The basement is one part of the house that you will often ignore. It lies at a specific place that is not only easy to reach but also out of sight. The fact that it lacks traffic from the house residents renders it an isolated spot that is only cleaned once in a blue moon. In most cases, the basement is a hoarding rack for toys, old clothing, junks and other unused items.
The months and years of no cleaning always attract the growth of moulds and build-up of cobwebs. Where the basement is not waterproofed, you can end up with a stinking room down there. Added with the normal debris, basement cleanout is the dirtiest and the most demand of all the house chores. But all is not lost. However dirty the basement is, this cleaning guide will ultimately walk you through every step for a sparkling clean basement.
1) Dedicate time
It is a norm to always rush into starting something only to leave it hanging in the middle. To avoid this, you need to adjust the normal timetable. Don’t overlook the chore. Sparkling cleanliness means proper planning. Choose a day when you are entirely free from the normal chores. It can be on the weekend or during the holidays. For a larger basement, you can expand the timeframe to at least two days of a thorough cleaning.
2) Break down the work
Do a simple spot check before the cleaning day. Be well conversant with what every corner of the room contains and the types of cleaning task you are to carry out. Use the two factors to break down the bulky work into simple portions. This step helps in keeping the tempo and eliminating inefficiencies that come about with laziness.
3) Organise the items
Once you have broken the task down based on the type of items in the room versus the cleaning task required, it is time to organise the items. A two-year rule or colour matching methods in this step. The two-year rule demands that all items be categorised depending on when last you used them. For example, all items that you have put into use within this year and last year be put together.
On the other hand, the colour method allows for an assortment of junk based on their shades. It works well where the bulk of the junks is clothes, toys and other types of wears.
4) Dispose of the items
Organising paves the way to disposal. However, disposal here does not necessarily mean tossing in the curbside. Some of the old items have sentimental value to your family members. Keep anything that you have used in the span of the last two years. On the same note, you can keep items that jog your memory. Any junk that can be reused should not find its route out of the compound. Otherwise, weigh option such as giving away some of the old items, or selling before letting them loose.
5) Sweep one room after the other
The organisation and disposal should leave you with empty cubes or a hall-like space. This is to ensure that you don’t meet any obstacle once you embark on the cleaning task.
Having collected the appropriate cleaning equipment and detergents, start cleaning the cubes one after the other. First, use a broom to remove any bizarre objects from the surfaces of the walls. This includes cobwebs, moulds and natural paints. Then, go ahead and sweep every single debris from the floor. Collect and dump the accumulated junk in a designated spot while awaiting the real disposal.
6) Mop the rooms
Depending on the type of flooring in the basement, you can go ahead to either vacuum or mop the floors. The level of dirt should also guide you on this. When vacuuming keep a close to dusty surfaces. Otherwise, dry or wet mopping with detergents or washing soaps is the way to attain the needed beautification. For people who cannot bend for long, an electric mop is the best option.
Due to the complications and high expertise required you may not be able to reclaim the initial look of the basement. And, the fact that you need to work on other spaces in the homestead can make the task even more demanding. At Paul’s Rubbish Removal, we are dedicated to helping you realise flawless and radiant cleaning while at the same time cutting the cash corners. Feel free to contact us for free quotes.
