Spring Cleaning: A Room-by-Room Guide
LIVING ROOM AND LAUNDRY ROOM
Wash textiles.
Take covers off throw pillows and throw blankets and launder them yourself or add them to your dry cleaning stack. If applicable, replace heavy winter textiles with your lighter warm-weather items.
Wash window treatments.
Heavy drapes and curtains can be vacuumed with your vacuum’s upholstery attachment, then spot-cleaned as needed. If they’re machine washable, add them to your pile in the laundry room for window treatments. If they’re dry clean only, add them to your stack for the dry cleaner’s. If they’re blinds, dust and wipe down with cleanser.
Clean glass.
Wash all mirrors and the insides of windows.
Vacuum walls and ceilings.
Dust ceiling fans and flat surfaces.
Bookshelves, frames, the piano…whatever you’ve got in the living room needs to be dusted and then wiped clean. The best way to do this is on bookcases is to go shelf by shelf, removing and dusting all items, then dusting and wiping the shelf itself, then replacing all items back onto the shelf before moving on to the next shelf.
Wash lighting fixtures.
Make sure the lights are switched to OFF first. Wipe light bulbs with a damp cloth as well, for increased brightness.
Wipe down electronics.
Dust and vacuum those hard-to-reach areas, or spray compressed air to dislodge dirt particles. (Don’t use abrasive cleansers on electronics!) Make sure to pick up speakers, computers, and electronic devices and clean the surfaces underneath.
Clean and polish wood furniture.
This includes the legs of your sofa, the entire piano, all of the side table surfaces, and coffee table. Treat your wood pieces well, and they won’t let you down.
Summer-ize your fireplace.
Remove any wood and ashes.Store unused logs for the Fall. Sweep fireplace out, wipe down with a disposable damp cloth.
Shampoo (or steam-clean) carpets, rugs, and upholstery.
Use the upholstery wand for the sofa and armchairs to keep dust mites and other germs at bay.
That sofa’s probably looking mighty inviting for a well-deserved afternoon nap at this point. Good news, though – you just have one more room. Finish strong!
LAUNDRY ROOM
Wash window treatments.
You know the drill, right? (Actually, you’re probably looking at piles of “the drill” in this very room…) Clean all glass and insides of windows.Clean the washer & dryer hoses.
Remove lint, check seals, replace everything.
Scrub utility sink.
We sometimes forget to clean the areas that help us to clean everything else. The utility sink is no exception.
Vacuum and wipe down walls and ceilings.
That’s it! Congratulations! Your entire house is officially spring-cleaned. You might want to consider ordering take-out because (a) you deserve it, and (b) you don’t want anything messing with that sparkling kitchen…