Moving Season Means Cleaning Time

Helpful Hints for Cleaning Before and After Moving

Peak moving season starts in April and runs through September. Out of around 40 million people who move each year, about 80% move during this time period. Weekends are the busiest moving days.

When you put your house up for sale, you want it to look its best. Before you move, you need to clean your place so it looks nice for the new people. If you are renting, you want to make sure you get your whole security deposit back. After moving into your new place, you will want to clean even more thoroughly.

Moving is the ultimate motivation for decluttering your home. Give away, recycle, or discard all those things that have accumulated since the last time you moved (or regret having moved to your new place). Pack up all the items you plan to keep, and carefully label the boxes. No, you will not remember where you put everything.

Once each room is empty, or at least consolidated into boxes stacked by the furniture you will be moving, you can start the cleaning process. According to cleaning and organizing expert, Donna Smallin Kuper, here are some important steps.

• Start high. Dust ceiling fans and corners, door and window moldings with a long-handled duster or broom. Clean lighting fixtures. The last thing you should clean in any room is the floor.
• Go low. Move furniture and large appliances so you can vacuum underneath and behind. Roll up large area rugs and vacuum underneath.
• Do it room by room. Plan to clean one room at a time until the job’s done.

One of the challenges of cleaning is to remove spots of food or dirt from floors, walls and countertops without damaging the surfaces. Another challenge is to quickly clean corners, edges, grooves, and other tight spaces. Your fingernails are probably not strong enough to handle the task for a whole house cleaning. Screwdrivers and kitchen knives will scratch the surfaces being cleaned.

One of Donna Smallin Kuper’s favorite tools for small cleaning tasks is the pen-shaped Scrigit Scraper that will not scratch most household surfaces. “This is one of those products you don’t realize you need until you try it.”

• Kitchen. The Scrigit Scraper is ideal for removing spots of dried food or other mysterious substances throughout the kitchen. The tool also is great for cleaning the edges around the sink, faucet, sink drain, cook top, and countertop. In the refrigerator, use the tool to clean along the edges of the glass shelves. The versatile scraper tool also gets dirt out of corners of drawers, floors, and countertops.
• Bathroom. Here again, the Scrigit Scraper provides a non-scratch way to clean along the edges of sinks, drains, faucets, and toilets. If there is crusty lime scale around the faucets, soften this substance with vinegar or Lime-A-Way before scraping. The tool is also the right size to clean many types of shower door tracks and quickly removes soap buildup.
• Throughout the house. Use a Scrigit Scraper to clean off spots of unwanted substances. Soften the spots with cleaning spray or water when needed. Use the tool to clean sliding window and door tracks along with your favorite spray cleaner.

Remember to use your Scrigit Scraper to remove the adhesive product labels and price stickers from all the new products you purchase for your new home. A new one with sharp edges will work better. You can also restore the tool’s edges with very fine sandpaper or the fine side of an emery board.

Once you get done with all the moving and cleaning, reward yourself by trying out a new restaurant or other treats that you enjoy.