With Ramadan ushering in a spiritual ambience and inducing a positive lifestyle change, now is the right time to get down to the task of cleansing your home, your space in time for the upcoming Eid celebration. Assign a day and time and involve all the members of the house to make it a family affair. Give everyone a task, even if you have domestic help, for this is more than the regular dusting and cleaning.
Declutter
Declutter, that’s the key task in any home cleaning project. You can never fathom the extent of things you would have accumulated in your space unless you dedicate a day to pull out all items, make a checklist of things that have lost their importance to you and pile it up to discard or give it away. Take one room at a time to ensure that decluttering is total. While kitchen is bound to be a storehouse of things that are expired/expiring or simply unnecessary in your family’s dining habits, bathroom too will throw up a few ‘why-did-I-buy-it’ surprises. Thoroughly check the expiry dates of the shampoos and creams lining your bathroom shelf before finding ways to discard or give away the ones that have remained unopened or have been hardly used. Bedrooms are, probably, the major hoarding zones.
In your bedroom: It is common, in most households, to use the space beneath the bed for storage of items that are, often, superfluous. The best way to go about it is tackle each item separately and, depending on the use or the general importance for the household, pack it in a proper container to store it under the bed for use in the near future or to give away to some charity. Placing them in separate containers will help categorise items and also keep it dust-free. Your bedside table would also need a decluttering job if you have been using the drawers to push in bills and documents for future reference. Pull them out, check if any has validity, either for personal or for commercial reason, and throw the ones that have no reason to occupy space in your storage shelves. The only things on the table ought to be your bed lamp and a glass of water for the night. According to a décor expert, keeping the space around the bed neat is important to have a good night’s sleep; clutter can be disturbing.
In the living room: Furniture is important, but there are times when they can crowd the room and make the living room look burdened. If possible, move smaller pieces to the guest room or the master bedroom. Perhaps, you have plans to buy new furniture? Look out for items like ottomans that can double up as a tray tables or even provide storage space, which is possible with the ones that come with a lid. And, with smart TVs becoming a rage, mounting it on the wall is a better alternative than opting for a wall unit with TV space. Also, do not crowd the room with too many rugs as they can tend to make the space look unfocused and even busy. Find ways to create a sense of harmony in all the little accessories; that applies to your coffee table too. Do not turn it into a place for all your papers and files.
Your wardrobe: The cupboard or the wardrobe is by far the biggest source of clutter. When new clothes compete with old ones for space, you are bound to be confronted by a wardrobe that feels like it is coming apart at the seams. The biggest task in arranging the wardrobe is throwing or giving away clothes that you have outgrown or you do not fancy it anymore owing to the changes in the trend. Make piles of clothes depending on their value to your wardrobe and accordingly dispense them for recycling or giving away to charity. Once done segregating, stack clothes in the order of their purpose so as to avoid further mess.
Study room: If you have a separate study room for the children, chances are that the shelves are stacked to the brim with books that have outlived their purpose. It is time to donate those books to friends or give it away to a charity and clear that space. It would save you time in the future to make storage boxes and file the paperwork into folders.
In the kitchen: Cleaning is, obviously, an everyday task, but special cleaning projects require you to empty out all the cabinets to make it a thorough job. Wipe the shelves clean before placing the items back in. Check out and discard expired products and find ways to classify items according to the usage. Labelling the containers will prove to be the best thing you did to your kitchen shelves. And if, like most shoppers, you hoard all the plastic bags, find an easy way to store it in bag or box.
Happy cleaning!