Spring is approaching fast, so you know what that means at this time of the year: spring cleaning!
If you’re not the biggest fan of cleaning or find it hard to clean your living space in a manageable, efficient way, this is your guide to make the process so much easier.
1. Break down your chore list into a manageable 10-day schedule
Clean smarter, not harder. Instead of overwhelming yourself with a hefty chore list to tackle in a day or two (and thus lead to you giving up), break down your list into little manageable sections:
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Day 1 – Bedroom
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Day 2 – Kitchen
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Day 3 – Bathroom
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Day 4 – Entry
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Day 5 – Living Room
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Day 6 – Drawers
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Day 7 – Windows
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Day 8 – Closet
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Day 9 – Fridge
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Day 10 – Appliances
If you follow this method, it will make your life so much easier. Check out Buzzfeed’s 10-Day Spring Cleaning Challenge if you want a detailed how-to for a productive and manageable spring cleaning!
2. Invest in a TubShroom
If you have long hair, you know the struggle of shedding your locks like a dog and finding them all over your shower/bathtub.
Rather than clogging your poor drain with clumps of your hair, get yourself a TubShroom (Amazon: $12.99).
It neatly catches any hair that goes down the drain as well as any product residue (such as conditioner) so that your drains stay unclogged.
It is also really easy to clean and maintain so you can avoid having to snake your shower drain often, especially if you live with multiple people.
This will even collect hair from pets when you give your furry friends their baths!
You’ll be surprised how much hair you wash down your drain until you use this.
3. Shine your floors with a Swiffer mop
If your living space has tiles or wooden planks for floors, then the best way to shine your floors in the fastest amount of time possible is to use a Swiffer wet and dry mop.
Lightweight and easy to use, it’s the easiest solution for picking up dirt, hair, and whatever other grime that’s been overstaying its welcome.
You can find these at any store, from Walmart to Target.
A personal tip from me, an experienced Swiffer user, is to reuse your Swiffer dry/wet pad refills.
To prevent throwing perfectly reusable pads into the landfill and spending extra money for new refills, clean your cloth refills with soap and water to get rid of the things your Swiffer picked up while cleaning and make it good as new.
4. Use hot water to clean your dishes
There’s nothing more aggravating than finding leftover grease on your dishes or pans after you washed them.
The best way to get the grease off your dishes is to use piping hot water in addition to dish soap.
This will also help with any hardened residue leftover on the surfaces.
Be careful not to make it so hot you burn yourself, though!
Here’s a bit of chemistry knowledge: the heat energy from the hot water transfers to the oil and expands the oil molecules more, lessening the surface tension of the oil and helping to dislodge the oil molecules and other particles (ex. food) from your dish/pan.
This will allow the oil/grease to be removed more easily.
Additionally, since oil and water don’t mix easily by themselves, cold water will be significantly less effective because they don’t have any heat energy to transfer to the oil particles.
The more you know!
5. Tackle stains the correct way
Stains are the absolute worst and can be a total nightmare to remove; sometimes, you can’t remove them from your beloved sheets, clothes, or furniture at all.
Maybe that means you haven’t been using the right products to remove them; some of these may be unexpected and would surprise you!
Here is a simple guide to remove even the toughest stains (the type of stain will be on the left and the product to remove them will be on the right):
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Grass – vinegar
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Red wine – white wine
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Grease – soda
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Blood – hydrogen peroxide
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Oil – white chalk
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Coffee – baking soda
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Deodorant – denim
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Sweat – lemon juice
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Lipstick – baby wipes
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Ink – milk
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Makeup – shaving cream
6. Organize anything with a set of storage bins
If you happen to have a bunch of miscellaneous items lying about around your room or in your closet, invest in a set of storage bins.
Organize your items by category to make finding things much easier on your end.
You can find these anywhere, from Target to Amazon, and are relatively cheap to buy depending on the brand and how durable they are.
Feel free to buy bins that match your living room aesthetic as well to make it much more satisfying to look at.
7. Buy a foldable set of drawer dividers
If you’re guilty of throwing all your bras, panties, and clothes into your drawers without giving it a second glance, then don’t worry because I am too.
Getting a set of drawer dividers will make finding your bras and underwear 10 times easier by separating them from each other.
This will help you avoid the situation of desperately tearing your entire dresser apart every morning for that *one* bralette.
It’s also really nice to see everything in place, all nice and neat.
They’re easy to install, won’t look tacky, and will make your getting-dressed process a lot easier.
8. Use scented trash bags in your trash bins
Don’t want your kitchen trash bin to stink up the room?
Get yourself a box of scented trash bags!
You can find these essentially anywhere, even at the dollar store.
When using these, you’ll feel like you’re in one of those Febreeze commercials where the blind-folded person finds themselves smelling the fresh scent of flowers or newly-washed linen in an otherwise rancid, dirty room.
This cheap, small switch will for sure change your life.
9. Invest in a cordless Dyson vacuum
Depending on which model you’re looking at, Dyson vacuums will range from somewhere between $299.99 and $799.99.
While these may sound ~pricey~, it will be such a worthwhile investment and will last you for years.
The best part about these is that they’re cordless, meaning no more vacuuming over your wires or reaching the end of your cord when there are still more spots to vacuum.
All you need to do once you’re finished is to attach the vacuum to the wall charger to recharge the battery.
They come with a two-year warranty including parts and labor and a 90-day money-back guarantee with free shipping on returns.
It will also come with different detachable parts of various shapes and features that can allow you to turn it into a floor vacuum to a handheld one, making it perfect to vacuum spaces such as your car floors or tight crevices.
If you’re an avid cleaner like I am, then spring cleaning would be a breeze for you but for those who aren’t the biggest fans of it, then hopefully this guide was helpful and will make your task less daunting.
The hard work and effort will be so worth it in the end when you find yourself in a fresh, clean living space.
Best of luck to you and your cleaning endeavors!