Spring Cleaning Tips

Spring cleaning your home allows you to give your home a fresh, clean, rejuvenated appearance. Here are a few tips to accomplish this goal.

Wash All Of Your Curtains
Curtains hold household dust, sometimes not seen by the naked eye. Curtains, also can absorb the every day cooking and pet odors, especially during the winter months because you tend not to air our your house as much, due to the cold temperatures.

To assist in adding a fresh scent to your home, purchase your favorite fabric softener to add to your rinse. When curtains are then rehung in the home, your home will be filled with your most pleasurable scent. Keep in mind the manufactures instructions on how to properly wash your individual curtains. Personally, in my home, I add a touch more fabric softener to the rinse, put my curtains through the spin cycle twice ( to eliminate excess moisture) and rehang my curtains damp on a bright and sunny day with all possibles windows open to aid in the air drying process.

Clean Your Carpets And Flooring
Trust me when I say, floors and carpets are full of germs and odors. They really take a beating, especially in the winter because of all of the contaminates brought into the home from outside to manage snow, ice and sleet. More prominent are when pets and children track those contaminates indoors.

I suggest that you purchase or rent a carpet cleaner from your local supermarket. I strongly recommend cleaning your carpets more than once with the proper cleaning solution added. Clean your carpets at least twice or until the water returns to the cleaner with a clear appearance. On the last pass over the carpet, in my home I add a bold scented fabric softener to the water container. I do this to add more fragrance to the clean carpet.

As for your hard surface flooring, I recommend that you first sweep and/ or use a vacuum to remove dirt and sand from the crevices in the floor. Then use a mop and bucket filled with the proper floor cleaning solution and warm water to remove the dirt/grime from the floor. Then allow your floor to fully dry. A tip is to open the main windows in the house to create a breeze to aide in the drying process. After floor is fully dry, wax your floor with the proper waxing solution. This will give your floors a nice, clean shine to the floor’s appearance.

Walls & Baseboards
A lot of dust, pet dander/hair, attaches itself to your walls and baseboards during the winter months. What I am going to suggest may sound like a cruel punishment, but it will really make a difference!!

First, I highly recommend that you dust the baseboards and walls with a microfiber cloth. This is a very important step, because if you do not dust, the dust/ hair will noticeably clump up on the wall or baseboard. The next step is to get a bucket of warm water and add a drop of an all purpose household cleaner to the water. Use a terry cloth to wipe walls and baseboards. However, keep in mind, the type of wall paint finish ( flat, satin, glossy etc… ) that you have, will let you know if an additive can be added.

Happy cleaning!