Christmas is almost here; what are your family’s Christmas traditions, and how many guests have you invited to your house?
The holiday season can be a little hectic because of the planning involved, from house decorations to wrapping presents and preparing food. However, the clutter makes it almost impossible to decorate an untidy house.
Christmas decorations can be quite exciting, but one should stop dreaming about this, and house cleaning is the first. There is no need to decorate a cluttered house.
Before the guests arrive, one has to thoroughly clean their house to avoid getting embarrassed.
From the stubborn stains on the walls and bathroom; to the foul smell in the refrigerator.
Here are some tips on house cleaning during the Christmas season:
Tips for Christmas House Cleaning
Just Start the Cleaning Process
Sometimes planning how to clean the house can be quite boring since the activities involved are tiresome and time-consuming.
You want to jump into Christmas decorations, especially if you have children.
Rather than sitting around and imagining how boring the cleaning process will be, one can grab a box and run through a specific room, putting in items that are not needed during Christmas.
Once you have started house cleaning , you will find it easier to clean the remaining spaces.
Just starting the process makes it exciting as one can imagine how the house will be decorated.
The cleaning process would even end up taking a shorter period.
One can even turn the whole cleaning process into a game where you get the kids to pick things in their rooms that are not needed for Christmas decorations.
After this, the house only needs to be dusted, and scrubbing of stains and the decorations can be put.
All that one needs is a little motivation, and just start working right.
The kids can also help with Christmas decorations which will be a long-term memory in their lives.
Break Down the Cleaning Process
One should start cleaning the house early enough to avoid making Christmas boring as this is a cozy holiday for most people.
The cleaning process should begin at least two months before Christmas to allow enough time for shopping without rushing. The process can include focusing on a single room each week.
For example, if you decide to use the two monthly schedules, by the time the eight weeks are done, the whole house will be clean, including the outside.
The gardens will be perfectly manicured, and insects or other animals, such as snakes, will be hiding on your lawn.
If you take up this schedule, the children will play freely in their rooms and outside. The breakdown process will ensure both the kids and adults have a memorable Christmas.
If one does not need to de-clutter as much for the Christmas season, you may consider taking up to two rooms per week.
The time spent cleaning also depends on how many hours the individual works.
If the homeowner works long hours, they may not spend much time cleaning the house; hence more time will be needed.
In such cases, one may consider starting the Christmas preparations three months earlier.
Maintain
Once you are done cleaning the rooms, make sure that you keep them clean.
You can spend a few minutes in the morning putting at least one of the rooms back in order.
The rooms can easily get dirty if they are not maintained. The kids would easily put back the unwanted items and make the place disorganized.
For the areas that need scrubbing, like the bathroom, clean them every week to prevent the stains from appearing.
Once the major cleaning process is completed, it becomes very easy to maintain the house as only a few minutes are needed.
To ensure the house is well maintained, one should frequently walk through the rooms with a visitor’s eye and try placing items based on how visitors will like.
For example, you can imagine yourself as one of the guests and the comments they make when they get into your house. By this, most of the guests will be pleased as the house meets their standards.
One should also check table tops and windows for dust and ensure they are cleaned a few days before Christmas.
Since it was almost impossible to clean the fridge two months before Christmas, this should be done a few days before the major holiday.
The refrigerator should be emptied and cleaned and more room created for Christmas food.
4. Allocate Duties
Since the house has been cleaned by the whole family, the parents can go ahead and allocate duties to their children while they themselves share some of the major roles.
Assigning roles helps the children look forward to Christmas. They also get to learn how to complete some of the household chores by themselves.
For example, the children can be asked to dust the house on Saturday since it is not a school day. This will include wiping the table tops, refrigerator, and oven with a tablecloth.
The parents can then take the role of scrubbing the house and mowing the lawn. If these activities are carried out during the weekend, the house will remain clean during the week.
The family should come up with an organizational chart whereby each family member is allocated the duties to be completed in a week.
When activities are shared, they become easier to complete. The family will also save on hiring cleaning experts, which can be quite expensive during the holiday season.
5. Embrace a Reward System
Once the children have completed their tasks successfully, the parents should reward them as this will motivate them to continue working.
Giving rewards is one of the best ways of ensuring that none of the family members feels like they are being taken advantage of.
The rewards could also play a role in early Christmas gifts. The parents should make sure that the gifts are best for their children based on their interests.
For example, if the parents have two children, a boy, and a girl, and have completed their roles, then they will be given a bicycle and the girl a doll house.
The parents may consider rewarding themselves by going out for dinner to ensure they are not completely exhausted before Christmas.
The reward system will ensure that the house cleaning until Christmas and days after the holidays since the children want to continue working for the rewards.
The reward system also allows the parents to correct the children when they are wrong.
Once they have corrected their wrong behavior, a reward will be given hence leading to character development in the children.
FAQs
What are some of the best tips for cleaning your house during Christmas?
Just start cleaning the house by removing some of the unwanted items and putting them in a box. This will be a motivation to help you clean the rest of the house.
How many months before Christmas should you start preparing your house?
One should start preparing their house for Christmas at least two months before the holidays to avoid the rush.
