How to clean an extremely neglected home

How to clean an extremely neglected home

When asking How to clean an extremely neglected home, You really need some additional context because one person’s “neglected home” could be someone else’s “messy home”. One persons “needs a little tidying” could be another’s “hoarders home”. 

However, no matter what state the home is in, there are some very simple steps to follow which will help get you to your desired tidiness. Just remember cleaning can me more of  a marathon than a sprint, especially if your not naturally a particularly clean or tidy person. You certainly don’t want to get part way through and run out of enthusiasm. 

So follow these key steps to help not only achieve the right result but to maintain motivation. 

 Step 1 – formulate a plan before you start cleaning 

Step 2 – Set yourself some goals & reward yourself 

Step 3 – Source & organise the right cleaning supplies 

Step 4 – Declutter and bin the rubbish 

Step 5 – Start the deep clean room by room 

Step 6 – Remove heavy build up 

Formulate a plan before you start cleaning 

It is very easy to become demotivated and get bogged down by the potential amount to do when starting a clean on a house which has been neglected. The phrase which often springs to mind for me is you can’t see the wood for the trees, that is often why homes get worse and worse because people get demotivated before they have even started. 

If you start by making a plan it will feel less daunting, you can set yourself targets and make everything run smoother. The steps above can formulate much of your plan so it’s not a difficult thing to do, but it is good to have it personalised to suit you. You may be the type of person that needs to break it down into smaller tasks. 

The other thing to remember is to decide on what you will be able to tackle and what you will be looking to have professionally cleaned. It is always a good Idea to have more specialist tasks cleaned by a professional cleaner than take it on yourself. 

For instance, if the home is that neglected the oven can often be a particularly bad area and will require a lot of energy and time. Plus once completed you may not be overly pleased with the final result. So it may be worth tasking this out to a professional oven cleaner so you can focus on other things. 

The other area to consider different options with are the carpets. Neglected homes will typically be very dusty and this can build up on the carpets, you can also get “tracking” which are darker lines in the main “track” within a room, for example if your kitchen is off your lounge you will normally see a “track” from the lounge door to the kitchen. These tracks can be difficult to remove and a DIY carpet cleaner may be too much hassle, too difficult to use or just not deliver the result you are looking for. Or you may just want to concentrate your efforts on the other tasks. The other thing to consider is the carpets may be beyond saving so replacement may be the better option. 

Set yourself some goals & reward yourself 

This can be part of your plan creating task but it is also good to do it once you have completed your plan. It is all around mindset and motivation which is paramount when carrying out deep cleaning tasks. It is easy to lose motivation and give up especially if you are not someone who likes cleaning, many people simply hate cleaning, so why not reward yourself? 

When you have a plan it will be easy to set yourself some goals but you can also do so why your working such as, When I finish this part I’ll get a cup of tea or maybe you prefer to give yourself bigger rewards, either way it’s just a good thing to keep yourself motivated. 

Source & organise the right cleaning supplies 

The quickest way to lose motivation is by not having the right cleaning supplies. You will then have to take time out to go and get the right supplies which will slow you down and take you away from the job at hand. 

It can also be deflating when you don’t achieve the result you are hoping for and one of the easiest ways of not achieving the desired result is by using the wrong cleaning solutions. Many people don’t realise or don’t give enough thought to the fact cleaning solutions are often designed to do one job, and if used for a different job they just won’t be effective. It’s a little like putting diesel in a petrol car it just won’t work. 

So think about what areas require cleaning, then research your cleaning solutions. For bathrooms you will require descaling solutions. Depending on how bad they are you may also require some mould and mildew remover too. For kitchens you will need degreasing cleaners, standard cleaning agents won’t break down the grease, which will mean even if the area looks clean, once it has dried it may feel sticky. 

Depending on the condition of the other rooms, you may also want to use degreasing solutions on the woodwork. What you will find in a lot of neglected homes is the woodwork or glossed areas, such as doors, door frames and handrails will get dark patches on. These patches tend to be grease build up from peoples hands, so a degreaser will perform much better than a standard cleaning solution. 

Other things to consider are bin liners, storage boxes, cloths and abrasive pads. Some areas such as the kitchen and bathroom will certainly require more than a wipe with a cloth and unfortunately the cleaners will only do so much, so sometimes you may need to introduce some more abrasive to agitate the build up. 

Declutter and bin the rubbish 

As I have mentioned above you sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees and you certainly can’t clean surfaces with loads of clutter, so the first real hands on task of cleaning is to declutter bin rubbish and get organised. 

It is recommended that you have some storage boxes ready, some bin liners to hand and you recycling boxes or bins empty and ready to go, line them up and then simply drop the stuff in the right box. 

A little tip when deciding on what to remove from the room is if you haven’t touched it in the last 12 months then it should go, whether that is in the bin to charity or recycling. You do need to be brutal when decluttering especially in extreme cases, This can be very difficult for some people but the harder you are when decluttering the better the final results will be. 

Binning things is not always the only way though by organising where things are going will help too. Just by having things in an organised way in each room keeps things tidy and will make it easier to clean. 

Start the deep clean room by room 

It is always best to work room by room, and to work methodically. Start on the room which will have the best impact on you, if you are living in the home and it’s the kitchen which is getting you down more than anything then start there. Once you complete one room it will typically help spur you on to clean the other rooms. 

Working methodical is always best as you are not going over things twice you are reducing the workload and are less likely to miss things, giving a better result at the end of the day. For example if you have to go through your living room to reach you kitchen, it doesn’t make sense to clean the living room first does it? 

So once you have decided which room is most important for you, clean methodically too. First job should always be to clear as much rubbish as possible. Make sure you are set up with your rubbish bags, storage boxes, or even your “sort later” boxes (boxes which you throw stuff in to go through another time). 

If you are starting in the kitchen or even any room which has a lot in it, try clearing it out to make life easier. If you have 15 cupboards to clean and they are all bursting at the seems with stuff you don’t want to throw away, then it will still help to clear them. Whether that is one by one as you clean, you can simply set a table to one side, put the contents of the cupboard your cleaning on there until you finish. Plus it is not truly a deep clean if your not cleaning the inside of the cupboards, which will be very difficult if they are full of items. 

Part of working methodically should always be top down, dust and dirt fall so you don’t want to be cleaning the floor before you are cleaning the worktops. But don’t forget the areas you can’t see, such as the tops of the cupboards. When you have the eagerness to get things done you can sometimes rush in too quick, and maybe not pay enough attention to the areas you can’t see, however unless you are happy you are just do the main areas are not looking to finish with a pristine deep clean, then ensure your plan includes these areas. 

Removing heavy build up 

If a home is truly neglected there will be areas of heavy build up, and you have to use the correct methods to remove this build up. Cleaning but not being able to remove the build up will be disheartening and very frustrating when completing a clean but you will need to go about this in the right way to be able to remove the build up. 

As mentioned above the biggest part of removing build up is to ensure you are using the correct equipment which will include the correct solutions. The second is making sure you give the solutions sufficient dwell time. Too often people will simply spray and wipe, not giving time for the solution to work. 

A few examples of this in the highest build up areas are: 

Cleaning the toilet – if you have extreme limescale buildup within the toilet the best way to remove this is to take the water out first. By putting toilet cleaner in a toilet with water in it effectively waters down the cleaner, making it less effective. You should then put the cleaner in and leave for 15 minutes, despite what is often believed leaving toilet cleaner in the toilet overnight will not actually always help. The cleaner usually stops working after 15 minutes, so it’s best to leave for 15 minutes agitate to remove and repeat if necessary. 

Removing limescale – First step as mentioned above is ensure you use limescale remover, a foam is typically better as it sticks longer. The second is giving the solution time to do its job. The last is to agitate, with what will depend on the material you are cleaning. Taps which have been neglected will typically have lumps of limescale on, with these you can simply use something to knock it off such as a blunt knife it won’t typically scratch the stainless but be careful, and be aware that removing heavy limescale build up can damage thin stainless steel. If the build up is thinner then you should use a scrubbing pad of some description, again one that is suitable for the surface you are cleaning.  

Removing kitchen grease – Removing grease will depend on how neglected the home is, if the grease build up is extremely thick you may even need to scrape it away but that will obviously depend on the material you are cleaning it off as to whether it will cause any damage. Then you will need to use a suitable degreasing solution, a foam tends to work better for vertical surfaces. You will then need to agitate the area with an abrasive pad or similar, how abrasive will depend on the surface material again, you don’t want to damage a gloss surface for example 

As grease will cling it’s good to have a bowel or bucket of warm water to rinse your scrubbing pad as you go, you can also put a drop of degreasing solution in the water to break down the build up, if you are short of a particular degrease use a drop of washing up liquid. 

Removing hand grease – Ever seen brown patches on the gloss wood work within a home? That is grease from people’s skin. Removing this with a general cleaner can be difficult, it is better to use a degreaser here too, you may not need to agitate with anything abrasive. Use a microfibre cloth, a bowl of warm water, spray the degreaser on the area, give some time to work and then scrub with the cloth, rinsing frequently. 

Tackling the cleaning of an extremely neglected home is hard work no matter what, so you should always try and get some help. Whether that is friends and family or professional cleaners, do what you need to do and can afford to do, but one thing to remember is it will be worth it in the end. A neglected property can affect people’s moods even when we don’t realise it.