Spring has officially sprung which means things are blooming, things are buzzing, and things need to be cleaned! Many people find the thought of spring cleaning overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. By choosing to focus on a few areas of your home, you’re much more likely to get the job done and done well, which will have an overall impact on the beauty of your home.
Clean Those Windows
Now that the sun is making more of an appearance, you want to invite as much sunlight into your home as you can. If you burn wood in a fireplace or woodstove over the winter, a lot of grime has potentially built up on your windows. Not to mention the many nose smudges from dogs and cats wistfully looking out and dreaming of green lawns.
Although you can attack those dirty windows with cleaning rags and newspapers, a much more efficient tool is a rubber-edged squeegee. These tools come in a variety of sizes and also have screw-on extensions so you can easily reach high spots.
It’s best to dip a sponge in a bucket of warm water and mild dish soap, then wet the window and rub any visible dirt away. Next, take your squeegee and dampen it, and start in one corner of the window up top and draw it down the pane. Repeat making overlapping strokes, making sure to wipe the rubber edge with your cleaned, damp sponge in between each stroke. When finished, dry any water that has dripped onto your windowsills with a dry cloth so your wood and paint don’t warp.
Don’t Forget Your Blinds
You can hardly have sparkly clean windows and dirty blinds, now can you? If you have wooden blinds, drip a few drops of a gentle wood cleaner onto a mostly-dry sponge and wipe thoroughly. Aluminum blinds should be taken outside and scrubbed with water and a mild cleaner (noncorrosive) then rinsed off with a hose, making sure to dry afterward well to prevent rust.
Or Your Curtains
Your curtains have been sitting in stale air for months collecting dust and other pollutants. You have a few options for cleaning them: vacuuming, steam cleaning, or sending them out to be dry-cleaned. If you are replacing heavier curtains with lighter ones more appropriate for the season, then it’s really important to remove dust and dirt before putting your heavy curtains away in storage.
Clean Out the Refrigerator
Nobody likes this task but it is one of the most important spring cleaning tasks. I mean you want to get your fridge fresh and clean to make room for all of that wonderful produce that’s coming into the season.
Break down this particular cleaning job into a few necessary and manageable tasks:
1) Remove all food and condiments and wash the interior with a solution of warm water and baking soda (2 Tbsp. baking soda per 1 Qt. water) – making sure to really scrub any spills and stains.
2) If necessary, use an old toothbrush to scrub all of those hard-to-get-at nooks and crannies.
3) Throw out any old and/or moldy food.
4) Vacuum dust and pet hair away from the condenser coils to prevent your system from overheating.
Deep-Clean Carpets and Rugs
As much as your curtains and drapes collected dust and dirt over the winter months, imagine how filthy your carpets and rugs got. If your rugs and carpets are made from synthetic materials you’ll want to rent (or buy – not a bad investment) a rug shampooer/extractor. This machine will deep clean all of the fibers and remove any traces of soap using hot water. Once your rugs and carpets have been shampooed, leave your windows open and allow the airflow to help dry them.
Should you have wool carpets and rugs, or any valuable or delicate rugs, you will want them professionally cleaned.
Clean Your Bamboo Floors
We recommend our low-VOC, green-apple scented to You’ll first want to use a microfiber dry mop to remove any excess dirt and debris from the floor. Next, spray the cleaner onto the floor and use a slightly damp mop to remove the cleaner. When we say slightly damp, we mean it – make sure you have wrung out as much water as you can first as a wet mop can leave excess water on your floor which can lead to warping in hardwood and bamboo floors.
If you focus on these areas of your home, you’ll have your spring cleaning done in no time and will be proud to invite people over for pool parties and BBQs!
About the Author
James is your friendly neighborhood content writer here at the Green Living Blog. With a passion for all things sustainable, he’s your go-to guru for everything eco-friendly. Armed with a treasure trove of wisdom about sustainable living, recycling, and environmentally conscious practices, James is on a mission. He’s here to make sure you not only protect your family but also keep Mother Earth smiling. 😊🌎 When he’s not busy sharing eco-friendly insights, James can often be found teaching his cat that compost bins make the purr-fect hideaway. 🐱♻️ Join James on his quest to uncover the secrets of defeating wasteful habits while leaving the lightest footprint on our precious planet’s ecosystem.