Do you ever think back on your childhood home and wonder how your mom managed to keep such a tidy house? Between work, kids, and pets doing more than superficial cleaning can seem like a faraway fantasy. Read on for some of our best time-saving tips on how to clean baseboards and make your mom proud.
How to clean baseboards
Whether you enjoy cleaning or view it as an unfortunate necessity, there’s a good chance that you don’t give your baseboards much thought. After all, it’s easy to forget about them as you go about your daily activities. However, since baseboards tend to accumulate dust and dirt while you’re not looking, you’ll have to clean them to achieve a beautifully kept room.
Fortunately, cleaning baseboards isn’t tricky, and many cleaning methods will save you time in the process. Here are four of our favorite time-saving steps to obtain gleaming baseboards.
Step #1:
Move all of the furniture away from the wall so that you have total access to the baseboards. Check out moving.com for helpful tips on how to move furniture without damaging your floor.
Step #2:
Use a microfiber cloth or vacuum to remove baseboard dust.
Step #3:
Mix warm water with a few drops of dishwashing liquid and carefully clean with a sponge and dry towel. You can also pour in a little bit of distilled white vinegar for an added cleaning boost. Note: Consider using a wood cleaner on stained wood baseboards.
Step #4:
Bob Vila recommends that you run a dryer sheet over the newly cleaned baseboards to keep dust and debris from sticking to them in the future.
Set up a cleaning schedule
Now that you know how to keep your baseboards looking sharp, it’s time to set up a cleaning schedule. The trick to putting together an effective housekeeping routine is to make sure that you spend enough, but not too much, time tackling all of the cleaning tasks.
The Reader’s Digest article “The Definitive Guide On How Often You Should Clean Everything” recommends that you clean the baseboards once a month. Other monthly tasks that make sense to do at the same time include (1) washing area rugs, (2) vacuuming upholstered furniture, and (3) cleaning window blinds.
Hire a cleaning pro
If cleaning the baseboards isn’t a task that you want to take on yourself we suggest that you leave it to a cleaning service. Love My Maids, for example, will hand wash the baseboards throughout a home as part of our comprehensive cleaning services. Contact Love My Maids to discuss getting your home deep cleaned which also includes hand washing your baseboards..
Lastly, knowing how to clean baseboards that will make your mom smile is a terrific first step. The next step is to schedule some time into your hectic life to give them a thorough cleaning. We promise that if you fit baseboard maintenance into your monthly cleaning routine, you’ll notice an improvement in the look of your indoor spaces in no time.
Contact us at Love My Maids for sensible and affordable solutions to all of your housekeeping needs.
