Home Chefs For Hire

 The excitement of the holidays is now upon us and it is during this time we often feel like we have more on our 'to do' list than there are hours in the day! A common area of stress for many people is getting our homes ready for the holidays. Working in partnership with a fantastic service, like Harmony Clean can help save you time, help you relax and also give you peace of mind.

Harmony Clean is about healthy home cleaning, naturally. They provide a complete, customized maid service (as regularly as needed) with caring home chefs for hire trained staff that are bonded and insured. Recently I interviewed Vicki Brown, one of the founders of this unique company and asked her how we could get our homes ready for the holidays. Here are several strategies we decided would help get your home ready this holiday season.

Make a holiday 'to do' list - include on your list the activities you want to complete at home, the activities you want to outsource and your shopping 'to do' list.

Book a special one time clean - if you know you have company coming, a party or a gathering of people; consider hiring the experts to clean your home from top to bottom. This will also make it easier for you to maintain during the holiday period.

Pay attention to bathrooms - these areas of your home will get significant traffic during this busy time, keep these areas clean by placing cleaning products in each room so that you can quickly wipe the counter tops, clean the shower doors and wipe down other areas. I like Shaklee products (recently endorsed on the Oprah show) that are environmentally and people friendly -

Change bed linens - it is great at night to snuggle up into flannel sheet sets. Allocate time to change over all the linens in each room. Do it all on the same day as it makes it easier to remember when they all need to be changed again.

Attend to your guest room - allocate 60 minutes to clean, tidy, dust and clean out closet space in your guest room. This is a great time of year for unexpected visitors so make sure your guest room is ready for anyone that might drop in for a visit or stay over after a meal.

Dust your baseboards - this is a great time of year to pay attention to all the areas in your home you don't normally clean. Vacuum these areas or wipe them free of all dust, this will also help your heating system function better.

Clean lights and chandeliers - some our lights might be covered in dust and cobwebs so ask the cleaning service to spend time on these fixtures. It is worth allocating someone else to do this time consuming task.

Wipe down kitchen cabinetry - ask your cleaning service to attend to this area. If you are cleaning your own home, spend time wiping down each cabinet and pay attention to the base boards.

Allocate time to decorate - make an appointment with yourself (and recruit your family to help if you can) to sort and hang your holiday decorations. This can be a fun way to spend time with those you care about. If you don't have any family living close by, recruit a few friends to help you, put on a few drinks and turn it into a holiday catch up.

Make an appointment with yourself to shop online - instead of spending time in stores, determine how many gifts and items you can buy online (from the comfort of your own home). You might also end up spending less money as you won't be distracted by the other items in store.

Outsource your linens - take your table cloths, matching serviettes and any other linens you might need for your holidays, to your local dry cleaner and ask them to press them, this will save you time. You may even consider giving them to a local ironing service instead.

Polish your silver - if you have special dishes, utensils or items that you don't use year round but want to use during the holidays, make time to sit down and polish or clean these items. You could also make this a fun activity and ask your family or friends to help you while you talk about fun memories of years past.