Spring Cleaning

Pick a day where you have the whole day to yourself and there will be no spouses or kids running through the home. Try and get your spouse or a relative to take the kids if you have them out for 6 to 8 hours if they can.

Try to pick a day where the weather is somewhat warm enough to open the windows and be comfortable in a pair of loose fitting shorts and T-Shirt.Put some lotion on your bare feet and then cover them with some old tube socks. (Two things this will accomplish - the lotion will soften your feet for the end of the cleaning day bath and the socks will act as a dust buster for you floors.

Light a candle in the kitchen if you are working in the kitchen a nicely scented spring fragrance to get you lift you up as you start to clean and so that your house can start taking on a rejuvenating scent.

Remove all magazines that are over 3 months old or ripped. Donate them or recycle them.

Do the laundry as you clean. This was you can accomplish two things at once.

Gather up all of your cleaning products and put them on the a plastic garbage bag on your kitchen table. There is nothing worse then hunting around for cleaning products. Put cleaners, cleaning pads, rubber gloves, scrubbers, garbage bags and vacumn bags, paper towels, dust cloths on the table.

When starting a task try to do the same task on the same floor. Like cleaning all of the windows on the main floor, then move on to cleaning all of the baseboards on the main floor. You already have the products you need in hand.

Clean counters and dust first, then sweep, vacumn and mop the floors. This is more efficient. If you knock crumbs off the counter onto the floor by mistake you haven't swept yet so you don't have to go back and re-sweep.

Work your way backwards out of room whenever possible. Start in the farthest corner and work your way out.

Go through clothing, pack away or donate winter clothes that you will not be re-using. If you have not worn it all winter you probably never will so get rid of it. Try a consignment shop if you are looking to earn a few dollars.

If you are thinking of having a garage sale to get rid of some of your items, designate a spot for all of these items as you clean your house. This way when you go to have your yard sale you don't have to rip your house apart after all your hard cleaning looking for the items you were planning to put in your yard sale.

Take breaks, make sure you take plenty of breaks, when you complete a task or a mini task take a break have a glass of water or juice or pop or whatever it is you drink. You have to reward yourself as you clean or else you might give up half way through.

Self-roaming vacumns are great. Start the vacumn up in a different room that you are cleaning in and let it run through the room itself, when you get there you should only have to do a quick pass on the room.

Spray the tubs and sinks with cleaner first before you actually really start your cleaning. Put the toilet bowl cleaner in the bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes. It is pre-soaking while you work on other things.

Never clean for more than 5 to 6 hours. Spring cleaning should take longer than normal week to week cleaning. If you normally spend 2 to 3 hours cleaning your home then double this time. But only do as much as you can. I usually will do most of my cleaning on a Saturday and Sunday as I work full time during the week.

When you have finished your spring cleaning and the home is looking and smelling great give yourself a final reward by giving yourself a bath. Prepare for this. Set the bathroom up for a relaxing bubble bath. Pour yourself a glass of wine and bring it with you. Grab a bath pillow your favorite robe and soak.

Then watch your kids and spouse destroy all of your hard work in fifteen minutes or less.
If you have figured out a way to get your family to respect the clean let me know, I haven't quite figured this out yet.