Deep cleaning your house, trying to remove stains from your tile or marble floors, and disinfecting your bathroom can be a daunting and difficult task. A few general safety tips to remember, regardless of what part of the house you are cleaning:
* Never mix chemicals.
* Be sure the room you're working in is well ventilated.
* Read the warning labels on anything you use. Often, in deep cleaning, people use stronger cleaning solutions. Don't take protecting your skin and eyes lightly.
Here are some ideas for tackling your spring cleaning projects.
Cleaning Grout:
1. Be sure to sweep, clean, and mop your tiled floor as you normally would.
2. In a large bucket, mix a 1 to 2 ratio of a cleaner (such as Ceremiclean) to each gallon of water.
3. With a sponge mop, apply the solution from Step 2 onto the surface of your tile floor.
4. If your grout and tile are especially dirty, once Step 3 has dried, rinse the surface with fresh, clean, water.
5. Mix an oxygen bleach solution in a separate container. If you have colored grout find a strong solution sans bleach.
6. Apply this new solution directly to the grout.
7. Let it sit and soak in for at least 5 minutes.
8. Loosen the stains by scrubbing the whole area with a grout brush (a firm, synthetic brush; too soft of a brush will require more work on your part to loosen the stains, while a metal brush will wear away the grout).
9. Rinse again with the mop sponge and clean, fresh water.
10. Let the tile and grout dry overnight.
11. Apply a grout sealer the next day to keep your grout from getting stained in the future, being sure to test an inconspicuous spot before applying to the whole floor.
12. Apply a second coat of grout sealer after 30 minutes. Then let it dry for at least an hour.
13. A good rule of thumb is to re-apply the grout sealer once a year.
Disinfecting Bathrooms:
1. Take all removable items such as all decorations, rugs, towels, wastebaskets, soap dispensers, toothbrushes, etc. and clean them outside of the bathroom as per their individual instructions and labels.
2. To make deep cleaning easier, sweep and dust to remove surface dirt.
3. Tackle the dirtiest area of the bathroom, working from the top down. Whatever your biggest problem area is, come up with the best and easiest way to fix it, whether it is showerhead deposit build up from water or stained tile grout. Whatever means you decide to use to clean it, most directions will recommend to let it sit.
4. While step 3 is left undisturbed, start at the highest point of the bathroom and work down. Start by cleaning where the wall and ceiling meet, making sure there are no cobwebs.
5. In a bucket, mix an all-purpose cleaning solution with hot water (or according to directions). With a firm synthetic brush, scrub all the hard surfaces in your bathroom, such as the counters, tile, shower, sink, etc. Depending how dirty your bathroom is, you may need to rinse all cleaned areas with clean water. Especially don't forget to clean the underneath areas of faucets, toilets, etc.
6. Depending on what kind of walls you have in your bathroom, be sure to also clean them. Tile is easiest to disinfect (simply include them in Step 5). But don't neglect disinfecting painted or wall-papered walls too, especially near the toilet.
7. Be sure to go back and finish up whatever was started in Step 3.
8. Working from the top down, it is now time to clean the floor. If you have tiled flooring (with dirty grout), refer to the earlier part of this article. Make sure to start at the furthest corner from the door and work your way backwards out of the bathroom so that the floor can dry undisturbed.
9. Once everything has been thoroughly cleaned and dried, go back in with a clean rag and a disinfecting spray. Apply the spray to areas that are frequently touched, such as toilet seats, drawer and cabinet handles, faucet and door knobs, window latches, etc.
10. With yet another clean rag, use a glass cleaner to wipe off any mirrors or other reflective and chrome fixtures.
11. Replace all the items you removed in Step 1 (making sure they have also been cleaned and disinfected before you do, of course!).
