Hello! Welcome back to our blog! We hope you were able to enjoy the holidays with your family, and we wanted to give you tips on how to clean your home after Thanksgiving.
After having fun with your friends and family, you need to get your home cleaned, but you might not know where to start! You have to clean your dining room, your kitchen is full of dirty plates and pots, and your living room can be a little messy, especially if you had many guests over.
Cleaning is a daunting task, even if you divide your tasks with other household members. Of course, you can always ask for help from our professional cleaning service in Memphis. But if you want to clean your house on your own, we are sure these tips will help you finish in no time.
Without further ado, here are some tips to get your home spotless just a few days after the holidays!
How to Clean Your Kitchen After Thanksgiving
It’s best to start with the kitchen because we might not know what we will find there! You might still have some leftovers, or you haven’t had the chance to sweep and mop floors thoroughly.
Let’s start with the leftovers that you kept in your pots or plates. The first step is to organize and move all the leftovers to the smallest containers you can find. Then, it’s time to either do the dishes by hand or use your dishwasher.
If you are washing the dishes in your sink, soak your silverware and your pots first, in hot soapy water. Wash everything else and leave your pots and silverware for last.
After all your plates and utensils are spotless, you might want to clean your dishwasher. Every appliance needs occasional cleaning, and your dishwasher is no exception. You need to remove food and grease residues that slowly gather on the filters and the racks.
To clean your dishwasher, start by removing the filter located at the bottom. Place in warm, soapy water for 10 minutes. Scrub using a soft toothbrush and move in a soft, circular motion. Check the drain to ensure there are no hard chunks of material clogging the drain.
Then, it’s time to clean the inside of your dishwasher. First, run a full cycle with vinegar. Place a dishwasher-safe cup on the top rack and fill it with white distilled vinegar. Other than this cup, the machine should be empty. Run a full cycle with the highest temperature setting. Then, leave the door open for an hour to allow for some ventilation.
Then, run another cycle but this time, sprinkle a cup of baking soda on the bottom. Let it sit for 30 minutes and run another full cycle.
Next Step After Thanksgiving: Your Dining Area
After washing your pots and pans and getting rid of your leftovers, it’s time that you deep clean your dining area.
If you have a glass table, you can use a standard white vinegar solution to leave your table looking spotless. Just mix one cup of white distilled vinegar, one cup of warm water, and a few drops of lavender or lemon essential oil (optional). Mix everything and apply with a spray bottle. If you do use essential oil, you will need a glass spray bottle.
If you have a wooden table, wipe your furniture with a slightly damp cloth and then dry it immediately with another dry cloth. You likely have a few sticky spots after Thanksgiving. In this case, mix half a cup of warm water and a few drops of mild dish soap.
Always test first in a small area, and if the finish isn’t removed or stained, you’re good to go. Apply to the spots that need some help and then dry with a clean cloth.
For the chairs, it can be kind of tricky because each type of upholstery has its own cleaning methods. Usually, using a wet/dry vacuum cleaner is safe enough to deep clean most types of upholstery.
Tidy Up Your Guest Bedroom
Fortunately, it is much easier to clean and tidy bedrooms after your guests have left. You will have more time and energy, but you might want to speed things up if you have another holiday or celebration coming soon.
First of all, it’s important to make the bed and open up a window when they leave, to let some fresh air into the room.
Let airflow and sunlight into each room to prevent mold and mildew and to improve your air quality overall. If you live in a city such as Memphis, you already know the air is not great to start with. Opening up windows will help you control mold and bacteria. And if you already have mold starting to grow, you can kill it using a
Besides, if you haven’t already done so, wipe your TV stand and your nightstands using an all-purpose cleaner. You can check our DIY Cleaning Products guide to clean your guest bedroom, your bathroom, and pretty much every other area!
Of course, if your guest bedroom has a guest bathroom as well, make sure you thoroughly clean it. A nice time-saving strategy is to let cleaning agents act on the surfaces for 10 – 15 minutes. Let them work their magic! That way, you will just need to scrub softly and rinse.
Save The Floors For Last
If you had a lot to clean in your home after Thanksgiving, then you might face a serious challenge when it’s time to clean your floors. However, it’s important to leave your floors for last!
This is because, after some deep cleaning, the dust and grime from upper surfaces (countertops, shelves…) will fall naturally to the floor.
If you didn’t have the chance for cleaning floors before Thanksgiving, then you should do it as soon as you can after this holiday.
To clean them, first, evaluate the type of floor you have. Carpet floors should be vacuumed thoroughly once or twice a week.
For wooden floors, you can mop them using very little water and ensure they are properly dried afterward. As you know, water is one of the main enemies of wooden floors.
If you have ceramic tile floors, you have the easiest type of floor to be cleaned! You can use a steam cleaner, a vacuum cleaner, or the classic sweeping and mopping.
For laminate floors, you can vacuum, or wipe with a lightly dampened mop. Avoid using too much water or soap-based detergents, as they can cause staining.
Bonus: Cleaning Tips for Your Next Thanksgiving
We know it might be too soon, but we wanted to give you some bonus tips to clean your home next Thanksgiving!
These events always put a lot of pressure on us. We want to be on top of everything, and we want everything to be perfect before, during, and after the event. If something goes wrong, take a deep breath and keep going! As long as you’re learning, you’re not failing.
Take note of things that could have been better planned next time and try to incorporate them for your next Thanksgiving (or any family gathering, especially with Christmas and New Year’s Eve coming soon!).
For example: if you had too many dishes to clean, you can try using disposable cups and plates for your next holidays. You can use disposable aluminum baking pans for cooking, too. They might not be too fancy, but they will certainly help you by removing this task from your cleaning list.
Or, if you felt that your guest bedroom was not tidy enough by the time they arrive, take an extra 30 minutes for a quick vacuum and mop, and also add a few toiletries and décor to make them feel at home.
Buying one or two cheap trash cans and extra trash bags ready to go is also important to quickly manage the trash you will get from a big Thanksgiving meal.
Last but not least, you can add rubber mats or rugs for heavy traffic areas. This will be especially helpful if the weather is not nice outside and the guests want to clean their shoes before entering your home.
Remember that more than having a perfect holiday, you just want to have a nicer experience next time and have a little less to clean afterward.
Conclusion
We all know that, after Thanksgiving or any important holidays, your home can be a little messy and maybe you haven’t found the time or energy to clean it.
We are sure these tips will help you clean your home after Thanksgiving!
Remember it’s always a good idea to come up with a plan beforehand. If you need help knowing exactly what to clean in every room before guests arrive, feel free to check our guide here.
While you’re still here, make sure to check our blog with all our cleaning secrets. If you need extra help to get your home spotless after the holidays (or to get it cleaned in general!), don’t forget to check our booking page, where you will find more info about our cleaning services in Memphis.