Cleaning is Important For Good Health
With winter on its way, staying healthy should be a concern for everyone. Having a clean home is an essential part of your health, not just physical, but mental as well. Since it’s harder to clean during the winter, you shouldn’t delay. Snowfall is just around the corner, now is a good time to get your home cleaned up if you haven’t already.
Clean Air
You’re going to be living indoors a lot more during the cold months and the air can get pretty stale. That’s why you want to make sure the air in your home is as good as it can be before you shut yourself in for the snowy season.
1. Your Furnace and HVAC System
Good air circulation is critical for clean air. The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure your HVAC is in good condition. Have a professional run a maintenance check on it. If it isn’t in good condition, it will use more energy trying to keep your house warm, which will raise your bills. You should also make sure the filters are current. The filters help keep dirt, allergens, and some pollutants from getting into your house, but over time, they eventually pick up more than they can hold and stop working. They should be changed regularly to keep your air clean.
2. Carpets and Air Ducts
In addition to filters on your HVAC, your carpet also helps filter dirt out of the air and, like a filter, it too can get too much in it. Simple vacuuming isn’t enough, as every time you walk on your carpet, you grind it deeper into the fibers. Eventually, it hardens into sharp crystals that a vacuum won’t be able to suck up and this damages your carpet. Professional level carpet cleaning uses specialized equipment and cleaners to break apart these crystals so they can be removed.
Air duct cleaning is becoming more common alongside carpet cleaning for extra clean air. While your HVAC may have filters on it, something always slips through. Over time, this can build up and then your HVAC just blows it throughout the house. Cleaning air ducts requires specialized vacuum systems, so you’ll probably need to hire a professional. Just beware of scams common on Facebook.
Source: Local Air Duct Cleaning Company in Cedar City Utah
3. Dryer Vents
While we’re talking about ducts, it might be a good idea to check on the ducts for your dryer vents. Like air ducts, dryer vents can also clog up over time. While this also reduces the efficiency of your dryer, the primary concern here is fires. The build up of lint in the dryer vent can block air flow, causing the dryer vents to heat up enough to ignite the blockage. This is one of the more common fire hazards and it can be an especially serious problem over winter, when you’re already trying to heat your house.
And speaking of fire hazards:
Decluttering
Clutter is a problem on several accounts. The first is the fire danger. When we’re trying to keep our houses warm, many of us rely on space heaters as well as furnaces. If there’s too much clutter around the house, there’s a greater chance it will get knocked into our heaters, which can set them ablaze. According to ,the NFPA, winter is the season when most house fires occur, so they have some helpful tips on how to prevent it.
Additionally, clutter is bad for your mental health. When we have a lot of clutter, it can overload our brains, increasing stress levels and causing brain fog, distraction, and memory issues. It also can contribute to bad air, as clutter creates a lot of surfaces for dust to cling to that are hard to clean. It’s a good idea to declutter your house now and then and if you want to have a comfortable winter, you’ll appreciate the extra space decluttering offers.
Cleaning Grease from Stoves and Kitchen Appliances
With both Thanksgiving and Christmas, there’s a good chance you’ll do some serious cooking for family gatherings. Cleaning out your stove to remove the grease will make that easier. That grease is also a potential fire hazard if it builds up too much. There are few things worse than a grease fire: they can be hard to put out since water will just splash the grease around. You’ll want a fire extinguisher to take care of that, but it’s better to just clean off the grease and not worry about it.
Hard Water Cleaning
While you’re cleaning things up, it might be a good time to do something about hard water residue. You may have noticed white crust building up anywhere you run water, especially in the shower. This is because the water in your pipes has lime and other minerals in it. Each time you run water, the minerals get left behind as it evaporates. This residue isn’t just a stain and can be very hard to remove. It won’t come off with regular cleaners and may require a razor blade scraping tool to make sure you get it all off.
While hard water residue won’t significantly impact your health, it can feel satisfying to get rid of it and see a nice clean bathroom or sink afterward and that’s worth it by itself. It can also clog up shower and faucet heads, so cleaning that out will give you better water flow, allowing you to really enjoy a nice hot shower on a cold morning.
Make Your House Cozy For Winter
Winter cleaning might not be as well known as spring cleaning, but it can be just as important. While spring cleaning gets rid of the extra grime from spending more time inside, winter cleaning will make sure your house is a healthier place to be during those extra cold months. There’s no telling how soon the snow will come, so don’t put it off.
