How-to: Cleaning

I already worked with everyone on how to purge, but today I thought I would talk about how I like to clean. 

My mom is probably reading this right now and laughing. I'm guessing she thinks this entire blog post is a joke. 

It actually isn't, believe it or not.

I clean more than I breathe. The furniture in my dorm room is a magnet for dust, and for all the hair Pankti and I lose, you'd think we should be bald. Not to mention that I'm constantly making a mess somehow, whether I'm spilling coffee — usually the culprit — or leaving crumbs everywhere — also a serious problem — or just generally being sloppy. Which is an odd combination with my obsessive neatness. I don't know. I'm a walking contradiction. 

Anyway. I clean a lot. A lot. Way too much honestly. Soo... 

Meet my best friends. 

I think any and all cleaning can be done with Windex, Clorox wipes, and paper towels.

All of it. Dusting, cleaning furniture, cleaning bathrooms, cleaning kitchens, cleaning your entire dorm room. 

Windex, Clorox wipes, paper towels. That is all you need. 

Honestly, maybe I haven't learned the proper way to be a housewife yet and I know for sure that I didn't get my method of cleaning from my mom or stepfather, for sure. 

But it works really well for me. It's not like any of my furniture needs special treatment — no antiques in this dorm room — and in my personal opinion, there's nothing that Windex can't do. The only reason I even use Clorox wipes is to annihilate any of the germs from all surfaces that Pankti, Katie, Julia and I share, because I have been sick for going on four weeks. 

Jumping off my soapbox now. 

Step 1: Throw away all of the trash. Put away everything you've thrown all over the place. 

Make sure everything is in its place — maybe not perfectly organized, but put away. When you want to clean a room or dust or even vacuum, piles of trash, crap, and clothes are intimidating and make you want to run away. Tackle them first.

Step 2: Start with one thing at a time. 

Don't try to tackle everything at once! It's a bad idea.

Step 3: Take everything off or out of whatever you're trying to clean.

If you're dusting a bookshelf, take all of the books, pictures, knick-knacks, I don't care, off. Set them aside — on the floor or on something else that hasn't been cleaned yet, or else that defeats the purpose. 

If you're dusting, use Windex and paper towels. If you're cleaning in a kitchen or bathroom or just wiping up something, use Clorox wipes — they sanitize better! Windex is also better for wiping off picture frames and knick-knacks, too. Who says you need 10 different cleaning products? Clearly they don't know a damn thing about Windex.

Step 4: Clean everything you took off before you put it back!

Or else, that too, defeats the purpose. Don't be stupid.

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Happy cleaning!