Christmas Cleaning Tips: after the big day!

Look familar? After Christmas your house can be in a very bad way.Wow - Christmas was a blast. A colossal meal at lunchtime, followed by hours of fun and games with your family, a relaxing evening in front of the television, and a glass of bubbly to finish. You're exhausted, and head to bed.

In the morning you wake up and survey the house, and oh dear - it's a mess! Before you panic, remember that Christmas can easily take its toll on even the cleanest house. With so much food to prepare, it's very difficult to 'wash up as you go' and with children around the house can quickly get grimy in places you'd never expect it to!

Take a breather, and start tackling the mess one part at a time. Here's a list of handy tips to help you out.

• Clean the kitchen first
  The kitchen inevitably suffers over the festive season. Your baking tray has probably seen better days, and the mound of washing up would probably give Everest a run for its money. You should always clean your ktichen first, as you'll use it to make tea and dinner later on, and a messy kitchen will seriously increase your stress levels.
• Ask the family to chip in
  After all, you've prepared the Christmas dinner and the festive celebrations, and you're probably feeling exhausted! Get the children to clean their own rooms and your partner to help out downstairs. Many hands really do make light work.
• Work to a structure
  Christmas cleaning is often more difficult than everyday cleaning because there's a great deal more tidying to do before hand. Make sure you don't overlap jobs. Clear away the Christmas paper, the old food and the beer bottles before you start to clean. Always finishing tidying first.
• Watch out for stains!
  Carpets can very easily get stained over the Christmas period. Gravy, red wine, beer - they're all regular culprits. Click Cleaning's put together a comprehensive stain removal guide that tells you how to quickly and painlessly remove even the toughest stains.
• Don't overdo it
  When you clean after Christmas you're tackling days and days of heavy use! Don't feel you have to get it all done in a day. Take it easy and do it properly, and your house will be back to normal in no time at all. It can be easy to get stressed, but remember the mess is only temporary.

Good luck with your Christmas cleaning! It really can be daunting first of all, but please don't despair. The more people you have to help you, the easier it is, so call on all your friends and family! And last but least, make sure you relax: after all, it is Christmas!

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Christmas Cleaning Tips: Before the big day!

A clean house is a happy house over the Christmas periodWhen you welcome people into your home over the festive season, you have a lot to think about: whether the turkey is properly roasted, whether there's enough drink to go around and whether you'll have enough space for guests to sleep over should they have a little bit more than a glass and a half. The stress can really get you down, and you soon find yourself forgetting the important things.

One of the tasks that often gets neglected is ensuring the house has had a proper clean before people arrive. A clean house is always a happy house, and a happy house is particularly important over Christmas where you'll want to create the most enjoyable atmosphere possible.

So read our top cleaning tips and start looking forward to your best Christmas yet!

• Remove clutter and breakables.
  If you have children in the house over Christmas, the first thing you'll want to do is clear away breakables. After all, if your priceless china gets smashed it's going to put a damper on your festive celebrations. At the same time, clear away anything that won't get used. Mess creates more mess, and you won't want to be worrying about surfaces being clear when the celebrations begin.
• Clean whilst you decorate
  Over Christmas you visit spaces you hardly ever see! When you hang Christmas cards on string or put up tinsel, give the area a proper spring clean using disinfectant and polish. It's a great way to combine tasks and save time. Make sure you give the space under the tree a good clean as the presents will go there, and you don't want them to attract bacteria. If you have a wooden floor, use a specially designed cleaner to kill germs. We have a range of floor cleaning products for a variety of different surfaces.
• Clean surfaces at child-height
  If you do have young children in the house, make sure you clean surfaces that they may frequently come into contact with, such as skirting boards and corners of floors. These areas can often get neglected in your weekly household clean so it's a good idea to give them a thorough clean before December rolls around.
• Freshen the guest room
  As we mentioned above, someone inevitably has a little too much to drink and needs to stay the night. If you're like the rest of us, your 'guest bedroom' may be hiding under piles of junk and items you've needed to find a place for. Remove the rubbish and clean the room, making sure you open the window to bring some fresh air in. Place some flowers on the bedside table the day before they arrive, and free up some wardrobe space in case your guest brings clothes.
• Clean infrequently used kitchen items
  You've bought a massive turkey, and it's almost time to put it in the oven. But you can't find your basting tray! So you end up stuffing it in the microwave 'Mr Bean' style. That's not exactly a great start to your Christmas day, so make sure you find - and clean - your basting tray in good time. You may also want to clean cheeseboards, large plates and anything else you may use. Don't forget to buff your cutlery and make your wine glasses sparkle.

Before you get down to preparing your house for Christmas, check out our top ten tips to make your cleaning go further. We talk about the major mistakes that most people make and how to avoid them. That way when all your guests arrive, they'll be stepping into a happy and healthy home that's full of festive cheer. And that reflects very well on you, and your family. Good luck with your Christmas cleaning!

5 reasons why your room doesn't look as clean as you want it to be!

A dirty microwave can really detract from the cleanliness of your kitchenIf your floor is covered in dust, it's obviously going to detract from the overall cleanliness of your house. Fortunately, your floor is one of the first things you clean, and with a sparkling, disinfected floor you certainly feel more at home. But isn't it annoying when you've just finished cleaning, and look around, and just don't feel your room has that 'just cleaned' look that you were aiming for?

Here are 5 reasons why this may be the case:

• The room is insufficiently aired: Cleaning and airing go hand in hand. If you're cleaned away your dirt and think your room doesn't seem clean, it may be because you're still smelling the same foul air that's been circulating. This can be a particular problem in the winter when windows remain closed and the heating is always on. When you clean, open windows and doors to encourage maximum air flow.
• Dust has been moved around, not removed: If you use polish and a dry duster, all you're going to be doing is moving dust and dirt around, not actually removing it from the room. Use a wet duster and ensure you trap the dirt, shaking it out only when it's over a bin or you're outside.
• You hoover before you dust: If you vacuum the floors and then clean surfaces, dust will fall down onto your newly clean floor and remain there, meaning after you're done the room could be even dirtier than you started with! Always hoover last.
• You use dirty cloths: Dirty cloths are one of cleaning's worst enemies! It can be tempting to simply shake out and reuse a filthy cloth, but then you aren't really cleaning you're just wiping. Use a fresh cloth at all times (particularly if you've just covered a very dirty area) and then wash them in your washing machine to make them good as new. TIP: Don't put them in with your clothes, as the residue from cleaning products may remain and damage your garments.
• You habitually miss out certain areas: We all have them - the areas we just don't feel like cleaning. It may be that the microwave has so many months of encrusted gunge that you just pretend it's not there instead of dealing with it directly. Problems like these can severely limit the room's ability to look good.

Read on for the top five problem items that prevent a room from looking its best.

• Washing Machine: If you have a white washing machine, this is particularly true. Washing machines attract dirt like there's no tomorrow. Over years of use grime can get ingrained and remove the white shine that your machine had when it was new. Scrub it down with a good quality bactericidal cleaner (you'll kill all germs too!) and watch as your kitchen looks transformed.
• Microwave: Exploding custards, overflowing curry - your microwave can soon look a bit worse for wear. Scrub it out and clean the outside to return it to original pristine condition. Your food will look better when it comes out too! And here's a tip to ensure your microwave spells nice: zap a bowl of warm water filled with lemon slices for a couple of minutes.
• Oven: Everyone knows ovens get grimy, and that they are one of the hardest things to clean. Thankfully we've put together a comprehensive oven cleaning guide to remove baked on food, get rid of germs and ensure your oven is working and looking its best.
• Windows and door frames: These are often neglected because they aren't focal points of the room, but like washing machines they quickly show up neglect, particularly those made of white plastic. The trick is to clean them regularly, so you can stop mould and ingrained dirt setting in and proving stubborn to remove.
• Books and bookcases: When cleaning bookcases many of us just give the tiny bit of shelf that doesn't have books on a quick once over, but this is not cleaning it! Book jackets pick up a great deal of dust over time, so make sure you remove each one, wipe it down and disinfect the book case to ensure all traces of germs and grime are removed.

We hope these tips help you get the most out of your cleaning. If you've got any advice to add, please let us know in the comments below. If you need any commercial advice on which products suit your cleaning tasks the best, give us a call on 0845 680 1955 for a free consultation.