Your Spring Cleaning Checklist

Yesterday was the first day of Spring, can you believe it? I really don’t know where this year is going. I swear it was just January and we were hoping for snow to melt and now it’s Spring. Time really does seem to pass by so much quicker the older I get. What’s really sad is realizing our little guy is just a few weeks away from turning two. TWO? How in the world do I have an (almost) two year old?! It really doesn’t seem possible.

Well in honor of the new season, it’s time to spend some time getting our house in order. Winter is always so hard because it’s just too cold to do anything. I never feel like doing more than the bare minimum to keep our house running smooth and by the end of March i’m going crazy.

I don’t know about you, but when my life seems to start feeling a little out of control that’s when I start to notice just how unorganized our house has gotten. Spring cleaning just makes everything seem right again.

A few weeks ago J and Dent left for a few days to visit his family. He was on Spring Break from school, I was on crunch time for my upcoming exam and he knew I could use the alone time. So they packed up and left for five days. I’m not going to lie – it was nice. The house was quiet, I got stay curled up on the couch to study and I had a king-sized bed all to myself (well with three dogs, of course!). I missed my guys, but it was nice being alone. I’m someone who recharges by being alone – weird, I know, but it’s true. So having a few days all to myself was just what I needed. During study breaks I would pick a room to clean. It took me over 4 hours of actually clean time and two days to get it done, but the house was spotless.

I took curtains down to be washed, I dusted window sills and every surface of the house, I steamed clean the floors and I even moved the huge sectional apart to clean underneath it (yuck!). I was a cleaning machine… and with them being gone, the house stayed cleaned. It was amazing! I know not all of us have an uninterrupted weekend to do whatever jobs we have around the house, so I put together some top cleaning tasks to give your house a spring refresh.

Now I want to make a note before we get into this list – it’s deep and long. Each task shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes, but there are a lot. I would recommend splitting them up with your spouse or spreading it out over two weekends. But these simple jobs will really get your house sparkling and should last through most of the summer months when you would rather be outside having fun then inside cleaning.

First things first, clean your house like a normal day – sweep, dust, vacuum, mop, change sheets on the bed, etc. Once that’s done then we can move on to the deeper cleaner.

wipe down walls and baseboards with a damp cloth
clean doors and handles with a magic eraser or cloth
wash windows and clean out window sils
dust off fans and light fixtures
dust pictures and wall hangings
clean vents in ceilings, walls and floors
take down and wash window curtains
shampoo carpets and rugs
steam clean your couch and other fabric furniture
dust on top of bookshelves and high up furniture
pull out couch and furniture from walls to clean behind and underneath them
defrost your freezer and wipe it out
wipe down the inside and outside of your fridge
clean the inside of your oven
clean the top of your stove
wipe out your microwave (here’s a great trick)
clean out kitchen cabinets
go through your hall closet/medicine cabinet to throw out expired medicine and any products you don’t use
go through clothes closets to donate any items you no longer wear or if they don’t fit
power wash your house, sidewalk, front porch, patio, deck
clean out your landscaping
wash outdoor furniture