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It’s Time For Spring Cleaning!

Spring Cleaning

It’s a beautiful day outside. The sun is shining; the birds are chirping. You decide to open a window and let the warm breeze blow through, only to discover two inches of dust on your window sills from last spring. Now’s the time for Spring cleaning to get the house sparkling so that you can enjoy that beautiful weather for the rest of Spring, which, in Texas, doesn’t last very long.

 

Clean the window sills and baseboards

Use a vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment to really get in between the cracks and crevices of the windows and baseboards. Once the dirt and dust are gone, it’s time to scrub them down. Using some dish soap and a bit of water, wet down a washcloth. Microfiber cloths work great for this job, as they both collect the dirt and help to polish up the area while keeping the surface fairly dry.

 

Vacuum off the curtains and mini blinds

The trick to cleaning mini blinds is to soak them in the bathtub. Take them out of their brackets. Fill the bathtub enough to cover the blinds with warm water. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap and a cap full of vinegar. Then lay your blinds in there flat and let them soak. Usually, a half hour will do it. Once time is up, pull the blinds out of the water and shake off the excess water. You can then rehang the blinds so that they can dry. For those hard to reach places on the slates, a paintbrush or toothbrush do a nice scrubbing job.

Vacuum the curtains with a wide flat hose attachment. If you vacuum from top to bottom, you have a smaller chance of getting the blinds caught in the hose.

 

Clean the window glass, both inside and out

Commercial cleaners do a great job at getting a streak-free shine on a window, but you can do it for pennies with vinegar, dish soap, water, and some newspaper. Mix a few drops of dish soap and a cap full of vinegar into a spray bottle. FIll the rest of the bottle up with warm water. Shake until the soap is evenly distributed. As you spray the windows, wipe it down with the newspaper. Make sure that you are using the paper newsprint, and not the colored inlays, which will not clean your windows properly.

 

Clean out the refrigerator

Normally, we only clean the refrigerator if we spill something. Springtime is a great time to clean out old condiments, jelly jars, and those pickled jalapeños that you were going to eat in August. It is also time to wipe around the seals, change the filters, and probably change out the lightbulbs as well. Salt and soda water makes a great cleaner for the inside of the refrigerator. Salt is a little abrasive, so it makes a good scrubbing solution. Rub around the door frames and seals with a bit of vinegar and a toothbrush. This will clear the debris from the seals and allow for a tighter seal. Use the manufacturers manual to find out where your filters are located, as well as how to safely remove and change the lightbulb.

Tackling these small spring projects will get you on the fast track to open windows, warm breezes, and enjoying those quick rainstorms under the porch… at least until the triple-digit temperatures arrive!