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Tips For Proper Spring Cleaning
You might be doing your spring cleaning all wrong and it’s probably making more work for yourself down the track.
With a few small changes you can completely change the results you get.
Spring cleaning is a bigger job than your regular weekly tidy and that’s the whole point.
Because it only happens a few times a year, it’s worth doing properly.
When you rush through it or cut corners, dirt and grime keep building up in the spots you’ve missed, and you end up wondering why the house still doesn’t feel quite right after all that effort.
A disappointing end result can also put you off doing it again.
But when its done well, a deep spring clean does far more than make the place look better. Air quality improves, built up allergens get cleared out and the whole home genuinely feels fresher and more comfortable to live in.
The extra attention is always worth it.
The Importance of Being Thorough When Spring Cleaning
Anything worth doing is worth doing well and spring cleaning is no exception.
There are tasks that set a proper spring clean apart from your regular house cleaning routine and because they’re out of the ordinary, they’re also the ones most commonly skipped.
That’s a problem, it means dirt and grime are allowed to keep building up in direct opposition to the whole goal of the exercise.
On the other hand when you do it properly, the benefits go well beyond a tidy lounge room.
Better air quality, improved health outcomes and a home that stays cleaner for longer are all realistic results of a thorough deep clean done with a little extra care and attention.
Important Spring Cleaning Tasks to Add to Your Checklist
To get the most out of your spring cleaning, make sure you’re incorporating the following techniques into your process.
These are the things that separate a house that temporarily looks clean from a home that’s actually spotless.
Be On Top of Things
When cleaning the easiest things to forget are the parts you don’t see every day.
The back of a ceiling fan’s blades, the top of a tall cupboard that sits above your eye line, the ledge above the fridge, all of these collect dust year round and are almost always skipped during a regular clean.
Getting up high and going all the way around every appliance and piece of furniture, including the back of things, makes a surprising difference to the overall result.
Get into, under and on top of those tiny places you don’t think to clean in an ordinary clean up.
Get to the Bottom of It and Under It as Well
While less common than missing things above you, forgetting to clean all the way down or skipping underneath furniture and appliances entirely is still one of the most frequent spring cleaning oversights.
Under the bed, beneath the couch, behind the washing machine, these spots are out of sight and easy to skip, but they’re often some of the worst in the house.
Plan ahead so you have the time or a spare pair of hands to move things and get at the dirt below.
Explore Hidden Crevices
Parts of appliances and fixtures that aren’t usually exposed are another area that normally gets missed.
The insides of lighting fixtures, lampshades, range hood filters and the seal around your washing machine door all collect grime quickly and rarely get touched during a standard clean.
It takes a bit of extra effort but getting into all the nooks and crannies is what a proper spring clean is really about.
Go All the Way Around
It might seem obvious but people often just clean the visible faces of furniture and appliances while ignoring the sides and backs entirely.
A rice cooker isn’t clean if there’s a thick layer of dust sitting on the back of it.
When spring cleaning, make a point of going all the way around every item in the room, not just the surfaces you look at every day.
Get Between Things
If you have a cluttered space or a room with a lot packed into it, you won’t get a proper result until you separate things and clean in between them.
Some of the worst buildup of dust and grime happens in the gaps between two large items sitting side by side.
Move things out and clean the space properly and then put them back. It makes a huge difference.
Let Your Bedding Breathe
As part of your spring cleaning routine, it’s important to let your bedding and soft furnishings breathe.
Airing out your mattresses, pillows and cushions, deep cleaning all your covers can clear out a surprising amount of unseen dirt and keep the living space smelling fresh.
Flipping your mattress while you’re at it is a good habit to get into and makes a real difference to how it wears over time.
Pay Special Attention to Moist Areas Around the House
Bathrooms, laundries and any other parts of your home that regularly take on moisture need a little extra attention during a spring clean because they’re prone to types of dirt buildup that other areas simply aren’t.
Mould and mildew can take hold quickly in these spaces, so give them a deep scrub.
Things like grout lines, silicone seals, behind the toilet and any spots that tend to stay damp are all worth spending extra time on.
Reorganise With Your Next Clean in Mind
This last tip is particularly useful if your home has a lot in it or if time is generally tight between cleans.
After giving the whole house a thorough clean use the experience to reorganise the space so it’s easier to maintain going forward.
If something was a nightmare to move and get behind, ask yourself whether it really needs to be there.
A home that’s set up with cleaning in mind stays cleaner with a lot less effort.
The Best Times for a Spring Clean
Spring cleaning as the name suggests, was traditionally done once a year as the warmer weather arrived.
These days the term refers to any deep top to bottom clean and there’s no reason you can’t do it two or three times a year depending on your household.
That said there are certain moments when a proper deep clean is particularly worthwhile, like moving into a new home, moving out of a rental property, preparing for a property inspection or end of lease clean, before a new baby arrives and when a family member with a compromised immune system is coming to stay.
A little more thoroughness now means far less effort down the track and a home that genuinely feels good to live in.
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