You want to keep your loft looking clean and tidy so it can be useful, but it always seems to be dirty. What’s the secret to making sure your loft is usable and inviting? We have a few tips to share with you that you might find useful.
Be Careful What You Store in There
The items you place in your loft are going to have an impact on how clean it looks. Of course, the loft is a great place to store some of your most valuable treasures and keepsakes, but it can also become the go-to storage spot for anything in the house that is just taking up space.
You may be storing your pristine antique furniture right next to a bunch of garage sale clothing purchases that never were properly washed. It is vital to keep in mind what you are storing in the loft could affect the other items around it.
With that thought in mind, here are a few pointers about loft storage:
· Make sure all items are clean
· Ensure there is no water or other liquid on stored items
· Check furniture and bedding (especially mattresses) for pests before storage
· Seal away all clothing since it attracts silverfish, moths, and rats
If you follow those tips for storage, then you will have fewer problems with your loft items affecting one another negatively. There are some items that simply don’t belong in the loft, and those would be anything that would suffer damage from extreme heat and cold. The loft tends to have less insulation than other areas of the house. Now, that can be fixed, but even with insulation, the loft may be prone to extreme temperature changes that other rooms of the house would not experience.
Clean the Loft Regularly
Your loft gets dirty like any other room in the house, and that needs to be taken into account. You may think that simply because no one spends much time up there that it doesn’t ever get really dirty. But dust and dirt can still collect in a mostly unused loft. Pests can still find their way up there, and items stored there can deteriorate.
You can do a periodic light cleaning (perhaps once a week) that takes care of most of the mess. You would be wise to do a deeper cleaning a couple times a year that will get into all the crevices and hard to reach areas that are not often cleaned.
The deep clean may be best completed by apartment and loft cleaners who know what they are doing and who will take the time to do the work properly. It may seem unnecessary to hire anyone to clean your loft, but bear in mind the kind of valuable items you have stored up there. If you want the attic to stay in great shape, then you should have it professionally cleaned every now and then. That will do wonders for extending the lifespan of your stored items as well, giving you a whole lot less to worry about.
What is it that makes an attic dirty even though it is almost never in use? Well, a big part of it is the skin cells that people drop through the day. Thousands of skin cells are lost each day, and some of those will make their way up into the attic, even if the door is closed. It is inevitable, and you will need to clean them up when they appear as dust in your loft.
Check for Damage
The loft being at the top of the house puts it in a vulnerable place. It is positioned directly under the roof and usually occupies the tallest part of the house, so rain, hail, snow, and high winds will hit the loft harder than any other room in the house.
You should periodically check for any kind of damage to the roof and to the loft. Look especially for leaks, holes where air is coming in, and cracks. These need to be dealt with quickly and decisively. Don’t wait any longer than necessary to fix up any issues you see in the loft and in the roof.
You should be checking the loft for any issues after a heavy storm or other kind of serious weather. That is when there is most likely to be a problem. Catch those problems early on to avoid further, more expensive repairs.
Leaks are probably the most dangerous problem that your loft will face. Even if there is no faucet or sink set up in the loft, water pipes may still run through the space, and they can cause issues when they freeze and burst or when they are damaged by age, impact, or pests.
Insulate and Protect Your Loft
The final piece of advice we want to give you is probably the most expensive one in this article. It may be helpful to properly and thoroughly insulate your loft or to upgrade the interior protection of the room.
Insulation can help because it gets the temperature under control. If you want to make the loft more comfortable to spend time in or perhaps convert it into a bedroom, then insulation is essential. This will also protect your items stored in the loft and keep them from becoming damaged and creating a mess as well. Insulation also protects your water pipes and electrical cables that run through the attic or just below it.
Closing Thoughts
Your loft can be a very useful part of your home that looks tidy and clean and that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance or upkeep. If you want those things to be true of your loft, then you should take the proper precautions and follow some of the tips we have provided for you here.
The loft will seemingly become dirty on its own, but now maybe you have a better understanding of how that can happen. We hope this article helps you maintain a cleaner, better-maintained loft.
