Mary Poppins was the icon for turning any experience, no matter how boring, into an adventure. Who can forget the scene in the children’s playroom when they complain about the dull task of cleaning their room? Mary Poppins replies,” In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.” This attitude is what I call the ‘Mary Poppins approach to home cleaning’. Today, I will share one way to put a little bit of fun in a chore everyone hates to do: vacuuming.

I can count on one hand how many of my friends like to vacuum their carpet. It’s one of those chores that are necessary for your health and the beauty of your home, but people cringe a little just thinking of pulling out their vacuum cleaners, even though, in this day and age we all have the best vacuum to deal with the mess, it still makes us cringe with procrastination. All one has to do is look at the sales statistics for the Roomba, the vacuum cleaner that cleans and moves on its own, to illustrate how much homeowners dislike vacuuming. A great way to jazz up the job is to pre-treat it with a yummy scent. Sure, you can go out and buy a bottle of those scented vacuum powders but where’s the fun in that? Plus, many of those have chemicals that may not be good for you. Make your own special cleaning blend guaranteed to be safe for your carpet and smell great.

It’s a known fact that the sense of smell is directly linked to our memories and emotions. For this blend, I suggest lavender and mint: scents known for evoking feelings of calm and peace. You will need two things:

• Essential oil
• Empty spray bottle

You can get the oils at any health food store and Wal Mart sells spray bottles for $1 in their body care department. Once you have these, the recipe is simple:

• Place five drops of lavender oil and five drops of mint oil in the bottle
• Fill the bottle half full with room temperature water
• Swirl the blend to mix it all together

Voila! You have a blend that is delicious and toxic free. Lightly spray the blend on your carpet and let it sit for a few minutes (don’t overdo it since too much oil can be bad for carpet). Then turn on your favorite tunes, crank up your vacuum, suck up that dirt, and release the lovely scent! The best thing about this cleaning blend is that you can make it as strong or weak as you want. Also, you can switch up the scents as much as you want. Feeling in a zesty mood? Mix orange or lemon essential oil with mint. Feel in a tropical mood? Mix coconut and vanilla. Not sure how you feel? Mix it up and spray each room a different scent. It’s completely up to you. What’s even better is the oils can be used for other parts of your home. You can lightly spray curtains, bedding, or furniture. If you’re mopping tiles, add a few drops to your bucket of water.

Home cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore if you don’t want it to. Be the Mary Poppins of cleaning and do as she says. “You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game!”

What about you? Are there ways you make chores fun? Leave a comment and share your stories.

If you have not a Mary Poppins bone in your body, well let the house and carpet cleaning experts of Immaculate Janitorial Services help you.  Contact us today for a free estimate at (813) 506-4156 or (727) 320-5930 .  We clean residential homes and commercial offices in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk Counties.  

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