Christmas cleaning challenge
Sara Idenfors
Now it’s going to be a clean Christmas
Christmas should be a joyful holiday, and the focus should be on the right things. BUT many of us would still like to do all this in a clean and tidy home. To help those who want to clean the whole house/apartment without it becoming a gigantic project, we’ve created a small cleaning challenge where you do one task each day, allowing the Christmas cleaning to move along without becoming a mountain of work.
And as usual! Take it easy—it’s not the end of the world if you miss a day or a task. What matters is that Christmas is a wonderful holiday filled with laughter and good food, not that every corner is sparkling clean.
Things that may be useful for completing the cleaning challenge
- Christmas soap in a pump bottle
- Hard scrubbing brush
- Soft scrubbing brush
- Cloths
- Sink cleaning set
- Oven-cleaning kit
- Gloves
- Waste bags
- Feather duster
-
Microfiber cloth
1/12 Dust all the bookcases.
Use a feather duster and a soft microfiber cloth if you like. After that, you can wipe the shelves with Christmas soap, preferably the spray version, and a soft cloth.
2/12 Dust the radiators. Dust and debris from the windowsills often collect behind them. Dust them today.
After that, you can wipe them with Christmas soap, preferably the spray version, and a soft cloth.
3/12 Wipe the windowsills and remove any dry leaves. Perhaps you’ll replace the houseplants in the window with Christmas flowers, in which case today is a good day to do it.
After that, you can wipe the windowsills with Christmas soap, preferably the spray version, and a soft cloth.
4/12 Christmas curtains. If you’re changing to Christmas curtains, it’s often a small project, so today is a good day to do it.
5/12 The floor drains—perhaps the least pleasant place to clean, but it has to be done sometime, and honestly, if you do this, that’s enough for one day. You’ll need some serious supplies here. Equip yourself with a waste bag for the unpleasant things you may find in the floor drains, as well as gloves. Once you’ve removed everything loose, scrub the parts of the floor drain with a scrubbing brush and Christmas soap from the pump bottle—you need the stronger soap, not the spray, here. Rinse all the parts and put them back.
6/12 The shoe rack in the hallway—why does it so often become such a mess? Put away shoes that are out of season, sweep or vacuum up the gravel that has been carried inside, and sort the hats and gloves.
7/12 Front porch or entryway, if you have one. Sweep, tidy up, and perhaps decorate with a couple of branches or pine sprigs.
8/12 Clean the refrigerator and remove any expired products. Wipe out all the drawers and shelves, and preferably use fragrance-free kitchen soap here.
9/12 Saint Andrew’s Day—today, the dried salted fish should be soaked, and once you’ve done that, you can tackle cleaning the oven. Our website has a video showing you how to do it, as well as an oven-cleaning kit without harsh chemicals.
10/12 The kitchen extractor hood needs to be cleaned regularly. It can become a fire hazard if it isn’t cleaned. Many people put the filters in the dishwasher. If that doesn’t work for your filters, soak them in hot water and soap; this easily dissolves the greasy dirt.
11/12 Thoroughly clean the sink and shower walls/bathtub today.
Here you may need both bathroom soap, an Ecofiber cloth, and vinegar. Vinegar dissolves limescale, and if you’ve cleaned your shower walls with soap and still have stains left, they are most likely limescale, in which case you need something acidic to remove it. Vinegar is acidic and works excellently for this. Keep in mind that natural stone and marble—any stone rich in lime—are highly sensitive to acidic products.
12/12 Toilet: remove the seat and scrub the toilet with a soft scrubbing brush. Don’t forget the underside of the tank and the pipes leading into the toilet.
Use bathroom spray and a soft cloth here.
13/12 Saint Lucy’s Day—today is for celebrating, not cleaning! Enjoy the beautiful singing, gingerbread cookies, and saffron buns, and don’t forget to feel a little proud of how much Christmas cleaning you’ve already done by now!
14/12 Scrub all the tile and floor-tile grout in the house clean with a brush and soap.
You need liquid soap in a pump bottle (spray is a little too weak here) and a scrubbing brush, preferably both a coarse and a soft one. Scrub the grout with warm water, soap, and a brush.
15/12 Dust the baseboards
16/12 Polish mirrors and taps
17/12 Polish lampshades, chandeliers, and candlesticks.
18/12 The freezer: check it and defrost it if necessary. It’s a good idea to wipe out the freezer with completely fragrance-free kitchen soap.
19/12 Change the bed linens
20/12 The ventilation system. There are countless different solutions, but if your house has ventilation that needs dusting or some kind of inspection, today is a good day to do it. It can make a big difference to the atmosphere in your home and the air quality. If you have an air-source heat pump, it usually comes with instructions on how to clean it.
21/12 Wipe all the cabinet doors, shelves, and countertops in the kitchen. Here you can use kitchen soap spray or Christmas soap spray and a soft cloth.
22/12 Vacuum
23/12 Decorate, trim the tree, and enjoy yourself! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the whole house has been thoroughly cleaned.
