This Holiday Season is upon us and it’s important to have a good game plan when it comes to your clean up routine. With all the foot traffic thats going to be happening as well as the potential food spills, you need to have a plan in action before the spills happen in order to keep your composure and handle the situation like a champ. Spills happen, we’re human so it’s to be expected. No matter what it is, we can help, even if the wine is the thing that causes the mess. Last year, in our piece on How To Clean Up Those Pesky Holiday Spills, we covered some ways on how to clean up certain Holiday staples such as wine, gravy, and cranberry sauce. This year, we want to delve a little deeper.

As always, make sure you have a stain pretreatment already prepared so that you’re not rushing around trying to make one while the stain soaks in a little bit longer than it has too. If you don’t have one on hand, you can use other household cleaners readily available to make your own mixture. We suggest creating a mixture of Oxy Power and water. Ensure that you have rubbing alcohol as well and a clean white cloth nearby because it helps give that stain pretreatment a little extra cleaning power when you’re dealing with tough stains like cranberry sauce.

One thing we didn’t cover last year was grease. There will be a ton of it when cooking such a large, delicious meal so be prepared to get a little grimy with this one. You can make your own paste by simply using baking soda and water. Make sure you soak the spot well before cleaning. If there is a lot of it, you can sprinkle some cornstarch on top of your grease stain before applying your paste as well which will help absorb the grease. Brush the cornstarch off and treat the area with the baking soda paste. If you still have a lingering stain, use undiluted dish soap on the area and let it sit overnight. Remember to wash it in the morning.

Another thing that is bound to be in your house during the Holiday season is food coloring. Creating holiday cookies can be a mess, especially if you have little ones helping you. However, if you’re like us you wouldn’t trade these memories for anything else in the world. So how do you deal with the food coloring once its spilled? We all know its horrendous to try and get off ourselves, let alone fabric. We suggest using lemon water for your hands to help get it off. If the stains are stubborn try hydrogen peroxide. This stuff works great for everything and we suggest having a few bottles around the house because it’s a real life saver.

After you have cooked that perfect meal you may notice an odor on you which is bound to happen when you’re working with foods like onions, fish and garlic. You can use lemon juice to wash your hands and reduce the lingering scent. Make sure you wash your hands with soap afterwards!

Holiday meals are stressful, but we do them for the memories and the quality time we get to spend with our family which outweighs most of the mess and chaos caused. Inside Homes Cleaning and More would like to wish you a Happy Holiday Season!