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Cleaning Insight from the Host of PBS program ‘Hannah, Help Me!’
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Annual spring cleaning doesn’t have to be a yearly, back-breaking cleaning marathon. Regular maintenance is easy with a few simple steps and will keep the dirt from piling up so you can skip the once a year event that everyone dreads.
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Hannah Keeley, lifestyle expert and host of the PBS program “Hannah, Help Me!”, offers quick and easy spring cleaning tips for the whole family to follow.
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Get a game plan
Divide your home into four zones -- eating areas, living areas, sleeping areas, and bathrooms. Each week, focus on cleaning just one of the four zones. Spreading out the chores will mean a lighter effort throughout the year instead of a buildup of gunk waiting for a springtime scrub-down. Be sure to make note of the zones on your calendar so you don’t get swept up (no pun intended) and forget all about it.
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Get organized
Cut the clutter. Stacks of papers, boxes and miscellaneous junk can be magnets for dust, dirt and more. Clutter takes up the majority of your housework, usually about 80 percent, so if you cut out the clutter, you’ll significantly cut your cleaning time. Find storage containers to organize and hold your family’s possessions. Even your kids can help out -- attach picture labels to storage bins so the little ones can easily identify where their belongings should go.
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Have fun
Turn every day cleaning chores into fun, family-friendly activities. Chase your kids around the room while vacuuming. Blast your family’s favorite playlist and invite the kids to dance around the house with you while dusting. Or, when washing dishes, use the soapy water to blow some bubbles with the kids. With a little creativity, seemingly boring household chores become fun games faster than your family can say “Mary Poppins.”
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Make your house do the work
Does your home work for you or against you? If your air filtration system is truly efficient, there should be little dust to clean up. This is especially important in the spring when the world comes into bloom, which can lead to poor indoor air quality and aggravate allergies and asthma. American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning’s AccuClean whole-home air filtration system eliminates up to 99.98 percent of allergens, mold spores and other microscopic things from your home’s filtered air, allowing you to spend less time cleaning, all year long. New studies conducted by Environmental Health & Engineering and professors from the Harvard School of Public Health show that the installation of AccuClean reduces dust accumulation in the home by more than 50 percent -- so you can dust less and still have a healthier, cleaner home environment.
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Keeley says she has tried the whole spring cleaning thing and found one thing to be true -- it gets messy all over again. The trick is not in cleaning your home, but in keeping your home clean. With regular maintenance and some smart steps, you’ll find plenty of time to get out and enjoy spring, rather than focus on one massive home clean-up.
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