Roommates.com's Guide to Spring Cleaning
Spring is here! Spring is the time to enjoy the warmer weather and explore the great outdoors. However, it is also a time to do a spring cleaning and do a heavy-duty cleanse of your home. The purpose of a spring cleaning is to have your home sparkling clean—giving you a fresh start to the season.
But what is involved in a spring cleaning? While it may seem like a daunting task, there are methods to make it a straightforward and easy process. In this article, we will be covering the steps of an effective spring cleaning. By the end, your home will be freshened up and ready to take on the spring and summer months.
Step 1. Declutter Your Home
The purpose of a spring cleaning is to eliminate all of the clutter in your home, leaving a more organized space. As your first order of business, you need to get rid of the unused items in your home. The clothes you don't wear anymore, expired cosmetic products, or broken electronics all need to go.
When doing this decluttering process, it is best to go from room to room, aiming to leave a room spotless before moving on to the next. While it may seem challenging to get rid of certain items, it's best to think when the last time you used it. We all have items that we don't need but are often too busy to get rid of them.
When decluttering your space, you should understand what to do with items by using these five categories:
- Things to Throw Away: Simply put, these are the items that go into the trash and are thrown away.
- Things to Recycle: These are the items that can be recycled, such as paper, plastic, or glass.
- Things to Put Away: This category is for putting items back in their designated storage spaces. Items like cups in the bathroom or an old t-shirt under your bed.
- Things to Fix: If you have an item that needs minor fixing and don't want to throw it away yet.
- Things to Donate: While you may not wear certain items anymore, someone else would love to have them. Donate some of your items to a charitable organization.
Step 2. Clean All Surfaces
Once you have removed the clutter in your home, it's now time to clean all surfaces. During a regular home cleaning, we often skip over the areas that nobody will notice, like under the couch, in the cabinetry, or on the window sills. These areas typically gather lots of dust and should be addressed during your spring cleaning.
During this portion of the spring cleaning, you need to wipe down every surface in your home. First, start by vacuuming or mopping the floor. Make sure to clean under your furniture, wipe down the baseboards, and leave it looking spotless. Once the floors are taken care of, move onto elevated surfaces.
Wipe down all countertops, tables, and bookshelves. However, in the case of a spring cleaning, you should clean everything. Locations such as light fixtures or cabinet doors should also be included in this step. To finish off step two, you should steam clean cloth furniture, carpets, and rugs.
Step 3. Clean Mirrors & Windows
Using a high-quality microfiber cloth and glass cleaner, take some time to wipe down your mirrors and windows. Scrubbing your mirrors can drastically improve the appearance of your bathroom, bedrooms, and other areas in your home. Additionally, cleaning the inside and out of windows will improve the overall appearance.
However, if you cannot reach the outside of some of your windows, you can also hire a professional glass cleaning company to help you with this process. Many homeowners often forget the outside of windows, but you will be glad you did it once you see the difference it makes on neatness.
Step 4. Clean Appliances
As we get close to finishing our annual spring cleaning, we can now focus on more specialized areas to clean. If you haven't done so already during the first step, you should start by decluttering and cleaning your refrigerator. Wipe down the outside of the fridge, but also throw away expired products and empty containers.
Cleaning your refrigerator will reduce odors while also creating a more organized environment. Remove all of the drawers and shelves to clean the hard-to-reach surfaces. And lastly, clean the door gasket that goes around the front of the fridge. Once the refrigerator is clean, let's move onto the microwave.
Cleaning a microwave is a simple process. To clean a microwave, you should wipe down all of the built-up soups, grease, and food on the inside. Take out the spinning plate from the center, and wash it like any other plate. If you have trouble removing the stains from the inside, heat water in a microwave-safe bowl and remove it to make stains easier to remove.
Still focusing on the kitchen, you can now clean the oven and stovetops. If your oven has a cleaning mode, turn it on and let it run for the recommended time. If it does not, you may also scrub the inside using a store-bought oven cleaner. Be sure to use cleaners designed for the inside of ovens to avoid damaging them.
While your oven is self-cleaning, you can wipe all of the excess oil, grease, and seasoning that gathers on your stovetops. Using an all-purpose cleaner should be enough to remove any stains on the kitchen stovetops. If you can't remove a tough stain, soak it with your strongest cleaner and use a single-edged scraper.
Conclusion
After following all of the steps in this guide, you should now have a freshly spring-cleaned home! While these steps can be modified depending on your home, spring cleaning's fundamental idea is to start fresh after the harsh winter months. By organizing, cleaning, and getting rid of clutter—you are now ready to welcome the spring season.
Don't want to do spring cleaning all by yourself? Get a roommate! Find your perfect roommate match at Roommates.com.