Spring cleaning: Tackle the forgotten areas in your home

Written by Nicole Harrison

Spring is just around the corner! Toss back your curtains, throw open your windows, and breathe in that crisp warm(ish) air. Whether you love cleaning or not, now is the time to start freshening up your house and begin spring cleaning. As much as I hate cleaning, I have to admit, after a good spring cleaning my mood drastically improves.

Most people have the same spring cleaning schedule each year, however think about the areas of your home you don’t tend to focus on. It’s easy to vac uum your carpet, dust your furniture, and clean out the fridge, but I have highlighted what I think are items and areas most people seem to neglect.

Baseboards– When cleaning, most people forget about their base boards. Vacuuming along the edges of the carpet is usually a go-to, but many people don’t actually take time to clean their baseboards, and if they do, it’s not very often. There are a few ways to clean your baseboards, speaking from personal experience, both work quite well. If you don’t clean your baseboards often I recommend using a bucket of water and vinegar, or soapy water. Dryer sheets are also an excellent way to clean your baseboards. The fibers in the dryer sheets work well to pick up dust, dirt, and hair that could be lingering on your baseboards. If you want a thorough deep-cleaning, you can wipe down your baseboards with dryer sheets and follow with the liquid solution mentioned earlier. We recommend using cotton swabs to reach the tight corners and crevices on your baseboard.

Blinds– There many types of blinds and cleaning them can be a huge pain. Believe it or not, blinds get very dirty and can collect a lot of dust. Depending on the type of blind you have, you can either vacuum across each panel — don’t vacuum vertically — or use a dry sponge to remove excess dust and particles. If you have to spot clean a certain area of your blinds, all-purpose cleaner works well to clean make your blinds look like new again!

Pillows– Did you know you’re supposed to wash your pillows? You should be washing your pillows at least twice a year. Check the care label on your pillow to make sure they are machine washable. Wash no more than two pillows at a time, while keeping a balanced load. When you wash your pillows, we recommend using very hot water. In addition to laundry detergent, it’s common to add powdered dishwasher detergent, bleach, and borax to your load to clean and make your pillows white again. If you decide to dry your pillows in the dryer, throw in a couple tennis balls covered in old socks to fluff the pillows while they dry.

Junk Drawer– I hate junk drawers. It’s a place for me to get lazy and throw … well, junk — and believe me I do. If you are like me and have a junk drawer (or multiple), be sure to spend some time going through it when you’re on your spring cleaning kick. Empty your junk drawer and wipe down the inside with warm soapy water. Depending on what you have in your junk drawer, the bottom of it could get really dirty, and really, how often do you take time to wipe out the inside of it? Go through your drawer’s contents and pitch anything that has no value or functional use for you. Look into buying drawer organizers to keep items in place and easy to find.

Garbage Disposal– I stole this tip from our spring cleaning blog that was written last year. I tried it, and it’s brilliant! Warm up ½ cup of lemon juice in your microwave. After the lemon juice has been heated, slowly add ½ cup of baking soda to create a thicker paste (it should bubble). Turn on the garbage disposal and pour down the sink. Run hot water to wash down the leftover cleaning solution. If your garbage disposal still smells, repeat the process as needed. I love the fresh lemon smell!

Hopefully these spring cleaning tips were helpful and reminded you to clean those often forgotten areas! For more spring cleaning tips and ideas, check out this spring cleaning infographic.

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