It’s spring, and a great time for get-togethers with family and friends. Before you send out those invitations, look around your home and check if there’s anything you would like to improve, starting with cleaning up any clutter or stuff accumulated over winter. Spring is always a good time to hit ‘refresh’ or to bring in new energy into the home, so get a head start with a good clean-up. Here at Decorworks, we love to clean have put together this massively detailed cleaning list, which you probably won’t need every single item here, but it’s on the list when you do.
Our essential cleaning checklist for the perfectionist at heart:
Hallways, Common Areas, and All Over the House
- Dusting Surfaces and Knickknacks
- Dust/ Cobwebs in Corners and Walls
- Dusting Ceiling Fans
- Wiping Baseboards and Crown Moldings
- Cleaning Window Ledges and Window Wells
- Cleaning Light Switches, Light Fixtures, and Doorknobs
- Emptying Waste Baskets
- Sweeping Staircases and Wiping Down Railings
- Sweeping, Vacuuming, and Mopping Floors
This section is your go-to for every area in the house. Even when you work on specific rooms, make sure that you are addressing every item listed here. For instance, every doorknob in your home should be cleaned because knobs and handles are high-traffic carriers of bacteria.
Bedrooms
- Nightstand, Desk, and Top of Dresser
- Lamps, Lampshades, and Electronics
- Cleaning and Organizing Inside Drawers
- Cleaning and Organizing Closet
- Vacuuming/ Cleaning Mattress, Pillows, and Bedsheets
- Washing and Drying Blankets and Comforters
- Sweeping and Mopping Floors, Including Under the Bed and Underneath Furniture
Your bedroom is your haven; you’ll want to make sure that it is in top condition regularly. Since you spend so much time inside the bedroom, make a habit of cleaning it at least twice a week. Even the little things like putting your clothes away and tidying up will go a long way towards maintaining your bedrooms. If you practice good habits during the week, the cleaning on the weekends will go much easier.
Bathrooms
- Cleaning Bathtub and Shower
- Cleaning Toilet (always flush with the lid down)
- Cleaning Sink and Counter Tops
- Organizing Linen Closet
- Wiping Mirrors
- Scrubbing Tile Walls and Shower Doors
- Sweeping and Mopping Floors, Including Behind the Toilet
Cleaning the bathroom is critical to keeping a happy and healthy home. It’s recommended to clean at least 2-3 times per week, but this can include breaking up the chores into small portions. Don’t forget to address commonly overlooked areas like behind the toilet, the sink faucet, and in the tile grout.
The toilet is a very high priority! Make sure you clean inside the bowl, the toilet seat, lid, and the flushing handle. The base of the toilet should not be overlooked, especially if you have kids.
Kitchen
- Cleaning Stove Top, Stove Fan, Inside Oven, Oven Door
- Cleaning Microwave Interior and Exterior
- Wiping Exterior Surfaces of Appliances and Cabinet Doors
- Cleaning Underneath and Inside Small Appliances
- Cleaning Sinks and Counter Tops
- Cleaning Inside Fridge and Wiping Down Fridge Door
- Cleaning any Dirt between the Rubber of the Fridge Door
- Wet Wiping Walls and Backsplash
- Sweeping and Mopping Floors
Keeping your kitchen clean can be tricky because of the buildup of grease and other cooking materials on your walls, on your stove, and generally all over the place. Besides the weekly deep cleaning, you’ll want to at least maintain the quality of your kitchen every day. Practice good habits like wiping up after you finish cooking and doing your dishes after every meal. Not only will you keep unwanted guests like bacteria and critters away, you’ll cut your cleaning time in half. On a daily basis to prevent build-up of grease, you should wipe down every night or every time you use the kitchen with a multi-purpose spray that lets you spray and wipe. If you have kids and are worried about the chemicals in kitchen cleaners and sprays, you can make your own simply with vinegar and water.
Dining Room
- Washing Tabletop, Chairs, and Runners
- Setting Tablecloth and Placemats
- Setting Silverware and China
- Sweeping and Mopping Floors
This space is probably the next most important after the kitchen in the home. While you clean your dining room, think about how you can personalise and decorate the space for the next family gathering or party with friends. Keep your goals in mind while you are cleaning, as they can become good motivation. To help speed up the process, enlist your kids or family members and delegate the simpler tasks to them. When you’re done, they would feel good about having helped, even if they didn’t expect to in the beginning.
Living Room
- Dusting Tabletops, TV sets and Entertainment Center
- Vacuuming Furniture, Including Under and Between Cushions
- Dusting Figurines and Electronics
- Dusting Picture Frames and Fireplace Mantle
- Sweeping, Vacuuming, and Mopping Floors, Including Underneath Rugs and Furniture
The living room is the epicenter of all life and activity in your home. If you take a look underneath your couch cushions, you may find a budding ecosystem of food crumbs, loose change, and dirt in every corner. Pay extra attention to those hard-to-reach areas such as underneath the furniture, under the rugs, and behind the entertainment center.
Attic/ Storage Room
- Dusting Surfaces and Walls
- Dusting Nooks and Crannies
- Cleaning in Corners and Removing Cobwebs
- Dusting Boxes and Crates
- Sweeping Floors, Including Underneath Your Belongings
For those of us with attics, we know how messy it can get sometimes because anything you put in here will eventually be forgotten, so don’t forget to purge this room from time to time. Often the attic becomes home for all the things we can’t seem to find a use for or a proper place elsewhere in the home. Spend at least an hour reorganizing and decluttering your personal belongings when you clean out the attic. Dust all areas that normally have items before putting everything back in.
Garage
- Washing Walls
- Cleaning and Organizing Shelves
- Wiping Down Entryway Door and Doorknobs
- Cleaning Garage Bay Door and Outside Frames
- Sweeping and Mopping Floors, including Grease Stains
With the overall amount of traffic that comes into your garage, you’ll want to clean it out at least 2 or 3 times every year. If you are washing your walls, avoid the tendency to start at the top and work your way down; starting at the top will leave you with watery stains that run all the way down to the floor and it is much harder to clean the bottom portions of the wall with water stains.
Instead, start at the bottom of the wall, closest to the ground. Clean in horizontal layers with a sponge and soapy water. As you work your way up, the water stains will drip down onto your clean lower sections. Don’t worry! This is what we want. It will be much easier to quickly wipe down the watery stains on clean walls once you are done with scrubbing the top layer. Once you finish scrubbing the entire wall, use a clean rag to wipe away the water stains.
When you are cleaning the garage floor, you’ll first want to sweep away the debris. If you have oil stains, you can use kitty litter or sawdust to absorb the oil deposits first. After vacuuming, run a quick mop over the floor and then let it dry before putting your car or anything else back into the garage.
We really hope this checklist will help you manage your spring cleaning and to keep up with a routine cleaning schedule.
