Tips to Get Your Home Ready for Fall Season

It’s that time of the year again when the leaves start to turn color, and the temperature starts to drop. Thanksgiving and Halloween have come and gone, and you’re starting to prepare for the holidays. While during the summer, you would spend your days outdoors until the final streak of light signaled you to fire up dinner and get the kids to bed, daylight saving time has now re-introduced you to a longer evening inside your home in which you might just realize those baseboards really need a thorough home cleaning.

Make Your Home Ready for Fall Season

Winter Gear, C’mon Up!

Spring usually signals a fresh time to put everything away that resonates with the bitter winter you just left behind. On the other hand, Fall is when you’ll start pulling out those sweaters and jackets one by one. Set aside a couple of hours to take out all of your fall and winter gear to hang up in a coat closet ready to go. This way, if you’ve suddenly got the weatherman signaling sunny with a chance of snowballs, you’ve got your family warm and on the go in no time. While you are unpacking, pack away all of your summer stuff. You won’t be needing that flowy tank dress for a good few months so why have it lying around taking up space, anyway! I love vacuum bags for this chore because you can pack down a whole lot into one big bag and store away at the back of a closet until the following year.

Wash Those Baseboards

Baseboards get neglected in our everyday cleaning. After all, we live busy lifestyles and on a daily basis we’re just quickly cleaning up to make sure the house stays clean. As the days get shorter, however, our time spent indoors increases, and you’ll start to notice things like baseboards have been neglected during the past few months. Baseboards are a magnet for dust and this should be one of the top things on your list for a thorough fall cleaning. Use the brush attachment for your vacuum hose and drag it across each segment in your home. When you’re fully done vacuuming the dry dust off, take a wet microfiber cloth and wipe along the baseboards to pick up any dust left behind. This will ensure your baseboards are left looking squeaky clean.

Wipe Down Walls and Cabinet Exteriors

Got a small entryway whose walls got slashed with tire marks from your bicycle being brought up to your apartment? What about the walls behind that high chair showing what your toddler ate for dinner two months ago? How about the fried chicken marathon in the kitchen? Wait, did you say there’s still a gravy stain above the stove-top from Thanksgiving Day? Fear not, nothing that a quick microfiber cloth and some sudsy water won’t fix. This might take a long while and you should probably get other household members involved, but its a once to twice a year task that you won’t regret taking care of on a rainy fall afternoon. Got a mess that’s going to take more than just sudsy water? Slip on a glove and grab a pack of Magic Erasers…they do wonders! Another trick we use in the cleaning field for bigger jobs requiring cleaning of entire walls is to take a clean mop or Swiffer and use an appropriate solution as per the texture and paint on your wall, use an up and down-left to right motion to clean.

Chuck Away Paper Garbage

Ever feel like the junk mail doesn’t stop coming? And for some reason, you throw it onto a pile of previous junk mail and it just grows and grows into a massive pile? It’s time to toss it all out. During the summer, we get so caught up in soccer practices, summer camps, family barbecues, and picnics that we don’t notice the growing stack of paper that is placed throughout the rooms because, quite frankly, we’re not home as often to notice! As the holidays get nearer and you get more anxious, start chucking out those old pizza coupons that are still hanging on your fridge, and those department store catalogs strewn around your living room that show you dresses you won’t be touching for another couple of seasons. Grab a big trash bag and walk around your home, dumping all unnecessary paper garbage as you move throughout. I always feel like such a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders whenever I clear out paper in our home!

T’is the Season to Donate!

We live in such a consumer-targeted world that it is impossible not to accumulate many unnecessary items that add to everyday frustration and clutter. You open your cabinets, and Tupperware comes spilling out; you have too many mugs for your own good – some that reside at the back of the shelf that you haven’t even touched for over a year; toys that are tossed around and not played with that eventually find their way to the bottom of the bin after new toys are gifted. All of this can weigh in on your conscience during the fall and winter as you realize you have.too.much.stuff. Well, T’is the Season! One of my favorite fall must-dos is combing through all the stuff that we have in our house and doing a quick five-second assessment of each item by asking these questions:

• “How long has it been since I/we used/wore this item?” If I haven’t for over a year, it’s time to let it go.
• “Do I/we need it, or do I/we want it?” If you don’t need it but want it, put the item aside in plain view so that it actually comes in use. If it doesn’t during your next purge session, it’s time to toss it.
• “Is this item time to be replaced?” C’mon, we get it. That pair of undies is old and raggedy with holes in it but comfortable. Do yourself a favor…go treat yourself to something new and toss the old.

At this time of the year, you’ll not only feel great purging unnecessary items from your home, but you’ll also feel fantastic donating the good usable stuff to your local donation center where someone can put it to great use.

Whether it is a quick de-clutter, you are looking for or an intense organization of your home with a fall deep-cleaning, Maid in T.O. can meet all your requirements and ensure your home makes you happy.