20/11/2022
We’ve all heard of spring cleaning, but it has been suggested by health experts that such a deep clean should be carried out twice a year – with the second time being autumn.
Autumn is an essential time to give your home a deep clean due to the falling temperatures outside and the heating being on, combined with windows being closed. This makes for perfect conditions for carpets to harbour dirt, germs and harmful allergens.
To help you clean your home, we’ve compiled 10 house cleaning tips to come in use this autumn.
1. Wash Your Windows
Surprisingly, it has been suggested that rain water is good for cleaning windows, due to containing fewer contaminates than tap water – and you may have the temptation to leave the cleaning of your windows until the spring.
But if you haven’t cleaned your windows in awhile, you will notice come the next autumn downpour that they look dirty, with streaks appearing. Prevent this from happening by following the advice outlined in our post How To and How Often To Clean Your Windows and give your windows a thorough clean over the coming weeks.
2. Declutter Your Cupboards
We are all guilty of storing items we no longer have a need for, and over time such objects can begin to clutter up our homes.
Use the big autumn clean as the perfect time to de-clutter your home. Remove all those items which have been collecting dust on your shelves or in your cupboards and aren’t going to be used again, along with any summer (and winter) clothes which no longer fit – or which you simply no longer want.
De-cluttering your home doesn’t mean you need to fill your bin up with unwanted goods either. Instead, donate any items which are still in good quality to a local charity shop, or consider how else you can recycle them in and around your home.
3. Clean Behind, Under and On Top of Furniture
When running the vacuum around the home on a weekly basis, very few of us will move the couch, wardrobe or sideboard out of the way to clean behind.
A top house cleaning tip when carrying out a big clean is to clean on top, behind and underneath your furniture. This will help to ensure all dust, dirt, debris and allergens are removed, providing you with a healthier and cleaner home.
4. Remove All Cobwebs
It’s well known that autumn is essentially spider season. But, despite the cobwebs adding to the Halloween experience, it’s recommended to remove them from your home.
The easiest two ways to remove cobwebs is with an extendable duster, which will enable you to reach the cobwebs in the corners near your ceiling. Otherwise, you can use the hose and extension tube on your vacuum cleaner too.
5. Defrost Your Freezer
Your freezer is one of few appliances which is used on a daily basis. To keep it working to its full potential, it is important to make sure you keep on top of freezer maintenance. Key to such maintenance is defrosting your freezer – if you don’t have a self-defrosting model, of course.
If you haven’t done this for awhile or you’ve noticed a build up of ice, autumn is the perfect time to defrost it. In our post Why, When and How to Defrost the Freezer we explain the best methods to quickly and efficiently defrost your freezer.
6. Clean Bedding, Curtains and Upholstery
Whilst changing your bedding on a weekly basis will help to keep the bed clean, you may be surprised at how much dirt can be harboured on your mattress. Along with dirt, bedbugs are becoming more common in UK households, so it is important to clean your mattress on a regular basis to kill them off.
One way to clean your mattress is with a vacuum cleaner and mattress tool, but one of our top autumn cleaning tips is to use a suitable steam cleaner.
Steam cleaning kills 99% of germs and bacteria, at the same time as removing dirt without the need for chemicals. Plus, the heat produced by a steam cleaner will kill off any bedbugs and eggs which may be lingering on your mattress.
In addition to using a steam cleaner on your bedding, we would also recommend using the steam cleaner to clean upholstered furniture and curtains. This will provide them with a deep and thorough clean.
7. Remove Muddy Foot and Paw Prints
Autumn is a naturally beautiful and colourful month, as the trees change colour and the crisp leaves scatter across the pavements. However, autumn is also a typically wet and muddy season, and this can play havoc for homeowners when muddy footprints and paw prints are traipsed through the home.
To clean muddy foot/paw prints from hard flooring – whether laminate, wood or tiles – we recommend using a steam mop as soon as possible, as this will lift and remove the dirt and leave the area looking spotless.
When it comes to removing muddy prints from carpets, it is often best to leave the mud to dry before tackling. Once the mud has dried, sprinkle bicarbonate of soda over the area and leave this for at least half-an-hour to lift out the dirt, then vacuum as normal.
8. Clean/Test Chimneys and Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Alarms
Wood burners and real fires have seen somewhat of a boom in popularity over the last few years. Now, with the temperatures starting to fall, they will soon be put to use to provide warmth and comfort on cold, wet nights.
But, before you begin using your wood burner/real wood fire, we recommend you have your chimney professionally cleaned, ensuring that it’s free of any excess dirt, debris and bird nests.
Tied in with cleaning the chimney, you should also test your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms to make sure they are in full working order. Doing so will make all the difference in an emergency situation, providing you with those vital extra moments of warning.
9. Don’t Forget Your Light Fittings
With darker mornings and nights being a common sign of autumn, now is the perfect time to give your lights, lamp shades and lamps some extra attention.
These are areas of your home which often become victims of dust, but are also overlooked when the home is being cleaned. With your lights becoming even more important over the coming months, it’s important to make sure they are cleaned and free from any dirt.
In addition to providing them with a dust, we would recommend switching to LED bulbs for even brighter lighting in your home. Not only will these brighten up your home but they’ll also help save you money in the long term – as outlined in our blog post, Save Money By Switching to LED Bulbs.
10. Keep Dirt Outside
Introducing mats to the internal and external entrances of your household is a great way to help prevent unwanted dirt and debris from being brought inside.
To ensure you keep as much dirt out as possible out, we recommend using a heavy duty scraper mat. Such a mat will tackle mud, grit and all manner of dirt at your door. Then there are internal mats which cover the first few steps into your home, preventing dirt being carried inside and making everyday cleaning a lot easier.
Thank you for reading our 10 autumn cleaning tips. Hopefully you can now ensure your home will be clean leading into the winter months, making it the perfect place to unwind, relax and hibernate when the weather outside is dull, grey and wet.
