Spring Cleaning Tips – Ultimate Guide

As the weather begins to turn and the nights grow lighter, many homeowners will start to think about undertaking a spring clean. If you’re considering selling your property in 2019, this could be an essential ingredient for a seamless sale, but it’s a great idea if you’re staying put too. Spring cleaning can help to put a real spring in your step, plus it will brush away those literal and metaphorical cobwebs ready for the year ahead.

 

Where Did the Term ‘Spring Cleaning’ Originate?

 

 

Although people don’t spring clean as much as they used to, the origin of the idea in the UK comes from the days when homes were dustier and stuffier than they are today. Homes were heated by fireplaces and keeping that heat trapped inside the house was vital to keep the residents warm. So, all the grime that accumulated during the winter from months of keeping the house airtight needed to be cleaned away in the spring – hence the idea of spring cleaning.

What is House Spring Cleaning?

 

Essentially, spring cleaning is a deep clean that attacks those areas of your home that don’t get attention in your regular cleaning schedule. It’s also an opportunity to clean areas more thoroughly than you might be able to if you weren’t undertaking a huge cleaning exercise.

 

What is the Best Way to Spring Clean?

 

The most straightforward and practical way of undertaking a deep clean is to go room by room. This type of organisation will make sure you actually get started – there’s nothing more likely to help you fail than looking at a huge project and wondering where to start. Working room by room means that you’re breaking your spring clean down into manageable chunks that have defined beginning and end points. It’s much easier to face!

 

What are the Benefits of Deep Cleaning?

 

 

Deep cleaning gets rid of all that dust and grime which can accumulate through the year, leaving your home feeling fresher and cleaner. Not only that, spring cleaning can help you make decisions about your home and your belongings. For instance, if you find a vase stuffed at the back of a kitchen cupboard that you neither like nor use, giving it away to a charity shop will free up space and help to declutter your home.

Top 10 Spring Cleaning Tips

 

So, you’ve decided to spring clean your home and you’re raring to go. Here are 10 top tips to bear in mind as you go along:

1. Make a list. While you might want to just jump right in and kick up some dust, going into a deep clean without a plan might mean the dust simply gets moved around. Work out and write down exactly what needs to be done, whether that’s moving the fridge or cleaning the guttering. You probably won’t identify everything you need to do, but it’s a good way to get started.
2. Get rid of clutter. One of the brilliant opportunities offered by spring cleaning is the chance to get rid of things you don’t use anymore. Spring is the time to be ruthless and unsentimental, although don’t throw away things that you might use or have an attachment to. If something’s in the way and you can’t remember when you last used it, just ask yourself whether it’s serving a purpose. If not, it might be best on the decluttering pile.
3. Give things away. Remember that your junk might be someone else’s jewels and there are ways to pass it from you to them which might even make some money. If you’re interested in a car boot sale or online second-hand marketplaces, you might be able to sell some of that clutter. Charity shops are always looking for old clothes and donations of other things like CDs and books. If you look carefully, you’ll find somewhere to send all your clutter.
4. Be careful with pollutants. When you find mouldy paint at the back of your garage, don’t be tempted to throw it into the bin and send it to landfill. Every local area will have somewhere you can take things like this (along with electronics and chemicals) to avoid it becoming a hazard in landfill.
5. Start at the top. Whenever you start work on a room, starting with the ceiling and working your way down is the most practical way of going about it. This means that any dust and grime you disturb on the ceiling, shelves and surfaces won’t be falling onto a carpet you might already have cleaned.
6. Wear gloves. Remember that a deep clean isn’t like the weekly vacuuming and cleaning you do. You’re going into corners that you don’t normally visit and, quite often, there’ll be things in those corners that you don’t want to meet your skin. Along with this, you’ll be using cleaning products that might be hazardous to your health, so take all necessary precautions.
7. Use white vinegar. This is a trick that used to be well known but fell out of fashion for a while. However, using white vinegar to get stubborn stains from kitchen and bathroom furniture can feel like a miracle cure compared to all those cleaning products that line the shelves of supermarkets. White vinegar isn’t always appropriate, but it can often be a good starting point.
8. Don’t overdo it with chemical cleaning products. While there seems to be a specific cleaning product for everything these days, all those chemicals aren’t necessarily good for your home. Some of the most effective cleaning products on the market are all-purpose ones. If you couple those with microfibre cloths, you’ve got yourself some excellent cleaning equipment that should clean most surfaces effectively.
9. Plan your post-clean organisation strategy. Spring cleaning can be a great opportunity to change old patterns of doing things so you’re left with a more streamlined home. Don’t be tempted to just put things back where you found them once they’re clean – take the opportunity to improve your organisation and improve your home.
10. Get stuck in. Many people find that once they start a deep clean, they find it difficult to know when to stop. It’s easy to move the sofa to vacuum underneath it properly, but it’s more complicated when you realise that the underside of the sofa itself needs a good clean. All the effort will be worth it in the end!