Spring into a clean Home: Tips for deep cleaning the house
With warm bursts in the temps at the end of February, I get excited to purge items and deep clean the house! But there was a time I had no clue where to even start with Spring Cleaning in my home, it was overwhelming and honestly I learned by following other people, finding lists of things I had no clue I should be taking care of. Whether you don’t feel like the house is clean until it smells like a chemical bath exploded in your home, or you tend to lean on vinegar and baking soda to take care of things more naturally, or you fall somewhere in between let’s get into the right mindset to do our homes proud for the year:
Declutter: Probably the most important one, as it gets rid of a lot of unnecessary items lying around closets and drawers and bins. One of my favorite habits is to go through the house every month and donate, trash or sell 25 items. These categories are easy to set up in each space of your home. Take it one room at a time and make “Donate,” “Trash,” and “Sell” piles.
Move Furniture: Anything not secured to a wall has got to be moved. The oven, the couch any dressers or tables. Scoot them out of the way and give the floors and walls a nice cleaning before placing everything back.
Make it a 3 Month Process: I like to start in March and end in May, this gives me time to tackle all projects without exhausting or overwhelming myself. In March I focus on the entire house/ bedrooms and living areas, April is dedicated to the kitchen and May is saved for bathrooms and other miscellaneous areas of the home (laundry, garage, outdoors).
Exclude Regular Cleaning Tasks: This feels weird, but if you already wash/wipe the windows once a week, don’t add it to your Spring Cleaning list. Anything you are already doing, obviously, already gets done so don’t make more work for yourself, leave it off your list.
Categories: Speaking of the above I like to view my house cleaning in categories
Daily tasks- Every day I am wiping the kitchen counter and sink, making beds, throwing in a load of laundry, folding laundry, doing dishes, putting dirty clothes away, vacuuming and other tidying tasks
Weekly Maintenance- Each week I am cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors, taking out the trash, dusting all furniture, wiping fridge, microwave and stovetop, sorting mail and paperwork, wiping down electronics. (Pro Tip add one or two of these tasks to each weekday and save the weekend for rest and recreation) As a bonus, I also have a list of house organization projects I tackle once a week too
Bi-Weekly Tasks- Every other week finds me vacuuming the couch, dusting the light fixtures or ceiling fans, cleaning door knobs and switches and dusting the baseboards
Monthly/Bi-Monthly Deep Clean- Every month or every two months I will wash the throws, bath mats and curtains, clean the oven, dishwasher, laundry machines and garbage disposal, wash out trash cans and change the house air-filter
Yearly Spring Clean - Once a year I am moving furniture, deep cleaning carpets, washing outside doors, pressure washing deck and patio, touching up paint on trims, washing windows, cleaning vents and mattresses and getting the tops of cabinets nice and clean.
