I really have never done an official “spring clean” per say. I haven’t for decades had “spare time” for huge spring cleaning and just try to keep clutter at bay, general things clean.
I say this as I’m about half way through washing my 32ish windows and glass doors this weekend. I don’t have a big house - a 1925 2000sq ft home - but to my liking , lots of windows. It feels good to get them clean! Also, can’t wait till I’m done.
I’m sure we run the gamut of those who do nothing and those who cover every square foot of their home. No bragging needed either way.
What’s one thing you most appreciate to get clean in the spring?
A best tip or shortcut?
I do enjoy clean windows - I TRY to do them spring and fall since most of them are basically bare and visible. Gives me pleasure .
I do certain things in the spring but not a full on spring cleaning.
I don’t have a large house but I do have a ton of windows, 10 just in my family room that faces south/west. Always know when my windows are filthy due to that late afternoon sun! I did clean my family room windows on the inside a few weeks ago, but they are different than the rest of my house and need two people to tilt them inward to clean the outside. Need my husband’s help for that unfortunately.
We just had almost the whole house painted and new carpet installed in all the bedrooms over the holidays which necessitated a big purge of closets, dresser drawers, etc. I even had to unload my china cabinet and found several things in there we had gotten as gifts and never used. Got rid of it all. So fortunately, my inside is in good shape and does not need much of a spring cleaning. I’ve been working in the garden though!
We have eleven windows along three sides of our house, but the back of the house is mostly glass, and our four outside doors all have glass panels. I wash them all, inside and out, monthly. It’s very dusty here in the desert, and I can’t stand dirty windows. Thankfully, we have a single-story house, so they aren’t hard to reach. I appreciated the pivot windows on our son’s house that enabled me to wash his second story windows as easily as the first. (Yes, mom couldn’t stand those dirty windows, either.)
The only big(ger) job we do annually after washing all the windows is put up the sun screens when the temp starts to rise. We did it last week in preparation for leaving shortly for the summer.
I’m pretty OCD, so the house never needs a declutter or major overhaul. I routinely do things that many people are fine doing infrequently. I do wish DH were as anal about the garage as I am about the house, but I have learned to let that one go. Sigh.
@ChoatieMom my recent decluttering was mostly all the crap from my kids’ rooms. I cannot stand clutter, and until recently, had a fairly regular donation pickup scheduled b/c for every bag that left the house, my kids just managed to acquire more stuff. With only my youngest daughter home now, it is amazing how easy it is to keep my house clean and uncluttered.
However, my two boys are finishing up their college finals in the next couple of weeks tho and I’m cringing at the detritus that will accumulate in the few months they are home. I’ve also finally convinced my now permanently working from home husband to use the spare bedroom as his office, so I finally have my dining room looking lovely again. Unfortunately clutter does not bother him like it does me!
No. And almost embarrassed to admit that we almost never clean the windows… a chore my mom did a lot (we heated with oil furnace growing up, which maybe made the windows more dirty?). Sometimes we hose the outside of windows if they seem dirty.
@deb922 two of my kids are on fun weekends, one in Pittsburgh and one in Houston. They are sending all those photos of their Airbnb’s, poolside relaxing, delicious food, etc.
I just sent a picture of my dirty window rags,my Raw tired hands - “just livin life washing my windows”!!!
I love clean windows (and linen, if I could I’d have clean linen on the bed 7 days a week) - I have them all professionally cleaned, inside and out, tracks, all of it, 2x a year. I always feel better afterwards.
I don’t “spring clean” - I just do a usual and customary every Friday morning.
This is one of my smaller windows. Our ceilings are 9.5 feet tall. This one is narrower than most. We have over 40 of these suckers that are over 110 years old. They’ve been painted so many times, most don’t open easily. And one of my many fears is that I’ll wind up cutting my arm off as it goes through the glass as I try to open it.
Most of the windows came with these shutters. We never open them, so I don’t care if they are clean or not. I sometimes clean the glass on our front door window and the glass in the sunroom where the cats press their noses on the sunny seat.
We have newer windows that line the sunroom. I once spent forever taking them apart and cleaning out all the dirt, pollen and spiderwebs. They looked great for one day. Then the cobwebs came back and the pollen/dirt shortly thereafter. I’m perfectly happy with dirty windows.
I don’t have a spring cleaning schedule but I try to deep clean a few rooms per year. But the effort put into it has to be worth the finished product.
Get the garden ready (bringing out the ceramic pots, putting out the fountain, etc…)
Thoroughly clean the sunporch and front porch
Get the windows washed - We are WAY overdue for that because I didn’t want people in the house during Covid the past two years and they are filthy. I washed my own in the last house because they were modern, tilt windows so I could easily do them. We have the original leaded glass windows in our new house and there is no way to wash the outside without a ladder and I’m too short to reach the tops of the interior windows without a ladder. Plus, I tried to do a few and they are still so dirty on the outside that it didn’t improve anything.
I like to clean the windows before putting in the screens in the spring, but since we back up to a field, the windows are dirty again within days, or at least when we have the next rain. What I really like to do is clean the windows in early January, or right before we get our first plowable snow. The windows stay clean over the winter, and with the sun lower in the sky, I enjoy them much more at that time of the year.
The spring is such a busy time with outside chores, that I don’t have time to do any spring cleaning then. I use the winter to go through each room and damp wipe all surfaces except walls, and clean out all drawers, closets, and cabinets. It gives me a goal to achieve over the long, boring winter.
I have never done spring cleaning. I think it was a thing when people heated their houses with coal/oil and it was needed.
Our old house was 2 levels high in the front and 3 in the back. I could clean the inside windows, but we had to pay for outside window cleaning. It was worth it.
I don’t have any help cleaning my house so tend to spread out some of the big “spring cleaning” chores throughout the year, sometimes based on when we are entertaining a lot. I had a party this past week so spent a lot time last weekend polishing silver and heavy duty cleaning.
But I am extremely grateful to have a guy who comes twice a year to help with the exterior and windows. We’re in Florida with a lot of big oak trees. Here, leaf fall coincides with pollen season in February and March. So in April my guy comes and cleans the roof, gutters, pressure washes the outside, cleans exterior windows, outdoor furniture and all the exterior light fixtures. That is a solid day of work. Then he comes again for 2 days around Thanksgiving. He does the same as April, and also cleans all the interior windows and chandeliers plus anything that needs a tall ladder to reach.
Whenever I’ve tried to clean windows between his visits, I can’t do anywhere close to the quality job he does. He uses deionized water which never leaves any water spots. I also can’t get our outdoor glass table tops anywhere as clean as he does. There is really something to be said for having the right equipment.
We have a lot of gas lanterns on our house. They are so pretty when the glass is clean. Twice a year seems to keep them in good shape.
Darn you, Abasket. I started washing outside windows. I am too lazy to move a ladder around, nor take out all the screens. At least I can do inside windows.
We have a cleaning service that comes every 2 weeks, so we don’t really need a “spring cleaning.”
But you guys have reminded me that our windows are filthy and need to be cleaned. We hire that out because it requires very tall ladders and I don’t want DH to fall off and kill himself!
For those of us who clean our homes ourselves (and may have work or family obligations that limit our time devoted to cleaning) a deep clean if we desire it is a process!
My windows are washed! It promptly started raining an hour later. Haha
We are in a condo. Definitely cannot reach the windows that run along the side of our end unit. We are on the third floor. However, I do clean the sliders to our back patio fairly frequently. I use a squeegee and a mix of about a gallon of warm water, a couple of squirts of blue Dawn, and a couple of squirts of Finish Jet Dry. Our sliders get dirty with blowing rain.
I don’t really do a spring cleaning. I clean our place once a week, and I tend to stay on top of the interior of the oven and microwave. I should probably do a thorough cleaning of our fridge and freezer - pulling everything out and wiping the interior down. I should probably also do cabinets and baseboards. Thanks for the nudge, @abasket
