Insight on Cleaning Up After Disaster Strikes – Effective Ways to Minimize Hassle

The way that most people think of when it comes to cleaning after a disaster is a response after a flood, fire, or another natural disaster. Most people will simply go and call professional service and pay top dollar for their disaster clean-up.

However, this might not be your best option if you are on a budget or are not in a position to pay for this type of clean-up yourself. I know because I have had to clean up after a disaster myself. And let me tell you, it is not fun.

So what can you do? Well, I think that there are three things that you can do while cleaning up. These are cleanup, storage, and staging. By the time you are finished reading this article, I hope that you will have a better idea about how to approach each of these situations.

Cleanup

This should be your first step. If there is water damage, your biggest challenge will be how to clean it up without damaging anything else. Depending on the extent of the damage, that could be a very difficult challenge. Be careful and take precautions to make sure you don’t ruin anything important.

Storage

It seems counter-intuitive that you want to be storing things while cleaning up. After all, shouldn’t you want to get rid of everything that was ruined? The problem with storing things is that sometimes things end up getting damaged again before you can get rid of them.

Therefore, you need to store things out of harm’s way and try to pick up things as soon as possible.

Staging

You may have to stage your home after the disaster. How do you do this? Well, you start by cleaning up as much as you can. After you are done cleaning up, you realize that you have some space left over. In this case, you need to stage your home to look as appealing as possible.

You need to get rid of any unneeded items and replace them with new ones. This can include reupholstering furniture, putting up a new carpeting, painting the house, or even repainting it. Once you have staged the home, you need to remove all debris from the floor and work your way up to the top floors.

If there were any walls damaged in the disaster, you should take this into account when cleaning. Clean the interior of the house as well, but leave the exterior open to give it a nice clean appearance.

Vacuuming Everything

It is very important to vacuum after a disaster because you want to get as much dirt out of the carpeting as possible. You don’t want to have mold build-up in the carpeting if you can help it. You can easily do this yourself with a simple vacuum and a wet/dry vacuum cleaner. This ensures that nothing dangerous gets left behind.

Make sure that there are no pets in the house – It is also very important to make sure that there aren’t any animals in the home. It is very likely that after the flood the family pets were suffering too. This includes leashes and collars.

Get them out of the house and store them in an area that is secure and where they can be easily cared for. The same goes for any belongings that weren’t saved, such as old furniture or electronic equipment.

Making Some Repairs

The house might look totally destroyed, but there are still plenty of things that can be fixed and made better. This means that cleaning isn’t over for a few weeks. In fact, you should probably expect at least two weeks to completely get rid of whatever is left of the property.

After cleaning, get the floors, walls, and ceiling redone. Use neutral colors to make it look good. Remember that the whole purpose is to make it look nicer, not worse.

Getting the Power Back On

Once the power has been restored, you can safely clean up the mess left behind by the flood. If the damage was bad enough, the water could actually enter the walls and damage the electrical wiring.

This is a big job that requires experienced people to do, so make sure you hire professionals who know what they’re doing. By the time the power comes back on, you will most likely barely be able to see the damage anyway.

Now that your house looks nice again after a disaster, cleaning will be easier. Don’t try cleaning after flooding yourself, unless you want to end up doing a lot of redoing work. Take advantage of all the services available to you and make your life a bit easier. Contact a pro and carefully read Disaster Plus Reviews so that you will be more assured when choosing to employ them. Good luck!