How To Clean ANY Room

My apartment is currently under construction with my landlord repairing my bathroom. And while the finished product is going to be amazing, I’m stuck living with the complications of home renovations - the dirt, the debris, and figuring out how to clean it all up.

This week’s blog post is all about how to clean any room in your apartment. From large to small cleaning jobs, if you simplify the process you’ll be able to clean your home in no time - and keep it that way.

Pretreat if necessary
Before you get started with your cleaning project, make sure to pretreat any surface or item that needs that attention. Cleaning products perform at their best when they’re given the time to penetrate the stain they’re meant to clean up. Be sure to follow care instructions when using your pretreating tools.

Put everything back in its place
Before you can properly clean a room, you have to make sure you’re cleaning and organizing the things that belong in that room in the first place. We multitask in our rooms - a midnight snack and a movie in bed, for example, are both wonderful, but now you have two items in your bedroom that otherwise don’t belong there. Return that glass of water you kept on the nightstand to the kitchen, or bring the books you read on the couch back to the bookcase. You can really begin cleaning and organizing once you’re focusing on the things that should be in the room.

Keep, toss and clean
Take a walkthrough of the space you’re cleaning to assess what items can be kept in there, what items should be tossed, and what items can come back once they’ve been cleaned.

Generally speaking, you know you can keep an item if:

• It’s otherwise in good condition
• You use it daily or frequently
• It performs a function you rely on

You can toss an item if:

• It’s in disrepair or expired
• You haven’t used it in six months 
• It doesn’t or no longer serves a function you rely on

You should clean any items that you intend to keep - throw it in the laundry, take it to the dry cleaners, or vacuum/wipe down the item you’re keeping.

Clean in zones

I always break a room into zones when I’m getting ready to clean it. My bedroom, for instance, has four zones - my bed, my vanity, my media center and my nightstand. I thoroughly clean through every part of my vanity before moving on to cleaning anything else in my bedroom. 

Breaking a room down into zones is effective because you’ll know you’ve completely cleaned that particular section and you’ll help make any cleaning project achievable by bringing into a manageable scale. 

Clean above, at, then below your sight line

The rules of gravity are always present - even in your cleaning projects!  Dirt and debris fall down, so clean above, then below. Dust hung artwork, ceiling fans and walls first, then move to furniture, appliances and surfaces at your sight line. Finish by cleaning lower items like drawer fronts or ottomans.

Clean your floors last
The dust and debris you kicked up by cleaning has now landed on your floors so finish by vacuuming or mopping them. The only exception is if your floors are the main dirty item in your room. My apartment has a ton of drywall and dust on the floors from the bathroom renovation, and so I have to start with cleaning the floors in order to make sure I'm not tracking the debris into other areas of my home while I clean. If that's the case in your space, clean your floors before and after you've finished cleaning your room.

Dedicate time each day for a quick cleaning
I take 20 minutes each day to quickly cleaning my space. From making my bed and refluffing couch cushions to washing dishes and wiping down countertops, I'm constantly keeping my space clean in short spurts that staves off a major cleaning for the change in seasons.

I'll throw on a playlist, podcast, or an episode of last night's TV as a fun timer while I'm cleaning. It keeps me on track for a good cleaning session and makes my weekly, monthly and seasonal cleaning all the easier because I haven't let the dirt and debris pile up.

Even spending 5 minutes in one room each week putting things away and quickly wiping down surfaces can make a huge difference in your home. Find the time that you can commit to daily cleaning and you'll be able to maintain a clean space over time. 

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