Deep Clean in the Busiest Time of the Year
March, April, and May are busy times of year for anyone who’s interested in having a clean home—which should include everybody who cares about their health. This is the time of year that is set aside for a traditional spring clean. Some people call in local South East London professional end-of-tenancy cleaners to do this sort of work for them; others prefer to get stuck in and do it themselves.
Don’t Try To Clean Up The House in a Day
Spring cleaning in London may be something that the woman of the (London-based} household thinks that she needs to tackle all by herself. Still, your family collects stuff, too, so create one weekend where everyone is available to help. Don’t try to clean the entire house in one day- that is truly overwhelming- but plan on getting a good amount of it done, or else by the time you finish part of the house, you’ll see that the other parts of the house have collected even more stuff. One weekend every two weeks should be sufficient.
Plan Like You’ve Never Planned Before
Before starting your spring cleaning, it pays to have a plan. In today’s busy modern world, time is precious. Who wants to spend every sunny spring day when the birds are singing and the daffodils bloom and stuck indoors with a mop and a duster? You need to set priorities for achieving your goals through a spring cleaning session. This list of priorities can be for you, or it can be good to hand it to a professional cleaner you’ve called to help you with the job.
The tasks that should be prioritised for spring cleaning shouldn’t be your run-of-the-mill domestic cleaning chores. This is where you can get heavy-duty. This is where you can do all those jobs that you’re going to get around to someday, as well as those domestic chores that you don’t need to do weekly or monthly.
Do Not Leave Cleaning Tasks For “Next Time”
Some of the jobs that tend to be put on the “Get Around To It” list are cleaning out the attic, wiping out the insides of cupboards, decluttering any high-clutter areas, and sorting out wardrobes. You might also need to sort out children’s bedrooms, toy cupboards, and study areas—all areas that tend to attract chaos and clutter.
A List of Things To Do Is a Great Idea
Jobs that only have to be done once a year include carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning and rug cleaning. Some special ethnic rugs need to be professionally cleaned once a year for the warranty to remain valid, so you need to have a professional carpet cleaning service handy. If you like, You can clean your carpets with one of those hired steam cleaning machines. Floor cleaning, in general, is good to save for spring cleaning – wooden floors need a good dollop of polish annually, so now is a good time to do it. Other annual jobs that are often saved for a spring cleaning session include:
- cleaning the inside of the oven (normally a part of an end of tenancy cleaning job)
- cleaning the screens of computer monitors and TVs (however, you may want to do this more frequently if the screen gets dirty thanks to flies or (eek!) splashes of coffee)
- upholstery cleaning – curtains need a freshen-up to stop them looking tired and dingy
- washing out the inside of an outdoor dog kennel, especially if it’s had a muddy dog in it all winter
- wiping down skirting boards, architraves and dado rails
- cleaning out the interior of a car, including vacuuming – a must if you’re one of those people who practically live in their car.
- Wiping the dust could be done with furniture polish or soapy water and a cloth. The dirty areas might need scrubbing with a sponge or a brush. It is recommended to wipe down the dust before you start vacuuming the floor. You should try to vacuum properly behind and under furniture. Sometimes, sofas, mattresses, and chairs also need vacuuming or even washing, depending on the material they are made of.
Of course, everybody will have a different list, and the spring cleaning list for your house will look different from the one for mine. The important thing is to make sure that you have a priority list of things you want to achieve. It makes the whole process a lot easier.
Spring Cleaning Is The Best Reason To Recycle
Before you even start, call your local charity that picks up donations and make an appointment for them to stop by. Now you have a deadline and, thus, a goal! Make sure the pick-up day is realistic in relation to your house cleaning; you’ll probably have to go through the closets and store the donation pile in the garage, saving that area for last, and then take it all to the curb the night before the scheduled pick-up.
Start with the worst closet and go from there. One closet on one weekend day should be sufficient to keep the spring house cleaning bug at bay and help you feel like you’ve accomplished something. (If you’re working on the garage, you may use an entire weekend.) Take a deep breath and pull everything out of the closet and onto the floor. Don’t stop to sort through, shove it all out at once. Then, start sorting the pile. One pile should be “keepers,” one for “donate,” and one for “take to the dump.” Donating or taking items to the dump will be easier for those of you who have a propensity for being a pack rat by following this simple rule of thumb. If you haven’t considered where it is or used it within the last six months, it could be donated or trashed.
Use translucent storage bins to organise items to be kept but re-stored in the garage; a tall metal shelf can be purchased at any home improvement outlet, and sorting items into pre-labelled bins will make your house cleaning go by much faster. You can even buy coloured bins for holidays-green and red for Christmas and orange and black for Halloween decorations. Use a clean, 33-gallon garbage can lined with a bag and set it right next to where you are sorting; it will save a ton of time and back strain instead of lugging out individual garbage bags as you fill them.
With a bit of forethought and a plan, you can turn the seemingly endless task of organising and major house cleaning for the year into a few weekends well worth your time.
Handy Recycling Tips
- Old sheets, towels and t-shirts can be torn up and used as cleaning rags. You will save over a few pennies using reusable rags for cleaning, polishing and dusting rather than paper towels. Old socks also have their uses (and not just as glove puppets for small children to make on a rainy afternoon). Old socks can be fitted over brooms to remove cobwebs, or keep a thick old pair for polishing the floor without getting down on your hands and knees – after applying polish to the floor, buff it to a shine by putting the old socks on your bare feet and slithering all over the floor. You get a great workout and put some fun back into cleaning floors. Old socks and pantyhose are also suitable for storing soap scraps to be melted down for soap gel.
- Glass jars are ideal for storing dry goods in your kitchen. Use big ones for flour, rice, oats, sugar and the like, while smaller ones can be used for spices, cocoa, instant coffee and the like. Glass jars wash easily, are vermin-proof and airtight, and let you see what’s in your pantry straight away.
- Plastic bottles with handles can be sliced in half on the diagonal and used as scoops for flour and sugar (in the kitchen), detergent powder (in the laundry), and fertiliser (in the garden). This helps prevent messy spills.
- Old newspapers have a multitude of uses. Try scrunching them up to clean glass and mirrors. (Use them to polish off any window cleaning product you have used – the ink seems to act as a polish, although I’m not sure about this 100%. It works, though!) As newspapers are very absorbent, they can also be used to clean grease out of frying pans or off a barbecue, for picking up cat or dog poop if they’ve misbehaved on the carpet, and for absorbing spills. You can also shred them for pet bedding, especially for mice, guinea pigs and rabbits.
- Collect blank paper on the back and make jotter pads for shopping lists and telephone messages. This method can be used with all sorts of paper, ranging from old envelopes to the insides of paper shopping bags, as well as more obvious bits of paper like the backs of old-form letters and junk mail. Use magnets or thumbtacks on a pinboard rather than sticky notes, and save a few pennies.