Spring Cleaning: 5 Essential Tips

“SPRING: a time of renewal. A season where we see beautiful pastels, welcome new growth and celebrate heartwarming holidays like Mother’s Day and recognize festivities like May Day.
This time of year brings to mind fresh starts, fresh flowers, and a general sense of ‘clean and sparkling’… everything from the glittery morning dew on the freshly-cut grass in the front yard to the state of your house after a good and thorough spring cleaning. Here, we’ll share the top five essential spring cleaning tips to ensure that your abode ends up as fresh as Springtime makes you feel.

Tip 1: Use the Right Stuff

This is not the time to scrimp and save on cleaning supplies. You’ll want to be prepared to tackle everything, from laundering curtains to scrubbing windows and walls.

Below is a list of some popular 2018 spring cleaning products:

• Rubber Gloves: When cleaning, it’s often impossible to avoid contact with certain chemicals. You’ll want to make sure your hands are 100 percent protected from water, chemicals and other debris when cleaning. Your everyday rubber gloves might not be tight enough to keep sudsy water out, so try and find a pair (or two) of heavy duty latex cleaning gloves to ensure your hands won’t get the brunt of the dirt and grime.
• All Purpose Cleaner: Method or Mrs. Meyers all-purpose cleaners are both non-toxic, meaning you can use them on your kitchen surfaces without blinking an eye (or squinting from any burning sensation that a toxic chemical might induce!). Purell also just came out with an all-purpose cleaner that has zero harsh chemicals and disinfects 99.9 percent of all germs.
• Wood Cleaner: To Pledge, or not to Pledge? Let’s just say we aren’t jumping to our feet to make any covenant just yet. There are a plethora of superior products on the market these days that leave options like Pledge and Murphy’s Oil Soap in the dust (pun intended). Old English Lemon Wood Furniture Oil, for example, is as effective on that old antique wooden chair from your grandmother that is always admired when the guests come for dinner as it is on your modern console table in the hallway.
• Cleaning Wipes: Paper towels are a thing of the past and only accumulate waste. Use a microfiber cleaning wipe this Spring — they’re washable, and pick up the tiniest bits of dirt and grime from surface areas, unlike porous paper towels.
• Magic Erasers: These are literally magical, needing only a bit of water to grab the grimiest bits of dirt and grease you can imagine. Use them on your floorboards or that crayon mural on the playroom wall. You’ll be amazed.

Tip 2: Purge Your Closet

Spring Cleaning doesn’t just refer to getting rid of surface dirt and grime — it means pruning your wardrobe as well (to make room for some fabulous new spring and summer duds!). We want a fresh start, so go through your closet with a trusted (and fashionable) friend, and make three piles: Donate, Sell, Keep. The donate pile can be taken to Goodwill, or to a local clothing swap. The things you plan to sell can be sold online (Tradesy.com is a good bet) or at your nearest consignment shop. Keep only what you wear on a regular basis. If you can’t bear to part with a piece of clothing, put it in a Later Box and store it, to ponder its fate another time (we suggest waiting a year or so).

Tip 3: Don’t Neglect The Details

We hate to break it to you, but this means everything: The baseboards, the floorboards, the walls, the very far corners of each floor surface, and of course, the inside (and outside) of each window pane. They call it “spring” cleaning and not “clean-a-little-here-and-there-on-a Tuesday” cleaning.

Tip 4: Clear Off All Surfaces Before You Begin

Take all the books off the bookshelves, and remove all piles from your coffee and dining room tables. Take all toiletries and towels from the bathroom closet and reline the shelves with fresh paper (if applicable). Remove everything from your medicine cabinet in order to get all dirt and dust from the corners of the cabinet. Move large pieces of furniture to get to the surfaces underneath.

Tip 5: Use These Unique Tips to Save Energy and Time

• Heat lemon rind in hot water to clean a greasy microwave, then simply wipe with a cloth or paper towel.
• Put a cloth over a long-handled broom to clean tops and corners of walls to catch cobwebs.
• Invest in fridge separators and containers to organize a messy fridge.
• Clean off stubborn dirt and grease from your stovetop (ceramic) with a wet dryer sheet. Leave it to soak on the spot for at least fifteen minutes before scrubbing off.
• Use a window squeegee on your shower door and tile to clean off excess water after using — but have a second one on hand to clean pet hair from your upholstered furniture.

We can’t promise that these tips will make your house look like Oprah’s… but it’s a surefire start! Happy Spring Cleaning!