Daylight savings time is a good reminder that it's time to spring clean. But what I don't love about the chore is that once the weather gets nice I want to run outside, not be cooped up at home with rubber gloves and a duster. This month, though, is sort of that sweet spot when I can still justify a day indoors before I start to blow off my apartment for greener, sunnier pastures.
Here, I try to make the process less of a chore with our roundup of best spring-cleaning tips. Take your time, go room by room if you want, and soon enough you'll have your home prepped for the season.
- Dust shelves, blinds, vents, moldings, light fixtures -- anything that collects dust and you usually ignore. Not a fan of dusting? Check out our 10 tips for Dusting to ease the pain.
- Wash your windows with our compendium of window-washing tricks.
- While you're at it, clean window treatments (including your shower curtain) with our tips for caring for curtains.
- Flip your mattress, which is something you should do every season. You'll get more use out of it and you'll sleep better.
- Change your winter bedding to spring, even if it just means storing woolier blankets away. Here's some minimalist inspiration.
- Change your clothes from warm to cool and pack away your seasonal clothes for these unexpected benefits.
- Donate unwanted clothes to one of these 25 places.
- Vacuum and shampoo carpets (here's a green DIY way to do it) and shake rugs/cushions outside. Wax wood floors too.
- Check your smoke detector batteries -- here's all you need to know about smoke detectors. Replace your HVAC air filters too.
- Clean out your medicine cabinet and makeup bag with our guide to expiration dates in the bathroom.
- Organize your paperwork with this helpful advice.
- Clean your computer and TV.
- Clean your deck and furniture (even your indoor/outdoor trash bins) with 5 tools to make it easier.
Have more ideas or tips? Please share below!
(Image: Bethany Nauert / Irene & Evan's Welcoming Whimsy House Tour)
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This is a great motivator to get the spring clean started! Thank you!
Don't forget other appliances! Especially the fridge & freezer to get rid of what my family calls 'old soldiers' ;)
I worked in professional housekeeping / commercial cleaning for a few years and another thing that people tend to neglect for years on end is wiping the tops, insides and fronts of kitchen and bathroom cabinets, cleaning the door knobs, light switch plates, and other surfaces where grease and grime build up over time. Spring cleaning is so cathartic -- nothing like taking everything and making it fresh and sparkling and clean. :)
Oh, and I did a blog post a while back about chemical free oven/ range cleaning (and toilets, too) if anyone is curious! Hopefully this doesn't count as spam-- I'm an avid reader of this page, and I finally decided to sign up with an account so I could participate!
Anyway, here's the link: http://offthecuffcooking.blogspot.com/2011/08/chemical-free-rangeoven-cleaning.html
Flipping my mattresses today!!!
I enjoyed Designene's tutorial. I wonder if a "magic eraser" would do the same job as the pumice stone?
I would only add this: Hot soapy water alone is an amazing cleaning tool. For difficult grime like stoves or ground in winter muck, apply the HSW liberally and just let it soak. Go clean somewhere else. When you get back to the grime you will find it is much easier to remove.
I read this in one of Don Aslett's books years ago and it has served me well.
dont forget to vacuum the dust out of your dryer and bathroom vent fan. tops of ceiling fans collect a bizarre amount of dust also. wrap a damp towel around your broom and get your crown mouldings and ceiling cob webs, bottoms of furniture do the same. if you have elaborate window mouldings the tops of them need a going over too. if you have pets, vacuum the vents of your electronics, the static draws dust into them. first warm day of spring take house plants outside and hose the dust off their leaves. ground coffee is great for absorbing odors, so if you have old stuff or flavors you dont like, put in abunch of shallow dishes with cheese cloth cover [i've spilled before, not fun] and scatter around to do its thing. my least favorite is removing the vegetable drawers and cleaning hidden spills from underneath. clean out your sink/tub drains with 1/3 c. baking soda, 1c vinegar and a kettle of hot water [not boiling if you have pvc.]. fill tub on top floor of house with the hottest water you can, and pull plug to clean the waste line to your house. now is also the time to get any winters leaves out of your gutters, and any exerior drainage areas before spring rains, if your area is like that.
@DESIGNENE
definitely not spam, thanks for sharing!
A magic eraser does work similarly to a pumice stone, but I find it to be quicker and less accidentally damaging to newer man made materials. Love it for my linoleum counter tops and refrigerator door. Wouldn't bother with it for the ring in my toilet.
I LOVE that ceiling light!
princessavi: YES. Every time I have to clean the stovetop or anything else that might otherwise need scrubbing, I spray vinegar and water on it liberally and go do something else. By the time I come back (if it's not too late), I can wipe up with a minimum of scrubbing.
And it's so so nice to be able to flip a mattress - it feels like you just bought a brand-new bed! Can't wait to get rid of my crappy, unflippable pillow-top.
Great article! And what a beautiful, cheery and functional laundry room!
I hate the grime and grease that collects over my kitchen cabinets and even the cans and containers inside are sticky, I have to wipe them every night before sleeping. Such a pain, wish I could do something about it. I cook everyday at home, may be that's the problem.
My favorite Spring Cleaning idea is using an apron while cleaning. Not a pretty one - but mine is more like a tool belt. Then you have everything you need right at your fingertips! Happy Cleaning!
Wind Chill of 0 degrees Fahrenheit this morning in Chicago. I'm currently very envious of anyone who can put away their woolier/down things! Dusting I can do though.
@DESIGNENE :
definitely not spam! my oven is the same EXACT one you have., and i had no idea that i could flip it open like a car hood! wow, i am so scared to go and lift mine!!! but mine doesn't have a self cleaner and i will have to scrap it all off first....where did you get your stone from and what is the price range for something like that? i would love to use something chemical free because i always have my kids and dogs running back and forth in and out of the kitchen... thank you so much for posting it! have any more house keeper secrets you want to share? LOL!
I like to do some purging before I start the actual mop&bucket cleaning, and I factor a trip to Goodwill into my Spring Cleaning planning!
Also - definitely plan something easy but luxurious for dinner and some kind of treat for yourself as a reward.
This year I'm taking a Friday off and doing a 3-day spring cleaning. Day 1 is purging, sorting, organizing, Goodwill. Days 2 & 3 are cleaning. I'm not sure yet if I'll divide them by rooms or by types of tasks. Regardless, I find it easier to do it in more days so I'm not pushing myself quite so hard in one day.
But yes yummy dinners and a treat (for me, a long, hot bubble bath followed by a few hours of Buffy!) are day-end rewards!
We're supposed to clean/vacuum the coils of our refrigerators and clean out the vent hose of our dryers at least once per year.
Anyone know the paint color in this photo? I'm looking for a good orange coral for my kitchen and my floor is exactly like this.
I found it: Dunn Edwards - Prime Pink
Clean your dishwasher with a deliming product. (Run it through empty) Clean your coffee maker with a full pot of half water and half vinegar (keeping brewing pots of water through until you can't smell the vinegar.
Go through your medicine cabinet and perishables and throw away anything that has expired.
Oh, and rub your cutting boards and wooden spoons with a food grade mineral oil.
Get your knives sharpened.
Regarding to-do item #2: Do you have any tips for those of us living in city apartments where the exterior of the windows may be dirty and hard to reach?
Wash the floors on your hands and knees to really get into all the nooks and crannies. Don't forget the tops of the baseboards.
I've been working on my list and I polished all my wood, including window frames, baseboards and doors. It makes it look so much healthier!
Spring starts today Wednesday March 20TH. The calendar may say it is Spring however here along the coast of Southern Maine, the snow is still coming down and the wind is blowing up, down and sideways. The temps have not gone out of mid 20's. I think I will keep the winter quilts on the beds for at least a few more weeks. As much as I love snow and cold weather I am looking forward to being able to air out and clean up my apartment.
This is a great motivator! In New Zealand it is going into Autumn. But never mind, I still need to to have a good clean out! Good for the soul :)
This is a great list! I completed the January Cure and am constantly de-cluttering, organizing and cleaning, which I find very enjoyable. Thank you AT for making everything so easy and enjoyable! Happy cleaning everyone.
Not all mattresses can be flipped as not all are dual-sided. However, you can certainly rotate those types and should.
I really like these ideas. Now to just stick to them. Thanks for the tips. Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge over here.
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When you change the batteries on your smoke detectors & CO detectors, check the manufacture date. If they're closing in on 10 years old, put replacements on your to-do list for the year. I take mine to hazmat for discard because there's a trivial amount of radiation in them -- tiny tiny tiny -- no issue when it's just a few detectors but I always wonder about a lot of them getting together in a dump.
Those of you with allergies and central AC might want to get the air ducts cleaned -- those of you "down under" may want to look into this for your forced-air heating system.
At y.faleh and anyone else who was interested in the pumice stone vs. Magic Eraser. The M.E. works well on a lot of grime, but it's so soft that it really wouldn't hack it for an oven or drip-pan ... you'd have to get about 5 of them to do an oven. One pumice will go a long way and they're usually a couple of dollars. I can get two or three oven cleanings out of one pumice stone. They won't harm enamel ovens, or porcelain sinks or toilets, but if you're still worried about it, try a small corner first and see what happens. Let me know how it goes, and good luck!
You can find scouring / pumice sticks on Amazon or at most local grocers (in the cleaning aisle usually) or a local hardware stores. They're great for barbecue grates also! (And not as dangerous as those wire bristle brushes that most people use to clean their grills-- my sister got a wire bristle stuck in a hamburger patty once and nearly swallowed it-- it got lodged in the back of her mouth! So there is another vote for pumice stones! Environmentally friendly and safe in many ways!)
Let me know how it goes!
Another good spring cleaning tip that I just thought of-- if you have tops of cabinets that don't go all the way to the ceiling-- next time you get the courage to clean the tops of them off (hot soapy rags are my favorite way to do that)... take a few extra minutes and cover the tops of them with press&seal cling wrap, or butcher paper or something like that. Then the next time you spring clean, you can just wad up the paper or cling wrap and toss it instead of spending half an hour wiping off your cabinets!
Cleaning is a drag but the husband I use a spring clean playlist to keep us amped:
http://readingintoitt.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/spring-cleaning-mix-2013/
check it out and add suggestions, everyone needs a little motivation to get chores done.