Can you believe Spring is here?? Yesterday, Sunday March 20th 2022 officially marked the first day of Spring. While I don’t enjoy losing an hour when we “Spring forward” like we did on Sunday March 13th, I DO enjoy the longer hours of daylight, the birds chirping outside and the daffodils starting to bloom their brilliant yellow. As nature starts to wake up from Winter and shine light on beautiful green grass and vibrant flowers, it is customary in terms of Spring Cleaning to shine light on the dark corners and spaces in your home that have been neglected from cleaning over Winter. I have prepared a Spring-cleaning checklist for you to download (my gift to you!) and follow as you go thru your home and give it a good thorough cleaning. Spring is a great time to deep clean your home because I guarantee you won’t want to do it in the heat of Summer. Plus, there are usually many more fun things you’d rather be doing during the Summer months 😊
Here are a couple of tips for the items included on the downloadable Spring cleaning checklist;
- Pull down light fixtures to wipe out for debris/dead bugs Tip: Please make sure your lights are cool to the touch before pulling them down!
- Run a cobweb duster along ceiling, skylights, wall corners Tip: If you don’t already have a duster with an extension pole, make sure you purchase one that will reach to the height of your tallest ceiling. Cobwebs take time to appear so every 3 months or so is a good frequency to cobweb dust which makes this a great task to add into Spring cleaning.
- Pull furniture out a couple feet to vacuum underneath and behind Tip: Get help for the heavy lifting so you don’t injure yourself!
- Damp wipe baseboards throughout home Tip: Dampen a microfiber cloth with water or your favorite all-purpose cleaner and use to wipe the baseboards free of dust and dirt.
- Damp wipe door frames/panels throughout home Tip: Dampen a microfiber cloth with water or your favorite all-purpose cleaner and use to wipe the door frames and any panels free of dust and dirt. If you have stubborn fingerprint build up around the handle, a water dampened eraser sponge works wonders at cutting through the grime.
- Damp wipe cabinet and drawer fronts in Kitchen and Bathrooms. Then polish if they are wood. Tip: Again, use a microfiber cloth dampened with your favorite all-purpose cleaner for this task, remove stuck on food, drips, grease around the handles and make sure to get those pesky ledges where dirt AND grease like to hide.
- Remove all bedding, then vacuum mattress, flip, vacuum the other side leaving mattress flipped TIP: Get help for flipping the mattress to avoid knocking something over, this is a big task.
- Clean interior oven and stove hood/vents Tip: If you have self clean on your oven, use it! Remove the oven racks prior to running self clean as this cycle will warp the racks over time.
- Clean interior refrigerator Tip: Take this time to purge your refrigerator of expired condiments and food. Only put back into your clean refrigerator fresh food and sauces that are still good.
- Scrub interior dishwasher door gasket Tip: This area collects loose food particles from each cycle you run and if you leave your dishwasher closed all the time the moisture build up can eventually cause mold to grow. Clean this gasket well when you notice build up happening to ensure your dishes are actually getting clean.
- Pull down bathroom ceiling vents to scrub and clean Tip: If these don’t come down easily or if you aren’t comfortable on a stool or ladder you should be able to use the brush attachment on your vacuum to go over the vent and suck away built up dust.
- Damp wipe window blinds to remove dust and build up Tip: Go slowly! If you wipe your blinds too aggressively you could snap a slat which is a costly replacement.
- Damp wipe fake plants to remove dust and build up Tip: Be gentle so you don’t bend the plant leaves.
Many house cleaning services will offer some form of the above cleaning, so if you aren’t the DIY type and currently have a house cleaning service for your home, ask them what Spring Cleaning items are available. If you ARE the DIY type but the above list looks a little overwhelming, break it up. Spring is an entire season-you can do a little at a time, you certainly don’t have to tackle the whole job in one day. If you have kiddos, get them involved too. They can use a microfiber dampened with water and wipe the baseboards in their rooms. My 2.5-year-old can do this so there are no excuses for the teens who say they don’t know how to clean! If you do want to knock it all out in one day, make a day of cleaning with the family, turn up some fun music, open the windows and assign each family member a task or two. It will go quicker, and you will feel better knowing everyone is helping out instead of it all landing on one person to take care of. Then celebrate the house being clean by going out to dinner together, because you wouldn’t want to dirty the Kitchen you JUST cleaned by cooking dinner in it 😊
Cheers to a clean home!