A few summers ago, I was rearranging furniture and found pine needles under the couch. Yep. 6 months after Christmas and I hadn’t moved the couches once to vacuum under them. I realized that there were a number of deep cleaning tasks that I never assigned a particular time to do, so they didn’t get done. That caused me to start assigning some deep cleaning to certain months – when it felt the most natural with the seasonal rhythm of our life.

I also scheduled the tasks for when I felt it would reduce my overall workload. For example, I now degrease and scrub my kitchen cupboards thoroughly after all the holiday cooking in early January because doing so prevents the grease from collecting dust, dirt, and other food particles that would make it harder to clean later.

Rather than assign you a specific task for each day this is set up so that you can schedule these tasks throughout the month to make them convenient for your own schedule. And only do the tasks that make sense for you.

  • As you put away gifts, declutter a few items from each room.
  • Takedown the Christmas tree, pack up or haul away.
  • Sweep up/vacuum away pine needles.
  • Fix or toss broken ornaments and decorations.
  • Pack away ornaments and decorations.
  • Wash, fold, and put away holiday linens.
  • Sort holiday photos on your computer and save it to a backup drive.

Deep Clean Your Kitchen After the Holidays

  • Clean your stove.
  • Remove grease from your kitchen cupboards and backsplash.
  • Empty and clean the refrigerator thoroughly.
  • Sweep and mop underneath the refrigerator.
  • Clean the baseboards in the kitchen.
  • Purge expired or empty spice bottles.
  • Sort utensils, get rid of any that you don’t use.
  • Empty and organize the kitchen junk drawer.
  • Clean your stove. This is actually a pretty easy task if you have a self-cleaning oven.

Scrub down all the cabinets in your kitchen. Remove everything from the kitchen counters and mix up a batch of the Kitchen Cleaner & Degreaser below. Scrub your kitchen cupboards from the top to the bottom, include your range hood and appliances as well. Then scrub your counters well. Trust me all the cooking and baking put a layer of film on your cabinets that you want to remove before it becomes visible.

This is also a good time to deep clean your floors. Between the entertaining and baking, there are probably a few sticky spots. If possible, clean under your appliances, in the corners, and wipe down the baseboards.

Take Care of Holiday Entertaining Messes Now

  • Strip the bedding in the guest room and wash.
  • Takedown and wash all the curtains throughout the house.
  • Spot clean couches.
  • Spot clean carpets.
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