With spring right around the corner, it’s time for a lot of people to start some good old-fashioned spring cleaning! So get your old clothes ready, bust out your arsenal of cleaning materials and get started!
To make things a little easier, we’ve compiled a list of tips you can use to maximize your cleaning potential and make your house look brand spanking new:
Get up Bright and Early!
Spring cleaning requires more than just a quick mop up of the kitchen; it’s a whole-day affair that’s aimed at covering every nook and cranny of your house. This means moving around furniture, clearing out old closets, and shaking up the garage.
This means you have to get up bright and early so you can finish before sundown. Before doing any of the hardcore cleaning, try to put all of your little trinkets, accessories, and other small objects off the floor. This will help you clean up your floors easily.
Stack up chairs and rugs on tables and clean out the undersides. Bigger objects like furniture and closets can be cleaned later.
Break Down your Cleaning into Manageable Chunks
One mistake people make when spring cleaning is trying to tackle the whole house, the garage, the yard, the attic, and everything in between all at once. But more often than not, this can become counter-productive, as people find out too late that they’re biting off more than they can chew.
Remember: rush cleaning is sloppy cleaning. A poorly cleaned house is a waste of everyone’s time and resources. To avoid this, make a schedule of things to clean and give each chore an ample amount of time. You don’t have to finish everything in a day!
To streamline your cleaning, divide your house into sections: ground floor, secondary floors, garage, yard, etc. Then, divide those into subsections like rooms, closets, bathrooms, etc.
The best way to go about it is to clean from the inside and work your way out, and start from top to bottom. This prevents you from re-cleaning the inside once you finish the yard, and from dragging stuff from the upstairs and back.
Make an Inventory, And Start to Throw Stuff Away
Make an inventory of all your movable items and separate them into 3 categories: keep, throw away, and store. This helps you keep an orderly house and frees up plenty of space inside your home and makes it more livable.
It’s okay to be sentimental about certain items, but if it’s too many, it becomes clutter, and clutter attracts dirt and makes for a disorderly space. Reassess whether an item has actual value, whether financial or sentimental, and learn to let go.
For things that you just can’t let go of but takes up too much space, consider finding a storage space for them. If all else fails, have a garage sale and turn clutter into gold!
Proper Preparation is Your Road to Success
Now that you have all the clutter sorted and all small items off the floor, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get cleaning! The first step to any activity: have everything prepared.
Again, make an inventory of all the items you’ll need. Some of the essentials:
- Vacuum Cleaner. Get one that is right for the space you’re cleaning. A small dust buster might be good for small rooms or furniture, but might be ineffective for larger rooms like dining and living rooms. If possible, get 2.
- Mops and pails. Your main weapon against dirt! Get a mop that won’t break down so easily, as you’ll be using this heavily during your cleaning. Try to find a mop that has an auto wringer, as this saves you time and effort.
- Trash Bags. A lot of people are surprised at the amount of junk they find while cleaning, so always have a few trash bags within arms reach.
- Kitchen and Bathroom Cleaners.Bathrooms require special equipment like bleach, chlorine, ammonia, brushes, and the like. Make sure you get yourself safety gloves when handling cleaning chemicals!
- Glass and Window Cleaners. Same as kitchen and bathroom cleaners, make sure your glass and window cleaners are within reach and handled with care.
- Sanitizers ensure that any nasty germs are dealt with accordingly. Find sanitizers that are safe for the environment and won’t leave any nasty chemical residue.
- When all the heavy cleaning is said and done, do a once-over of your entire house with a trusty broom just to make sure no dirt is left unturned!
- Storage Unit. For all the items that you won’t be throwing away, it’s best to find a storage unit. It’s an extra expense every month, but it’s much better than keeping it at home. Alternatively, if you have a big enough garage or yard shed, you can convert them into a makeshift storage unit. Just make sure you have an updated inventory of the things you will keep there so that you know exactly where things are the next time you need them.
Pack Up When You’re Done
Once you have all the heavy-duty cleaning out of the way, make sure you tidy up. Spring cleaning can give your house a fresh and vibrant feel, so maintain it by getting everything back in order.
Pack up all your cleaning materials and keep them in storage. Make sure all your mops have been wrung dry, and make sure all brooms have been cleaned out of dust as well.
Set your furniture back in its place, but don’t limit yourself! Explore other ways of arranging your furniture; you’d be surprised at how different a room looks with just a few simple adjustments.
Have Realistic Goals, But Make It Enjoyable
A lot of people dread spring cleaning, seeing it as a boring burden. But with a few simple changes in both mindset and technique, spring cleaning can be a fun activity for the whole family.
Set realistic goals for spring cleaning but try to make it enjoyable: make cleaning up a game for the kids (whoever can put away their stuff the fastest gets a special prize!) and involve the whole family by giving everyone specific duties. Make a music playlist to distract everyone from getting tired.
Again, you don’t have to accomplish everything in one day. Space it out over a few days, or even a couple of weekends.
Enjoy the spring, and when you’re done cleaning, you’ll be amazed at the difference!
