My spring cleaning usually starts with decluttering and throwing away unnecessary things. You can start with the simplest part first. You can try to find shutters and clean them one by one. That way, I can clean less. But let’s not worry about that and move on to cleaning. In my apartment, everything is thoroughly cleaned. It may seem like you clean your house from Memorial Day to the last crocus, but it’s not that bad. You can tackle one project or room at a time, and it won’t seem so bad.
Start With the Kitchen
Since this is the most time-consuming room, I prefer to start with the kitchen. While the clutter doesn’t pile up here, I find it easy to clear out the cabinets. I also like to remove all the plastic containers that I know will always accumulate no matter what I do. Once that’s done, I move on to the floor.
First, you can clean the area and dust the ceiling; yes, dust the top. My popcorn ceilings accumulate dust. I use my broom to sweep the awnings throughout the house. Some pieces of the popcorn ceiling indeed fall off in the process, but that’s not a problem because I want to get rid of them. So the dust and cobwebs are removed from the popcorn ceiling.
Next, the wall needs to be washed, which is pretty straightforward. All I need is warm water, some detergent, and vinegar. This mixture of vinegar and detergent removes most grease stains from walls very well. For stubborn grease stains, I prefer to use a special degreaser. If it’s small, a ladder may be necessary. However, be sure to clean all the walls. You can remove the stove and refrigerator to clean the walls, or you can do it later when you have time.
Tackle the Bathrooms
You can clean each bathroom separately or all at once. You can do it however you want. I prefer to do each one individually. I clean each one the next day. The first and most important thing to do is get rid of the clutter. Throw away old makeup, expired medicine, etc. You can also make your bathroom cleaner: wipe down the bathtub, use a good quality product to remove soap residue, and scrub the tub and shower. If necessary, reseal the battery and clean the joints. Finally, descale the showerhead. To do this, remove the showerhead and soak it in hot vinegar for several hours. Then rinse it well before putting it back in place. If necessary, replace the Teflon faucet.
This shouldn’t be too difficult if, like me, you use the bathroom a lot. Clean the lid of the tank and check that the internal mechanism is working correctly. Clean the toilet on all sides. It would be best if you also cleaned the bottom of the toilet, as this is the place where dust is most likely to settle. If you want, you can put a strip of bleach in the tank.
Declutter and Clean Your Bedrooms
Your bedroom should be your sanctuary and not a place where you keep all your stuff. Unfortunately, this is precisely what my bedroom has become. This bedroom is now the part office, bedroom, and junk collector. You can get rid of all the clothes you no longer wear and put away the winter ones. Then, no more decluttering.
Dust your blinds and pull down your curtains. They all need to be washed. Some curtains are not the machine or dry cleanable. Use proper cleaning techniques for your window treatments. You can clean your blinds with a duster designed explicitly for blinds. Or you can let your imagination run wild and take two pairs of old baby socks. Place them on top of a couple of kitchen tongs. To remove dirt, dust, and stains from your curtains, you can clean them with a mixture of vinegar and detergent.