Keep Your Home Clean All Summer Without Breaking a Sweat

The last thing you want to do during the hot and humid summer months is clean your house. Even if you have air conditioning and aren’t afraid to use it (some people’s electric bills skyrocket during warmer weather), the thought of working up a sweat when it’s already 100 degrees outside isn’t appealing to anyone. My solution to keeping your home clean once the mercury begins to rise is simple: Prevention! Use these tips to help prevent dirt in the first place and you’ll be left with an already-clean house without breaking a sweat.

Keep Humidity Under Control

When you combine the steam from your morning shower and the warmer summer months, you get the perfect breeding ground for mold and mildew. Your laundry room can also become warm and sticky when it’s hot outside. Utilize the exhaust fans throughout your home to dehumidify these rooms after use, and use oscillating and ceiling fans in other rooms where air needs to circulate. In extremely humid environments, purchase a dehumidifier.

Stop the Dirt-Trackers

The kids are outside playing, and you and your partner are outside getting the garden warm-weather-ready. When it’s time to come inside, disaster may very well ensue on your floors and carpets. Purchase quality doormats that are designed to catch all of the dirt when people wipe their mucky shoes or bare feet on them and spare yourself having to clean the grime that inevitably is tracked into your home after a day in the summer sun.

Keep the Damp Outside

Whether you have a pool or live near a body of water, wet swimsuits and towels are sure to wreak havoc in your clean home. Set up drying racks outside on your back porch, and if privacy allows, have the kids change out of their wet gear, dry off, and put dry clothes on before coming inside. If privacy doesn’t allow, have them change in the laundry room to limit the mess, and put the suits and towels outside on the racks to dry prior to washing.

Don’t Stop With the Suits

Pool toys, floaters, ice chests, and all of those other summer accessories that make fun in the sun even more fun also get dirty and should not be dragged into your clean home. Have your kids line up their pool toys and floaters on your patio or lawn once they’re done using them. Empty any ice chests you’ve used outside as well. Grab a bucket of vinegar and water for a safe cleaning solution and wash everything, rinse, and then let it finish drying in the sun before putting it all away.

Close it Up

You holler it all day long: “Close the door! The air conditioner is on!” But leaving doors and windows open during summer months causes more problems than just a higher electric bill. As I mentioned earlier, the best way to avoid having to break out into a sweat cleaning your house during hot and humid weather is to prevent dirt in the first place, and keeping everything closed leaves dirt, dust, and pollen outside and your home clean inside.

These are just a few things you can do to limit the need for housecleaning when the weather heats up. Besides, when it’s warm outside, who wants to be trapped inside? It’s much better to dive into the pool with your kids than dust and vacuum, so heed these tips, put on your swimsuit and sunscreen, and break a sweat by relaxing and having fun in the warm summer sun instead.