The fall in Bloomington, Indiana is a breath of fresh air from the steamy summer months. The beastly heat starts to turn into crisp autumn nights on the porch, aided by the warmth of a hot chocolate or tea. The annoying insects begin to disappear. Also, the snowy, blistering cold has yet to arrive. But you want the inside of your home to be a breath of fresh air too.  

You can use this season as the perfect opportunity to clean up from the summer and prepare for the winter ahead. When you do, here are some tips on what you should make sure to address as you clean up around the house.

  1. Organize your garage — You’ve avoided addressing the growing mess in your garage for months now because, well, there’s no air conditioning in there, or even a breeze. But now’s your chance. There are piles of summer memories stacked up, from beach balls, to kayaks, to pool “floaties,” and you’re not going to need any of them for quite a while. So, it’s time to make the switch. All the things you’re going to need in the cooler months can get pulled out of storage, and all of these summer things can be organized and stuffed neatly away.
  2. Give the house a good scrubbing — Dusting, sweeping, cleaning, vacuuming, it’s time to get that layer of summer grime off your surfaces. There’s sand from your beach trips, mud from your water balloon fights in the yard, and just so much dirt left over from the relaxed, summer attitude. Remember to start from the top and work your way down so you don’t need to clean the same surfaces more than once.
  3. Clean your oven — While summer involves lots of outdoor food prep, fall and winter are going to involve a lot of baking and roasting, so you’re going to need your oven in good shape. There are probably pepperonis from your kid’s late night frozen pizza, and God knows what else, stuck to the bottom of the oven. You don’t want that to flavor your Thanksgiving pumpkin pie or turkey. Oven cleaners can be pretty caustic though, so make sure to read the instructions and be careful.
  4. Get the bugs out — You probably don’t want to think about it, but there are dead bugs laying around your home in the fall. Summer is the entire lifespan for a good number of insect species, and when the weather cools, they start dropping like… well, flies. Think of where they might be, and pick them up with a cloth or paper towel so you don’t have to actually touch them. Under furniture, in corners and in storage spaces are popular spots.
  5. Make sure the gutters, furnace and fireplace are clean and operating — Debris from summer storms can combine with all the falling leaves and clog your gutters up pretty good. At least take a look, but when you do, be careful on the ladder. Years of soot can build up in the fireplace, so if you test out the fireplace and the chimney is clogged, that may need to be cleared out as well. As the weather gets cold, you definitely want to make sure your furnace is clean and the heat is working.

When in doubt, have a professional cleaning service do the job. Give us a call at (812) 345-5694

Some of these jobs are messy or dangerous or tedious. But you don’t have to do them yourself. Bloomington Housecleaning knows how to scrub the summer out of a house and get it ready for the holiday season before the relatives start to arrive.