Every homeowner aspires to have a neat and clean home. By keeping dirt, dust and allergens out of the home, you ensure a safe and healthy environment for your family. While there are some chores that should be performed on a regular basis, there are other cleaning tasks that need attention once a year. Make sure you devote adequate time to such annual cleaning tasks and do them properly to keep your home looking good throughout the new year.

Given below is a list of seven annual cleaning tasks that you should complete this year for a happier, safer and healthier home.

1. Behind the Appliances

During routine home cleaning, there are many areas that remain out of reach. These hard to reach areas gather a lot of dirt, dust and debris over time. If you haven’t looked behind your appliances yet, you should go ahead and do it now. Now that the new year has started, you should pay serious attention to all such areas and surfaces and clean them thoroughly and properly.

Start with the rear surfaces of the appliances. Take a damp cloth and wipe the dirt and dust off the surfaces. Vacuum out the condenser coils of the refrigerator to remove the dust and gunk. In the same way, clean the dust vents. Once you have taken out all the dirt and dust, sweep and mop the floor properly. You’ll need someone’s help to move the major appliances in the kitchen and other areas of your home. Make sure you cut off the gas or the electrical connection to all the heavy-duty appliances before you start the cleaning and vacuuming process.

2. Carpet and Upholstery

The carpet and the fabric on your furniture goes through a lot in the span of a year. It is very important to include deep cleaning of these items in your list of annual cleaning tasks. The carpet and the upholstery might have stains as well as a lot of dust and dirt trapped inside of them.

Remove the unnoticed stains on the carpet and the upholstery before you start to deep clean them. When cleaning the carpet, move the furniture off it. Or, you can simply cover the legs of the furniture to avoid any kind of stains. Use a cleaning machine and a cleaning solution to remove all kinds of dirt and stains from the carpet. Similarly, perform the deep cleaning of the upholstery. Just make sure to use a cleaning solution which doesn’t fade the color of the fabric.

3. Mattress

Cleaning the mattresses is one of the most important tasks that should be performed at least once per year. Though the technology has advanced enough to manufacture the finest qualities of mattresses, you’ll still need to give your mattresses through cleaning. All mattresses dust, body soil, dust mites etc.

First of all, clean the cover and wash it in hot water. Then, vacuum out the dust and dirt trapped inside the mattress. Next, Then, examine the mattress for any kind of stains that may have gone unnoticed till now. Make a cleaning solution to remove the stains on the mattress. Once you have cleaned the stains, give the areas enough time to dry up. It is a good idea to use a hair dryer to get it done fast. However, don’t treat the areas with too much heat. Finally, when it is time to set the mattress, you may want to turn it over or just rotate it by the side.

4. Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen is a place which requires routine cleaning, almost every time after you are done with cooking food. But do the kitchen cabinet get the same kind of attention? No, they do not. Ideally, you should clean the cabinets every couple of months. If you fail to do so, you must clean them once a year.

A year is a long period for the kitchen cabinets to gather dust, dirt and grease. In fact, the kind of dirt the cabinets gather is hard to remove most of the time. Greasy and dirty cabinets don’t look good to the eye. But they pose a greater risk of becoming a breeding ground for different types of bacteria. So, you should give the outside and inside of all the cabinets a good, through cleaning. Empty all the content of the cabinet first, so that you can perform proper cleaning. You’ll need to deep clean the interiors of all cabinets using a cleaning solution. Start at the top of the cabinets and then gradually move down to make the task easier. Don’t forget to wipe the handles and knobs of the cabinets in a proper manner. In any case, make sure you also clean all the contents of the cabinet before putting them back inside.

5. Outdoor Furniture

If you have taking care of the outdoor furniture on a regular basis, all you need is give them a thorough clean once a year.

Clean the wooden, metal or plastic frames of the furniture first. Prepare a cleaning solution to get rid of the tough stains. Spend some time rubbing and rinsing to do a good job. You may need to give it a good waxing to restore the shine of the frames. Next, move on to the fabric cushions. If you don’t want the waxing to stain the cushions, you should remove the cushions before you start the waxing. Take a closer look at the fabric to spot any kind of stains. Remove the stains and then leave the furniture in sun light so that it dries quickly.

6. Garage

Anything that you don’t want to keep in your house goes straight into the garage, right? In this way, the garage gets filled up with a heck lot of things and stuff during the span of a year. During the annual cleaning, it is extremely essential to organize your garage and give it a thorough cleaning.

You have two important tasks to do in the garage. First, you need to properly clean the floor, doors and walls of the garage. Then, you need to get rid of the unnecessary clutter and organize all the items in the garage in a proper way. Get those rubber gloves on and start with the walls. After removing all the spider webs, dust and mold, wipe down the walls with hot water. Sweep the floor and eliminate the floor stains with a solution of laundry detergent and hot water. Invest in wall hooks and shelves to store all the items and make your garage look good.

7. Documents and Files

Once a year, you should also take a look at the amount of paper you have accumulated in the house. Although the use of computer and the availability of the option to save data in electronic formats have helped us go paperless a great deal, people still end up creating a paper mess. Start of the new year is a great time to review all the documents and files and get rid of unnecessary papers. Organize all the important documents and store all essential data on the computer.

Do You Need Help with Your Cleaning Tasks?

Annual cleaning can prove to be tedious, if you are not well-prepared. Before you get started, you’ll need to keep your kids and pets in a safe location as well find a friend or colleague who can lend you a hand, particularly with the heavy lifting. If you are pressed for time or don’t have all the tools and equipment to carry out the cleaning process in a proper manner, you can also seek the help of a cleaning company or trained house maids to perform thorough cleaning.

At the Universal Maids, we offer a wide range of house and office cleaning services for the residents of Melville, Hicksville, Garden City and other nearby locations throughout the Long Island. Give our office a phone call and hire our professionals to perform the once-a-year cleaning tasks for you.