And today we're going back to basics.

How do you clean your home?

And what's your version of a thorough cleaning?

Today, I'm gonna show you how I clean my place when I want it super clean.

So the secret of a deep cleaning is in this box right here.

No, it's not... cleaning is not in this box, but there is something very special in this box.

And that's why I'm cleaning my place today.

Whenever I get something for my apartment that I have been waiting for that has been commissioned, something that's going to be put on display, I do a deep clean.

And today something has arrived from my friend Deborah that has been in the works for two years.

Deborah told me once that a coverlet, traditionally a 19th-century wool Coverlet was something that was used in the winter and the fall.

But in the summertime, early American and Canadian settlers, they had summer coverlets, summer weight coverlets which were made out of wool but were very thin.

And a couple of years ago, I designed a logo for Deborah's company, Upper Canada Weaving, and in return as payment, she said she would make me a summer coverlet.

She was going to pick out the sheep from a certain farm in Ontario.

Have them shorn, have the wool spun to her specifications.

Then she was gonna have the wool died.

I asked her if she could make the coverlet yellow and gray.

And she had her friend Liam dye the wool with golden rod and Sumac.

So he needed to wait until the fall to harvest those flowers and berries.

And as I said, two years later, the coverlet was finished and it is in this box.

So before I could open up this box and put that coverlet on the bed, I want my place to be super clean.

I think everybody has a version of what super clean is and everybody's version is different.

So today I'm doing my version of a thorough deep clean and that begins with clearing this whole room of any stuff that shouldn't be on the ground or on the tables.

The next step is dusting.

I don't use a feather duster.

I don't use a thing on a stick.

I use just a rag or a cloth.

If you use a feather duster, you're just really moving dust around, you're not picking it up.

And the whole point of dusting is to collect the dust and to try to get rid of it.

So I use a cloth and if you use a cloth like this, as you're picking up the dirt, you can see it on the cloth and you can just fold it in different ways to get a new clean surface and I try to dust everything I do this once a week.

I don't know where it comes from, but there's always dust.

There is dust in a lot of places that you don't even think of looking.

And these are the places where dust loves to hide because it goes, "Oh, I know he's not gonna look there. So I'll go sit there forever."

Well, I'm gonna find you, dust.

Look, look at this. That's from three little strokes of dusting.

So you might think, "Well, he's crazy. That was crazy.

But ok, first of all, yes. Secondly, for good reason.

They're so happy now. You can just see them smiling.

Look at this.

Look at this. The top of this lamp, the base of this lamp. Over here.

When you're dusting, it's actually smart to work from the top down.

So if you have shelves and there's stuff on the shelves and you're gonna dust the shelves, do the shelves before you do the table tops.

The dust from the shelves is gonna fall down and as it falls down, then you can dust the tables underneath or anything underneath it and collect the dust as it's falling down.

So, start at the top and work your way down.

Carpets love dust.

And that's why I don't have any wall-to-wall carpeting in here because I don't want it.

I love rugs though.

I especially love those little Persian rugs, but they collect so much dust and you can vacuum them, but they still hold dust.

The most effective way of getting rid of dust from a Persian rug is really the old, the old image that you have of a grandma leaning out of a window, shaking a rug.

Shaking a rug is very effective and it always blows my mind how much dust comes out of a rug when I'm shaking it.

I vacuum the rugs before I shake them and then I shake them and there's still so much dust.

Close your windows.

Don't have a cameraman sitting in your open window while you're doing this.

So I've shaken my rugs outside, but before I bring them back in, I am going to vacuum this room completely.

If you have allergies or you sneeze a lot or your eyes are itchy, it never hurts to try to eliminate as much dust as possible in your home.

Well, mops? Spongy squeegee things? No.

You know, they just wet the floor.

They move dirt around.

Yeah, you can take it over to the sink and squeeze it out.

But the true test of whether a floor is really clean, the test is white socks.

You wash the floors, you walk around in some white socks, if there's stuff on the bottom of your socks at the end of the night, your floors aren't as clean as they can be.

This method, the old Cinderella method, this is the best way to clean floors.

You wring out the cloth every few swipes you get back in there, you scrub, you come into contact with every bit of molding and floor.

That's clean.

That's my version of clean.

That's how I do it.

So bucket, hot water, nice hot water (or) warm water and some soap specifically for washing floors.

You can use dish detergent, that's fine too.

But I like to use specific floor washing soap and put some of this into the water.

Not too much.

A little goes a long way.

So let's get to work.

So when I lived in Germany, I was learning German any way that I could learn it.

I started taking guitar lessons and I asked my teacher Hermann Schmidt to please speak to me only in German.

And one day I was just telling him about how dusty my apartment was.

And he said there was a German joke where a little girl, the little girl asks her mother, "Mama what happens to people when they die?"

And the mother says, "They turn into dust."

And then the little girl looked at her mother and says, "Mama, there's many dead people under my bed."

There is something cathartic about this.

There is something therapeutic about doing this.

Knowing that at the end of the day you worked, you actually worked physically hard to achieve something.

And you can look at your apartment and you can feel like I did something today and I accomplished something and you can see it.

So I said it before, when I told you about making your bed and I'll say it again about washing the floors.

Washing the floors is great to keep your place clean, but it is also great for your mind.

It is a little exercise in strengthening your mind, giving you a physical task that has an end in sight.

And when you reach that end, it's this genuine feeling of accomplishment.

And it's simple.

It's not painting a watercolor or knitting a sweater.

It's washing a floor and there is something to be said for the sense of self worth that you get when you do things like this.

This room just kind of smiles when it's clean.

That's the only way to describe it.

When it's all clean and I step out into the doorway and I look back at it with the sun shining on the floorboards, it just seems like the room is smiling back at me.

This apartment's 100 years old this year, and I think it likes that it's being taken care of.

Deborah, Deborah, if you're watching this, I am so excited to be opening this box.

Deborah.

Look at this.

The first thing that greets me, some lavender and a note.

"Dear Rajeev, I'm so excited to be finally sending you your summer coverlet.

It's been a long time in coming.

Thank you for inspiring me to create this very special textile so rooted in the land.

The wool is Suffolk, which has a cotton quality, and the cap. I think that you are going to look absolutely fabulous in it.

I hope all is well. Love Deborah."

Ah, and there's the little logo that I designed for her there.

The beds made up for warm weather.

Deborah, thank you.

Well, my new summer coverlet has been welcomed into my clean, clean room.

This was how to do a deep clean (in) my way.

What do you think?

It's a lot of work?

Is it something that you think you might take on?

Are there other methods that you use?

Let me know in the comments below. If you like this video; if you didn't.

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