Cleaning and Chinese New Year

I was recently inspired during the days before Chinese New Year (which started on February 14) to clean the entire house and do some necessary baby proofing in the process. It is a custom in China to thoroughly clean your home before New Year’s Eve to get rid of the bad luck of the previous year. It’s similar to the “out with the old, in with the new” idea many in the U.S. express in late December, but taken more literally. Get rid of the old — especially the dust and dirt — to make way for the new.

When taking on a cleaning project, I like to tackle it with the same vigor and vim I do an uncluttering task. (And, as my friend Don often says: “If you lack vigor, bring an extra dose of vim.”) Here are the five tips I keep in mind when cleaning:

  1. Start at the top. If you’re cleaning a room, this means starting at the ceiling and moving your way down to the floor. You’ll inevitably stir up dust and other non-desirables, which means if you start at the top you’ll never have to clean a surface twice.
  2. Use the least caustic cleaner first. I think this is a tip I picked up from an episode of Martha Stewart Living, and it’s a good one. The less dangerous a cleaning agent, the easier it is on what you’re cleaning and it is almost always less expensive. You wouldn’t bring a cannon to a thumb wrestling tournament, so you don’t need to haul out the big guns unless you really need them. Plus, if you have kids or pets, you don’t have worries about accidental poisonings cluttering up your mind.
  3. Be safe. If you need to move up the caustic cleaner scale, make sure you aren’t using one cleaner that can interact with the residue of the previous product (like don’t use an ammonia cleaner with or on top of a bleach-based cleaner). Keep the area ventilated, wear eye and breathing gear if recommended by the manufacturer, and store the chemicals under lock and key. Read all packaging to ensure that you are being as safe as possible.
  4. Don’t feel you need to take on cleaning your entire house all in one weekend. At Chez Doland, we deep clean the kitchen and dining room on Monday, Bathrooms on Tuesday, Bedrooms on Wednesday, Living and family rooms on Thursday, and Friday is for the foyer, garage, and laundry room. After a 10 minute general pick up around the house, we focus for 20 minutes on the targeted room.
  5. Don’t tackle cleaning alone. If you live with other people, equally split up the tasks. If you live alone, call in a cleaning service every once in awhile to give yourself a well-deserved break.

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Feel welcome to add your cleaning tips in the comments section of this post.

Posted by Erin on Feb 22, 2010 | Comments

9 comments posted

  1. Posted by Ronique Gibson - 02/22/2010

    Great ideas Erin! I especially love the one about splitting up the tasks! Even in households with children, everyone can do their part. My teenager’s clean their bathroom (even if it doesn’t pass my white glove test).. ha! My toddler cleans up her room, and my husband does a pretty good job doing his thing.. once a week or so.

    Another good suggestion? Move your furniture and clean behind/under them every few months! We tend to only clean what we can see. No wonder everyone is sneezing.. the dust bunnies are holding a convention under the sofa!

  2. Posted by Sky - 02/22/2010

    And if you declutter enough, there is a lot less to clean.

  3. Posted by tabatha - 02/22/2010

    That’s my goal is to unclutter so much that cleaning is super easy.

    I should call in a cleaning service to give my bathtub a good scrub. My boyfriend usually cleans it but he seems to be having trouble getting the bottom of it white again.

  4. Posted by infmom - 02/22/2010

    Yesterday my husband and I worked on cleaning up our shared home office. Given that the majority of the clutter was deposited by me, the division of labor was somewhat uneven. :)

    I always start in one corner and work my way around the room. This time I started in the corner farthest from my husband’s desk and just picked things up and put them away as I went along. I didn’t get the job completely done, but I did work till all I had left was one small pile. I was able to run the vacuum cleaner for the first time in a while. It’s nice having a clear, clean floor.

    The main problem in here is the remaining stuff my daughter left behind. Since she has a horrendous commute diagonally across pretty much the entire Los Angeles megalopolis every day, her weekends are filled with necessary errands and she seldom has time to get over here to sort out what she wants to keep and what she wants to get rid of, so we’re to the point where we’re just going to put everything in boxes as-is and haul it to her place one carload at a time.

  5. Posted by Karen - 02/22/2010

    And always clean the cleanest thing first and work your way to the dirtiest.

    In the bathroom, think mirror, lightswitch, door knob, faucets, sink, then toilet. That way, you don’t have to worry about transferring dirt to something that was mostly clean when you started.

  6. Posted by Kari - 02/22/2010

    @infmom- my mom went through baby books, the attic, and my room before renovating her house this year. She saved what she couldn’t part with and gave me a deadline to clear out what was left (your room will not have a ceiling on jan 2). She helped me pack, provided her leftover boxes, and helped truck it across town. I am dealing with my own clutter issue now (some of it shouldn’t have made it into my house) but since the clutter is in my guest room now instead of Mom’s; it makes it easier to “velvet rope” my 6′x2′ first grade pencil map of my ride to school easier to part with… It’s easier to see clutter for what it was once it’s not your intact childhood room and I am not messing with mom’s sentimentality. Just don’t let her pack anything YOU can’t part with. I threw out a stained baby blanket, several academic trophies, and a lot of “art”.

  7. Posted by Cathy - 02/23/2010

    Tabatha – The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser did WONDERS for my tub. No cleaners needed, just a little water and the eraser. It took about half an hour of scrubbing to get the whole thing, but it’s GORGEOUS now! We had those impossible yellow stains for years before I tried that thing.

  8. Posted by House cleaning tips and tricks. - 02/25/2010

    [...] for us there are tricks and tips to help us clean. The Chinese New year inspired Erin to clean in a post I found the other day. Apparently in China it is a custom to clean your entire home before New [...]

  9. Posted by joss - 02/27/2010

    “Culturally speaking, spring-cleaning is as much about self-renewal as a clean house. In Persian culture, for instance, a ritual called “khaneh takani,” or “shaking the house,” precedes the New Year, which falls on the first day of spring. Families traditionally banish dust from every corner and crevice and polish belongings in preparation for returning spirits. Similarly, preparations for the Chinese New Year, aka the Spring Festival, involve rigorous housecleaning. Accumulated dirt is swept away along with stagnant energy and bad luck, creating room for good fortune.”
    http://www.wholeliving.com/art.....c=header_9

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