Whether you’ve just bought your new home or you’re just a little lazy, this could be your first year of spring cleaning. While this can be an intimidating prospect, there’s no need to worry — it’s all about hard work, common sense and organisation.
Having a list of cleaning jobs ready is all well and good, but how do you put everything together in order to complete your spring cleaning within the time you have available? Well, there are a few tips for beginners, which should all make your first experience just a little more bearable.
1. Perform a cleaning assessment
Walk around your home, and make sure you have included all of the essential spring cleaning jobs on a checklist. This is also a good time to move furniture and possessions to make things a little easier. The more space you have in your home, the easier it is to clean.
This is also a good time to declutter. Tidy every room, and decide what you’re going to keep and what you’re throwing away, giving away or selling. Once your home is organised and free from unnecessary obstacles, you can get on with the important business of cleaning.
2. Create a schedule
It doesn’t matter whether you have a day or a week to complete your spring cleaning, you need to schedule all of the main jobs to ensure that everything gets done. Rather than list each tiny task, however, schedule time for cleaning each room. In the case of the kitchen and bathroom, it might be best to get into a little more detail — as these are the rooms with the most time-consuming, complex jobs.
3. Gather together all of your tools
To perform a thorough spring clean, you’ll need the right tools for the job, as well as the right cleaning agents. Gather everything together, and then create three cleaning “stations”:
- Bathroom cleaning station
- Kitchen cleaning station
- General cleaning station
The idea here is to ensure you have everything you need in one place. Your station can be a trolley, a bucket, a caddy or anything that works for you. Doing this will ensure you’re not running around the house looking for cleaning materials — and wasting valuable time.
4. Communicate your plan
Once you have a full plan of action in place, you should communicate with anyone that shares you home. You should enlist help wherever possible, so you’ll need to tell people what they’re doing and when they’re doing it. Assign names to each task, and make sure jobs are done to your satisfaction before ticking them off your list.
5. Start from the top
Once you’re ready to clean, it’s important that you always start from the top — as gravity and dust don’t mix. Start with room upstairs, and at the top of each room. So, you might want to start by cleaning or dusting ceilings and lights in the bedrooms. The last job in each room should involve cleaning or vacuuming the floor.
6. Always move furniture
If you’re simply cleaning around static furniture, you’re not spring cleaning. You need to move these items to ensure the areas underneath and behind them are cleaned properly. Before you tackle each room, move the furniture out of the way.
7. Take the opportunity to deep clean carpets
With so much upheaval already taking place in your home, this is a good opportunity to deep clean carpets. You can use shampoos or professional services for the job, or a steam cleaner with the necessary attachment works just as well.
8. Make things fun
Don’t worry about how much work there is to do right at the start of the process. Instead, try to see the positive side of things — and make the entire process as much fun as possible. You could ask friends to join in, or make things competitive with members of your family. You can also break the tedium by playing music or watching your favourite shows while cleaning.
Exactly how to clean rooms and various items in your home is for another post. However, by planning and getting the basics right, you’re setting yourself up for spring cleaning success!