Deep cleaning the living room last week was an epic task, my pets. Whew! So glad that’s over. In this week’s post I want to take a minute to share some Houseproud homestead pointers on deep cleaning, just in case these things interest you. It’s gonna be a short post, as I still have to cram for the mid-term elections, as one does.

Begin by assembling your cleaning supplies. You’ll need a generous assortment of rags to use as wet dusters and dry wipers, as well as a bucket of hot, soapy water. My general heavy-duty household cleaner is Dawn dish detergent, at a ratio of a squirt of Dawn for every gallon of water. I use old socks as wet dusters, cut down into squares; as wipers, squares of old white bedding or t-shirts. The rag socks I have at hand are the Mister’s old sports socks, which trap dust nicely. Using white wipers makes it obvious if you need to make another pass with the soapy rag. If you have carpets or other dust-magnets, you’ll need a vacuum cleaner, preferably one with a crevice attachment for corners, and a small brush attachment for upholstery or places the vacuum can’t reach. Wooden or other hard-surface flooring will need wet and dust mops, which should be clean before you start. Check that vacuum cleaner, too. Does its canister need to be emptied or its filters cleaned? Remember, dirty cleaning equipment will just spread the dirt around. And isn’t there something delightfully meta about cleaning cleaning supplies?

If you’ve committed to a true deep-clean, in which you dust and clean every inch and item in your home, spread the task over a few days or even a few weeks. Take it one room at a time. Go from one side of the room to the other, and from the top of an area to the bottom. Start with dusting the ceilings and walls in that area, and finish with a thorough cleaning of the floor. Either remove everything from your target area and put it on the other side of the room, or clean shelf-by-shelf by moving items to recently dusted shelves above your current shelf. Keep the transfer of dust to a minimum by dusting items before transferring them.

The pic above was taken from the floor of the closet in our living room, which I was in the process of cleaning and reorganizing. I didn’t remove everything from this closet, as that’s a full-day project, but I did shake out the outerwear and suits that hang in it, thoroughly vacuumed its floor, and reorganized the closet’s base contents. When I put away the holiday decos in early January, my deep-clean will involve reorganizing the top shelves of this closet, cuz that’s where we store our boxes of Christmas decorations. Really, I’ve started thinking about deep-cleaning as a seasonal thing, instead of a thing I do when the dust bunnies grow too big and menacing to be ignored. I also finally understand that deep-cleaning becomes progressively easier through the years, as our possessions are winnowed down and organized better.

And there you have it: a quick recap of deep-cleaning tips from the Houseproud homestead. I hope you found it interesting and useful – perhaps even inspirational. Perhaps not? Ah, well, I certainly had fun telling you about it! That’s it for this week, duckies. I’ve got some last-minute reading to do as I prep for tomorrow. Oh, don’t you LOVE voting? I do – no matter how traumatic the election results. Voting itself is a political act, peeps. There was a time not long ago when I couldn’t have voted, and there are still places where I might be unable to vote today. If you are a citizen of the USA and are eligible to vote, exercise that right. Tomorrow morning I’m gonna strut into my polling place with my voting notes in hand, proud as I can be. By voting I’ll show my love for this country and for the people who fought to insure that this little ol’ brown woman could make her mark. To my fellow citizens of all colors and political flavors, I send my most affectionate thoughts: we are so much stronger together than apart. With that and much fondness for all of you, everywhere and always – yr little munakins.

Look what I found tucked into a box in the living room last week. Aren’t they lovely? I had completely forgotten about them! They’ve been washed and are out on our coffee table, ready to be used. Deep cleaning projects: you are clearly so very very necessary.