It's that time of year again! The flowers are blooming, the temperatures are rising, and your allergies are making it hard to get out of bed... [just me?] It's the time of year we all take on the timeless tradition of "Spring Cleaning". Spring cleaning is the perfect way to prepare your home for the summer season. Your home has been closed up for months and months to keep out cold temperatures, and now we can open the windows and let your home breathe! Spring cleaning can actually mean deep cleaning or it can be de-cluttering. I for one usually take this time to do both. Today's list is focusing on the top 10 things you should be doing seasonally or quarterly. Things that we tend to forget about because it isn't on our daily/weekly/monthly check lists.
I live in tornado alley so my spring cleaning has a little more purpose to it other than just a yearly ritual. I work hard to make sure my home is organized and void of any junk and misc that I don't need. I have this fear of my home taking a hit by a tornado and having to clean up all my "junk" while on display for everyone.
||off topic for minute...||
My hometown is Baxter Springs, KS. Recently my hometown took a hit by an F2 tornado. Ripped right through the business part of town, and destroyed many homes as well. It has been a very emotional week for me as people post pictures on Facebook of what I used to call my home. Luckily, there were no deaths and minimal injuries. I want to take this time real quick to plead with you to please pay attention to the weather. Living my whole life in Kansas, I'm very veryyy used to hearing tornado sirens. Some seasons they go off weekly during tornado season. Just because nothing has ever happened, doesn't mean nothing will ever happen. Please treat every threat with the seriousness that it is. Be prepared. Have a game plan. I know the sirens seem to "Cry Wolf", but it could be that one time you ignore it, that your life is changed for forever.
Spring cleaning can be good for the soul. It can bring a feeling of peace && freshness to your life. In today's post I'm going to share my favorite spring cleaning tips && tricks.
||1} Take the time to clean your dryer duct work [I do this in the Spring && Fall]. Only YOU can prevent house fires.... caused by lint. Pretty Handy Girl has a great step by step tutorial for this.
||2} Change your air filter! Those rectangles of fiberglass can get prettyyy gross. If you have a reusable one, CLEAN IT! Start your Spring/Summer season off with clean filtered air.
||3} Clean your stove drip trays. One of my favorite ways of doing this is using ammonia. I remove the drip trays, pour a little ammonia into the tray, then lay paper towels on the tray. This soaks up the ammonia, while also keeping the ammonia on the full surface of the tray. Then place them in a ziploc container for several hours. The burnt on gunk literally rinses right off. This is a stinky project, but very effective.
||4} Clean your ceiling fans. I keep an old pillow case around that I use for this purpose. Spray your fan blades with dusting spray [I prefer Pledge Dust & Allergen], then put the blade into the pillow case. Pull the pillow case back off of the blade, while wiping the blade with the inside of the pillow case. This is very helpful for keeping dust bunnies from falling all over your floor. All the dusty gunk stays in the pillow case.
||5} Deodorize your drains
||6} Freshen your mattress. All you need is baking soda && a vacuum. Sprinkle baking soda on your mattress, leave on for a minimum of 30mins, vacuum it up with an upholstery attachment. You'll want to flip your mattress at this time as well. I would do it before freshening the mattress. Pin a piece of paper to the bottom of the mattress or the edge telling you when you flipped/freshened it.
||7} Freshen your bathroom towels
||8} Wash your shower curtain && curtain liner. I wash my shower curtain liner in the washing machine with vinegar. I throw in my cleaning rags with this load, the rags will rub against the liner in the washer and scrub it clean.
||9} Wash your bed pillows. I do my linens once a week, but only do my pillows quarterly. Inspiration for Moms has a wonderfully written step by step instruction on this.
||10} Change out your "scents". This is the time to move away from warm spicy winter season candles, and bring in light fresh scents. I am incrediblyyy anal about this. I can NOT have warm spicy scents when it's warm outside. It's a no. As I'm typing this I have the B&BW Snap Peas candle burning <333
I hope this helps inspire you to tackle the job! Don't look at it as a chore, look at it as blessing your home && welcoming Spring! Turn on some fun music of your choice and go to town. You'll be so happy you did!
What's your spring cleaning ritual? Share in the comments below!
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