When we think about spring cleaning, we typically consider blitzing all the dust and dirt, opening the windows to air out the house and deep cleaning the things that build up grime and odours like soft furnishings, carpets and rugs – and maybe giving all the windows a good going over to let all that lovely spring light flood in.
But spring cleaning doesn’t have to be limited to our homes. Let’s have a look at what else would benefit from a significant refresh.
A good place to start is your car and garage…
Tackle the garage first and get down to a good old clear out – maybe even host a garage sale (COVID restrictions permitting, of course). Perhaps invest in some shelves or storage units and large tubs to organise your possessions logically, so they will be easy to find. That way, when we move onto clearing out your car, you’ll know exactly where to store anything you don’t want to keep in the car, but are not quite ready to get rid of.
If you’re in the mood, painting the walls and floor with a heavy duty, wipeable paint will help to keep the dust levels down and make the whole place easier to clean.
Now your car as a clean and tidy home, move on to clear out your car boot, door pockets, under seats, glove boxes etc. Consider purchasing a boot organiser, so that anything that needs to stay in the car has its place, leaving the rest of your vehicle for the family to enjoy.
While you’re at it, open up all the doors, and give the interior a good clean and vacuum, then get to work on the outside. You can enlist the kids to help with this too and have a lot of fun.
It’s going to feel so good when you drive your sparkling car into your gleaming garage.
Do you migrate your winter clothes in summer?
If not, and you don’t have a monster walk-in wardrobe, it’s a good idea to pack up your winter clothes, which are generally bulkier in nature to give your summer wardrobe room to breathe.
If you have space in your garage or outbuilding, or other onsite storage area, that’s perfect – otherwise, you might want to consider hiring a storage locker.
Be sure to pack everything into containers – or even vacuum pack them for great preservation. Make sure everything is washed and absolutely dry (or dry-cleaned) before packing away to ensure there is no residual moisture. You can pack away with bags of lavender to keep them smelling fresh and fragrant – and even throw in some silicone sachets to keep everything nice and dry.
After the summer, it’s quite exciting to unpack your winter wardrobe – we bet you’ve forgotten a lot of items you have and it feels like Christmas! Obviously, as you unpack your winter clothes, you can repeat the process by cleaning, drying, and packing away your summer wardrobe.
Tidy up your tools
If you are spring cleaning your home, why not first conduct an audit of all your cleaning equipment. When we use things every day, it’s easy to stop noticing how dirty they can get.
So how about spending a little time cleaning and disinfecting your vacuum and tools, brooms, mops, sponges, dusters etc. The build-up of grime over time, means they can be brimming with bacteria and germs. Throw away anything that looks like it’s too far gone and replace.
To clean and sanitise, you can soak soft items in baking soda, white vinegar and water and then let them air-dry in the sun, which is amazing for eliminating bugs and harmful bacteria. For cleaning cloths, sponges, scrubbers etc, wash them in your washer on the hottest setting after the soaking and again, dry in the sun.
Whiz through that workspace
We covered this in our Healthy Happy Workspace blog, so take a look here for more detail, but suffice to say, you can get quite a build-up of dirt, food, grease and grime on your desk itself, as well as your keyboard, screen, mouse etc., so get to work, putting a little sparkle into your home office.
While you’re there, it’s a great idea to also
Do a little social pruning
We don’t know about you, but we often find we have a lot of out-dated contacts on social media channels, plus a heap of companies’ sales emails we have no recollection of subscribing to. Even just clearing the emails can take an age, but with a little extra time, you can work through to unsubscribe from many of them to keep your inbox a bit more streamlined. Add to this, a build-up of messages and contacts on a plethora of messaging platforms and that’s a whole lot of clutter to purge. Yes, it’s a tedious and time-consuming task, but we guarantee you’ll feel lighter once you’ve finished.
Make your handbag happy
Think about how often you use your everyday bag, your purse, your phone, keys, credit and debit cards. In fact, think about how many hands have touched your credit cards in particular.
Extend your spring clean to your handbag – empty it, vacuum it, clean and administer a leather treatment (if appropriate) then wipe down all contents with some disinfectant wipes, or make a natural solution of sodium bicarbonate and water, or even an aloe vera cleansing water. Dry everything off with a clean cloth and return all items to their happy new home.
Bathroom bliss
Most people are pretty good at clearing their wardrobes from time to time, but blitzing the bathroom is often forgotten. Take a look through your bathroom cabinets – how many hair products, body, bath and dental products do you actually need, and more importantly, actually use? It’s easy to be seduced with new products and their miracle claims, and we tend to buy these things on impulse – and quite often.
Take a good hard look at what you are using. And take a good long look at the labels too. Maybe find some really great natural products with no nasties and ditch the rest.
Drain detox
Finally, have a thing about all the things that end up going down your drains. Hair, food, dirt, grease etc., it can get pretty gruesome down there. You don’t need strong, toxic chemicals to clean and clear your drains – our versatile old friends, white vinegar and baking soda come to the rescue again and are completely neutralising.
Make up some baking soda & vinegar solution with water in all of your sinks, bath tub and showers – don’t be shy with the amounts – and release the mixtures into your drains before you go to bed.
Then flush them all through with warm water the next morning. Get into a routine of doing this every three months to keep your drains in tip top condition.
Of course, if you’d rather outsource any of this, just give us a shout and we’ll be happy to help – aside from rummaging around your handbag and social media accounts, that is.