Spring Cleaning – Phase 1

Image by lcs_lshull via Flickr

While I was outside enjoying a beautiful spring day, I thought about you. I wondered if you were able to be oudoors enjoying a beautiful day too.

You weren’t stuck indoors cleaning, were you?

Now I tried to get you to get your cleaning done so you could be out playing on these beautiful days.

But lets see what we can do to help you out.

You already have your day to day cleaning under control, right? If not, you are way behind the 8 ball. Trying to clean the whole house once a year is a nightmare. Grab a copy of Secret Confessions of a Clean Freak and get yourself on a schedule. Getting the day to day stuff under control is half the battle.

Spring cleaning is the stuff we don’t always get around to. But if you take 1 task a day, you can still get it done pretty easily. Just pick a task from this list each day, and before you know it – everything will be clean and shiny. Won’t that be great?

OK, here’s the list –

Take items off shelves and tables, clean them, clean the shelves and tables. This inlcudes books, cds, dvds, figures, pictures, plants, whatever. Take a few minutes and do one every night if you’re limited on time.

Clean all pictures on the walls.

If you’re really ambitious, you can wash walls and ceilings, but that will take you a few days of hard work. At a minimum, take your upholstery brush on the vacuum cleaner and vacuum all walls and ceilings. You’d be suprised how much dust sticks there. I try to wash down a couple rooms every year at a minimum.

Vacuum behind and under all furniture. Pull over everything that you can and clean behind it.

Vacuum all upholstery, including under cushions. If you’re ambitious, clean the upholstery. If you’re not that amibitious, us an instant spray cleaner to freshen up the upholstery. Make sure to thoroughly vacuum when it’s dry.

At a minimum, dust all plants, both real and silk.

Clean out cabinets and drawers. Remove items and wipe out the cabinets. Do one every night when you do the dishes.

If you have an open area above your cabinets, clean it.

Clean the underside of the range hood. Hopefully this is part of your regular routine too. If not, make it a point after this.

Wash curtains.

Wash light fixtures.

The cabinet exteriors should be part of your regular routine, right?

That’s really it for phase one. It’s too early yet to do some things. And I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. Just tackle those things for now and you’ll be in good shape! You don’t have to kill yourself. You have a few weeks to get this stuff done. Tackling a little at a time will make it a breeze.

I remember the days when I had a plate rail full of collectors plates around the entire formal dining room, and a chandelier, and sconces. Why did we used to put ourselves through all that? Yeah, it was pretty, but man – it was a lot of work!

And we’re all about making life easier here, aren’t we?

Really make your life easier  – if you don’t already own a copy of Secret Confessions of a Clean Freak – get it!