So, we’re all clean. House is looking good and the things that you’ve been keeping on your long term cleaning list are complete! Well now the goal is to maintain it right? That way come next spring it’s not going to be so hard (so much easier said than done, trust me I know). I’ve put together a few of my favorite cleaning hacks to help you keep your house clean.
First and foremost, you can clean mostly anything with baking soda and vinegar. Keep that on hand at home at all times!
Fill a microwavable bowl with water and lemon juice and heat it up in the microwave for 2-4 minutes. Carefully remove the bowl and wipe away all the stains.
Fill a spray bottle with vodka and water. When you change your sheets or wash your couch covers spray the surface with your spray solution. Once the cushions are dry put your covers back on. This will help prevent odors and bed bugs!
After you’ve cleaned your base boards and they’re dry run your dryer sheets over them a couple times. The dust will jump right off.
Have a grease stain? Use some dish soap and baking soda on the stain and run it in the wash on the hottest setting the clothing will take.
One of the things I want to do is start to purge my house of harsh cleaning chemicals. I’ve created a list of recipes from floor cleaner to glass cleaner so I thought I’d share!
Floor cleaner:
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon dish soap
1 gallon water
We have tile floors at home so this is great for tile or laminate flooring.
Glass cleaner:
1/4 white vinegar
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
2 cups water
1 tbs corn starch
We also have granite countertops in our kitchen so I use a few drops of dish soap and water on a microfiber towel. This is gentle and won’t eat away at the stone.
For stainless steel appliances it’s a 2-step process.
Step1 – Stainless Steel Cleaner:
1 part white vinegar
1 part water
Step 2 – Once your surface is clean and dry polish with olive oil.
As part of my theme for March my goal is to “Restart” and get back on track after work took over my life for a little while there. Part of that is to get my house in order which hasn’t been fully cleaned in months (so embarrassing to admit this). But, the bright light in this dark tunnel is that this month spring is upon us! I like to do a Spring Cleaning and Fall Cleaning session at my house to keep it in shape, but my mistake the previous years have been trying to do a full clean in 1 day. This time, I’m going to plan it out and do it in sessions over the month of March and see how this pans out for me.
I try to maintain my house so that it’s less to clean in times like these. I have daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly things I have on a checklist in my planner to help me remember what gets done and when. But the keyword is *try*. While my hurricane of work at Ninong’s happened I barely cleaned at all. Just the bare minimum. Then Charlie and I went on a quick Hawaii getaway with his family for a few days which was amazing but also kept me from cleaning.
My cleaning checklist in my planner
The first Monday I was back from all that mess I was so motivated to get cleaning! I don’t know about you but when I clean I feel like I have a clear mind and it dawned on me that I should start thinking about my spring cleaning plan. I started making a list in my head as I was mopping and wrote down all the things that I wanted to do.
The main focus when I do spring cleaning is to clean things that don’t get cleaned often since I should be doing all the other things on a regular basis anyway. Things like cleaning base boards, clean the top of the refrigerator, clean the window sills, etc.
Once I wrote that down, I organized it into Evernote and categorized it by room. For me personally, cleaning room by room is like zone defense in basketball. If it tackle 1 or 2 rooms each cleaning session it’s more manageable for me and I’ll be more thorough.
My plan is to do a deep clean every Monday in March and April (since Mondays are my days off). If I had 2 days off I would be able to finish everything in a month, but I think that’s the important thing here. It’s better to be realistic and know what you can and can’t do. I originally thought that I’d be able to do all the spring cleaning by the end of March until I sat down with my cleaning list and my calendar and realized that if I’m only dedicating 1 day a week to it then it’s going to take me longer than I thought. But that’s ok! You know that saying, “Done is better than perfect.”
So let’s get to it people! What do you have on your spring cleaning list?
