A guide to spring cleaning

The beginning of spring makes us want to fling open the windows and doors and let the fresh air in.

But that often blows around dust bunnies that remind us that the house needs a good spring cleaning.

“A lot of people ignore over the winter things like the baseboards, the windowsills, the blinds,” said Joni Garcia, owner of The Maids cleaning service in Wichita. “They haven’t been opening the windows. They may or may not have been going out maybe a sliding glass door, and now they’re going to be going out to enjoy their coffee on the deck.”

People want a deep cleaning, whether they do it themselves or hire a cleaning service, “to where they can they let the sunshine in,” Garcia said. That involves cleaning those sliding-glass doors, pulling down cobwebs, dusting ceiling fans and the tops of cabinets.

“A lot of people haven’t cleaned their ovens since before the holidays,” Garcia said.

One little problem some of us run into, though: We don’t think we can fit it into already-busy days.

Cleaning shortcuts

“A lot of people don’t have time to spring-clean the way our moms and grandmas did,” said Deniece Schofield, an organizing expert and author from Las Vegas who will visit Wichita in April to give Get Organized seminars. She has tips for making a dent anyway.

“If you want to do something, just make a list of the most pressing areas and pick out the one that is the worst or is that is causing the most problems or speed bumps in the day and focus on that one,” Schofield said. One less speed bump can clear the way for more cleaning, and a domino effect can ensue.

A few shortcuts she gives: Avoid moving a lot of furniture around by just moving things away from the wall and dust behind them. Wash the windows you look out the most often or that people see the most. Put curtains and drapes in the dryer on the fluff/air cycle to freshen them. “You don’t have to wash them.”

Another way to prioritize your spring cleaning is to start with the Big Three: bathroom, kitchen and entryway, Garcia said.

The kitchen and the bathroom are priorities “because those really bog you down timewise if they’re not maintained and kept up,” Garcia said. “And the entryway, so you’re not embarrassed when somebody comes over.”

Wherever you decide to start cleaning, pick up the clutter first (we know — that’s its own monumental task), and then clean from the top of the room to the bottom, so you don’t knock dust onto things that have already been cleaned, Garcia said. “The floors are the last part that you clean.”

The kitchen

Karen Blakeslee, a food scientist at K-State, adds another layer of priorities in the kitchen: refrigerator and freezer first, followed by food cabinets and pantries, and then non-food cabinets. Remove the contents first.

“Clean out the refrigerator and freezer; give them a good cleaning,” Blakeslee said. “If you can take the shelves out, that would be a really good idea. Clean up the spills, and the same thing in the freezer, because things can spill and break in there too. Typically using hot soapy water works really well to clean out your refrigerator.”

While you’re at it, check the temperature of the fridge and freezer, she said. It should be around 37 to 40 in the refrigerator, and zero or below in the freezer — “the colder the better, because things'll freeze faster.”

Take inventory of the food as you go along.

“Rotate things; make sure you use older products first,” Blakeslee said. “Check dates, especially on the perishable-type things, like your dairy products, your eggs, your meats.” On non-perishables, many times the date given is for best quality, not for food safety, Blakeslee said. But if spices are 4 or 5 years old, it’s time to toss them because they will have lost their flavor.

“It's a great time to clean out your kitchen cabinets, because if you've got flour that’s spilled, that sort of thing can attract pests. ... Give them a good scrubbing. If you have broken packages, transfer them to a plastic container or some other type of container.”

Non-food cupboards also will benefit from having everything cleared out and then the cabinets cleaned, she said. At the same time, you can rearrange things to make them more accessible.

It can be helpful to cruise the hardware shelves in stores to see what’s available to upgrade your shelves or cabinets. For example, Blakeslee likes to put stick-on lights on the sides of cabinets or under cabinet shelves so that she can see inside. Portable wire shelves will let you stack more types of items so that they become more visible.

The bathroom

In the bathroom, “a lot of people forget to get their lights above their mirrors,” Garcia said. First be sure that lights are off and cool to the touch first. Never use use a wet cloth on a hot light or it will break the bulb, Garcia said. It’s also good to have the lights off to clean the mirror, just as you don’t want to clean windows in the hot sun because the cleaning fluid can dry before it’s wiped off.

“If people have hard-water deposits on shower doors, put a little bit of baby oil on a cotton ball and put it on the inside. It puts a bit of coating in addition to helping it look better.” It will need to be reapplied periodically.

“We always use a disinfectant on the toilet and sink and countertops,” Garcia said.

Products to try

She gives a few suggestions for products to try:

▪ Just a bit of grease-cutting Dawn dishwashing liquid can be used with water to clean gunky ceiling fan blades and even windows. If you’re sparing enough with the Dawn, you won’t have to rinse after wiping the windows, Garcia said.

▪ If you don’t want to get on a stepladder, you can buy products such as a Swiffer with an extension so you can reach lower ceiling fans from the ground.

▪ “Microfiber cloths are wonderful. They can be used for a lot of things. And they’re great for dusting. Get them slightly damp and you can do different surfaces.” The only thing Garcia doesn’t like microfiber for is cleaning the oven or using it soaking wet.

If using furniture polish, spray the cloth with that, not the furniture, she said. And be sure to use that cloth only on things that will take furniture polish.

If marathon cleaning is not your thing, you don’t have to do it all at once.

“Maybe designate one room a month or every two weeks and focus on that,” Schofield said. “Rotate so it’s always fairly fresh.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 9:25 AM with the headline "A guide to spring cleaning."