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You might as well face the reality that you will be cleaning your home regularly as long as you live there. It will always get dirty, and no matter how clean you make your home one week, it will be in need of cleaning a few days later.
All of that cleaning will add up as you buy your own cleaning supplies or pay for professional services to handle the work. How can you cut your costs so your expenses don’t get out of control? We have a few tips for you that should help.
Buy Reusable Cleaning Materials
It can pay to go green, and one of the ways that being environmentally friendly will help you save money is if you buy reusable cleaning supplies. While it is cheap to buy disposable cleaning cloths, replaceable dusting and mopping heads, and disposable scrubbing pads, these are not good for the environment. They create a lot of waste, and ultimately, they rob your pocketbook.
While the initial cost is much lower with disposable cleaning supplies compared to reusable ones, the long-term costs are much higher. If you buy one cleaning cloth that lasts for years, that will cost you a lot less than a pack of cleaning cloths that you go through in a couple of weeks. Do this for each of your cleaning supplies, and you will see how they pay for themselves in a couple of months, if not sooner. You could be saving a lot of money this way, especially when you calculate the long-term savings. In a few years, the cost difference will be substantial when buying reusable as compared to buying disposable. Plus, you get better quality cleaning supplies that won’t wear out as soon. So, your home should be easier to clean, the cleaning should go faster, and you should have less frustration from dealing with worn-down cleaning supplies.
Use Long-Lasting Cleaning Supplies
When you buy reusable cleaning supplies, don’t skimp on them. Buying cheap ones will put you in the same hole that you were in with disposable items. You will wear out your cleaning supplies quickly and have to replace them. That means you won’t enjoy the cost savings that you should be getting from purchasing reusable cleaning supplies.
Take time to compare the quality of different cleaning supplies. Make sure that when you buy cleaning clothes, you get ones that can handle the wear and tear of constant home cleaning. Choose a mop with a handle that won’t break easily, and that has a sturdy mop head. Avoid cheap plastic tools that won’t be worth the purchase price and opt for supplies that may cost more upfront but have a much longer lifespan.
To find good quality cleaning tools, you may need to shop somewhere you don’t normally shop. Your major, big box retailers might not carry decent cleaning supplies, and you can sometimes get better value elsewhere.
Compare Prices On Cleaning Services
If you hire professional cleaning services for your home, you want to be careful about which service you go with. Not all of them will give you great value for your money. Some cost way more than others, overcharging for the exact same services. It may not be a bad idea to get the cheapest price around if you are getting decent quality cleaning services.
As you compare prices, also take the time to compare reviews from customers for each cleaning agency. You may find useful information there that will help you to make a more informed choice. You probably want a cleaning service that you can trust, and that will clean your home quickly and effectively.
Having a skilled cleaner work in your home can be cost-effective, saving you time to focus on other things. It may not cost as much as you think for this service, and there are some very reasonably priced options available, especially if you live in a major city where there is plenty of competition for these services.
Have Designated Cleaning Days
Do you clean sporadically throughout the week or have a special day for cleaning set aside? If you clean a bit here and a bit there, then you might be wasting your cleaning supplies. This is particularly true if you are making up a bucket of mop water or some other cleaning solution that you can only use for that one time and then have to toss out. You could be wasteful with your cleaning supplies if you don’t have a specific cleaning day.
At the very least, you want to save those tasks that require you to use cleaning supplies and do those tasks only on set days. If you make up mop water each day, you will be wasteful with your supplies. This is just one example, but you get the picture. Try to do all of your mopping on one day so that you are not using supplies unnecessarily. If you make a cleaning mixture for scrubbing tiles or tidying up the shower, save those tasks for a time when you can get them done in one cleaning session rather than spreading them out and necessitating multiple mixtures of a cleaning solution.
Buy Generic Cleaning Chemicals
The last tip we want to share with you is to avoid the major name-brand cleaning supplies and try to get only cleaners that are cost-effective. Go for the generic, store-brand cleaners rather than the name-brand ones if it makes sense. These will be cheaper and are probably made from the same chemicals. An open secret about the cleaning industry is that many of the name-brand companies make store-brand supplies. The only differences are the packaging and price point.
Try out some generic cleaners and see how they work for you. If they are just as good as the name-brand ones, save some money and use them exclusively from then on.
