5 Spring Cleaning Musts for a Fresher Home
Your spring cleaning to-do list can be as long or short as you want it to be. If you only have time to hit the most important spots, make sure they include these 5 areas.
Spring Cleaning Tips
Freshen Up the Baseboards
One of the most overlooked are the baseboards. Even though we rarely directly look at them, their condition has a subconscious effect on how clean and polished the home looks and feels. They collect dirt, pet hair, scuff marks, and damages all year long.
Spring cleaning is the perfect time to spruce them up. First, dust them and wipe them down with soap and water to get rid of all the pet hair and dirt. Then, go back through with a small paint brush and polish off any marks left over. If there are any damages, fill those in with wood filler and then paint over it.
You’ll be amazed by what a difference fresh baseboards will make on the whole house.
Dust the Vents
Vents collect a lot of dust over time. In fact, they collect so much that it’s best to clean them more than once a year. Spring cleaning is the perfect time to get started on them if you haven’t maintained them in a while. Wipe down all of them, including the hard-to-reach ones, as they are keeping unhealthy dirt, dust, and grime in the air you breathe.
Also, be sure to switch out the air filters every 3 months or so.
Scrub the Windows
No one likes doing windows but your home will look so much cleaner if you give them a good polish at least once a year. The grime that builds up on them makes them look dull and unappealing, and can even block some of the sunlight from getting in if it builds up too much. Be sure to clean both the inside and the outside of the windows for the best results.
Clean Carpet and Rugs
Carpet fibers pick up a lot of dirt and grime over time, especially if you walk over it in shoes that you’ve worn outdoors. Everything that you stepped on while you were out in public is brought into your home and caught in carpet and area rugs. Even if you do have a rule of taking off your shoes before going inside, dust and other particles settle into them over time. Rent a professional carpet cleaner if you don’t have one to properly sanitize them.
Behind the Appliances
Cleaning the inside of all your appliances is an important part of spring cleaning, but a lot of people forget about what’s accumulated under and behind them. Go the extra step and pull out large appliances such as the refrigerator, stove, washer, and dryer. Chances are, there are all kinds of dust, pet hair, and food particles that need to be swept up.