Let’s Get Ready for Your Valentine’s Date!

So, you’ve taken my advice (read here: https://conta.cc/35vuHIT) and cleaned up for your and your honeybun’s Valentine’s Day celebration. But part of that celebration includes a dinner, and you don’t want to go out on that day. It’ll be too expensive, and like-minded lovers will probably flood the restaurants. Your best bet, at least for a same-day dinner date, is to celebrate at home.

Don’t let the idea of it being such a big date stress you out. Preparing your kitchen for your Valentine’s date isn’t the insurmountable task you think it’ll be. You’ll be able to do it in no time if you use these tricks!

Do a Smell Check

When you and your lovebug have your Valentine’s date, you won't want your home’s odors to be part of your conversation. Handle your home’s off-putting smells before the big date. Remember: if you can smell it, it’s likely your date will smell it, too!

Take out any overflowing or pungent trash wherever you’re planning to cook/dine. Your beloved knows you’re human and you produce trash, so you won’t need to empty your barely filled trash receptacles. If you’re cooking the meal, consider how the food waste will smell by the time you dine.

Make sure your sink and garbage disposal are clean and deodorized. Put large food chunks into your trash receptacle before cleaning/deodorizing the sink or garbage disposal. You can clean the sink with soap and water or a white vinegar solution. To clean/deodorize the garbage disposal, add ice and flush it with a cup of either rock salt or white distilled vinegar. Turn the disposal off before you do anything to prevent kitchen accidents.

When you buy candles to set a romantic mood for your date, pick up one odor neutralizing one, nothing heavily scented. You don’t want your date to open their mouth to eat your wonderful meal, only to get a mouthful of lavender from the scent of your candle. Alternatively, you can deodorize the room by putting a small container of baking soda in a corner.

Note: A good thing about having a private meal is that the menu will be the same for everyone involved. You won’t have to worry about having your date smelling your food odors, because theirs will cancel yours out. Feel free to cook with whatever strong-smelling ingredient you want!

Keep It Neat

If your date finds that the room in which you’re supposed to have your planned Valentine’s date is messy, it’ll look like an afterthought, and…well, I don’t need to tell you how much of an awful time that’ll be.

If you’re cooking the meal yourself or a private chef is doing it in your home, clean as the meal is being prepared. You can wipe counters with soap and water or white distilled vinegar. Wipe the fridge down with the vinegar to get rid of food stains or smudges on its exterior.

Clean your stovetop and oven. Remove stubborn food bits on the stove by covering them in baking soda, letting them sit under a warm, damp towel for about 15 minutes, and wiping them up with vinegar. For your oven, cover food stains with a paste of baking soda and water, and let that sit for at least 20 minutes. Wipe up all the paste with vinegar or lemon juice.

Do your dishes! You don’t want to make an amazing meal, and then find you have nothing clean on which to serve them, and you certainly don’t want your date to find their utensils still have food caked on them! (Soak dishes in water and dish soap for 15 minutes to ½ hour to remove food that’s caked on.)

Make sure there aren’t any wax or wine stains on your tablecloth from your last Valentine’s date. To remove wax stains from a tablecloth, heat the stain with a hair dryer, absorb the melted wax with an old cloth, and clean the oily residue with isopropyl alcohol. To remove wine stains from tablecloth, soak the stain with hydrogen peroxide and laundry detergent for up to an hour, then wash the tablecloth as you normally would.

You are supposed to be focused on each other. Outside of emergencies, nothing else — certainly not a dirty dining area — should get in between you and your beloved. But we both know life happens, and sometimes it can throw a wrench into our plans. So why not hire help? That’s what Andy’s Quality Cleaning is for! We’ll do the cleaning for you and be out of your way in time for you to have a romantic date with your honey. Contact us today!