It’s that time of year again, Spring Cleaning! Some of us dread it and others enjoy it. There’s nothing more rewarding than sitting back, relaxing and seeing everything that you have done to get your Shelburne home ready for another year. But where do you start? Let’s look at some helpful tips to get your spring cleaning off to a good start.

Do you remember the saying, “when eating an elephant, take one bite at a time”? Same goes for your home. Tackle one room at a time and you will eventually get everything done.

LAUNDRY

Start by gathering anything that needs to be laundered. Laundry can work while you work. Wash bedding and curtains while you are working in the room. With the bed stripped, you may want to freshen your mattress.  Sprinkle baking soda over the mattress and let it sit while you are working on the rest of the room.  Vacuum off the baking soda before removing stains.  To remove stains from body sweat and oils, use 2 cups of warm to hot water with 2 drops each of lemon essential oil and lime essential oil.  If you are someone who turns their mattress, it is a good time to do that as well.

SORTING

Next start sorting.  Make piles for donating, trash, keep and seasonal.  A good rule of thumb is if you haven’t used it in the past six months, you probably don’t need it.  Once you have sorted your items, put your keep and seasonal items away.  Place your donating and trash piles in bags and remove them from the room.

Now for the fun part, the Spring Cleaning DEEP CLEAN.

1. BLINDS – If you have blinds, I would start there.  Depending on how much dust has accumulated, you may be able to get away with using a feather duster.  Start at the top, working your way left to right and then down.  Once you have dusted them, pull the blinds up.  This way the dust that you pushed off and is floating in the air won’t land back on the blinds that you just cleaned.  However, if your blinds are fairly dusty, you may want to take the time to wash each slat.  It’s time consuming but they look great after.
2. LIGHT FIXTURES – If it is one that can easily be taken apart, give it a good wash.  It’s amazing how caked on the dust can get.  Now is also a good time to replace any burnt out bulbs.
3. FURNITURE – Use a damp cloth to give it a good dusting.  Now I don’t mean just the top of the dresser, make sure to dust the sides, legs, drawer fronts and ledges.  Once you have dusted all the furniture, move everything into the middle of the room.  If the furniture is too large, ask for help to move the item or do your best to clean without moving the item at all.  The last thing you need is to hurt yourself just to get rid of some furry but harmless dust bunnies.
4. WALLS & DOORS – Washing walls and doors are always a chore and I don’t think anyone likes to do it.  But if you have young kids, trust me, you are going to want to.  Dust, finger prints, possibly boogers, who knows what else, you are going to want to give those walls and doors a good scrub.  Make sure to get the baseboards and window trim as they are definitely dust collectors.
5. FLOORS – With the furniture already moved away from the walls, it makes it easy to clean the floor that is usually under the furniture. Make sure to vacuum before you wash the floor.  If you have carpet, make sure to do the edging.  Once the floor has been washed and dried, move everything back into place.  Now you can finish vacuuming and washing the remainder of the floor in room.

With the deep clean done, all there is left to do is replace the bedding and curtains.  TA-DAH!  One room complete.  Spring cleaning can be a lot of work; but I can honestly say when you’re all done, it gives you that feeling of accomplishment.  Now on to the next room!