The Ultimate Spring Cleaning Guide: How to Keep a Clean Home All Year-Round

Spring is just around the corner, which means spring cleaning is on the minds of many. With the new year settling in, you may feel energized to get a head start; or, you may feel overwhelmed with the idea of getting your home back in order.

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Whether you’re bursting at the seems to get started, or taking your time before jumping into cleaning mode, you’ll need a spring cleaning guide to get you started. Here is a checklist of everything you may want to accomplish this season, as well as some tips on how to keep your home clean all year round.

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Spring Cleaning Checklist

To make compiling your cleaning task lists as simple as possible, we’ve organized cleaning tasks for your home according to frequency. This way, you can quickly browse and check each cleaning task off your list as you go with less planning on your part. Below, you’ll find a cleaning checklist for daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal cleaning:

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Daily cleaning checklist:

Deep cleaning your home can be a great place to start cleaning, but don’t underestimate the power of making small cleaning habits a part of your daily routine. When you clean your home in small bits every day, there will be less to clean when it comes to the deep cleaning tasks; and ultimately, this is the key to maintaining a clean home. Some easy cleaning tasks you can accomplish every day are:

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• Make your bed: Whether you make your bed right when you wake up or a few hours after you’ve had breakfast and coffee, this small task can make your home feel more organized daily (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Pick up clutter: One of the best ways to prevent clutter from accumulating is to not allow it to get out of hand. Having a designated spot where each item in your home may only reside can help with practicing better habits and prevent items from getting lost. Another tip to prevent clutter is to designate a time every day when you gather everything that is out of place to put back away. This way, you can stay organized and keep the clutter at bay (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Clean the dirty dishes: A cleaning task some people despise, while others may find it peaceful, cleaning the dishes is a necessary task that must be done frequently to keep a clean home and to have dishes for your meals. Having a routine for cleaning your dishes can help prevent dishes from piling up in the sink (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Wipe down kitchen and bathroom counters: The kitchen and bathroom are places in your home that are used daily and can quickly become dirty. Spills can be difficult to clean once they are dried, so take the time every day to sanitize the counters and surfaces in this part of your home (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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Weekly cleaning checklist:

These are cleaning tasks that need to be done at a higher frequency, but are still less than the daily cleaning tasks. Keep in mind, these are simply suggestions for how often you can complete these tasks. If cleaning these parts of your home more or less frequently fits your lifestyle and cleaning needs better, then adjust accordingly. 

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• Laundry: Larger households may need to do laundry more frequently, but smaller households can probably wait a week or so before doing laundry. Larger loads of laundry done once a week are more sustainable than smaller loads of laundry done multiple times a week as you’ll end up expending more water, energy, and laundry detergent (Wright, 2019).

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• Take out the trash: Nobody wants to come home to a smelly odor in their trash bins, therefore, you’ll need to take out the trash often to prevent odors in your home. Taking the trash out weekly can work for most households as long as you haven’t tossed any perishable items. If there are perishables in the trash, you’ll want to remove the bag sooner to prevent smelly odors in your home (Holdefehr, 2019).

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• Sanitize frequently touched items and surfaces: Frequently touched surfaces and items can easily become dirty and spread germs. To keep these areas clean and prevent germs from spreading in your home you’ll need to sanitize all frequently touched items such as electronics, door handles, and light switches (Hoey, 2023).

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• Sweep heavy traffic areas in your home: Heavy traffic areas such as kitchens, living rooms, entry rooms, bathrooms and more can become dirty quickly. To manage these areas you’ll want to sweep at least once a week to minimize the dirt tracked inside. This is also important for pet owners who want to keep pet hair from accumulating (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Check for expired perishable items: To prevent mold growth on perishables, you’ll need to check your fridge often for expired food. Checking your fridge weekly will ensure mold does not grow and no one accidentally consumes expired products (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Vacuum floors: Vacuuming your carpet and floors can be done weekly so you aren’t expending extra energy cleaning more often or letting too much dirt sit around the house. This can either be done weekly or bi-weekly schedule depending on the needs of your household (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Clean the stovetop & microwave: These appliances are most prone to have food spills in your kitchen, so you’ll want to ensure these are cleaned before grease and grime begin to build up (Hoey, 2023).

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• Clean toilets: Nobody enjoys cleaning a toilet, but it must be done. Try using toilet bowl drop-ins to minimize the time spent cleaning the toilet (Hoey, 2023).

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Monthly cleaning checklist:

Monthly cleaning tasks are the deep cleaning portion of your cleaning routine. These tasks don’t need to be done as often, but some may be more time-consuming than others. Try to dedicate a day to accomplishing one room or task at a time to make the load feel more manageable. You can also schedule these tasks further apart from the others so they aren’t done all at once.

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• Deep clean and scrub bathroom surfaces: Minimize the time spent scrubbing bathroom surfaces by getting products that will make cleaning easier such as grout and tile cleaner and magic erase sponges (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Change and wash bedding: Get a good night’s sleep with fresh bedsheets by keeping a cleaning schedule for your bedding; either weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on your lifestyle and preferences (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Clean mirrors: Mirrors are only useful if they are clean. Dust your mirrors and get them shining with a glass cleaner monthly or as needed (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Dust furniture, light fixtures, and blinds: Dust can quickly accumulate and make any space look and feel dirty despite all other efforts. Make sure these are added to your monthly cleaning routine to keep the dust at bay (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Mop the floors: If you’ve been keeping a regular schedule with sweeping and vacuuming the floors, this step should go a lot smoother. If you live with others, try to mop when everyone is asleep or no one is home to prevent accidents and footprints on the floor (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Clean baseboards and walls: Most of us don’t check the baseboards every day, nor do we touch every surface of our walls, but they can still become dusty and stained over time. Depending on your household’s habits, you can either clean these places monthly or seasonally (Hoey, 2023).

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Seasonal cleaning checklist:

Home spaces that need less cleaning throughout the year fall under this category and perhaps are the cleaning tasks that are put off or forgotten about the most. Similar to your monthly cleaning routine, these tasks require more time and energy to clean, so you’ll want to tackle one task or room a day to make the load more manageable.

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• Deep clean kitchen appliances: Appliances in your kitchen such as the dishwasher, oven, and range hood will need a deep cleaning every few months. To clean your dishwasher, fill a large cup with 2 cups of vinegar, place it on the top rack, and run the machine without detergent or the heat dry function (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Clean around the vents and dryer: An excess of dust and fuzz around the vents and dryers in your home can become a potential fire hazard if not tended to often enough. Access these hard-to-reach places for cleaning with a thin, long vacuum attachment to keep your home clean and safe (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Deep clean windows: Some windows can remain relatively clean for a while, while others attract dirt and bugs like a magnet. Remove all dust, dirt, and bugs from the windows, window sills, and screens, then use a glass cleaner and wipe with a microfiber cloth. If you have a screen on your window, be sure to wash and dry it before placing it back on (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Wipe down inside the fridge: Every once in a while our refrigerators need a good cleaning inside. Take out all the items in the fridge and wipe down the inside surfaces to clean up spills and refresh the fridge area (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Clean under and behind furniture: Like most people, you likely don't move your furniture to clean underneath every time you vacuum or mop. However, this is a task you’ll want to do now and then to keep those spaces clean (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Clean patio and outdoor furniture: Patio and outdoor furniture are exposed to the outdoor elements daily, so we must take care of these items so they’ll last for years to come.

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• Clean gutters: To keep your gutters in good, working condition you’ll want to ensure they are not clogged when you need them most. Check your gutters monthly or seasonally to see if they need cleaning (McDonough & Picard, 2019).

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• Deep clean your carpets and rugs: When was the last time you did a deep clean of your carpets? If you can’t remember, then it’s time to freshen them up. Some indoor rugs nowadays are made to be machine washable, so if you have one, take advantage of it and toss it in the wash. Otherwise, you’ll need to steam clean your indoor rugs and carpets. Vacuuming rugs may get most of the dirt out, but you may be surprised how much dirt and stains can still be removed with a steam cleaner. Meanwhile, outdoor mats can be cleaned by shaking out the dirt and washing them with soap and water (Hoey, 2023).

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Although accomplishing these cleaning tasks within specific timelines would be ideal for maintaining a clean home, we understand that life happens and homes aren’t perfect. Every household will have different parameters and timelines for cleaning and should accommodate these cleaning checklists as they see fit. 

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Looking for more information on cleaning, sustainability, and home and garden care? Visit our blog for more!

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Resources:

Here's Why You Should Only Do Full Loads of Laundry

The Ultimate Cleaning Routines for Early Birds and Night Owls 

The Ultimate Cleaning Schedule for Your Day, Week, Month, and Year 

The Ultimate Room-by-Room Spring Cleaning Checklist 

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

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