Living Room Cleaning Tips

A simple and practical cleaning guide of Living Room Cleaning Tips.  Make your living room sparkling clean with tasks you can do monthly or once a year.

For most of us, our living rooms are hard working, and are regularly used!  They are the spaces where we gather as a family to watch movies, play games and hang out.  They’re where we entertain our friends and guests.  Next to the kitchen, the living room is the heart of a home. And in our home, because it is an open concept home, our living room is literally at the heart of all of our home activity, so I like to keep this space pretty clean and tidy.  But sometimes a little deeper cleaning is required.

Living Room Cleaning Tips

I’m sharing a cleaning guide and some simple tips to organize and deep clean your living room.  This type of cleaning is not something you need to be doing every day!  In fact, some of the tasks only need to be done once or twice a year.  And these are all things that can be done over the course of an afternoon, or even over a couple of days if you just want to take your time.  Let’s get started!

Tip #1: Clean the couch

Our couch is very well loved.  And everyone is welcome on it, including the dog!  This means that I need to be able to clean it often.  When we bought this couch, the biggest requirement was that I needed to be able to wash the cushions.  With 3 kids and a dog, things need to be able to be cleaned.  So every once in a while I like to take the cushions off and wash the covers.  They come out smelling fresh and back to their original shape.  The couch looks brand new again!

• Vacuum:  Remove all the cushions from the couch, and vacuum away all the popcorn and mystery items that gather under the cushions.
• Wash:  Then if you can (if the covers are machine washable), take off the cushion covers, and wash them in the washer with cold water.  Check the drying instructions.  Make sure to check the washing instructions on your couch cushions.

Tip #2: Wash throw pillows and blankets

This is a good time to wash pillows and throw blankets too.  They look brighter and smell fresh!

• Pillow covers and blankets:  If your couch throw pillow covers are machine washable, wash them in the washing machine.  I wash mine in cold water, and tumble dry on low heat, but check the instructions on your own items. 
• Pillow inserts:  I also take the pillow inserts outdoors to bang them together to get the dust out.

Tip #3: Check your lighting

• Lightbulbs:  Check to see if all of your light bulbs are working!  I am always surprised by how many light bulbs I end up needing to replace. 
• Ceiling Lights:  This is a good time to clean ceiling light covers too.  Get rid of the dust and dead bugs!  A wash in soapy water will get the covers clean and bright again.
• Vacuum:  Pull out your vacuum and upholstery attachment, and vacuum all of your lamp shades.  It’s amazing how much dust they collect!

Tip #4: Don’t forget to dust

• Get in all the nooks and crannies and wipe out that dust!  I have big bookshelves in our living space, so every few months I wipe them all out from top to bottom.
• Dust baseboards, shelves, coffee tables, the mantel…anywhere you can imagine dust has settled.

Tip #5: Organize!

While you’re dusting, this is a good time to organize as well.

• Recycle old papers and magazines.
• Put away any decorations that are out of season.

Tip #6: Washing windows, blinds and curtains

Washing windows, blinds and curtains is my least favourite of all the jobs…it’s tedious and takes a bit of time, but the end result is really worth it.  And you don’t need to do this often.  Honestly, I’m lucky if I do this once a year.

Curtains

• Wash:  If your curtains are machine washable, wash them!  I put 2 panels in our washer at a time, and wash them in cold water.  
• Iron:  Then I dried them in the dryer for 30 minutes on medium heat, just until they were almost dry.  I find it easier to iron them when they are slightly damp. Because they are cotton/linen curtains, I ironed on high heat, with a lot of steam.
• Again, check the care instructions on your curtains and drapes.

Windows and Blinds

• Wipe down your blinds with a cloth and warm water and soap.
• Wipe all your window sills with warm water and soap.
• Clean your windows with a window cleaner.

Tip #7: Clean your walls too!

Wipe down your walls.  I use warm water and soap to wipe down my walls.  It’s a simple way to clean away dust, grime and greasy little fingerprints (how do walls get so dirty anyway?!)  

Tip #8: Wipe down baseboards

While you are down on the floor madly cleaning your walls, give your baseboards a good wipe too!

Fresh, Bright and Clean

All done!  It’s a big job, but I find tackling one room at a time, even over a couple of days, the job is manageable.  And the sparkling, clean end results are definitely worth the work!

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More Tips to Stay Organized in your Home:

• Simple Home Cleaning Tips
• Spring Cleaning Checklist for your Kitchen
• Tips for Deep Cleaning your Kitchen
• Kitchen Drawer Organization
• Kitchen Organization

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Have an inspired day!