13 Tips on How to Clean Your Home After the Holiday Season

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As the New Year approaches, don't dread the thought of how exactly you're going to put away and organize all of those decorations that seem to multiply with every passing year, or clean up after a barrage of houseguests. Instead, read on and learn how to work smarter this holiday season, not harder, so you can focus on cleaning less and enjoying more.

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Hassle-Free Ways to Store Your Christmas Decorations

The hassle of untangling lights and garlands, preserving precious ornaments, and wrangling unruly wrapping paper ends this holiday season. Learn easy ways to organize everything as you put it all away, using a little ingenuity and some stuff you probably already have lying around the house. (Save those plastic bubble packs from wholesale clubs!)

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Clean Your Wood Floors

This easy to make floor polish recipe requires just a few ingredients from your pantry and will safely remove shoe scuffs left from guests, repel pine needles and restore brilliant shine to your haggard hardwood floors. Plus it's nontoxic, so even your kids can help and earn their allowance.

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Clean Your Windows

Once you've untacked the lights from your eaves and removed what you can of the spray-on fake snow, this tutorial will show you how to deep clean your windows with a homemade streak-free window cleaner that will leave them sparkling and clear using only three household ingredients.

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Clean Your Bed Pillows

Holiday houseguests require a little extra prep work, and post work for that matter. This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to clean bed pillows easily so you can feel good about where you and your guests rest your heads at night.

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Clean Your Oven Racks

After all of that holiday cooking, deep-cleaning every nook and cranny of your kitchen might be the last thing on your mind. But oven racks are so easy to clean with just a couple of household items, you might have to add this method to your permanent DIY arsenal.

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Clean Your Carpet

It's all fun and reindeer games until a holiday guest spills something on the carpet. And let's face it, they will. Good thing this homemade carpet cleaner recipe will leave your carpets spotless, and your home smelling like fresh laundry.

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Clean Your Walls

Walls can take a real beating, especially over the holidays. After removing all of your hanging holiday decor, use this homemade cleaning solution for walls to help remove dirt, fingerprints and food splatters with ease.

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Clean Tile Floors With Baking Soda

Entertaining holiday guests for an extended period is draining, but could be a great excuse to deep clean after they leave. Here is an easy tutorial showing how to clean tile floors, including grout with a magic duo: baking soda and vinegar.

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Clean Your Bathroom

Why stop at tile and grout? This DIY Soft Scrub Cleaner will get your sink, bathtub, scratched dishes, pots and pans and even your stove top clean in minute. Basically, it's the most amazing multi-purpose cleaner you can make.

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Clean Your Kitchen Cabinets

Between fingerprints, food smudges, hot oil splatters and the like, kitchen cabinets can easily build up layers of grease and grime over time. Especially during the busy holiday baking season. Use this easy to make kitchen cabinet cleaner and buff those cabinets back to their original glory.

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Clean Your Slow Cooker

If you're not using your slow cooker for your holiday meals, we highly recommend it. Plus, our tutorial will take the headache out of cleaning your slow cooker and leave it sparkling, ready for its next low maintenance yet epic meal.

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Clean Your Stovetop

Just in case you accidentally melted plastic onto your stovetop burner during a holiday frenzy, this tutorial will show you how to have your melted mess cleaned up in minutes.

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Clean Carpet Stains with Shaving Cream

Use this simple method when you need to troubleshoot specific carpet spots, or for the real tough jobs. We're talking red-wine-on-brand-new-white-carpet-type scenarios.

Image Credit: Jessica Kielman