If you’re reading this while serving a Stay Home Notice, or quarantined at home in the midst of the pandemic, thank you in advance. Thank you for being a responsible citizen of society and playing your part in flattening the curve.

However, if you’re not working at home (you should be tho) and bored out of your wits, why not start cleaning? A clean home is a healthy home! Keeping your home sanitary keeps you and your loved ones at the pink of health. It’s also a form of exercise to keep the positive vibes up.

There are many rooms under one roof. There’s the living room, bathroom, bedroom… you get the idea – a single broom and a tattered rag isn’t going to help much. You may need professional help on cleaning your furniture too. Let’s go through every room and see what you might have missed out.

Just so we’re on the same page, this isn’t a ‘how-to’ guide but more of a you-should-be-cleaning-this guide! We’ve consulted our very own Metroresidences housekeeping service crew and they’ve given us this extremely handy guide below.

Time for a deep clean.

Living room

You might think the bathroom is the filthiest of all the rooms in the house but depending on many factors such as; whether you wear shoes indoors, carpets and the make of your furniture, your living room is probably way filthier. 

Carpets are comfortable and commonly found in many households. What’s also commonly found within are germs, mites and dust in those comfy carpets. Experts suggest carpet deep-cleans every 6 months so all the nasty stuff won’t accumulate and find their way onto your skin or into your lungs.

If you find cleaning carpets this often a hassle or costly, our crew suggests low maintenance carpets, rugs or carpets made from different easy-to-clean materials.

After a long day outside, you definitely want to just kick off your shoes, turn on the AC and chill on your extremely comfortable sofa in the living room. 

Hold up.

Let’s do a recount on where your butt has been the whole day – MRT seats (oh no), hawker seats (yucks), park bench (I’m sure that was bird droppings)… ok let’s stop here.

Now your butt is on your thousand-dollar sofa. And it’s filthy. Extremely.

Like any fabric, it absorbs. Every place you’ve sat on, has now left a little mark on your precious sofa now. Unless you’re doing this intentionally, you should be cleaning your sofa thoroughly too. Best of all, with the right tools, it shouldn’t take much of your time.

Bathroom

It is known by many names; the throne, WC, pissoir but we all know it dearly as the toilet bowl. And that’s where I would start cleaning first. However, what you should be looking at isn’t your reflection in the bowl but the tank that holds the water which you use to flush.

It’s quite common to find mold especially on the linings of the tank and the pipes within. Fret not, there’s an easy fix. With an old toothbrush, toilet cleaning solutions and elbow grease, those moldy stains will come off easily. Splash some bleach into the thank and let sit for 30mins. This will eliminate any invisible germs too. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends different concentrations of bleach for different rooms. Check out their handy guide here.

Cleaning your drain is also important. After all, that’s where all the junk and gunk (hair, dirt, grime, soap residue) flows through and away from your home. You could use vinegar and baking soda as they’re commonly found in many households but we strongly recommend industrial solutions that are designed and formulated specifically for drains.

Bedroom

The bedroom should have as few furniture as possible. This is to avoid dust, mites and also to look aesthetically pleasing and comfortable for you to rest in.

Your wardrobe is where you should bring your cleaning focus to. Usually dark and damp (especially if you’re living in Singapore), pests love such environments and thrive here where your underwear live.

If you’re stuck at home and with nothing to do, now’s your chance to Marie Kondo your wardrobe! Varsity shirt that you’ve last seen since 2005? Underwear with that suspicious hole that looks like it’s from a rat bite? That Pokemon pajamas that you’ve obviously outgrown? DOES NOT SPARK JOY. DISPOSE.

Our cleaning crew also suggests frequent vacuuming underneath furniture, especially under the bed. Dust particles are extremely lightweight and usually accumulate under the bed. The bed that you lie on every night to sleep.

Kitchen

Regarded as the heart of the home, there are plenty of areas to clean here. Grime on the stove and countertops is the best place to start. With a scouring pad, (tough action industrial) soap and water, scrub away that marinara sauce stain and thick oily grease that layers your kitchen after many months of cooking.

The fridge is where fresh produce is commonly kept. However, did you know that fridges are guilty of housing over a hundred types of fungus, mold and bacteria? Our cleaning crew often find residue from leftover food staining fridge shelves, bits and pieces of food hidden at corners – it’s a buffet line for microorganisms!

Think of your kitchen as a lab. Labs should be spick and span, if not sterile.

Miscellaneous

This is probably the most important part of this article. Our cleaning crew rate these items as ‘most often overlooked when cleaning the house’.

And we’re referring to light switches, door handles, TV remote – items that are used very often then forgotten. These are dirty surfaces that we come in close contact every day – perfect for germs to propagate! Disinfection products such as disinfecting sprays or wipes are best used for these. Wipe them down to remove dirt and germs.

Don’t forget light fixtures (which usually house dead bugs) and clean your washing machine (yes, clean your cleaning machine) as lint and dirt does accumulate over time.

Sure, it’s a chore to do chores. But washing your hands, sometimes, isn’t enough to ensure the safety (from germs) of your loved ones. Do consider engaging professional services to deep clean your house as we have suggested though it can be costly to do it regularly.

If you do need help, engage our weekly housekeeping service to visit your home and wipe it spotless from head to toe! Our housekeeping crew now offers full satinization of apartments, using organic solutions to make sure your home is virus-free.