What to Know About Cleaning Your Basement
Do you want to know how to clean your basement? Who wants to waste time right? Your basement seems like the perfect place to keep everything you no longer use. Homeowners oftentimes store old furniture, sporting equipment, and childhood boxes in this room.
The main goal is to get it out of sight. This storage strategy can work well until you realize that your basement is a huge mess.
Why do you need to clean your basement? Perhaps you are thinking about selling your property soon.
If you live in an area with high demand for real estate, companies that buy houses may be sending you offers hoping that you will bite.
If you don’t have plans to sell, you may simply want to protect the valuable items that you store in your basement.
One way to do that is by keeping things tidy and clean. Here are some useful tips that will make your basement cleaning easy, fast, and efficient.
1. Organization Is Your Foundation
Many homeowners are surprised when they realize that you do not need most of the items in your basement.
Realistically, how often will you use this ‘stuff’? For easy cleaning, start by organizing everything. From there, it can help determine what to keep and what to toss. Place your items into four categories:
- Keep
- Throw Out
- Sell
- Donate
How can you determine what item belongs to which category? This is arguably the most challenging part of this process. You need to ask yourself a few questions:
- Do I really need this?
- When was the last time I used it?
- Do I already have a replacement for this in my house?
- Can this be more useful to someone else than me?
- How important is this item to me and my family?
The answers to these questions will help you to figure out what to do with everything in the basement.
Another great technique is to grab ahold of that item and determine if you feel any emotion when you hold it. You can place it near your chest, and then your heart, to help decipher how special that item truly is to you.
Of course, you will want to keep things that are sentimental. With proper sorting and organizing, you create the baseline for how your basement will look. This opens up the opportunity for easier cleaning over time.
2. Remove Items From the Basement
After organizing your basement items, it’s time to remove what’s not needed out from this room.
Depending on how many items you are throwing out, you can consider renting a dumpster so you can easily throw out items that are getting tossed.
Taking things out of your basement is a lot of work and there will be some heavy lifting involved.
Don’t be shy about asking for help. Do you have neighbors or friends in town that are open to helping you move things?
You can even hire a cleaning and moving service to help with the whole process. Lastly, make sure that you coordinate transportation of items to donation service sites when needed.
There are charities that will take heavy furniture and clothing off your hands. Many of them will visit your home for free!
As for items you plan to keep, decide if you want them to remain in the basement or take them to another room in the house.
For items that are leaving the basement, you can move them before officially starting to clean. This will give you enough space for cleaning.
For the items you would like to sell, you can move them to the garage or any other part of the home temporarily. If you have plans to sell doing all of this will be part of the home staging process anyway.
3. Work in Sections
Depending on where you live, a basement can be one of the largest rooms in the house.
Cleaning it out entirely can feel daunting. It is better to divide it into sections. You may use painter’s tape to map out each area, or simply compartmentalize it within your head.
Dividing it into small areas makes the cleaning job easier to mentally digest and prepare for.
If you need to complete this cleaning job over multiple days, don’t forget where you left on. Also, make sure that you clean things in a logical order. For example, sweep before mopping, and dust before wiping.
4. Thorough Cleaning with Proper Supplies
There’s a chance that your basement has not been swept, dusted, or washed in a long time. Over this time, dust and dirt have gathered on all surfaces in the place. It’s common to see cobwebs on the walls and in the corners of the basement.
You will need to clean the whole place from top to bottom. Gather your brushes, mops, washcloths, and cleaning detergents together.
Working in sections to clean all areas thoroughly. Each surface may require different cleaning supplies and materials.
Make sure that you are prepared and have the adequate things needed for the entire job. Once you have these cleaning supplies, it’s easy to restock certain ones as needed.
5. Add Lighting
Oftentimes, basements become and remain dirty because homeowners cannot actually see the dirt. Does your basement have any small windows or natural lighting? If not, that’s ok.
You can add lighting throughout your basement, which will allow you to see better when cleaning it.
Consider recessed lighting for a stylish, modern look. If you don’t use your basement for more than storage, you can add a few regular overhead lights along any exposed beams.
Maintaining a clean basement becomes much easier when the proper lighting is added.
6. Get Creative on How to Use Your Basement Space
A clean basement is inviting and will give you the extra space you need in the house. If you decide on how the basement can be used, that will help you stay accountable when the time comes around to clean it.
Think of creative ways of using this clean and fresh-looking space. If you have been looking for an extra room, get all the things you need and turn this into your vision.
You may be dying for a play area the children can use, an entertainment room, or a quiet study room. Regardless of your ultimate plans, a clean basement is a perfect start.
Conclusion
Similar to other rooms in your home, the basement needs to be kept clean and organized.
Many people tend to forget this space over time and clutter gathers. With these simple cleaning tips, you will get the job done fast. Keep up the good work and clean the basement often like any other part of the house.
Hopefully, you now have a much better understanding of how to go about cleaning your basement quickly and efficiently.