As someone with a chronic illness that worsens when it is hot, I hate the summer and the extra challenges it brings for doing household chores.
As a result, cleaning drops down my list of priorities. However, the house still needs some maintenance to stop it from becoming an unhygienic mess.
The secret? Stripping deep cleaning a house back down to the basics so I can keep on top of cleaning in heatwaves.
Cleaning a house when it’s too hot
While it is easy to get swept up in summer plans or trying to stay cool, neglecting chores is a home maintenance mistake to never make in summer.
High temperatures and humidity mean an increased risk of pests, odors, and bacterial or mold growth, making cleaning during hot spells arguably more important than ever.
However, finding the right cleaning balance when suffering through extreme heat is essential to protect your health. That's why, to stay cool, I strip back chores to the basics – prioritizing some tasks and leaving the rest until fall cleaning rolls around.
1. Cleaning floors – but not deep cleaning carpets
Floor care is taken back to the basics.
Cleaning floors without streaks, eliminating debris, and shampooing stains (especially on my white living room rug) is a non-negotiable task for me, especially as I prefer to walk around barefoot.
In the summer heat, however, cleaning floors looks more like a quick vacuum and mop than deep cleaning. This means that throughout the summer months, my carpets are vacuumed once a week, rather than my usual twice, and I do not use the best carpet cleaners to suck out grime.
Instead, this task is tackled as part of my spring cleaning checklist pre-summer to help remove stains. Throughout summer, my home becomes a shoes-off household, and snacks must be eaten with a plate to catch drips and prevent stubborn marks.
One of the best hot-weather household hacks is to invest in one of the best robot vacuum cleaners to tackle these tasks for you instead. I have a robot vacuum on my lower floor to pick up visible debris without my energy being used for the task.
This allows me to cut down regular vacuuming and focus my efforts on catching dirt and hair around the edges of my rooms.
For quick mopping, I find the Swiffer Power Mop, from Walmart, perfect. The battery-powered spray and grippy floor cleaning pads make light work of seriously grubby floors in seconds. There is also a Swiffer Power Mop Wood Floor Kit, at Walmart, too.
Skipping carpet cleaning during the hot weather is fine, but keep a stain station handy to spot treat spills.
2. A weekly laundry load – but only items I am not wearing
Using the dryer can make you feel hotter. Run a cool laundry cycle and air dry instead.
As much as I would love to abandon doing laundry for an entire season, it is an essential task that can quickly become unmanageable if neglected for longer than a week, even in my household of two.
To stay on top of things, I do one laundry day a week, usually on a dry, sunny day to harness the benefits of air-drying laundry, and get one light and one dark wash done back to back. This is usually enough to stay on top of filling laundry hampers.
To keep things to a minimum, I will not wash anything I am not using. For example, my daily summer clothing, towels, and best cooling bed sheets will be washed throughout summer, but my winter comforters, clothing going into storage, and other odds and ends, such as blankets and throw cushion covers, can all wait until the weather cools down again, saving time and energy.
It's also useful to know which items don't need washing after every wear to cut back on over-doing the laundry.
Ecover has become a staple for many of my family members. I use it to keep eczema and acne under control, my mom uses it to help psoriasis, and my grandmother uses it to avoid setting off my grandad's breathing problems
Ideal for lots of big laundry such as bedding, this retractable clothesline can be strung between two posts, walls, or fences to make drying clothes in the sun, simple.
After testing it out for a month in her home, our Head of solved Punteha van Terheyden fell in love with this laundry hamper. It banished the previous physical pain she was suffering when having to manually sort her washing on the ground, or when reaching into the bottom of a basket.
3. Disinfect bathroom surfaces – but no deep cleans
Keep high-touch points clean, but forget the rest.
Cleaning the bathroom, like cleaning a kitchen, cannot be ignored for longer than a week. However, when it is so hot and humid that I want to keel over, these weekly cleaning rituals are usually stripped back to the very basics.
This means cleaning and disinfecting the fittings and surfaces as normal, but skipping over deep cleaning tasks such as scrubbing every inch of grout, deep cleaning the shower door tracks, and removing limescale from shower glass and faucets.
The general rule is that unless it is moldy or risks making me sick, it will be fine for a month or two.
I use the Method Eucalyptus Mint Bathroom Cleaner, available at Walmart, for this. I love how fresh it smells and the fact that it is made with a biodegradable, bleach-free formula.
4. Stay on top of dishes I use – but neglect non-essentials
Hand washing dishes can be cooler than using a dishwasher.
Dishes are another unavoidable task, and as I do not have a dishwasher, I am left handwashing dishes after every meal. As a result, I usually try to meal plan cooler meals, or dishes that use fewer pots and utensils than usual, to limit how long I am on my feet in extreme heat.
When I do have to tackle dishes, I only clean the items I have used for meals. Other items I would usually try to tackle immediately, such as empty coffee jars or containers, usually scrubbed up and repurposed as storage ideas, are instead rinsed quickly and recycled.
Sponge cloths are plant-based, meaning they are free from plastics and decompose in compost heaps in around 10 months, making them a eco-friendly, hygienic alternative to traditional kitchen sponges and paper towels. They're ideal for counters and dishes.
5. Cool tools only – putting the steam cleaner to bed
Switching to hand tools might be more physical effort, but it doesn't increase the temperature in my home.
I usually use my steam cleaner to deep clean my whole kitchen, mop and sanitize floors, and scrub my shower. However, when it is already hot and humid, the last thing I want to do is add to it. As a result, summer usually sees my best steam cleaner and steam mop put to bed in the linen closet.
Instead, I use cooler cleaning tools, such as the Scrub Daddy Non-Scratch Cleaning sponge, from Walmart, for the odd heavy-duty task, or microfiber cloths, also from Walmart, and cleaning with vinegar for a powerful, non-toxic clean.
This also has the added benefit of helping to reduce humidity in my home, reducing the risk of mold.
The Black & Decker steam mop heats up and is ready to use in under 20 seconds, for rapid household sanitizing and disinfecting. It is perfect for floors, upholstery, clothing, and tougher tasks such as cleaning grout and tiles or scrubbing ovens.
If, like me, you do not have AC, learning how to cool a home with fans and investing in the best fans can make cleaning more manageable, even in extreme heat.
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