Important Home Maintenance Tips For Busy Parents, Dog Fanatics and Cat Ladies
A clean and beautiful home is hard to maintain. Especially when you have children or pets. No show home has mucky paw prints on the carpets, grubby fingerprints on the walls or Lego scattered in nearly every room of the house.
Basic appliances will experience wear and tear. Boilers will go, and windows will begin to let in drafts. So how do you go about keeping everything squeaky clean and in good working order without losing your mind?
Prevention Is Better Than Cure
As the old saying goes, prevention is better than cure. If you undertake certain precautions in your day-to-day life, there’s less chance of a catastrophic breakdown which could cost you a fortune to repair. So where can you start? Clean your appliances thoroughly and regularly. Many people wipe their sides down, mop the kitchen floor, clean the windows and consider their cleaning job done. But you need to pay attention to areas that you can’t see too. Clean the insides of your washing machine. There are liquids that can run through a wash cycle that are specially designed for this purpose. Clean the inside of your oven. Remove any dirt or oil that might be hiding behind knobs or in the hinges of the doors. Empty your fridge and remove any ice. Give the entire interior a good wipe down. Replace broken light bulbs. Tighten any loose door hinges. Oil the latches on your gates. Just make sure to pay attention to every area of your home. The better you look after your things; the less likely they are to break down and need replacing soon. Upgrade to double-glazing and carry out central heating repairs and boiler repairs when necessary.
Bring In Professionals
Make sure that you carry out your chores regularly. Vacuum, do the laundry, polish and clean your windows. This will keep your home in good condition. However, now and then, hire a professional cleaner. Whether it’s a professional carpet cleaner machine that you use yourself, or bringing someone who is specially trained in to do the job for you. You will be able to see the results almost immediately. Professional window cleaners will be able to clean the outsides of your high windows. A landscaper can keep your garden in good nick.
Teach Your Children Basic Cleanliness
Kids can be messy and mucky; that’s to be expected! But start to teach them good habits from a young age. Get them to put away their toys once they’ve finished playing with them. Teach them that they should wash their hands regularly throughout the day. This will stop you treading on toys and cleaning mud and grime out of carpets and from walls. But it will also ensure your children are clean and tidy as they grow older and eventually get their homes.
Keep On Top Of Pet Grooming
Most cats and dogs moult. This means there will inevitably be animal hair around your home and on your clothes. This might be fine for animal lovers, but if you have people visiting who aren’t so fond of furry companions, then this can be inconvenient. It’s worse if people are allergic to cat or dog fur. There are two fixes for this. If you haven’t yet got a pet and are considering getting one, you could opt for hypoallergenic animals. Dogs such as poodles, bichon frises, and lhasa apsos don’t shed fur. Most cats will shed, the only exception is the opinion-dividing Sphynx cat, which has no fur at all.
