Like the grocery store magazine rack, the Internet abounds with articles and lists on how to clean your home and reduce clutter. Many are formatted to make you click through multiple web pages, affording publishers the opportunity to show you more ads for cleaning products and storage systems. My simple list, inspired by this week's warming weather, is all in one place with no annoying distractions---besides all those other tabs open on your screen.
Tom Fiffer's Top 10 Spring Cleaning Tips
1. Open your windows. Fresh air works wonders to eliminate the stale smells that have collected in closed homes all winter. Be sure to open windows on multiple sides of your house to get a good cross-breeze, and let nature's deodorizer do your work for you.
2. Change your sheets and bedcovers. Of course you can strip your beds, wash your linens, and put them back on. But I mean switch to different sheets for spring, whether you pull a spare set out of your closet or buy a new one. When my mother was growing up in the 1930s, it was common to change many of the fabrics in the home seasonally, including bedspreads, linens, draperies, and upholstery. You may not have a set of spring drapes (I don't), but we spend a third of our lives in bed (or a quarter if you're an overachiever), and there's nothing nicer than a fresh, clean place to read, snuggle, and sleep.
3. Wash your pillow protectors in bleach. As long as you're stripping the linens, it makes sense to give your pillow protectors a thorough treatment. Bleach kills germs and makes everything smell better.
4. Run all your bathroom cups, toothbrush holders, soap dispensers, and other counter items in the heavy load or sanitizing cycle of your dishwasher. If you're like me, you clean and rinse these each time you clean your bathroom, but the dishwasher is the optimal way to sanitize and make them sparkle.
6. Wash rugs, mats, and removable furniture covers using your washer's delicate cycle. Many fabrics, including cushion covers, are now machine washable, and the delicate cycle on most newer washers is gentle enough to clean without damage. To avoid shrinking, dry using the air fluff or no heat selection on your dryer, or hang them outside if the sun is shining.
7. Empty out and thoroughly clean your refrigerator. It's amazing how much crud can accumulate in a fridge, the sticky patches, the inexplicable stains, and the spoiled food that gets forgotten under fresher items. Before you do your next big shop, while the fridge is closer to empty, remove everything---take out the produce baskets and rinse them in the sink, scrub the shelves, the doors, and the grate at the bottom (a Q-tip or rolled up paper towel works to get the dirt out from in between the slats). If you use baking soda to absorb refrigerator odors, replace the boxes. And if you're putting anything sticky or drippy in the fridge, such as containers of fresh fruit, place a paper towel under them to keep your surfaces clean. Also, throw out anything that's been your freezer for whatever period of time you consider too long.
8. Dust your screens. TV and computer screens accumulate tons of dust. Use an old t-shirt (softer than a dish towel) or a specialized screen cloth, and you'll be amazed at the improvement in picture quality.
9. Clean your gutters or have them done by a professional. Even if you did this in the fall, leaves and debris have accumulated over the winter months, and clogged gutters can cause water to pool resulting in roof leaks and water damage in your home. Make sure all your downspouts are draining properly.
10. Buy some fresh flowers or cut them from your garden. Nothing perks up a home more nicely than fresh, colorful blooms. If you have daffodils or forsythia growing in your yard, clip some flowers or branches. If not, Trader Joe's has a good selection of inexpensive flowers, or you can go crazy at Terrain.