By Madeline Klein on February 25, 2022 in Life Hacks
Queue up your favorite feel-good music, put on your signature cleaning clothes, and dive right into our tips and tricks!
Actually, before we overload you with helpful information and a plan of action – let’s make sure you’re sold on the whole “spring cleaning” thing. Obviously, it’s good for your home because it’ll soon be spick and span, but did you know it’s good for your health too? SheKnows wrote a helpful article that mentions the benefits of cleaning aside from appearance. These include, “getting rid of things like dust and allergens and fix up areas that may be collecting mold.” Dr. Tanya Altmann mentioned in the SheKnows article the importance of cleaning your bedroom in particular because of the amount of time and close proximity you spend in there! Don’t worry, we’ll highlight some bedroom cleaning tips below.
Now that you know having a clean house is not simply for the aesthetic, it’s also important for your health – gather your supplies and let’s get down to it.
Clean Room by Room
This is step one towards a cleaner house, or if we’re being more accurate, step 1-6 towards a cleaner house. We find it’s helpful to make a realistic plan in order to avoid burnout, distractions, or running out of time.
Day 1: Kitchen
Let’s start strong on day 1 with the kitchen! Our main areas of work are the pantry, fridge, cabinets, and appliances. For the pantry, remove all food and wipe down each shelf. Before returning any food, make sure it’s not expired or stale. Bonus points if you organize each shelf better than before! For the fridge, repeat this same process. If you’re looking for fridge organization tips – TikTok is our trusted source. For the cabinets, clear out everything and deep clean any dishes with leftover gunk on them. If there are pots, pans, or niche kitchen tools you never use, pack those up in a bag for Goodwill or Salvation Army. Last but not least, for the appliances, grab some stainless steel cleaner, The Pink Stuff, and Lysol Kitchen Pro and get to scrubbing! We want to see the shine on your oven, fridge, dishwasher, and stove!
Day 2: Family Room
Next up, a room that likely doesn’t get quite as much attention when deep cleaning. Sure, you run the vacuum around and wipe off the coffee table, but how often do you vacuum the furniture or wash your accent pillows’ pillowcases? Those are 2 must-dos for living room cleaning. Others include washing blankets, sweeping under the furniture, using a Little Green Machine to deep clean your sofa and other upholstery, and ending with a quick carpet cleaning.
Day 3: Bathrooms
We hope you regularly clean your bathrooms…because if not, ew! Let’s start with some Lysol Disinfectant Spray – this is a crucial bathroom cleaning supply. First up, the abyss…also known as the vanity drawers and cabinets. Give these the same treatment as the pantry and fridge. Remove all items, dispose of old or expired medicines, wipe down the drawers, throw away anything you don’t use or don’t think you’ll use in the next year, and put everything back in an organized fashion. Once you’ve tackled that beast, work on deep cleaning your shower or bathtub with Melissa Maker’s helpful tips and try this tip for cleaning your shower head. For maximum efficiency, while you’re working away in the bathroom – throw your towels, washable shower curtain, and bathmats in the washing machine with a little color safe bleach to eliminate any germs. Then, finish the cleaning with your sink and your toilet…YAY! This might be a super gross cleaning day, but you’ll be so happy once you get all the dirt and grime off, making future cleans way easier!
Day 4: Bedrooms
Don’t forget our note at the beginning – this one is super important! Since we spend about 33 years of our lives in bed, let’s kick off bedroom cleaning day with your bed. Remove all bedding including sheets, duvets, pillowcases, and bed skirts and throw them straight in the wash. Vacuum under your bed, dust nightstands and blinds, and shampoo all carpets and rugs. Then flip your mattress and remake the bed. End the day by purging all your unwanted clothing and reorganizing your dresser and closet. Boy will that feel good!
Day 5: Home Office
If you’re an everyday commuter, skip this section and either take a rest day in your week o’ cleaning or barrel ahead and finish a day early. If you’re a fellow work-from-homer, let’s be honest with each other – you just clean enough to clear out your background for Zoom meetings. Start with organizing file cabinets – that means it’s time to put all those loose papers on your desk in their rightful place. Be sure to shred unneeded documents with personal information instead of throwing them away. Give the room the full clean treatment – vacuum and shampoo carpets, disinfect your desk and keyboard, and dust the blinds and your books! End the day with a little restock of pens, pencils, post-It notes, printer paper, and ink.
Day 6: Laundry Room
The room thats whole purpose is to clean now gets its time in the spotlight. Run a cleaning cycle on the washer and do a deep clean to remove all the lint from the dryer. Organize your cleaning and laundry supplies, mop the floors, and voila you’re done!
Day 7: Outside
Last, but surely not least, the outdoors! Starting with the garage – sweep, organize, and clean. We recommend you remove everything, deep clean the walls and floor, reorganize the items appropriately, and then park your car. Next, step outside and clean out gutters, spray for pests, and clean your car.
Wrap up your weeklong cleaning spree by replacing any batteries, lightbulbs, and air filters throughout the house. Also, grab that Lysol Disinfecting Spray and spray down light switches, door handles, and anywhere else where germs might be hiding!
Organize and Declutter
The 7-day method is one way to spring clean – you start and finish the entire house in just one week. Another strategy is to set out to organize and declutter. This comes down to sorting belongings into five categories: trash, donate, sell, store, and keep.
1. Trash – Here’s our pretty standard first step. If you’re not actively using an item, planning to use it soon, and it can’t be donated or sold, trash it!
2. Donate – Donate toys, clothes, and other household items to help your community and those around you.
3. Sell – Stores like Plato’s Closet and apps like Poshmark make selling old clothes easy peasy lemon squeezy. Hit up eBay or Facebook Marketplace to sell other gently used items!
4. Store – Invest in some storage containers, a label maker, or establish a color-coding system.
5. Keep – Be sure these items spark joy. The decision to keep something instead of taking one of the above actions should not be made lightly!
Use this opportunity to redecorate too! If your old decorations aren’t suiting your fancy, trash, sell, or donate them, and grab some new ones to spruce up your place.
Establish New Cleaning Habits
If this blog does nothing else, let it incentivize you to establish new cleaning habits.
Some cleaning habits include:
- Make the bed in the morning – Simple, but effective. Setting the tone of cleanliness at the beginning of your day can help you maintain other positive habits!
- Keep a squeegee in your shower – If you don’t have to go out of your way to wipe down the walls after your daily shower, it’ll be a lot easier to complete.
- Maintain a cleaning schedule – Set every Saturday as laundry day, every Monday as vacuum day, and every Thursday for washing sheets and towels. The unknown element of how long it’s been since you last cleaned is now gone!
- Go through clothes and toys each season – Donate or sell anything you’re no longer using.
- Don’t put it down, put it away – A motto to save you from your clutter. If we all had a dollar for every time we just set something down because it was easier at the moment, we might be billionaires!
- Clean up after cooking and regularly clean out your fridge – Maintaining a clean kitchen helps you avoid scrubbing dishes with crusty food on them. Plus, you can prevent finding expired or moldy foods in your fridge and pantry. Save yourself the trouble with proactive cleaning.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you learned a couple of new cleaning tips and have a solid plan for your week chock-full of spring cleaning. Happy cleaning!
