It’s officially spring across the country, and that means a few things! First, allergies are insane, and the allergy meds are disappearing off the shelves. Second, temperatures are heating up, and people are making plans to get their beach bodies ready. And third, spring cleaning fever is alive. Many people get the urge to deep clean their house once a year when spring rolls around. There are tons of lists and spring cleaning challenges out there of how to organize and clean your home, but these lists can sometimes forget some major areas of the home that don’t get cleaned often enough.
Here are 10 ways you can spring clean that are areas of the home you might not have considered during your spring cleaning binge.
1.Pillows & Mattress
Mattress companies will say that the life of a mattress is about 8 years due to the amount of dead skin, sweat, etc., that gets into our mattresses over time and nearly doubles the weight of a mattress. However, this doesn’t mean you should go a full eight years without cleaning your mattress in some way. For a basic cleaning, start by vacuuming off your mattress. Then sprinkle some baking soda over it and use a scrub brush to rub it into the mattress to deodorize it. Vacuum again and you’re set!
For pillows, wash on a warm or hot cycle in the washing machine with an extra spin cycle to get as much moisture as possible out. To dry, put two tennis balls inside two clean socks and add to the dryer to help fluff pillows and get the extra moisture out. You want to dry pillows on a low setting for a longer period of time rather than a quick, high heat dry setting.
2. Washer and Dryer
Pour a half cup of vinegar in your washer and run a cycle on hot (or use a self-clean cycle if your washer has one). Clean out the lint catcher in the dryer and any dirty spots you might be able to see inside the dryer. Wipe down the outside of the washer and dryer with some all purpose cleaner.
3. Oven
Once a year I love to give my oven a super deep clean. Start by removing all racks and wiping down the inside of the oven (when cool) with a sponge or paper towel. Make sure to wipe up any crumbs that have fallen to the bottom. Also, wipe the sides of the oven and wipe down the racks in a sink. Once you’ve wiped down everything, run your oven on its self-clean cycle to kill any bacteria left.
4. Garbage Disposal
To clean out your garbage disposal and any lingering smells that might be around, pour a cup of white vinegar down the disposal and run it for a few seconds. You can also take a few citrus peels from an orange or lemon and put them down the disposal and run with a few splashes of vinegar as well. The tough peels will grab any leftover food on the blades and leave a fresh smell in your sink!
5. Bookshelf
This is one area I don’t seem to clean up often enough. I’ll dust around books and things like that, but it’s not often that I take everything off the shelves, reorganize and declutter. As you’re going through your shelves, look for books you haven’t read (even if you’ve told yourself you would!)
6. Under the Bed
Have you ever noticed that the most random things end up under the bed? If you tend to keep a lot of stuff under there, get an under the bed storage container that you can keep things organized. If you have suitcases or duffle bags under the bed, consider moving them to a hall closet or garage if they aren’t used frequently. If you keep shoes under your bed, consider a behind the door shoe organizer or adding a shoe organizer shelf to an existing closet shelf. Bonus: while you’re organizing shoes from under the bed, throw away any shoes that are falling apart or set shoes aside to donate.
7. Pantry
This is a big one that people do often, but it’s perfect for spring cleaning. Check your cans, boxed items, cereal, etc., for expiration dates and toss anything that isn’t good anymore! Check your spices to see what you’re running low on and make a list of items you need soon. You could also make an inventory list of your pantry to know what you have available to cook with. Check for household items like storage bags, trash bags, or paper items.
8. Desk Drawers
Another catch-all place for receipts, gum wrappers, pennies, etc. Go through your desk drawers and throw out any unneeded receipts or other trash, organize pens or other office tools and even purchase desk drawer divider to keep your desk tidy more than a day.
9. Medicine Cabinet
Another area I rarely clean out. The last time I did, though, I realized how many medicines or other toiletries I had that were expired! These items were just taking up space in the medicine cabinet and bathroom drawers and creating unnecessary clutter. Throw away old mascara tubes, almost-empty lotion bottles, and expired prescriptions. Consider using small jars to keep things like cotton balls or q-tips organized.
10. Filing Cabinet
Tax filing season is here, so it’s the perfect time to clean out and organize your filing cabinet and make sure you have all of your tax documents ready!
By addressing these 10 areas you may have forgotten to add to your spring cleaning list, your house will definitely be in tip top shape for the season! What areas of your home do you always spring clean? Let me know in the comments below.
