Spring Cleaning ~ a complete guide to what you need to get started!

If you think spring cleaning isn’t that exciting, you’re wrong! I think it’s because everyone gets nervous or overwhelmed when it comes to cleaning. The good news is that with this spring cleaning checklist I’m going to help you with, you can clean out all the dirt of winter and get ready for a new fresh start into summer before you start losing your marbles. If you’re looking just to tackle your bedroom, organize your closet, treat the deck, spring clean your kids bedroom or even tackle that overloaded kitchen, this check list is pretty basic enough to help you with a good start to your long laundry list.

Image: Premier Surface’s

What You Need To Get Started

1. Start Small - Think of one area in the house you want to get done first and don’t start anything else until you are finished with it. It doesn’t have to be that day, this could happen over multiple weekends if that’s what it takes to get it complete. Hey, you only need to do this twice a year so make sure it’s a job well done right! ​

2. Ask For Help- If you live with a spouse, or kids or heck even a roomate, make sure that you are able to get advice or even assign jobs to those that can assist you. This helps it go a lot smoother and efficient if everyone is willing to pitch in! WINNING

3. Gather Cleaning Supplies - Make sure you always have a good playlist when it comes to cleaning. This keep your motivation going when you’re really not wanting to get the job done. Also, make sure you have some easy prepared meals for those that are helping you out. This helps keep everything moving so you don’t have to take a break in the middle of cleaning to prepare for the meal. Another thing that helped was picking up a label maker and markets. This helps label everything that you have for trash or keeping.

Image: Premier Surface’s

4. Cleaning The Areas- After you have your area chosen, make sure to clean it out completely. This means that you remove everything from the floors, take items off the shelves and create a clean workspace for you and whomever is helping. Seperate all your items in various garbage bags, donation boxes, storage boxes and keep boxes. Put the garbage bags in the trash cans, donation boxes in the car and have someone drive them to a donation center right away to get rid of them! Don’t forget a receipt so you can write them off for taxes! If you’re working with a bedroom, make sure to remove the linens. This includes your curtains, tablecloths, bedding and other things you might have. Start by washing them so you can replace them when the rest of the room is finished. Also, dust! Dust everything from the ceiling to the baseboards. I also wash windows with a glass cleaner and if possible, remove I remove the window screen and hose those off as well. One of chores I give my kids is to polish the wood furniture and clean the countertops in the kitchen because it doesn’t take much work. Our countertops are from one our favorite companies, Premier Surfaces located in Buffalo, New York! They offer great customer service, a variety of various items like limestone, wood or granite and always carry easy installment payments.​

5. Organize Your Items- Once you have everything ready to go, purchase bins, basekts, hangers and anything else you need to store the items! Keep your boxes and go through them. Clean anything that needs to be cleaned and discard what you don’t want. PUt all the bins, baskets and hangers away. You can’t put things into drawer or shelves because you’ll forget! If you need to store on the floor, set that aside until the floors are cleaned!

6. Finishing - The last few things you can do in each room is replace the linens that are freshly washed, vacuum the carpets, sweep the floors and give the proper floor treatments to the various floors you are working with. Also, make sure to put away any items that are still out and plug in or spray an air freshener in the room to give it that nice clean spring smell!

Celebrate friends! You were able to get everything done and it didn’t even take that long! Now enjoy your hard work with a freshly clean home...at least for the next 10 minutes!