credit: destinelee
As the days get longer and warmer, our thoughts turn to spring cleaning. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, but need a little guidance on how to proceed, the Web has a number of resources to help you.
But first, a little history.
Part necessity and part annual ritual, the custom of spring cleaning likely dates back to prehistoric times, when extra light allowed people additional time to clear out their caves. The additional light also allowed them to see just how dirty everything was in the old homestead.
Religious practices also contributed to making spring cleaning a yearly ritual. The Jewish holiday of Passover, for example, compels observers to scour their homes top to bottom to rid them of chametz, unleavened bread. The onset of spring also heralds the Persian new year, Nouroz, which comes with its own cleaning rituals called khooneh takouni, “shaking the house.”
Spring cleaning was also the time our forebears cleaned the dirt left behind by wood and gas fires and candles. Spring weather freed up the servants from having to clean up the debris left by those fires and allowed them to hang up the drapes and rugs outside.
So, how to get started? Consider these basic strategies from Style at Home.
- Work from the top down, inside to outside, to avoid getting what you just cleaned dirty again.
- Do one room, even one area of one room, at a time to avoid unfinished jobs. The satisfaction of seeing one room sparkle will make the hard work feel like it’s worth the effort.
- Dust before vacuuming or cleaning the floor.
Or consult this list, 103 Tips for Spring Cleaning and Organizing.
A checklist is a good idea. Print out this list from iVillage, or have a separate checklist for each room:
How about a grand plan? The 2008 New Year Grand Plan Challenge is a 14-week plan that cuts the work down into “small weekly bites” and provides printable forms to help organize and track cleaning chores. More checklists:
- LifeScript offers a plan of attack for spring cleaning.
- Homemakers.com provides another room-by-room guide.
- Annual Household Jobs Checklist: Once-a-Year Chores and Spring Cleaning Hints.
- This guide from New American home lets you click on each room in the house to give you a list of what needs to be done, how to clean that specific room and how long each chore will take.
- The Fix-It corner’s spring cleaning checklist.
- This checklist covers the inside and outside of the house.
Once you’ve got a plan of attack, you need to know how to clean what. The Good Housekeeping Do-It-All Cleaning Guide has tips on cleaning just about anything you can imagine from chrome to coffeemakers, marble to microwaves and wicker to windows.
A good resource is Real Simple Spring Cleaning 101, which links to a series of stories by the magazine, including:
- The Nitty Gritty Guide to Cleaning Household Surfaces.
- The Definitive Cleaning Schedule.
- Streamline Spring Cleaning Plan.
Service Master offers another page of cleaning tips and tricks, especially helpful is the information on how to remove specific stains from crayon marks, to tar spots, to urine stains.
In addition to removing stains and dirt, spring cleaning offers a great opportunity for you to put your house in order. Consider these sites if you want to get organized and stay that way:
- Is it time to get organized? from the DIY Network offers a host of projects.
- Life Organizers offers articles on organizing closets, mail, electronics, coupons and your kid’s room, among others.
- Creative Homemaking has articles on organizing different rooms in the house as well as keeping track of your finances and tools for grocery shopping and menu planning.
- Get a grip with “6 steps to get rid Of clutter: How To Organize And Implement Clutter Control.”
If you work from home, here are some tips for sprucing up your home office:
- Spring cleaning your PC tells you how to clean the outside and inside of your computer.
- Ten tips to organize your home office.
- Organize and Update a Productive Workspace
- Spring cleaning checklist for our home office.
Want to go green with your spring cleaning?
- The Green Guide offers resources for finding green cleaning products.
- Or make your own household cleaning products.
- Make your spring cleaning green.
- Five basics for non-toxic spring cleaning.
And don’t forget the yard. Here are some links to check out before spring cleaning outside:
- Spring cleaning in the garden.
- Spring Cleaning: House and Yard tells you how to clean outdoor furniture, your grill and your gutters among other things.
- This list tells you how to get your garden equipment ready for the growing season.
- An early start in the garden makes all the difference.
How about a little feng shui?
