How to Deep Clean Your Home: Spring Cleaning Like a Professional

Spring revitalizes our enthusiasm to deep clean our homes. It gives us renewed vigor to banish dirt and can leave us feeling rejuvenated and ready to face whatever the seasons may throw at us.

Remember, a spring deep clean is more than a quick pass with a vacuum and duster around your home; rather, it means getting your sleeves rolled up and stuck in like a professional. What are the crucial jobs that should get done first, though, and just how do you complete a successful deep clean?

In this article we look at some key areas in your home and share some useful hints for a successful spring clean with a eco-friendly focus in mind.

Go Green With the Deep Clean

While we might think that chemical-based cleaners are the only way to spruce up our spaces, there are actually many natural ingredients that perform as well as chemical-based products to help you deep clean.

While there are various recipes and combinations you can create, here are the main components you will need to attend to all your cleaning needs:

Lemons – These lovely things clean, scent, and descale; they are magic fruits, and no deep clean should be without them.
White vinegar – Nothing cuts through scum like white vinegar, and glass sparkles with an applied diluted solution.
Natural salt – Great for scrubbing at stubborn stains, especially if you need more scouring power.
Baking soda – This is the king of ingredients for removing hard to shift stains like toilet limescale.
Tea tree oil – With super antibacterial powers, tea tree oil is a great disinfectant. Also, adding a few drops to your wash load will leave your garments smelling naturally fresh.

Set Spring Cleaning Goals

If your goal is to have a clean home regardless of what detergents you use, then there are many store-bought products that will make your life easier. Some are expensive, so factor the cost element into your planning. Many contain harmful ingredients, both to humans and the environment, so think carefully before you use them and always store them away from children.

A deep clean is an ideal opportunity to challenge yourself to use more natural products, or to utilize services like The Refill Shoppe, which aims to reduce packaging by providing a service to refill all the perfectly good bottles and containers you already have.

Make a Checklist

Before starting any big tasks, know what you are cleaning and in what order. A checklist helps you focus on the key requirements of and best methods for a successful deep clean. The best way to order your checklist is to divide your home by rooms. It makes each space easier to complete because you see the task in bite-size chunks.

Prioritize

Start with the rooms that need the most attention. By doing this, you will get the sense that there is an instant improvement in your home, spurring you on to finish the job. We suggest the kitchen is a great place to start, as it’s here that you are likely to find the highest concentration of items that need a deep clean.

Oven

Just imagine all those meals you cook in your oven. With all of the crumbs, spills, and spitting fat of oven and stovetop cooking, it’s no wonder that stoves top our list of appliances that desperately need that deep clean. There are some extremely useful chemical based products available, and you would be forgiven for thinking that nothing natural will be up to the task.

TIP – Baking soda and water, mixed into a paste, is an excellent alternative to chemicals when cleaning the oven.

Microwave

If you examine the interior of your microwave, you will discover all manner of things that are clinging to the walls. Splatters and baked on food can be challenging to shift so you may need some elbow grease here.

TIP – Place a cup full of water, lemon, and lemon rinds in the center of the microwave and power it up for 30 seconds. This helps to remove the stubborn stains on the walls and ceilings, and the steam helps with the deep clean.

Refrigerator

Don’t try and clean the fridge when you’ve just completed a weekly shop; wait until it is almost empty. Try and organize a food rotation method to minimize the chances of things getting forgotten at the back of the fridge.

TIP – Use citrus infused vinegar to disinfect the surfaces. Not only does it cut through the mold and dirt, but it also leaves your fridge smelling lemony fresh.

Trash Bins

Bacteria festers all too easily on our garbage receptacles. It’s important to disinfect them thoroughly to remove any dangers.

TIP – Again, lemon and white vinegar will banish the nasty bacteria for good. Also, try natural salt as an effective scourer if the stains are proving stubborn to shift.

Clean Room By Room

Once you have established the principle rooms to start your spring clean, your action plan should now see you moving room to room, completing a thorough clean. Make sure you have worked from top to bottom and side to side to ensure that nothing gets missed.

Living Room

Soft furnishings like sofas and chairs need a lot of attention as dust and microorganisms live in the cushions and can potentially cause allergies and reactions.

On a dry day, take the cushions outside and give them an old fashioned bashing with a stick or broom handle. You’ll be amazed how much dust comes out. Remove the covers and throw them in the washing machine. In addition, take the vacuum cleaner and run the directional hose across the base of the chair or sofa, making sure you reach the deepest recesses. Curtains should be either taken down and washed or, at the very least, vacuumed with the hose.

TIP – Use natural ingredients like rosemary, cinnamon, lemons, and vanilla extract to leave your room smelling fresh and inviting after your deep clean.

Bathroom

Mold and mildew are often familiar sights in our bathroom and are usually caused by poor ventilation. Tile grout is particularly susceptible to attack, as are splashbacks and tiled floors.

TIP – To treat mold using natural ingredients, mix baking soda and water to form a paste and with an old toothbrush work it into the affected areas. Leave it for an hour or so before washing it off.

Shower screens and enclosures are usually water stained and smeared, so to combat this, diluted white vinegar works a treat to cut through soap scum and limescale. Lemon juice is excellent at removing limescale from shower heads and taps; simply cut one in half and rub it on the surface you want to be cleaned.

TIP – Once you’ve got all the dirt off the glass, wipe it down with a sheet from your old newspaper. It removes smears, leaving your surfaces gleaming.

Toilets are where the highest concentration of bacteria can be found in the home, so it is essential to keep your lavatory as clean as possible. A cup of baking soda will work wonders if left for an hour or so, then follow this with some white vinegar to clean the inside of the bowl.

Bedrooms

If you have teenage kids, you’ll know precisely what their rooms are like. Not all teenagers are messy, but generally speaking they are not known to be the tidiest or most organized. Mattresses collect dust and bacteria over time, so focus on getting them aired and clean first before you attempt any other jobs. If you can, enlist some help to drag them outside so that you can give them an airing and bash out any dust.

TIP – If the mattress is stained, try mixing baking soda, dishwashing soap, and hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle and apply liberally to the offending area. Don’t rub or scrub; let it dry naturally, and the stain should lift out.

Wardrobes hide a multitude of sins, so be sure to clear them out when conducting a deep clean.

Carpets and Floor Coverings

Think about all the foot traffic that an average carpet endures inside your home. A carpet traps the bacteria in its fibers and every time you walk on it, small but invisible clouds of dust are released into the atmosphere.

TIP – Vinegar is a fantastic ingredient for cleaning carpets. Dilute white vinegar in a spray bottle with a teaspoon of baking soda and 2 cups of water, and then apply liberally to your carpet. Your room will smell of vinegar while the carpet is wet, but once it dries the smell completely vanishes to leave you with cleaner carpets that are also deodorized.

Wooden floors are hard wearing and stylish to look at, but if you get down on your hands and knees and really examine the surface, you’ll start to see stains and dirt that isn’t always evident.

TIP – Mix soap, lemon oil, coconut oil, white vinegar, and water in a spray bottle and apply to the wooden floor. It enables you to remove the stains, and the coconut oil preserves the surface of the wood to keep it looking its best.

Pets

We all love our furry pets, but nothing creates an odor in a home like a smelly cat or dog. Their bedding is often the smelliest, so keeping these cozy spaces clean is crucial to a sweet smelling house. The best way to clean pet bedding is to throw it in the washing machine.

TIP – Sprinkle baking soda on the bed (obviously with your pet not in it) and mix some peppermint oil and water together in a spray bottle and apply to the bed. The great thing about this is that you can choose any scent you want. It not only banishes the odor, but it also deodorizes the entire room and can help prolong periods between washes.

Declutter

As you clean, you can also gather those items that take up space but don’t do much else for you anymore. Use these items to organize a garage sale so that you can rid yourself of all the clutter you don’t want. Remember the adage, “one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.” The great news is that by selling your unwanted items, you’ll be lining your pockets too.

Any unwanted clothing can be donated to Pickupplease.org which allows you to schedule a designated pick up time and then all you do is bag or box up what you don’t want, and they collect it. All the items get sent to veterans and their families, so you’ll be decluttering and helping out a worthy cause.

Final Thoughts

Deep cleaning your entire home can leave you feeling good that you’ve decluttered, but it also gives you a sense of satisfaction that you’ve recharged your living space for another season. Using all natural ingredients to perform these various tasks comes with the added benefit that you can keep your home environment clean and fresh while doing the same to the environment outside.