and details, it can look crowded and chaotic. Keep your decor streamlined and simple. Hang beautiful artwork and large mirrors on the walls. Include a couple of photos of family members and friends to personalize the look as well.

 

As you work to keep your home clean and cozy, recognize that this isn’t a process that happens overnight. It will take intentional effort, time, and creativity. However, when you’re able to create a home that’s perfect for facilitating the best memories and moments, you’ll know that you’re on the right track.

With a dangerous virus going around, keeping things clean is a given. Our hands, countertops, door handles, and even groceries need to be cleaned properly. However, there is a difference between cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing. While all three are key to remaining healthy, they are different from each other.

 

Here are the differences between cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing and why they are important for healthy living.

 

Cleaning

 

You may have heard that cleaning helps get rid of bacteria. This is both true and false. Cleaning does indeed wipe away germs, dirt, and other harmful particles. However, cleaning does not necessarily kill them.

 

All it really does is moves them away from the surface. But that does not mean the method of cleaning is useless. In fact, you can’t sanitize or disinfect until you have cleaned first. To effectively clean a surface, use a paper towel or static pad to pick up the contaminants. If needed, you a cleaning agent that removes surface dirt completely.

 Keeping your carpets clean is paramount. Dirt, dust, and allergens can collect in carpeting and cause major problems if it is not cleaned on a regular basis. Vacuum at least once a week and schedule regular professional cleaning. 

 

Sanitizing

 

Sanitizing is kind of similar to disinfecting. However, instead of killing bacteria, sanitizing aims to control it. There are many ways to do this, but the most common and effective way is mixing bleach with water. Before doing so, it is important to understand that you can’t just mix bleach and water haphazardly.

 

It must be mixed at the right ratio. Make it too weak and the solution won’t be able to do anything. If you make it too strong, it can become a hazard. Lastly, sanitizing requires you to leave the solvent to sit for a set period of time to take effect.

 

Disinfecting

 

You may think that wiping off a surface with something such as a Clorox wipe is cleaning. To a certain degree, it is, but Clorox kills the germs, which means it is more along the lines of disinfecting.  Viruses are extremely contagious and it is important to disinfect regularly. This is especially true for high-traffic areas like bathrooms and kitchens.

Although continually disinfecting may seem ideal, it can have serious repercussions. Overexposure to powerful chemicals can cause nausea, respiratory issues, and dermatologic issues, like contact dermatitis or psoriasis.

 

Cleaning and sanitizing properly are two of the best ways to enjoy healthy living. Take the time to find what works best for you, your family, and the areas that need the most attention.