Historically, spring cleaning was done in the spring because the house was a real mess after being closed up all winter getting dirtier and dirtier from fireplaces, older soot-spouting furnaces, and single-pane windows that leaked-in the winter dirt along with the winter winds. 

 

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Modern building codes, better filters, double-pane windows and other changes doesn’t mean that spring cleaning exactly went away—it merely means it doesn’t need to be done in the spring. The “new” spring cleaning definition is “the cleaning that you don’t have to do every week or so, but that you can’t ignore forever.” You could also call it “catch-up” cleaning. This means you should do your spring cleaning chores when they need it. For example, when the windows are dirty. Or, polish the silver because your mother-in-law is coming.

What are the catch-up chores? In most rooms they include things like wiping baseboards, dusting mini-blinds, moving the couch to get the dust bunnies behind and under it, cleaning light fixtures, removing items and dusting book shelves. In the kitchen, there are shelves, cupboards, and drawers to clean and re-organize. There are also filters above the stove. (Speaking of filters, it’s probably past time to inspect, change them or clean them.) There are closets in the bedrooms, plus more drawers, more mini-blinds, more furniture to move and more shelves, light fixtures, etc. Throughout the house are windows to wash, tile floors to seal and carpets to clean. 

Are there any chores that are best done in the fall? Perhaps taking care of anything that needs to be done to hard floors and carpets to protect them through the winter months to come. Occasionally, cleaning means buying something, and buying good entrance mats as a way to protect floors and carpets is an excellent idea. 

The concept of “when it needs it” is important. It doesn’t make sense to say that you should “clean something once a week, twice a year or once a year.” For example, a house with a childless couple who both work 40 hours a week needs a lot less cleaning than the house of a couple with 2 kids, a dog, a cat and a parrot, whose kid’s soccer team terrorizes the kitchen a couple times a week. Ditto for cleaning the pet hair and dust out of the refrigerator coils in those 2 houses. The same thing can be said of chores around a house in Florida compared to one in Minnesota. So, you have to figure out both when things need to be done and what needs to be done around your particular house. Here’s an example of how you determine a cleaning interval in your home: The owner’s manual of your refrigerator tells you to clean the coils in the refrigerator every 6 months. How do they know that? Have they been to your home? Instead, inspect the coils after 6 months. If they are still quite clean, check them again in 6 months. You may learn that in your house, the refrigerator coils need to be cleaned every 18 months. 

Some catch-up chores can be incorporated into the normal weekly cleaning routine. For example, thoroughly dust 1 or 2 miniblinds each time you clean rather than let them devolve into a giant chore later on. 

Realize that dirt doesn’t always sit quietly and innocuously on a surface. Sometimes it interacts with it. For example, grease on the kitchen walls works its way into the paint until you can’t get the grease off by any cleaning method without taking off the paint also. Clean grease off often enough to avoid having to also repaint. 

If you ignore the filters around your home you actually increase the overall amount of work. That’s because filters quit filtering when they’re saturated or they block the flow of air or both. In either case, your house gets dirtier when filters don’t filter. If the furnace filter doesn’t remove the dust, your house gets dustier faster. If the kitchen filter doesn’t remove the grease, then the grease settles on the walls and appliances instead. 

Here are some additional ideas to help you with your catch-up cleaning:

1.   It’s difficult to get through these tasks if you aren’t clear on what’s included, so make a list of the tasks you want to complete. Here’s a sample list to help you get started:
a.   Wash windows (it’s not a difficult task when you know how, and the rooms look so much better when you’re finished.)
b.   Clean and reorganize your cupboards
c.   Clean out the refrigerator
d.   Clean the refrigerator coils
e.   Clean and reorganize drawers, closets, etc.
f.   Clean light fixtures, chandeliers, etc.
g.   Wash ceilings and walls (especially in bathrooms and the kitchen)
h.   Clean or change filters
i.   Polish silver and other metals
j.   Clean and treat leather furniture

 

2.   Make an appointment to tackle the worst. We all have tasks that we dread, but it bothers us that it’s not done. Make an appointment to take that job on. Maybe it’s the closet that you can’t fit anything more into, and you can’t find anything that’s already in it. It doesn’t matter what the job is, make an appointment—the same serious kind of appointment you would make to take your child to the doctor—and keep it!

 

3.   Assemble the required tools and supplies. Since these are chores that you don’t do regularly, you may not have everything you’ll need at hand.

 

4.   Research before starting. There are few things more depressing than to want to accomplish something but not know how to do it. Also, if you don’t have a firm grasp of what step needs to be done first (and second, third, and so forth), until the job is completed, you’ll waste time and the results are apt to be mediocre at best. The Internet is a wonderful resource. 

 

5.   Be careful with spot cleaning. If you’ve not cleaned an area in a while and you decide to spot clean, you may end up with a clean spot surrounded with dirt. If you spot clean a dirty ceiling, you’ll have a clean spot that’s more annoying than the bit of spaghetti that you removed. 

 

6.   Consider safety. Because you’re cleaning areas that you don’t regularly clean, you may need to be particularly aware of cleaning safely. You may need to use a ladder or you may be cleaning an electric chandelier.

 

7.   Catch-up cleaning includes repairs. If caulk is missing in some areas in the shower, you may need to remove what is left and recaulk. A toilet that leaks water may need a new flush valve. If you come across a gouge in the wall, consider patching it with spackle and spot-painting it as a follow-up to the cleaning jobs. Do not be afraid: these small repairs can be easier than many cleaning jobs! 

 

8.   Spread out the work. Since spring cleaning has nothing to do with springtime anymore, you can spread out the various tasks so they are more manageable or logically grouped instead of an overwhelming marathon of jobs.

 

9.   Do a little clutter control while you’re at it. When cleaning out a closet, separate out the clothes you’re going to donate, those that need repair and those that you will keep. Take out the things in the closet that belong elsewhere in the house and put them where they belong. Force yourself to toss things (or recycle or donate) that you no longer use, that are parts to things you no longer own, and so forth.

 

10.   Call in a professional. If you’re no longer interested in renting a carpet-cleaning machine, hire a carpet cleaner rather that letting the carpet get so dirty that it can no longer be satisfactorily cleaned. The same goes for floors if your knees can’t take the punishment the way they used to.

 

11.   Work as a team. Everyone that helps get the house dirty should help get it clean—and that includes catch-up cleaning jobs!