Tips and tricks for a sparkling home, inside and out
Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s almost time to get started on refreshing your home with an annual deep clean.
While even just the thought of deep cleaning your entire home can feel a little overwhelming, the end results are well worth the effort. Not only will a thoroughly clean home help to uplift your mood and heighten your energy, it will also keep you and your family healthier by ridding your spaces of potential hazards, allergens and harmful bacteria.
Here, we bring you six easy tips to help prioritize your deep clean while creating a fresh, sparkling home for everyone.
1. Make a schedule
Before getting started (which tends to be the hardest part of spring cleaning!), create a room-by-room cleaning schedule to ensure every square inch of your home gets a good scrub down.
Whether you create a pen and paper schedule or use one of the many apps available, you’ll want to start by making a checklist of all the rooms in your home. Think about the ones that might take longer, like the kitchen or living area, and start there. You’ll have a lot more energy and motivation at the outset of your deep clean and it’ll feel less daunting knowing you got the big rooms out of the way at the beginning. And don’t be afraid to spread your cleaning schedule throughout the month so that each room is given the intentional care it needs and deserves.
2. Declutter each space before you clean it
Before diving into the annual clean, don’t forget to do an annual declutter. Go through each room in your home and see what you can toss, recycle or donate. Often, we accumulate things over the winter months that just collect dust and make our homes feel more stuffy than welcoming.
When thinking about what you can let go of, embrace Marie Kondo’s method and ask yourself, does it spark joy? If it doesn’t speak to your heart, get rid of it. According to mental health experts, having a decluttered home will relieve stress, improve sleep and heighten focus. Plus, it will clear your house of tripping hazards and allergens that may settle on dust.
3. Replace your furnace filters
Most experts recommend changing your furnace filters at least every three months. But even if a filter hasn’t hit its three-month mark, changing it during your deep clean is still good idea. After all, these filters are responsible for capturing and holding all kinds of airborne pollutants, including allergens, dust, pet dander and even mould spores. And if they get too clogged up, they’ll stop being effective, which leads to dirty air and surfaces.
Not only will changing your furnace filters on a regular basis improve indoor air quality and contribute to a cleaner living space, it will also enhance the efficiency of your home’s HVAC system, which will save you money on your energy bill throughout the year.
Bonus tip: By sticking to a consistent vacuuming and dusting routine, you’ll help prevent build-up on your filters, allowing them to last longer.
4. Organize and clean your fridge
You open and look into your fridge daily, but how often do you actually clean it? Many of us neglect the inside of our fridges when tackling our spring cleaning. But harmful bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli thrive in dirty refrigerators, which not only causes food to go bad quickly, but can also lead to food-borne illnesses. A clean fridge keeps you healthy and helps your fruit and veggies last longer, ultimately saving you money at the grocery store.
Don’t forget to add or replace a fridge deodorizer (like an open box of baking soda) at least every three months. The deodorizer neutralizes odours and prolongs the life of perishables.
5. Use natural cleaning ingredients
There are a lot of powerful cleaning products on the market, but many of them contain toxic ingredients. Harsh chemicals can do more harm than good when you inhale the toxic fumes, so try to use natural cleaning products as much as possible in your spring-cleaning routine. Not only are natural products better for your lungs, they also improve air quality and ultimately lead to a healthier home and family.
For an all-purpose, DYI cleaning solution, mix equal parts water and rubbing alcohol with some essential oils and a drop of natural dish soap in a spray bottle. These simple ingredients make a natural chemical reaction and can lift dirt, grime and mould from surfaces.
6. Pressure wash your house
Keeping the inside of your house clean is a sure-fire way to improve quality of life, but your home’s outdoor surfaces need attention, too. Over the seasons, mould, mildew, fungi and other types of grime build up on a house’s siding and decks, which can eat away at the surfaces and cause corrosion. If these substances are left unattended, they can also make the interior of your home vulnerable to damage.
Using a pressure washer will help rid your home’s exterior of dirt build-up and prevent lengthy repairs further down the line. Plus, it’s an easy and low-cost way of increasing curb appeal and keeping insects and other pests at bay.
No matter how you choose to tackle your spring cleaning, keep in mind that a sparkling house does wonders for your physical health, your stress levels and your general sense of well-being. Plus, it makes your home feel all the more welcoming, which will set you up beautifully for entertaining family and friends throughout the warmer months. Happy scrubbing!
