Out with the old, in with the new.
Isn’t that what Diwali is about?
The festive season also sends many households into a cleaning frenzy. This was all new to me until I saw an adorable North Indian family that lived downstairs turn the house upside down over a week of Diwali cleaning: that’s where I learned about this ritual and even though we don’t do clean as rigorously during Diwali, the habit has stayed with me over the years. All the cleaning was quite stressful on the women with everything from fans to spoons getting a shine.
when I first began to clean, I didn’t have a method to it. I just did whatever I felt like cleaning, sometimes for hours over the weekend that got exhausting. Soon, I realized that just doing one task a day over several days meant a spick and span home.
There are deep cleaning options available today like MyBlueBottle, HouseJoy, Mr. HomeCare, or scores of neighborhood cleaning companies. But, none of them can clean your closets, identify what clothes you wear and what you don’t, or clean your pantry. That’s up to us, and what best time of the year than now to get to it. Even for the best of us organizing folks, there is always stuff hidden in the deep recesses of the closet. And where it’s economical, you can get professional help to clean such as deep cleaning bathrooms if there’s a lot of limescale build up. such companies usually charge anywhere between Rs. 600 to Rs.800 for a bathroom.
What you can expect from the series:
Starting tomorrow for the next 15 days, I will run short posts that will take no more than 30 minutes of your time to clean. The best part is this activity should not require any fancy cleaning supplies that you can’t find in your kitchen already. Before Diwali, you should have a sparkling home and best of all, without spending too much time on a single day or elbow grease.
I have designed this schedule for a 3-BHK home with a garden. Some activities may take longer and some shorter based on how much stuff you have.
Here’s an additional tip that you can do it yourself or get it done from your househelp one item a day to make it less overwhelming in the end:
- Shine the brass: all the brass is usually on display in the festive season. Get them out and shine one item per day. The shine usually lasts for weeks as compared to copper. I use a mixture of tamarind and salt to shine both copper and brass and it works like a charm.
- The same goes for silverware.
Are you game? The schedule is below. For tasks that are repetitive such as cleaning the bathrooms, there is only one post.
Day 1: Clean master bedroom closet
Day 2: Clean kids bedroom closet
Day 3: Clean guest bedroom closet
Day 4: Surface clean fans, switchboards, light fixtures, and doors.
Day 5: Clean the windows and tracks.
Day 6: Buffer day to clean the closet or any unfinished task
Day 7: Buffer day to clean the closet or any unfinished task
Day 8: Deep clean the master bathroom.
Day 9: 3 easy ways to clean your garden.
Day 10: Deep clean the kids bathroom.
Day 11: Deep clean the guest bathroom/shine the brass.
Day 12: Clean the kitchen / pooja room.
Day 13: Wash the curtains/ change the bedding
Day 14: Clean the kitchen.
Day 15: Change the upholstery in the living room/dining room.
