The flowers are blooming, the bees are buzzing, and the birds are chirping every chance they get. Now that the winter chill has finally thawed, that can only mean one thing for homeowners: spring cleaning. An annual deep clean can help you hit the reset button in your home and remove any excess dirt and clutter that may have built up over the past year.
Having trouble getting started? We’ve put together several homeowner tips, and tricks on how to kick start an easy yet successful spring cleaning that will leave your home smelling lemony fresh and sparkling from top to bottom.
Break Your Cleaning Into Chunks
Bippity boppity boo! We hate to break it to you, but unfortunately, there aren’t any magical spells that will give you a shortcut to a deep clean. But you can make it more manageable for yourself by tackling it in chunks rather than attempting to do the whole house at once.
By taking a room-by-room approach to spring cleaning, you can decide what needs to be prioritized and cleaned in shorter increments over time. By trying to clean everything at once, you’re more likely to overload yourself and burn out before you can finish.
Find Time to Declutter
The biggest (and often most dreaded) part of spring cleaning for a homeowner is decluttering. But have no fear. We’re here to steer you in the right direction. When you tackle each room, we recommend sorting your belongings into one of the four following categories — trash, donate, store or put away. This will make it easier for you to identify the items you want to keep and the things you can get rid of.
Need a declutter deep dive? Check out more tips on how to organize your home.
Organize and Store
Forget the groundhog. Once the spring cleaning starts, that’s the real indicator to transition your closet and home decor to spring and summer options. Make room for your spring wear by vacuum-sealing your winter clothes to keep them organized in a space-saving way. You can store your winter-themed decor in plastic storage bins, but don’t forget to label them for easy identification and access next year.
Refresh Your Cleaning Supplies Stock
Before you begin your charge on the dust bunnies, take a moment to review your stock of cleaning supplies. Throw out the expired items and avoid having too many cleaning products that take up unnecessary storage space. You can easily clean a majority of your home with a single all-purpose cleaner and a few microfiber cloths. From there, you can buy speciality cleaning products as needed.
Don’t Forget About the Yard
With warmer weather to enjoy, don’t forget to add tidying up your outdoor space to your spring cleaning to-do list. Get your backyard ready to make springtime memories by dusting off the patio furniture, cleaning off the grill, trimming the landscape, gathering up leftover yard brush from the winter and pressure washing any dirt build-up on your house siding, patio or driveway.
Tackle Each Room with A Checklist
With multiple rooms to keep track of, it can be easy to forget what tasks you've completed and which ones you haven't. To avoid any confusion, create a general cleaning checklist for each room, such as vacuuming, sweeping, dusting and window washing, to ensure you aren't missing any steps. You can add additional tasks depending on what needs to be done in the specific room that you're working on.
Pro tip: When cleaning a room, always work top to bottom (ceiling to floor). That way, you don't have to re-clean your space over and over again from the debris that is stirred up in the process.
Create New Cleaning Habits
As you deep clean your home, note areas where you can establish new cleaning habits that will make your spring cleaning easier for next year. Adding more chores to your list sounds like the last thing you’d want to do, but hear us out. Even if you only identify one or two tasks to add to your regular cleaning routine, it can help reduce the burden of deep cleaning next time.
One example would be filling an oven-safe dish with water to steam your oven for 20-40 minutes at a temperature of 450 to help loosen grease and grime. You can then easily wipe away the debris instead of waiting for the buildup to show. Your future self will thank you.
Spring is the perfect time to welcome a refresh and reset to your life. So, if you're feeling ready for a new home this season, get in touch with a Starlight representative today and schedule an appointment with one of our Home Guides to get started.
