8 Christmas Cleaning Tips to Take Your House From Hot Mess to Ready for Guests

The Christmas season is here again, and so is all the holiday stress that accompanies it. Take even just one thing off your plate with these Christmas cleaning tips to get your house ready for the holidays, fast.

Inside: learn the best Christmas cleaning tips to get your house ready for guests in no time.

From getting enough food to feed a crowd, to making it to appointments on time, to remembering to wash the guest bed sheets, preparing your house for Christmas isn’t always a relaxing ordeal.

Here are the Christmas cleaning tips that have helped many families prepare their homes for Christmas with time to spare and enjoy some of the festivities along the way.

(Because all too many years have passed you by where you are so busy stressing about getting everything done – done right – that January first shows up and you have NO clue where the whole holiday season went. You were so busy doing all the things that you forgot to take in the holiday season and enjoy it with your family.)

By using this Christmas cleaning checklist you can cross this to-do off of your long list and free up some time to sit down with your family and watch a cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie with a warm drink in hand.

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Cleaning for the holidays

Here are the top tips and best ways to tackle your holiday cleaning this year (and in the many Christmases to come).

Following this step-by-step holiday cleaning checklist, you’ll be able to take your messy, dirty, and chaotic house and whip it into shape with time to spare – just don’t put it off any longer or else it’ll be too late and you’ll be wondering how to clean up after Christmas.

(Cleaning after Christmas is a big thing too, but for now, let’s just focus on cleaning before Christmas.)

Start by putting everything away

It’s easiest to clean a house that is organized and where you don’t have to work around, underneath, and behind unnecessary items.

So, before you dive into cleaning your house, go around and do a quick tidy-up.

Put everything back where it belongs – don’t worry about making it look good, we’ll get to that portion in a bit. For now, you just want everything out of the way so that you can speed your way through this Christmas house cleaning session.

Go around to each and every room in your house and take any items that don’t belong where they are and put them away where they do belong.

If you come across broken items, throw them in the trash right away (don’t think, “I’ll come back to it later”, because right now, you don’t want to risk forgetting to come back to it later. Do it now.), and if you come across a particular item that you haven’t used in a long time, put it in a box to store away for now.

(Now isn’t the time to do a whole-house declutter. All we’re doing right now is putting things into their designated places, and putting things you don’t use often that are taking up space into a box to put somewhere out of the way, like the basement, a closet, or a storage room.)

Bonus tip: To make this task easier, take a clean and empty laundry hamper (one with handles like this one) and place all the items from each room that don’t belong into the hamper, then as you go into each new room, continue collecting items that don’t belong and putting them in the hamper, and put the items that do belong in that room from the hamper into their designated spots.

Doing this will cut down on the amount of time it takes to complete this task since you won’t be making countless rounds through your house. Instead, you can get everything in one go.

Address the surfaces

The first thing you want to address in your house is every single flat surface.

Since you moved items that don’t belong there to places where they do belong, you shouldn’t have much – if any – clutter to work around.

Take note that right now, we’re not worried about a whole house deep clean. For this Christmas house cleaning, you’re just going to be focusing on getting the most important areas of the house clean.

You can worry about doing a whole house deep clean after Christmas (and when you do go to do this clean, follow these steps to get it done quickly). For now, we’re just addressing the most important areas of your home so that you can sit back and enjoy the holiday season with your family.

To complete this step, grab your cleaning rags (these two rags are the ones I prefer to clean with), a cleaning bucket, and your cleaner.

*If you are focusing on keeping your house toxin-free this holiday season, this is the best toxin-free all-purpose house cleaner.

Fill your cleaning bucket up with hot water (not so hot that it burns your hands, but as hot as you can handle) then add your cleaner.

Put your rags into the water and start in the kitchen.

Start by wiping down the countertops, stovetop, and kitchen table.

Bonus tip: When you’re cleaning in the kitchen you’ll want to be careful with the type of cleaner you choose to use. This is why I recommend using this natural cleaner since if it happens to come in contact with food, it’s no problem. If you aren’t using a natural cleaner, use an appropriate kitchen cleaner or just some dish soap.

Once you’re done in the kitchen, move over to the living room and wipe all the surfaces in that room. (Coffee table, china cabinet, TV stand, windowsills, etc.)

Then work your way around the rest of your house, wiping countertops in the bathrooms and end-tables, dressers, and windowsills in the guest bedrooms.

Do this until every flat surface in your house has been wiped down.

Bonus tip: If you’re extremely tight on time, be sure to start with the surfaces in the rooms that will have guests in them. Focus on the kitchen, dining/living room, guest bathroom, and guest bedroom (if you have guests spending the night). Then leave the other rooms of your house and move on to the next step. If you end up with some spare time once you’ve finished cleaning house for Christmas, you can finish wiping the surfaces in the rooms you skipped.

Scrub the bathrooms

Since you’ve already wiped the countertop in the bathrooms, all you have left to do now is wipe down the toilet, shine the mirror, and wash the shower/tub.

(We’ll address the floor and garbage later.)

Grab your mirror cloth (I use these two cloths to clean everything in my house, including mirrors & windows) and shine the mirror.

Move on to the toilet and clean it either with your toilet rag if you have one, or your disposable toilet wipes.

(These wipes are perfect to have on hand when you have company over. You can use them to give the toilet a quick wipe at the end of the day, without having to pull out your rags and cleaner, so it doesn’t become messy and grubby for your guests.)

Lastly, scrub the shower and bath with your cleaner of choice. If you struggle with soap rings in your bathtub, spray the tub with cleaner before you start cleaning your bathroom, then by the time you’ve cleaned everything else in the bathroom and wash your tub, the soap scum ring should wipe right off.

Clean the carpets

Carpets are one area in the house that most people forget to clean. Sure, you’ll vacuum them once a week or so, but how often do you take time to do a thorough carpet cleaning?

Carpets take a beating from day one – since they get walked on and spilled on, simply vacuuming them usually won’t do the trick.

For this step, you can either hire a professional carpet cleaner, or you can tackle the task yourself with just one tool necessary.

If you choose to tackle carpet cleaning on your own, all you need is a carpet steam cleaner, like this one, and a bit of time.

To clean your carpets start by vacuuming them to remove topical dust, debris, and dirt.

Then, grab your handy-dandy steam cleaner and get to work, working your way across the entire carpeted area.

Don’t forget to stop to empty out the steam cleaner and add more water when necessary.

If your carpet has stains on it, you can purchase a carpet cleaner (I recommend this one) and dab at the stain until it comes out.

Bonus tip: If you have a lot of carpet in your house, focus on cleaning the carpet in the rooms where guests will be frequenting and don’t worry about the rest (for now). Use a handheld carpet steam cleaner to deep clean your carpets without hiring a professional.

Clean the hard floors

Now that your surfaces are wiped and carpets cleaned, you can vacuum and mop the hard floors in your home.

Start by removing any floormats and shaking them out outside. Leave them outside for now.

Vacuum the floors (again, if you don’t have much time, be sure to clean the floors where guests will be FIRST, then if you have extra time you can clean the rest) to remove dirt, dust, debris, crumbs, and everything else.

(Your floors should be free of toys and objects so that you have nothing to work around other than furniture.)

Once you’ve finished vacuuming, grab your mop and start mopping the floors.

If you’re looking for a recommendation on a great mop, I use this mop and have absolutely no problems with it. I also love that it doesn’t clean with any chemicals or cleaners – all it uses is steam and water to do the job.

(This way I don’t have to worry about chemicals damaging my flooring or my son who is just starting to crawl getting dangerous cleaners in his mouth.)

Once the floors are vacuumed and mopped, go back outside to where the floormats are and shake them out until everything has fallen off of them.

Then, grab the cleaning rag you used to wipe the surfaces in your house (these two) and wipe off the mats. If they’re carpet, use your carpet steam cleaner to clean them.

Then, put them back in their proper place.

Bonus tip: ALWAYS clean your floors after you’ve wiped the surfaces, otherwise you’ll be wiping crumbs and dirt onto already-cleaned floors.

Take out garbages

Once the floors are done, go around to the different rooms in your house and gather all the garbages.

I like to do this step last, that way if you come across any other garbage as you’re cleaning, you aren’t filling up a trash bin that you just emptied – this way the garbages can stay empty until your guests come.

Organize everything

Finally, it’s time to make everything look nice.

You’re finished cleaning house for Christmas (woohoo!) and it’s completely guest-ready (well, almost. There is one step after this one that is vital if you have guests staying the night).

Now you need to go around to each different room and tidy everything up. Pretty much all of the work is done for you already – everything’s cleaned and put where it belongs. Now you just need to straighten up the knick-knacks and make things look presentable.

Here I go over 21 great tips on how to keep your home organized when it’s prone to messes.

(You can also take this time to pull out anything you’ll need for when your guests arrive – the coffee maker, teapot, Christmas cookies, and anything else you’ll be using.)

Prepare the guest bedroom

This is the last step in this entire Christmas cleaning tips post to get your house guest-ready.

If you won’t be having guests spending the night, you can skip this step and pat yourself on the back. You’re done.

However, if you are having guests spend the night over the holidays, you’re going to want to get the guest bedroom ready. All you need to do for this is wash the bed linens, make the bed, pull out fresh towels for the guests and stock the toilet paper in the bathroom.

If you want to add some good smells to the room, you can turn on your essential oil diffuser (I prefer this over a candle, as the smell isn’t so strong it’ll give you a headache, and you don’t have to worry about it catching fire) with some Christmas oils to add a welcoming aroma to the room.

Here are a is a Christmassy essential oil blend you can do to make your house smell amazing:

(Source)

Bonus tip: If you have a fake Christmas tree or your real Christmas tree isn’t giving off as much of that Christmas tree scent that you love, you can create your own scent by diffusing essential oils. All you need is:

– A diffuser
– 1 drop Douglas Fir
– 2 drops Cypress
– 2 drops Sweet Orange
– 1 drop Nutmeg
(Source)

Christmas Cleaning Tips

And there you have it…

The 8 tips you need for Christmas cleaning your house just in time for the holidays.

You managed to get your house clean for Christmas with time to spare, and now you get to relax and enjoy the holidays knowing that (at least some of) your work is done.

I’d love to know… what are some of YOUR favorite Christmas cleaning tips? What do you clean during your big holiday cleaning? Feel free to share your tips and ideas below. 🙂