For many people, April is one of the most wonderful times of the year. The birds are once again chirping, plants begin to bud and bloom, and, best of all, the days are suddenly feeling much longer and warmer as spring finally returns to chase away the cold of winter. Unfortunately, this time of year also brings with it one of many people’s most-dreaded tasks—the boring and oh-so-tedious spring cleaning. Still, the warmer weather does mean now is the perfect time to tackle your once yearly deep clean to ensure your home is clean, sanitary and looking its best for whatever the busy summer months may bring. In light of this, here are some helpful tips that should allow you to make this year’s spring cleaning easier and more thorough than ever before.
Dust and Wash Everything from Top to Bottom
A true spring cleaning should really mean cleaning virtually every inch of your house, and the best way to do this is to start at the top and work your way downwards. This means first dusting and washing all of your ceiling fans and light fixtures and thoroughly cleaning the upper corners of each and every room to make sure they’re free of cobwebs and the like. From there, you’ll want to work your way down by washing all of your walls, cabinets, windows and countertops to eliminate any dust, dirt and grime that they’ve inevitably collected over the past year before finally cleaning your furniture, baseboards and then the floors.
Dust obviously travels downwards as you disturb it, which is why it only makes sense to start off your cleaning at the very top. In fact, you shouldn’t only do this for each room, but also for the entire house—starting off on the uppermost level and slowly working your way down to the ground floor or basement. This practice enables you to be more systematic in your cleaning.
Work Your Way from Room to Room
Similar to the previous point, it is also essential that you create a plan for your spring cleaning and try to stick to it as best as you can. What this means is methodically working your way through the house and cleaning one room completely from top to bottom before moving onto the next. Again, the point here is to ensure that you don’t forget any important tasks and don’t have to go back over areas you’ve already cleaned once.
Focus on Your Furniture and Floors
Your carpets, floors and the upholstery on your furniture are some of the items that collect the most dirt and grime due to the huge amount of traffic and use they see throughout the year. As a result, these are some of the items you’ll want to focus the most amount of your time on. In this case, simply vacuuming up all of the dirt, dust, pet hair, food particles and other debris simply isn’t enough. The whole point of spring cleaning is to give everything in the house a true, deep clean, which usually means shampooing your carpets, thoroughly washing your upholstery and potentially even getting down on your knees to scrub your wood, tile and linoleum floors by hand. Not only will these actions ensure your furniture and flooring looks its best, but they can also help to extend their lifetimes and keep them looking flawless for years to come.
Don’t Forget Your Appliances
One area many people tend to forget about is their appliances. However, the truth is that your oven, microwave, refrigerator and other appliances are bound to amass more than their fair share of grime throughout the year. Therefore, now is the time to give every appliance in your home a good, thorough cleaning. This means washing your refrigerator both inside and out and not forgetting to clean out the coils on the backside and underneath since these can collect a huge amount of dust. Similarly, you’ll want to do the same for every TV in the house, your microwave, toaster and virtually any other appliance you can think of.
Improve Your Indoor Air Quality
Another area that very few people ever focus on is the quality of the air inside their home. This is unfortunate since statistics show that the level of indoor air pollution is usually much higher than the level of pollution outside of your home. For this reason, improving your indoor air quality is another thing you should definitely focus on this spring. Using HEPA-filter vacuums for your cleaning and attempting to avoid any harsh chemical cleaning products is a good place to start. However, the fact is that your home’ HVAC system and ductwork is usually one of the biggest culprits in terms of poor indoor air quality, which is why you should also consider scheduling an appointment with Fresh Aire Duct Cleaning to ensure your family is breathing clean, healthy air.
At Fresh Aire Duct Cleaning, our air duct cleaning services can hold the key to improving your home’s air quality by eliminating any mold, allergens and dust. Therefore, this is another thing that should really be on everyone’s spring-cleaning checklist.