Tips for Deep Cleaning Your Living Room

The Living Room:

Your living room likely sees a lot of foot traffic from your family. Similar to our recommendations for cleaning your bathroom & kitchen, we always recommend starting from the top down in order to not re-dirty something you’ve already spent the time cleaning! To begin, be sure your living room is decluttered and any items that don’t belong in the living room are removed & put away. Once the room is decluttered you will want to begin with the walls & all they hold. To clean your walls you will need,

• A mixture of warm soapy water & a rag OR a magic eraser
• A vacuum with a hose attachment
• Glass cleaner & paper towel
• Disinfecting wipes (i.e Clorox, Lysol)
• Furniture Polish & a rag

Now that you have your supplies you’re ready to go!

• To Clean Your Walls: Take your warm soapy water mixture, or magic eraser & remove any scratches or dust from the walls.
• To Clean Your Picture Frames: Spray with glass cleaner and wipe down, then dust the frame itself with furniture polish.
• To Clean Your Curtains:  Take your vacuum & hose attachment and set to a low setting. Gently vacuum your curtains from top to bottom prior to cleaning your windows. If your curtains are machine washable toss them. in the laundry & steam to avoid wrinkles.
• To Clean Your Windows: Spray with glass cleaner and wipe down with paper towel. Open the window and use your disinfecting wipe to clean the inside of the window pane.

Next, you will want to clean your fireplace & mantle if you have one! Be sure if you have used your fireplace recently you have given it time to cool before coming into contact with it. We recommend to hire a professional for cleaning inside your fireplace, chimney, and glass. To clean the fireplace & mantle you will need,

• A vacuum with a hose attachment
• Disinfecting wipes
• Furniture polish & a rag
• Warm soapy water mixture & a rag

Now that you have all of your supplies,

• To Clean the Mantle: First take your vacuum with the hose attachment and vacuum any cobwebs or dust bunnies that may have accumulated over time. Then go in with your disinfecting wipe and clean the complete surface of the mantle. Finally, take your furniture polish & rag and give the mantle a final wipe down.
• To Clean Your Fireplace: Take your warms soapy water mixture and clean the exterior surface (i.e brick). Take your vacuum hose & vacuum any ash or soot surrounding the opening of your fireplace.

Once your fireplace is clean, move on to your hard surface furniture including coffee tables, bookshelf, end tables, etc & your television  To clean your furniture pieces all you will need is,

• Furniture polish & a rag
• A microfiber cloth & low potency glass cleaner

Be sure to double confirm the finish on your furniture will not be affected by your furniture polish. If you have any table lamps these can also be polished with furniture polish!

• To Clean Your Furniture: Simply remove items from your surfaces & spray with your furniture polish. Wipe down and repeat as many times as needed.
• To Clean Your Television: Be sure your television is off. Using your microfiber cloth, spray your cleaner onto your cloth (do not spray cleaner directly on to the television screen) and wipe clean.

Next you will want to clean your couch and any armchairs (this includes any throw pillows or blankets you may have).  To clean your upholstered furniture you’ll need,

• A vacuum with a hose attachment
• Lint roller (while you have it out, lint roll your lampshades for an extra clean living room!)
• Fabric Spray (we recommend this if you have children or pets to mask any odor!)

Now that you have your supplies start with the couch! Toss any throw blankets that are machine washable into the laundry to clean.

• To Clean Your Couch: Take your vacuum & hose attachment and vacuum top down. Remove cushions and be sure to hit all cracks & crevices. Use your hose attachment to vacuum under the couch. Spray with your favorite scent of fabric spray.
• To Clean Your Throw Pillows: If large enough, vacuum with your hose attachment. If your pillows contain texture or tassels use a lint roller. Spray with your fabric scent of fabric spray.

And finally you will want to clean your floors & rugs. Your cleaning materials for your floor will depend on whether you have carpet or a hard surface. For floors & rugs you will need,

• A vacuum
• A carpet cleaner
• A wet sweeper (i.e Swifter Wet Jet) if you have hard surface floors

Now that you your supplies,

• To Clean Your Floors: Vacuum on a high setting if you have carpet, and a low setting if you have hard floors. If you have hard surfaced floors use your wet sweeper to deep clean. If you have carpet, use your carpet cleaner to wash & condition your carpet to make it look like new.
• To Clean Your Rugs: Vacuum as you would normal carpet. Look at the cleaning instructions on the tag of your rug to determine if you are able to use your carpet cleaner.

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