Household Spring Cleaning Done Right

Posted: 03/25/17 - Category: Home

With spring getting underway, you have a great opportunity to tackle a number of household chores. This is when you can give your home a nice deep cleaning and get to the cleaning tasks that tend to get neglected throughout the year.

This yearly ritual might be a bit of a pain, but it is an important part of maintaining a nice home, and it is an important part of providing your family with a healthy living environment. With this post, we are going to go over a few of the cleaning chores that should be on every spring cleaning checklist.

Doors

Most people don’t clean their doors regularly, so this is a good place to start your spring cleaning. You want to get all of the exterior doors and the doors to every room and closet in the home. For this job, you will need some cleanser (a multi-purpose cleanser or some dish soap mixed with water), some rags and paper towels.

To start, you want to remove any dust from the door. You can do this by using a soft rag or some paper towels. Apply some cleanser to a rag or sponge and gently wipe down the surfaces of the door. After you have applied the cleanser, then wipe the door down with some warm water on a rag. After you have the door clean, you can follow the same process for cleaning the frame.

After you have the door and the frame clean, you can move on to cleaning the hardware. With most doors, the hardware can be cleaned with the same all-purpose cleanser that you used on the door. If you have brass hardware on your front door, then you may need to get brass polish.

Carpets and Upholstery

When it comes to cleaning carpets and upholstery, a vacuum can only take you so far. Cleaning all of the carpets, rugs and furniture should be a part of your yearly spring cleaning routine. If you own a small rug scrubber, then you are going to need to get that out to clean the carpets and upholstery. If you do not have one, then you are going to want to consider renting one.

Before you give your carpets a deep cleaning, you should vacuum. You also want to pay special attention to any high-traffic areas of the home and make a list of any spots or stains that might need an extra scrubbing.

Most of these machines do have attachments for cleaning upholstery, so this should make the job easier. Before you start on any piece of furniture, you should test the cleaning out on a small area that is hard to notice. Depending on the type of fabric and the cleanser, it could damage the fibres, so it is better to be safe.

Windows and Glass

Spring cleaning would not be complete without cleaning all of the windows and glass in the home. Beyond cleaning your windows (both interior and exterior), you want to make sure to get all of the mirrors in the home, glass doors and you want to take the time to clean the window frames, screens and the track of any sliding door. For this job, you have some options for the supplies that you will need. You can do the job with some regular window cleaning solution and paper towels, but if you want the best results, you could get tools like a window cleaner’s wand and a squeegee. In addition to supplies for cleaning the glass, you also want a vacuum, some rags and an all-purpose cleanser.

If you are using the cleaning wand and a squeegee, you will need a large bucket with some warm, soapy water. Wipe the entire pane of glass with the window cleaner’s wand until it is covered in the suds. Once the glass has been wiped down, take your squeegee and clean the window by pulling it across the glass from side to side, starting at the top. Make sure to wipe down the squeegee blade with a rag after each pass. Once you have most of the window clean, take a dry rag or some paper towels to dry the window around the edges.

In addition to cleaning the glass, you are also going to want to clean the screens and the window frames. Start by removing the screens from the windows. To make it quicker, you could remove all of the screens at once. Just make sure to label the screens by where they go.

Use the small nozzle attachment on your vacuum to clean out the bottom of the window track. Wipe down the frames using a dry cloth, then use an all-purpose cleanser to clean the frames, following the same method that was used to clean the doorframes.

Take the screens outside and use a vacuum attachment to remove dust from the screens. Using soapy water, wipe down both sides of the screen. Dry the screens and replace them in the windows.

As an important point, if you have second floor windows, you may need a ladder to reach the exteriors. If you do not have a ladder that can reach this height or do not feel comfortable working that high off the ground, contact a team of professional window cleaners to get all of your hard to reach windows.

Move Some of the Large Items

Your spring cleaning routine should also include moving large pieces of furniture and large appliances to clean behind and under them. A lot of dust can build up in those spaces over a year, so it is good to take this chance to get these hard to reach places.

You will want to move couches, beds, your TV stand and your refrigerator. Vacuum up all of the dust that may be behind and in the space where the item was. If it is on carpet, you may want to consider giving the carpet a good scrubbing. For items that are on tile, you want to make sure to mop. While you are working on your refrigerator, you may also want to take the time to clean the coils.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything that needs to be done – every home has its own specific spring cleaning needs – but these four jobs should be on your list of things to do when you get to spring cleaning. In addition to the above-mentioned spring cleaning tasks, you may also want to consider cleaning and reorganizing all of your cabinets, closets and cupboards, cleaning out your garage, dusting and washing all of the light fixtures in the home and waxing your floors.