4 Top Tips for Spring Cleaning Your Home
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As Winter ends and the days becoming longer and brighter, we often look to our homes and want to refresh our surroundings. A spring clean is often the best way to do this, after all, who doesn't love the smell of fresh, sunny air on a cool, but bright day? Think about how your laundry smells when you bring it in from the line outside - that crisp, clean white smell. We want to replicate that in our homes and make our surroundings fresh for the new season.
Here are some simple tips for spring cleaning with ease.
Deep clean your floors and soft furnishings
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Winter grime can get very deep into the hardest working surfaces in the home, namely our floors and soft furnishings. Sometimes, until you deep clean them you don’t actually realise how dirty they can become.
Vacuuming works wonders, as does sweeping, but once warmer weather arrives it can be good to sweep through all the surfaces in your home that have heavy traffic from shoes and boots (and animal paws), plus the surfaces we sit on.
One of the kindest, gentlest ways to clean is with steam, and steam cleaners and steam mops are now becoming much more affordable. They’re an environmentally sound method of cleaning as they simply use the power of hot water to hygienically disinfect surfaces and kill bacteria. Essential for killing winter viruses and cold bugs.
Some models of steam cleaner also come with carpet and soft furnishing attachments, meaning they can be used to glide over deep pile carpets, rugs and curtains to disinfect and de-grime without using detergents. You’ll be amazed at the difference this product can make.
Utilise storage containers
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Free your mind and declutter your home. Out with the old and in with the new. We’re all guilty, at times, of shoving all our clutter into one room, or one corner and leaving it until it becomes unbearable and not easy to sort.
Tackle it head on, and be ruthless. Invest in some pretty, reusable storage containers that look decorative as well as being functional.
Think about what you really need, what you really use and what can be got rid of. Keep these things only, and bag the rest up for charity, to sell on auction sites, or to simply recycle. You’ll be amazed at the difference this simple act can make to how you feel about your living space.
Scent your home
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We can’t mention spring cleaning without thinking about how you choose to scent your home. This is the one time of year when fresh, clean scents are called for. Those that offer refreshment, invigoration and rejuvenation into your living space.
Once you’ve cleaned your home and aired it, allowing the fresh air to come in, you’ll need to find ways to scent the air using good quality soy candles.
Each room requires a different aroma so that there is a noticeable change as you walk through your home. Think about scents that include uplifting citrus notes of lemon, orange, lime or grapefruit. Choose fragrances that sharpen the mind and the senses, such as pine or eucalyptus, or peppermint. Use these in living spaces, or to scent the kitchen and bathroom.
Bedrooms and spaces of tranquility will still require something with a sharp edge, but one that is balanced out with a calming note, so think of clean, woody cedar mixed with slightly sweet vanilla for an edge of comfort.
De-grease the Kitchen
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The kitchen is an area of both heavy traffic and heavily used appliances like cookers, microwaves and dishwashers. During the winter months, we eat heavier, stodgier comfort foods that can create a lot of grease and grime in this space.
You can clean your kitchen and appliances safely and effectively with just two ingredients, that will cut through grease and debris and leave your surfaces hygienic too. Invest in some lemons and baking soda from the grocery store and you’ll be able to spring clean like a pro without resorting to harsh bleaches.
Oven: Mix half a cup of baking soda with half a cup of water to a thick paste. Remove any debris from the oven shelves and floor and carefully spread this thick paste around the oven. Leave this to work for a few hours and then simply use a scourer and hot water to rinse the debris away.
Microwave: Fill a mug with cold water and add into this two tablespoons of lemon juice. Set on high for 10 minutes and leave the lemon/water to create steam in the oven. After an hour or so, take a cloth and wipe round the inside of the microwave to remove grease, stains and build up.
Chrome fittings: Check with your manufacturers instructions, as always, but lemon, diluted with a little water can be one of the most effective things to cut through limescale and bring a shine back to dull taps and handles. Simply wipe half a cut lemon over the surface, eave for a moment then buff away with a microfibre cloth. This same technique can be used on chopping boards and work surfaces too.