1 | Pack Up The Decorations First off, take down all the seasonal decorations and other home items. Doing so easily puts your space back to normal or at least to what it used to be before all the festivities over the holidays. Don’t worry about thorough cleaning yet. Focus on taking down all the holiday décor, drying or dusting, and then putting them back in their proper storage. Pack the decorations in air-tight or resealable containers to avoid dust, and your kitchen items in the cupboard where all seasonal items are stored.
2 | Divide The House
After putting away all the holiday décor, you can now start to plan on how to go about with the cleaning. It’s best to focus on one area first and, if possible, divide the tidying up among your family members or flatmates. This allows you to concentrate on your assigned task, giving you the chance to speed up the process. You can even give a reward to whoever finishes first (one who really gets the job done!) or a penalty to whoever slacks off. However, if you live alone, we highly suggest to do the former where you clean one area and then move to another. It’s easier to see how much you’ve progressed and how much is left to clean up. If all else fails, you can always hire a professional cleaner.
3 | Cleaner Areas First
Before all else, concentrate on the less cluttered areas of your condo. Figuring out which one is less cluttered varies from one condo to another, but personal areas are usually cleaner than those that are communal (e.g. living area, dining area, kitchen, and communal bathroom). Another way you can go about is by starting from the innermost part of your condo and then out to the entrance. With this approach, you can minimize the spread of dirt throughout your unit.
4 | Top To Bottom
Always remember to start cleaning from the higher levels of your space first, then gradually go down to the low levels. Surely, your cabinet tops and even your ceiling have been neglected for the past weeks that you have been away on a vacation or have been busy entertaining guests. With this linear process, you can finish tidying up easier and more quickly, without having to redo the spaces.
5 | Clean As You Go
The ultimate thing to do for an easy and quick post-holiday cleanup is cleaning every after party or even during the event. This might come off as a hassle or a bother, but doing so can save you from an even more stressful post-holiday tidying up. Encourage your guests to clean as they go by providing containers properly labelled with “recycle” or “dispose” in accessible areas like the living and dining areas. As the host, set an example by collecting the used dishes or picking up small trash and throwing them into the bin. These simple acts can help reduce the amount of time you’ll spend cleaning after the holidays—more time to relax and savour the last minutes of your holiday break!
