While it never hurts to do a deep clean at least once each season, it makes good sense to clean in the spring because dirt, dust, soot, and grease tend to build up over the winter months. In winter we’re indoors more often, using our kitchens more heavily, burning the wood stove, and keeping all of the doors and windows closed.
Dating all the way back to the Victorian era, Mrs. Beeton wrote in her popular Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management that “spring is the usual period set apart for house-cleaning, and removing all the dust and dirt, which will necessarily, with the best of housewives, accumulate over the winter months, from the smoke of coal, oil, gas, etc.”
But it’s not just dust and dirt that collects over the winter months; Clutter also tends to pile up. I don’t know about you, but around here winter boots, jackets, hats, and gloves seem to multiply the longer winter drags on. Christmas gifts that never did find a home end up circulating from one place to another. Sourdough starters and kombucha bottles and dried herbs (that I still haven’t pulled off the stem) pile up on the countertop. Books, papers, and children’s toys take up space on just about every otherwise unoccupied surface.
Not to mention, as homesteaders, our animals tend to find their way into the house over the winter months more often than other times of the year, whether due to illness or injury, extreme cold, or any other number of things. By early spring we tend to have some combination of rabbit poop, straw, hay, sawdust, cat fur, and chicken feed in every nook, cranny, and corner of our home.
Needless to say, come spring most of us are more than ready to roll up our sleeves, break out our cleaning supplies and give our homes a refresh. For homesteaders, it’s arguably even more important to start the new growing season off with a clean slate as the dirt will inevitably get tracked in from the garden soon enough. And if there’s anything worse than winter dirt, it’s spring dirt on top of winter dirt!
But spring cleaning can feel pretty overwhelming if you go into it without a plan or you don’t know where to begin. If you need a little help to get started, here are 8 tips to help you deep clean your home this spring and set a strong foundation that will support you and your family’s needs during the busy seasons ahead.
1. Set realistic goals
While it would be nice to declutter and deep clean your entire house including the attic, basement, garage, closets, and tool shed, that’s probably not a very realistic goal for most people to accomplish all in one season, let alone in a few days.
Before you begin your spring cleaning, decide what your priorities are. Are there certain areas of your home that need more attention than others? Are there areas you cleaned last year that you could overlook this year?
Maybe you have a junk drawer that desperately needs cleaning out, but your windows got deep cleaned last year and are still holding up. Decide where your time and energy is best focused so you can get the most important stuff done first.
2. Focus on cleaning one room at a time
Cleaning the house is a lot like pulling weeds: You could clean a little bit here and a little bit there and never feel like you’re really accomplishing anything. Or you could clean one whole area all at once and enjoy the satisfaction and momentum that comes from having a completely tidy space.
Personally, I always like to start with the kitchen. It doesn’t seem to matter what’s going on in the other rooms of our house, if the kitchen is a mess, the whole house feels messy. So I always start with any dirty dishes. I go through and declutter and clean all of the countertops, and by the end, I have a clean kitchen and a “staging area” for cleaning the rest of the house.
If you’re not sure which room to start in, choose the one that needs the most attention or that makes you the most uncomfortable when it’s messy. Alternatively, start at one end of your house and work your way to the other.
3. Tidy and declutter before you clean
While I recommend tackling one room at a time, I like to tidy each room first before I start deep cleaning. So I’ll start by tidying the kitchen and clearing countertops, but I’ll move on to tidying the other rooms in our house before I deep clean the walls, floors, and appliances in the kitchen.
This approach is easier and more efficient than tidying and deep cleaning one room at a time since you can batch tasks like sweeping, vacuuming, washing walls, cleaning windows, and wiping surfaces once everything is tidy and the clutter is gone. But find what works for you and go with it. If you’d rather tidy and clean each room individually before moving on to the next, there’s no rule that says you can’t!
Tidying pro-tip
Take everything off of surfaces and out of drawers and cupboards in each room and put it all into boxes. From there, lay it out and organize it into piles. Decide what to toss, donate or sell, and organize whatever’s left back into drawers and cupboards. By the end, everything should have a home and nothing should need to sit out on surfaces. If you can’t find a home for something, consider whether you truly need that item or if there’s a better place you could store it.
4. Deep clean surfaces with natural cleaners
When it comes time to deep clean your home, don’t waste your money or sacrifice your family’s health by using toxic store-bought chemical cleaners. Most of what you need to make your own all-natural cleaning products can be found in your pantry. The rest are versatile ingredients that can be used alone or in combination with each other to clean just about anything that needs cleaning in your home.
Vinegar and baking soda are the two most versatile natural cleaners that you can use to clean everything from cupboards and countertops to carpets and toilets. Use baking soda to scrub tubs, toilets and sinks, or to clean stainless steel appliances. Vinegar diluted with a bit of water is perfect for cleaning most surfaces, including wood, plastic, stainless steel, and glass.
DO NOT SPRAY VINEGAR ON MARBLE! Vinegar can stain and ruin marble surfaces.
A simple combination of water and dish soap (while not always natural) is also a highly effective cleaner, especially when it comes to greasy surfaces. If you want an even more natural option, opt for Castile soap (natural soap) or Sal Suds (a biodegradable detergent that won’t leave soap scum). Dr. Bronner’s brand makes both Castile soap and Sal Suds.
When making your own natural cleaners, you may wish to keep them unscented or you may want to scent them with essential oils. Lemon, lavender, grapefruit, peppermint, and tea tree oils are all great oils for cleaning.
For more information and full recipes for DIY natural cleaners (with or without essential oils) click here.
5. Replace heavy, winter decor with light and airy accents
First of all, if there are still a few Christmas decorations scattered throughout your house, now would definitely be the time to put those away. Likewise, wash and put away any heavy blankets and throw pillows or other wintery decor and refresh your space with lighter, airier linens and decor.
Heavy blankets and plaids can be replaced with light throws and cotton linens. Wintertime greenery can be replaced with spring flowers, etc.
6. Clean out your pantry, fridge, and freezer
If you haven’t done so yet, this is also a great time to clean out your pantry, fridge, freezer, and any other food storage areas you have. Pull everything out of your pantry and reorganize it. Consolidate items, toss or donate things you won’t use, rotate your home-canned goods and food stores and make a plan to use up items that are approaching their best before date.
Do the same thing with your fridge and freezer. Clean the fridge and defrost the freezer while you’re at it. And if you have any other cold storage or areas where you store food, give them a once over too. While you’re at it, you might also want to reorganize things like canning supplies and empty jars or other seasonal and/or small appliances that you might not need to access right now, but that you’ll need come summer and fall.
7. Add some finishing touches
Once everything is clean and tidy, why not add a few finishing touches to help complete the transition from winter to spring?
A fresh tablecloth, a vase of cut flowers, some new candles peppered around the house, and some floral or citrus-scented essential oils in the diffuser go a long way when it comes to refreshing your space for the season!
8. Set a daily & weekly cleaning routine
Last but not least, take some time to set up a daily and weekly cleaning routine. While you can’t take time to deep clean the house every week or even every month, you don’t want all of your hard work to go to waste either.
Decide on your must-do daily cleaning tasks (ie. tidy the kitchen before bed, fold the laundry, sweep the floors, make the bed, etc.) along with weekly cleaning tasks (clean the toilet, take out the trash, vacuum, wash bedding, etc.) and put them on your calendar.
The more regularly you clean and tidy your house, the less time you’ll need to spend deep cleaning every spring!
Finally, take a little time to enjoy your space once you’re done cleaning. After all, if you’re homesteading, raising kids, animals and/or plants — or just generally living in your house at all, it won’t last long. So pour yourself a beverage, put your feet up and revel in it while you can 🙂
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