If you don’t know where to start with spring cleaning your house, then stick around for my top spring cleaning tips to get your home looking shiny and clean in no time!
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What Does Spring Cleaning Mean?
To put it basically, spring cleaning is the big clean that you do to your home at the beginning of spring! Duh… right?!
But really it doesn’t have to be something that you only do in the spring. You can pretty much do a deep-clean of your home any time you need to!
Maybe someone in your home is recovering from an illness and you want to get rid of those nasty germs?
Or you have a big celebration coming up and you want your home ready for visitors?
Or you just feel in a rut and know that you need a fresh start… literally!
However, it’s popular to do a deep-clean in the spring, because it’s often the first time you can get your windows open, let the fresh air in and get rid of the winter funk!
Why Spring Cleaning is Important
You might be thinking that you don’t need to do a big spring clean because your home is already pretty clean and tidy. But no matter how good of a housekeeper you are, you are still going to negliect some areas.
When was the last time you pulled out your refrigerator and cleaned behind it? How often do you clean your window blinds? What about cleaning your silver jewelry? And have you even dared to look under your bed lately (or even worse… under your teenager’s bed?!!)?
There are spots in our houses that just don’t get cleaned very often. After all, who has time for that? BUT… it’s important to keep up with these tasks, even if it’s just once a year.
The dust that gathers behind your refrigerator can coat the coils and make it less efficient. The grime on your blinds or under your bed can be full of allergens that make your air quality (and lungs) miserable.
Spring cleaning also GREAT for your mental health too! Nothing gives you motivation like a clean and tidy home!
How to Tackle Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning can seem completely overwhelming. After all, where on earth should you start when you are cleaning an entire house?
These spring cleaning tips will guide you through the process from start to finish and help you get your home looking it’s best in no time.
Doing a deep-clean on your home doesn’t have to be a daunting job if you know exactly where to start and what to do!
Spring Cleaning Tips
Here are my 9 best spring cleaning tips to help you get rid of the winter krud and step into spring!
Make a Plan
We will start our list of spring cleaning tips with the very first thing you need to do. Make a plan!
A lot of people will just jump right into cleaning, and spend a few hours scrubbing, only to feel like they’ve barely made a dent in the mess.
You need to come up with a simple plan to ensure that you’ll have a successful spring blitz. Things to consider are:
- When you will do it and how long it will take? You can clean in small chunks over a few days or weeks. Or you can roll up your sleeves and get it all done in a day or two.
- Which rooms will you tackle first? Use the spring cleaning tips below to help you decide.
- Who is going to help you? Spring cleaning can totally be a family bonding experience… well, kinda! At the very least your family should help as they contributed to the dirt!
Once you have your plan together, there is one more thing you need to do before you can start cleaning… make sure you have the right supplies.
Right Tools For The Right Job
I remember as a child that my mother had a closet full of different cleaning products. There was literally a different product for every single job. Now, don’t get me wrong, those products are awesome. But I don’t have the space (or the time!) to carry around 10 different cleaning products!
For regular daily or weekly cleaning, I suggest just a good all-purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner, and some kind of scrubbing cleaner. That really all you need.
There are a few specialty cleaners that you will need for spring cleaning. Like an oven cleaner or a limescale remover. But really, it comes down to having the basic supplies and a lot of elbow grease!
Now, these products don’t have to be store-bought. There are many great homemade cleaning recipes! But it can be hit or miss with the effectiveness of homemade cleaners, so for speed and ease, I like to use good quality store-bought cleaners for spring cleaning.
My absolute favorite range is Infuse! They have a range of effective products that have minimal packaging. Once you’ve got your starter kit, all you’ll need to do is buy the little refills and you’re all set for years to come!
Clean Room-By-Room
One of the best spring cleaning tips I can give is to start room by room. Don’t try to jump around between rooms, as that will just slow you down.
Focus on one room at a time, and scrub away until it’s sparkling clean!
Which room should you start with? The general advice is to start with the dirtiest room in the house. For most people, this is the bathroom or kitchen.
I normally pick the bathrooms first, as I like to get them out of the way! And next, I’d tackle the kitchen. However, I leave cleaning the kitchen sink until last, as I’ll be using the sink to dump out dirty water and wash things, so I don’t want to have to clean it twice.
Seasonal Chores
Now, there are a few exceptions to the Room-By-Room rule. And that’s seasonal chores. What are seasonal chores you may ask?
Well, they are chores that can only be done at a particular time of year. There are many, many seasonal chores in the yard, but there are some in the home too.
Cleaning your outdoor grill or patio furniture. Washing the windows on the outside (too cold in winter and too hot in summer to do this in most places!). Switching out winter and summer linens.
These are tasks that you want to get done first. A lot of your other cleaning might depend on them, but also… well… if you run out of time, at least the important chores are done!
Declutter Surfaces First
One thing you might have noticed is that it’s hard to clean an untidy room. Having to move stacks of mail or piles of clothes to clean underneath them is time-consuming. And your room will still look messy once you’ve finished.
Before you can start a really good spring clean, you need to declutter your surfaces. You don’t need to go totally Marie Kondo and clear out everything (however, you can if you want to!). But make sure that your floors, counters, top of your dressers, and other flat surfaces are clear of clutter.
Clean Top to Bottom
Now that you’ve pick your rooms and got rid of the clutter, where do you start within that room? Start at the top!
One cleaning ‘rule’ that’s been passed down for generations is to clean “from top to bottom”. This basically means that you will want to tackle dusting your light fixtures before vacuuming your floors.
And there is common sense behind this advice. When you are cleaning up high, you will be dropping dust and dirt onto the lower surfaces. Don’t make extra work for yourself, and start at the top!
Move Furniture
For most of the year when we clean around our furniture (who wants to move a sofa every time you vac?!). Well, for a really good spring clean, you are going to need to MOVE it! Ugh, this is where you will say to yourself “how does it get THAT dirty?”
But don’t worry, we all have gross spots in our homes. Just grab your cleaner and start scrubbing. After all, imagine how much better you’ll feel knowing all that junk is gone!
While I’m moving furniture to clean, I also often rearrange my furniture too! Nothing refreshes a space more than moving things around. Whenever I’m feeling in a rut, I shift things around and somehow it gives me a whole new burst of energy!
Wash Windows and Window Treatments
These spring cleaning tips aren’t meant to be a list of exactly what you need to clean (check out my cleaning routine for that), but one task that is often forgotten about is the windows!
You might have heard it before, but there’s an old story about a woman that would stand at the window and watch her neighbor hanging out the laundry. The woman would complain to her husband that the neighbor was a terrible housekeeper because her laundry always looked grimy, even after it was washed. One day the woman looked out and was amazed to see bright, clean laundry on her neighbor’s clothesline. When she commented on this to her husband and said that the neighbor had finally learned how to do laundry, the husband said “Nah, I just cleaned the windows”!
Do yourself a favor, give your windows (and window treatments) a good clean! Let the bright light in and give yourself a nicer view!
Relax & Enjoy
I’m not really sure if this counts as a spring cleaning tip. But I think it’s one of the most important steps in a really good spring clean… relaxing and enjoying your nice clean home!
You worked hard to get everything looks amazing, so take some time to marvel at what a fabulous housekeeper you are and give yourself a big pat on the back.
