Holiday Prep Day 7- Commence the Detail Clean

In my book, there is ‘clean’ and then there is ‘detail clean.’ Detail clean is something that happens twice a year at our house- Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is that magical time of year when I actually dust the tops of the ceiling fan blades, clean the couch cushions {instead of just flipping them over}, seek out the cobwebs that lurk in our bedroom, and vacuum the rooms no one would ever really go into anyway {it’s safe to assume at this point that I was implying those rooms are never vacuumed otherwise}.

Detail cleaning is the pits. It’s tedious and time consuming, and particularly difficult to tackle with a two year old who wants me to watch him play with his cars all day {I’m not allowed to touch the cars myself…} For this reason, I have decided to start my detail cleaning today. It’ll continue on throughout the next week, but starting early is key to success. How many of you have been up the night before Thanksgiving scrubbing out a stubborn stain on your carpet that was there for a full six months without notice, but because Aunt Myrtle and Uncle Ed are coming over, you have to get that stain out?? Hands please? Just me? Ok… right. Well, my point is, those little details can stress us out when we notice them at midnight the night before the big celebration, so why not start knocking them out now?

So, what do I include in the detail clean, and what might you want to remember before next Thursday?

• Spot cleaning and/or steam cleaning the carpet. The stains in our carpet are not the result of us, which I find particularly irritating. I also find it irritating that they’re in the pad of the carpet, so no matter how hard I try, eventually they pop back up. So the ritualistic pre-holiday carpet cleaning has become a thing at our house. Boo.
• Dusting, pressing, cleaning curtains.I’m not gonna lie… I don’t do this. But some people do, so I thought I might mention it.
• Washing china and silverware. This IS something I do. Last year I started the task the night before Thanksgiving and had my poor brother finish the job the next morning when he arrived for lunch. Please come back this year… I promise I won’t make you work for your food!
• Cleaning/moving furniture. I’ll take off the cushion covers on our couch and big “ugly chair” {we really call it that} and let them take an Oxyclean bath. That stuff is ah-mazing! I will also rearrange furniture in the living room for optimal seating and moving around room.
• Dust hard-to-reach places. I mentioned the ceiling fan blades earlier. This also includes high shelves that I tend to avoid, ceiling cobwebs that generally go unnoticed, and knickknacks {I could do an entire post on why I hate knickknacks} that need to be cleaned.
• Washing place-mats, linen napkins, and table cloths. I’ll wash our holiday place-mats later today on a gentle cycle. All of our table linens will be clean and ready to use on Thanksgiving!
• Clean all bathroom mats/Guest towels. We won’t have anyone staying at our house for the holidays, but we still have nice holiday towels that I put out on Thanksgiving that need to be cleaned and set out. I also want to make sure that all of our bathroom mats are clean. If you’re having holiday guests stay in your home, this would be a good time to clean the guest rooms or prepare the guest sheets/linens. Better to start early than panic the day before they get in.
• Hang any pictures/curtains/decorations. If you’re like me, you’ve had great ideas throughout the year {thank you, Pinterest} that you’ve been meaning to implement, but just haven’t had the time. We have several pictures I’ve been meaning to hang, decorations I meant to put out, etc. Today is the perfect time to take care of those details so I’m not rushing around trying to make everything look perfect next Wednesday when I have a turkey to worry about.

Just think of the big odd jobs that kind of make you groan when you think of them, and you can bet those are the jobs you want to start early.

Today is the day to start the jobs you’re going to hate doing at the last minute. So pull out those annoying extensions on your vacuum cleaner and strip the sheets off of your guest bed. Let’s get cleaning!

Kat