How to Clean an Apartment Balcony?

People who live in apartments often talk about how they are unable to spend any time in nature as they don’t have backyards.

The balcony does offer you a space to relax and breathe in some fresh air.

Balconies are the perfect spot to spend a nice summer evening.

You can also enjoy your morning tea on the balcony and even do some yoga before work!

However, all of these activities require you to keep your balcony impeccably clean. Let’s find out how you can do that!

How to Clean an Apartment Balcony – Step-by-Step

Here are the steps you should follow to deep clean your balcony well.

Once you’re done, you can bring in some outdoor furniture and decorate the space with subtle lights to relax in!

Step 1: Remove All Items from Your Balcony

The very first thing to do when cleaning your apartment balcony is to remove all the furniture and other items.

This will offer you an empty space to clean well and fully before you bring the items back in.

You can simply move the contents of your balcony to your living area or a nearby storage room before cleaning.

Move the furniture aside and place your plants indoors for a while.

As you do so, try your best to wipe down these items as well.

This would make your deep cleaning process more efficient and ensure that the dirt and dust don’t return to your balcony when you move these things back outside.

Step 2: Manage the Gardening Tasks First

Cleaning the floor of your balcony well is the most important aspect of a balcony deep clean.

However, before you get to that step, there is one more thing to take care of.

Do your best to handle all of the gardening tasks before you start cleaning your balcony floors.

This is because you are likely to spill dirt, soil, and dead leaves as you make your way through the pots.

This would only cause your floors to become dirty again and make your cleaning efforts go to waste.

Additionally, if you decide to garden your flowerpots while the balcony is still wet, you would end up with muddy traces across the floor.

It would require you to clean your balcony all over again!

Step 3: Brush Off Any Pet Hair

If you have a pet, chances are they enjoy spending some time lounging about on the balcony too.

While sunbathing on the balcony, your pets are likely to leave memoirs of their presence by shedding hair and dander.

This hair can cause your balcony to start smelling quite bad.

The smell will be even worse if you live in an area where it rains frequently.

Therefore, you should remember to remove the hair using a brush or a lint roller.

Do this before you bring in water to clean the floors because wet pet hair is far more difficult to remove.

Step 4: Scrub and Rinse the Floors

Balcony floors can get quite dirty and accumulate all sorts of disgusting gunk.

That is why you will need to prepare yourself for some manual labor and put on your scrubbing gloves.

Cleaning the floor would require you to scrub and scrape the surface quite well.

You might even need some powerful cleaning agents along with a dash of vinegar and some baking soda to fight the tougher stains.

If some dirt has solidified on your balcony floor, it might help to splash some water and cleaning solution over it.

Leave this solution on the spot for 15-20 minutes before you return with your scrubber to clean it off.

Step 5: Use a Mild Cleaner

Your balcony floors are probably made of plain concrete.

You should keep this in mind when you’re choosing a suitable cleaner to scrub the floors and clean off all the gunk.

Concrete floors should only be cleaned with a mild cleaner that has a neutral pH.

All other cleaners would be too harsh for your balcony floors.

They would react with the concrete and cause severe, long-lasting damage that you could be charged for by your landlord.

P.S. A good practice is to do a test patch to ensure that the cleaner is suitable for your balcony floors.

Try to clean a small, hidden corner of your balcony with the cleaner and see if it causes a reaction.

If everything looks good, you can wait for 24 hours and then clean the rest of your balcony.

Step 6: Power Wash Everything Else

Now that you have scrubbed and cleaned off all the grit and dirt, it is time to bring in the hose.

Remember, power washing is only an option if you live on the lowest level of the apartment complex.

People in upper levels should stick to a mop and bucket since power washing could cause the water to drip onto the balcony situated below.

Once your hose is connected to a power supply, simply use it to rinse off your entire balcony.

Go over all of the corners and even the ceiling to ensure that your balcony is left squeaky clean.

Step 7: Wipe the Windows

Balcony windows tend to get quite dirty too.

You will notice traces of dirt, bird poop, and other nasty particles on the windows.

Therefore, it is important to give the windows some attention while deep cleaning your balcony.

Cleaning windows will require you to work a little hard as you can’t just power wash them. Grab a sponge and start scrubbing the windows clean with a mild window cleaner.

You might need to go over the windows a few times before they return to their usual, sparkly-clean condition.

Step 8: Let the Balcony Dry Well

You must be exhausted by this step and eager to finish the process.

Unfortunately, you can’t be done with it just yet.

This is because you must wait for the balcony to dry completely before moving the outdoor furniture back in its place.

You can utilize this time to declutter your balcony items and only keep the essentials. It would make the next deep cleaning day significantly easier and quicker for you!

Ways to Keep Your Balcony Clean

Cleaning your apartment balcony should be a part of your daily home upkeep.

However, we realize that following all the above-mentioned steps numerous times a week simply isn’t possible.

It can be quite difficult for anybody to spend hours cleaning their balcony every week. That is why we suggest only following the extensive cleaning process once or twice a month.

If you’re worried about how to clean your balcony when it gets a little messy during the week, read on!

Here are some other ways to maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of your balcony on a weekly basis.

Vacuum Every Few Days

The best way to keep your balcony looking clean and pristine without spending too much time is to avoid water.

You can instead vacuum your balcony well to ensure all of the dust, dirt, and pet hair are removed.

This method can also be quite useful if you live on the upper levels of your apartment building.

After all, your neighbors really wouldn’t appreciate dirty water dripping into their balconies.

So, a great way to tackle both issues is to vacuum your balcony well.

Once you’re sure that all of the dirt has been removed, you can use a cleaner and scrub off any grime or bird poop that you might have spotted while cleaning.

Install Some Shelves

While this isn’t a way to clean your balcony, installing shelves can do wonders to keep your outdoor space clean.

It also makes your balcony look tidier and well-organized!

If you install shelves on your balcony, they can offer you multiple uses.

For starters, you can keep your plants, gardening tools, and other items off the floor.

This would help speed up the cleaning process so you can vacuum your balcony more often.

Secondly, shelves ensure that your balcony floor doesn’t become too dirty.

They can store numerous things in a tidy and maintained way to prevent your balcony from looking cluttered and messy.

P.S. Shelves also lessen the number of items you have to haul out of your balcony before deep cleaning it!

Dos and Don’ts of Cleaning an Apartment Balcony

Now that you know how to quickly clean your balcony, as well as the steps for deep cleaning, let’s move on.

Here are some dos and don’ts that everyone should remember when cleaning their balconies.

These will help you stay respectful of your neighbors while also getting the space cleaned quickly.

Dos

  • If you’re sweeping your balcony, ensure that the dirt is collected towards the center of the space.
  • Use a mop and bucket to wash off your balcony
  • Try out a wet/dry vacuum to clean the area well.

Don’ts

  • Brush over the edges. It would cause dirt to fall into your neighbor’s balcony below!
  • Overuse water as it will start to run off the edges.

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