So, what kind of spring cleaner are you?

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Do you go through your whole house, cleaning from top to bottom?

Do you clean out all the closets, the basement, the attic?

Or do you consider it the time to clean windows, deck and replant plants (spring stuff)?

Or, nothing special, you keep your house clean and organized and your windows sparkle year around?

Or, too busy to do more than just the basics no matter the season?
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Oops, should have put this in Watercooler!

I bet this tells you something about my organizational skills.

And you would be right.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Hmmm. Type of spring cleaner I am?

I think about it. I look at cleaning and organization website and pin ideas on pinterest. I think how lovely my house would look dust free and windows clean. How comfortable it would be with no grit on the kitchen floor and no dog hair on the furniture.

Then I clean the toilet and dust. Maybe. And the house stays filthy.
 

JKF

Well-Known Member
My big spring project is that I do the windows inside and outside the house (fyi I hate hate hate cleaning windows with a passion and we have 28!! UGH!!!). I also vacuum under couches, beds, behind furniture, etc. This year husband needs to power wash the siding and deck. I pretty much keep up on daily cleaning and dusting throughout the year but I always use springtime to do a major cleaning under and behind everything. I also do my garden beds and prep them for planting but I love gardening so I don't consider that a chore! LOL
 

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Oops, should have put this in Watercooler!

Moved for ya :)

As for your question: spring cleaning? What's that?! hehe... my cleaning strategy is: I clean when people come over. So, when it gets too bad, I just plan a gathering to force myself to clean.
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
I do it all: dust the ceilings and walls, wash the woodwork, clean out all drawers and closets, dust books, move furniture, shampoo carpets, use Murphy's oil soap on the wood furniture, wash windows wash and iron curtains, turn mattresses, repair anything that needs fixed, throw away anything that I haven't used in a year, etc.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I'm not a cleaner. We are reasonably sanitary but by no means spotless. With ten cats and a Jack Russell terrier, in a less-than-800 square foot house, with my book addiction, we're packed in here. My current project is sorting a mountain of clothes that never got put away properly, because there was nowhere to put them, so I bought bins and am sorting summer and winter clothes since the pile is leaning.
 

nlj

Well-Known Member
I...
Ban clutter.
Pay a windowcleaner.
Turn into a tornado for one day a week.

Spring?
That's a time for spending less time in the house, not more.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
I am of two minds about how clean the house should be. When I haven't been cleaning, I don't like the way the house feels. When I am cleaning, I am cleaning all the time because that seems to be what you have to do to keep a house really clean.

But...I just don't want to be thinking about the house all the time.

I have a friend who actually does Spring Cleaning. She does a room at a time, and she does that entire room completely. Then she moves on to the next room. Her house is always beautifully spotless.

Her yard is spotless, too. Every Spring, she makes a huge commitment to flowering annuals. She keeps them beautifully through the Fall, and then out come the mums and pumpkins and corn shucks.

I wish I could be that way.

Sometimes, I wish I could be that way.

I love the way the house looks and feels once it is done, but I don't want to stick with it.

They say organization and ongoing discipline are key.

Playing something beautiful helps me stick with it in a reasonable frame of mind. If I can keep a positive mindset as I go about it, I can stay with it until I am finished.

www.flylady.com

This site is helpful to me. Lots of very good ways to think about how to do what breaks down into an overwhelming, neverending task: creating a home. I think that creating a welcoming, well-run home is nowhere near as simple as we have all been led to believe. A well-run home is like beautifully presented music. Such a joy to be part of, but requiring an almost unbelievable behind the scenes commitment to attain.

Cedar
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
I handed my son the power washer and a spray container of Tilex yesterday and told him to clean off the mildewed LR window awning.
I'm giving away and selling boxes of Cousin P's things.
That's it for this year.
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
Although I told you (above) that I do DEEP spring cleaning, I didn't mention that the rest of the year I don't clean much at all. I keep the mess picked up, dust the tops of the furniture, vacuum the middle of the room once a week, and clean up big messes that show. The rest of the stuff has to wait till spring when I clean the house well (whether it needs it or not - LOL)>
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
Tilex?

For mildew, right?

What does anyone use for cleaning tile floors?

I do windows with a solution of rubbing alcohol, a drop of Dawn, and water. If we are doing big picture windows, I clean the windows with a sponge mop dipped in the alcohol solution and squeegee it off.

Using that sponge mop works beautifully, and I am done in half the time.

No streaks.

I keep a spray bottle of that same solution to polish granite, kitchen appliances, mirrors, and faucets. So, it would be 1/3 bottle rubbing alcohol, 1 drop of Dawn, and say four cups of water.

Keeping many unlit scented candles around (or, in the closet, one of those big scented candles) scents the house without that overwhelming air-freshener odor an air freshener gives. Another thing to do if you need to freshen the air or just want to create your own scent for the house is to simmer cinnamon and vanilla.

The only other thing I know about managing the overwhelmingness of a home is to take it seriously (because if we don't, the house will collapse into chaos) and to do one extra job every day. I learned that from Flylady. If it is a big job, set a timer for fifteen minutes and stop when it goes off until the next day.

Pick a day of the week to do sheets. That way, you won't forget.

I am going to try Tilex on my tile floors.

Cedar

And we aren't even talking laundry, yet.

Ew.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
Okay, so another thing I think contributes to that kind of "I'm home" energy is playing the same classical music CDs very low volume in the background. Like a scent signature for the ears.

Another thing is to keep a can of the same paint you used on the walls handy, and repaint the places the kids have made prints on the walls. I did that all the time when the kids were little.
No need to do the whole wall, at all.

Cedar
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Do not use Tilex on a regular basis on ANY kid of tile.
It is for fighting mildew in grout.

Cleaning tile floors? I use mostly water. Maybe a bit of some cleaning solution / disinfectant. Tile itself doesn't absorb dirt - just the grout.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
I use Tilex inside and underneath the toilet (ewww) and in the shower.
And for mildewed awnings.
I used all-surface spray for other things.
Although I have noticed that it leaves streaks so window cleaner works best for windows.
I use --arrrgh, just forgot the name--cleaner from Care-a-Lot for urine on the carpets and wood floors. Two different types made by the same mftr.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
We have only been residents with a house to care for in this humid southern climate for about five years. Prior to that, we were in a condo down here, where all the outside things were taken care of by those familiar with mildew and so on. Now that the house is not new anymore, things are getting a blackness to them, and it is an ugly thing to see and I think it might be mildew.

So thank you for the information about the Tilex.

I have allergic asthma, and cannot clean with bleach.

So, I will try the Tilex and keep looking for alternatives to bleach to deal with mildew. That must be what it is.

Up north, we just don't have those kinds of things happening. Not enough humidity.

Cedar
 
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