The excitement of the summer is now upon us and it is during this time we often feel like we have more on our ‘to do’ list than there are hours in the day!
The kids are home from school, we might be splitting our time between home and a beach house and a common area of stress for many people is getting our homes ready for the summer.
Working in partnership with a fantastic service, like Harmony Clean can help save you time, help you relax and also give you peace of mind.
Harmony Clean is about healthy home cleaning, naturally. They provide a complete, customized maid service (as regularly as needed) with caring, trained staff that are bonded and insured. Recently I interviewed Vicki Brown, one of the founders of this unique company and asked her how we could get our homes ready for summer. Here are several strategies we decided would help get your home ready.
Make a summer ‘to do’ list – include on your list the activities you want to complete at home, the activities you want to outsource and your shopping ‘to do’ list.
Book a special one time clean – if you know you have company coming, a party or a gathering of people; consider hiring the experts to clean your home from top to bottom. This will also make it easier for you to maintain during the summer.
Pay attention to bathrooms – these areas of your home will get significant traffic during this busy time, keep these areas clean by placing cleaning products in each room so that you can quickly wipe the counter tops, clean the shower doors and wipe down other areas. I like Shaklee products (recently endorsed on the Oprah show) that are environmentally and people friendly.
Change bed linens – it is great at night to snuggle up into cool cotton sheet sets. Allocate time to change over all the linens in each room. Do it all on the same day as it makes it easier to remember when they all need to be changed again.
Attend to your guest room – allocate 60 minutes to clean, tidy, dust and clean out closet space in your guest room. This is a great time of year for unexpected visitors so make sure your guest room is ready for anyone that might drop in for a visit or stay over after a meal.
Dust your baseboards – this is a great time of year to pay attention to all the areas in your home you don’t normally clean. Vacuum these areas or wipe them free of all dust, this will also help your cooling system function better.
Clean lights and chandeliers – some our lights might be covered in dust and cobwebs so ask the cleaning service to spend time on these fixtures. It is worth allocating someone else to do this time consuming task.
Wipe down kitchen cabinetry – ask your cleaning service to attend to this area. If you are cleaning your own home, spend time wiping down each cabinet and pay attention to the base boards.
Outsource your linens – take your table cloths, matching serviettes and any other linens you might need for your parties, to your local dry cleaner and ask them to press them, this will save you time. You may even consider giving them to a local ironing service instead.
Purchase fresh flowers – these add a special touch to your home during this busy time; they create beauty and will be appreciated by those around you. You can have special holiday arrangements delivered by many companies, I like http://ww10.1800flowers.com/
Use party hire – a senior executive I spoke to recently says she simply phones the party hire store and tells them how many people she has coming for a meal and they deliver the cutlery, crockery, linens, candles and extra seats and tables she requires. She rinses off the crockery and they come and pick it all up – no cleaning, no fuss. Can you reach out to your local party hire store and see if they provide this service?
Get your groceries delivered – order your groceries online from your favourite supermarket and have them delivered to your home. For a small tip to the delivery person, you will save so much time and it also means you won’t have to carry them indoors during the hot weather.
Get help – during this busy season there are many services that can help you feel less stressed and give you more time. Consider online shopping services, personal chefs, and dry cleaners, cleaning services, flower delivery and local school children. You might be able to recruit local neighbourhood school children to help you with the many chores you need to get done. I offer to pay my neighbours to help me achieve my ‘to do’ list.
The summer season is for enjoying with friends and family, it is not meant to be a stressful, busy time. This year decide you are going to stop trying to do it all and get help where ever you can.
Vicki Brown is one of the founders of Harmony Clean. Harmony Clean is committed to healthy home cleaning, naturally. Their full customised, complete maid service is available weekly, biweekly or monthly. They use top quality HEPA and multi-filtration vacuums and they are fully bonded and insured. Harmony Clean’s team are caring and well trained and they guarantee satisfaction 100% of the time. Find out more and book your next special clean at Harmony Clean
