It should be, by this time, absolutely no surprise just how difficult moving is. Or do you remain unconvinced? The only people who are ignorant of this notion are the people who either rarely move, never move, or have someone do their move for them. The latter is the wisest. I failed to have such wisdom and continued to do my move by myself. I was sadly mistaken. It was something I should never have done to myself. But, we learn from our mistakes, and I have definitely learned from mine. Despite all this, if you think moving is the worst part we have yet another surprise. Wait until you reach the ending stages of the move. Unloading the truck, unpacking your boxes and creating a new apartment cleaning checklist. 

Now, if you were, again, wise enough to leave the move itself to movers in Ontario, then you will find everything that comes after the move quite bothersome. To say the least. Unloading the trucks is something that is usually done by the professionals you hired (by that, we hope you did), however, the box unpacking and the cleaning checklist are going to be on your plate alone.

What is box unpacking? It’s a tedious job of making sure (and hoping) that you labeled your hundred something boxes properly. Opening each one, getting stuff out and in its rightful place. Some people enjoy this. I find it horrific.

Now after this comes the storm. The cleaning checklist. An absolute nightmare, for some at least.  I hated it, but my wife somehow found joy in it. I am making sure every corner is clean to my standards, she would say. It would all be fine if I wasn’t forced to participate as much.

The Cleaning Checklist

Fortunately for you, my participation turned into an experience that I am now able to share with you! By being a part of our cleaning checklist, for our new home, I was able to learn where to look, what to clean and how vigorously. Now, this can be considered to be a do it yourself project, and if your wife or partner is persistent enough – it will become fun for the whole family. It surely did in my case.

The cleaning checklist is to an extent something like a scavenger hunt. You go around your new home seeking anything that can be classified as dirty. Once you find it – destroy it! Sounds simple? I am sure it does, however, in practice, it becomes something very few people enjoy. But that’s ok. My cleaning checklist will keep you ahead of all other participants. Hopefully.

Rooms with wood

Now, the rooms with wooden floors, walls, pillars or all of them need very special care. Wood needs to be treated with a lot of love. This is why the wife wouldn’t let anyone of us anywhere near it. However, this is something I recommend you start with. You will need cleaning supplies that specialize in wood. Usually, regardless of where you get your shopping done, the place will have an aisle filled with cleaning supplies. Within those, you seek the ones that are specialized in wood cleaning. They will have very descriptive images stamped on them, hence you won’t be able to miss it. If you are not sure it’s for wood, then it most likely isn’t. So don’t risk it. Just look for those that have pictures of wooden floors or stuff alike on them.

Take those microfiber or similar cloths, grab a spray of wood cleaning supplies and knock yourself out. Make sure that you wipe out all the wooden surfaces with this cleaning supply you got, for it doesn’t only clean it – it protects it and reduces the amount of dust it collects. Pretty neat stuff.

Kitchens / Bathrooms

The second destination would be the washrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. They are a category for themselves since they share common surfaces – and thus common cleaning supplies. This means that when you go out supply shopping, you will most likely be buying the same products for your kitchen and bathroom. So once you start with one of the two, make sure you clean them as a bundle. It’ll be far easier to keep track of what you’ve done, and what is next.

Kitchen’s are very straightforward. You need the supplies you got, mixed with water and a jogger. Cover the floor and wall surfaces (if any) first. After that, make sure you dump a little bit of acid fluid down the drains to push out anything icky that might have found its home in the pipes. Make sure the faucets are shiny as well as all the cooking areas. If your slice and dice cooking area is wooden, use the same chemical that you’ve used for the wooden rooms. 

If there were any dishes in the kitchen, clog your sink and fill it with boiling water. Leave some detergent in it for a little while and sink all the dishes inside. The high temperature mixed with the detergent will most likely annihilate any germs left on them.

Bathroom

Now, this is a bugger. Many places through which water moves will usually home a lot of calculus. This is gathered from water and can create almost stone-like layers in pipes, faucets, the bathtub, etc. These need to be treated, but can also be prevented with numerous chemicals you can find in better-equipped stores. If the previous homeowner was negligent with this you might have your hands full removing it from everywhere.

However, with the right tools, you should be fine.

Other than that, vacuum, dust, scrape and wash anything you can get your hands on. But don’t overdo it. If you can’t finish it all in one day – that is fine. Don’t push yourself too much. Try to relax and enjoy your new home. Besides, you probably didn’t even fully unpack yet. Or your stuff is still stored at safe storage units in Ontario. So take your time. Settle in.

Oh and I almost forgot. Congratulations!