After a long winter, lets open the windows get some fresh air and give our homes a little love!
I love spring! I do. With a long cold winter behind, spring always brings forth the hope of a beautiful garden, yummy home-grown veggies and fun times working on family projects, even though to get to each and every one of those means a lot of work. My first step in getting our lives ready for all the summer fun – not just the work mentioned, but the real fun of the season, picnics and water fights, and an endless supply of other activities – is to open our home and give it a good cleaning. Letting in the fresh air helps blow out all the stale air that has settled in and giving everything a wipe down helps get me moving and readies my body for the active months ahead.
Here is a quick list of what we do around our house:
Most rooms have the same requirements:
- Wipe down walls/light switches, doors, molding, doorknobs, ceiling
- Clean light fixtures
- Sweep/vac/mop (clean carpets/rugs as needed)
- Wash curtains, wipe down blinds, wash windows, clean window tracks
Living room, Dining room, Office:
- Vacuum upholstery items (chairs, couch)
- Dust
- Wipe down side tables, coffee table, cabinets
- go thru stacks, baskets, etc that may be piled up (old magazines, papers, etc)
Kitchen:
- Clean stove, fridge, dishwasher, microwave, etc – check manuals for yearly maintenance
- Wipe down cabinets (inside and out), backsplash, counters
- Clean out under sink
- Clean up recipes/recipe books
Bathroom, Laundry:
- In depth toilet cleaning – “hello pumice stone!”, and around toilet
- Clean out medicine cabinet, drawers, under sink, shelves, etc.
- Shower – ours gets a weekly cleaning but its a great time to check the faucet, shower head, drain and grout for maintenance
- Clean cycle thru washer, wipe down – check yearly maintenance requirements
- Clean out dryer lint trap fully, wipe down – check yearly maintenance requirements
- Wash shower curtain, new liner if needed
Bedrooms:
- Clean bedding
- Vacuum bed
- Clean off nightstand, dresser – wipe down
- Clean closet/organize – sort thru clothes to get rid of, donate, etc.
Hall Closet, Linen Closet:
- Clean out, reorganize
Remember, your home is not the only place that should get a cleaning. If you spend a lot of time in your car commuting or taxiing kids around it needs a good clean out also.
- Clean out front seat, back seat, trunk, glovebox
- wash windows, wipe down or vacuum upholstery
- Vacuum
- Wash exterior
- Maintenance – a great time to check fluids, tires, windshield wipers, etc.
- Clean out/up “kid” stuff -if your a mom you know what I mean!
- I also keep a medical box and snack box and water in our car. The medical kit gets checked and updated if need, snacks and water get swapped out for fresh ones.
Whew…well I better get at it – Happy Cleaning!
-D
