Spring cleaning -- it's time!

Or it will be. Rick is going to a bowling tournament the beginning of April. And while he's gone, I intend to rip through the house. A thorough vacuuming (floors and furniture), lemon oil the wood, wash down the walls, wash the floors, wash the windows, and sort and get rid of stuff. Throw open all the windows and get some good air inside the house (although I'm hoping to open the windows this coming Wednesday as we're supposed to get into the high 60s, low 70s). I want to take all the curtains down in the house and get them to the drycleaner for a good cleaning, too. Moving all the furniture around to clean. It will take me two days and I probably won't be able to walk for a week, but it will be worth it.

We are boarding The Beast while Rick's away so I get a bit of time to get some things done. And well, I'm going to be honest here....if I could board the cats, too, I probably would. Can you imagine, no yelling for food, no snarling between Mollipop and Muffin at 4:00 in the morning, no puking, no hairballs, and no stepping on cat litter on the floor, no black light inspections to make sure Muffin hasn't peed anywhere. Just peace. For two full days! I love my furkids, I do. But sometimes....

I love spring cleaning; it makes the house sparkle and shine....at least for a couple of days anyway. It's something that Mom always did and we were expected to help. Grandma always ripped through the house, too, and she had a huge 2-story house with a large attic. I was expected to help her, too.  

Do you do any spring cleaning?

I'm semi-itching to spring clean.  I really need to de-clutter my desk and the far corner of the kitchen counter.  I also want to get the ladder inside to do the tops of the cabinets.  I think the ladder would be better than the taller step-stool.  I'm also wanting to do the cabinets themselves.  It's not a hard job once you get going; it's the clearing the surfaces before hand that takes time.  I'd love to send the kids outside; but the little one isn't quite old enough to be out there alone yet.  

It's probably time to wipe down all the blinds and things too.  We run the fan in our bathroom after every shower (and it's a good one, we upgraded it and installed a timer) but we seem to still get some mildew on the window frame near the bottom.  I guess the blind is blocking good airflow there.  I need to do something about it.  I don't want to frost the window but I'm not sure I want a curtain for privacy either.  

I normally wait for all the gross yellow/green pollen to settle down and then do a major cleaning. It's pointless for me to do a decent one before that because as soon as I open a window, the pollen will cover everything.

AbbysMom said:

I normally wait for all the gross yellow/green pollen to settle down and then do a major cleaning. It's pointless for me to do a decent one before that because as soon as I open a window, the pollen will cover everything.

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We have the pollen problem also. I'm always astonished how much collects over night on my car.  Our front porch is utterly disgusting to look at in the spring time.  

However, Tom and I aren't home enough to do a big clean ourselves.  I splurge 3-4 times a year and have a service come in to do it. I'm always somewhat displeased with the results since I expect perfection when I'm paying for it.  But, on the other hand, at least we weren't the ones doing it so, I suck it up.  Plus I finally found a service that doesn't overcharge. And, if it wasn't done right they always send someone back to re-do what was missed.

I'm calling for an appointment when he's on break in a couple of weeks.  Totally need to do it.

yuck. I try to do some cleaning every month. Also live where we have pollen issues...I have been good about vacuuming the edges of the rooms along the ceiling. I need to clean the blinds and wash curtains...The cat litter...ugg. I vacuum the hallway and bedroom where two of the four trays are every fourth day but I really got to get the master bath done=that's the problem with catlitter..those floors are carpet and dark green. which shows more dirt than the light colored carpet. If I had the energy I would dump everything that's on the surfaces. I have been dumping a few things every week for the garbage pickup. the counters are almost cleared.

I know I have to do a better job=the heating system is forced hot air-dust. yuck. I usually use a damp rag and run it along everything weekly but this year or winter I have not done so. So now I need to get moving. I have thought about hiring someone but then I worry if it will cost super high since I am a clutter bug...I have gotten better.

~shudddddder~  I hate it.  But I do it.  I even ordered some really good gel knee pads for this year.  I'll be pulling down the drapes, cleaning them, doing the carpet, scrubbing baseboards, all the little stuff that I let slide for ages.  My drapes are lightweight cotton, and ideally I would have heavy drapes for winter, and only use these during the spring and summer. 

It isn't that I hate cleaning so much, as that I'm just not capable of doing much at a time.  It takes me sometimes two hours to vacuum the living room because my lungs just give out and I have to stop and rest.  And my knees are so bad that if I get down, I sometimes can't get back up unless I crawl somewhere with a really sturdy piece of furniture to lever myself on.  But so nice when it is all done!

Spring Cleaning!!!!????????

I haven't done my Winter Cleaning Yet!!!

Good God no.

I used to spring clean, but I don't anymore. They say spring cleaning became a tradition in the days of fireplaces and potbelly stoves because the soot accumulated on everything during the winter. Needless to say, this isn't necessary anymore. I think fall house cleaning is more important. You can get rid of the dirt that's blown in the windows and tracked into the house. Wash windows, drapes, everything else. Then the house is spic and span for the Christmas holidays.

AbbysMom said:

I normally wait for all the gross yellow/green pollen to settle down and then do a major cleaning. It's pointless for me to do a decent one before that because as soon as I open a window, the pollen will cover everything.

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Same here. The pollen coats everything, so constantly has to be wiped/vacuumed up. There's no sense in scrubbing anything until it stops flying.

I do both spring and fall cleaning....I am my mother's daughter and I think she'd roll over in her grave (or her ashes would fly or something) if I didn't. I do spring cleaning simply because I love the way the house looks when I'm done. There's something about open windows and fresh air and the way things look in the house. I do another thorough cleaning in the fall because I'm getting ready for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. We don't have to worry about furnaces or anything like that because we have electric heat. But I like to know that our house is clean. Anal? I suppose. But with six cats and now a dog in the house, fur is always flying.

I really don't mind cleaning. It's not something I really like to do, but it's not something I despise doing either. I just do it.

I have to do monthly cleanings-we have forced hot air=and I tell you I have never seen so much DUST! We got air purifiers going but the dust is something that never goes away=so I have been doing a better job of vacuuming every surface or at least use a damp clothe to wipe everything down. I really need to wash the walls and vacuum thoroughly. With 3 cats they have tons of fur everywhere. I try to vacuum at minumum weekly but some days with work and cat chores i just don't have the energy. I love the house cleaned up. I am a clutter bug and slowly trying to get to a routine where I dont have piles of stuff-try to put things away every morning that I used the night prior and then there is my library=had these books for years...this summe going to get rid of them and cut down in half what I have. i will never read all these books in my lifetime but I love yardsales and thrift stores..cut that out two years ago as well..so yes I hate cleaning but once I get into a rhythm and get started I can get a room or two done a day=thats wiping down walls, vacuum everything, furniture polish on furniture-bag up clothes i dont wear-and every season I try to donate a few bags of clothes. I think it stems from not having much as a kid so when I became an adult I was obsessed with "things". trying to get better about Things. and CLEAN MY HOUSE!
 

Wash walls? I don't know how I would accomplish that in my living room. The ceilings are 16 feet high. :lol3: I have a FROG room over the garage and a bedroom that also have cathedral ceilings.

No. I don't do spring cleaning or fall cleaning. We are not so young anymore and ladders are a thing of the past. . In the past, yes, I did do it when we lived in a house that was 1100 square ft. home. I was younger and the ceilings were lower. Now our house s about 2000 and I just don't have the energy for it anymore. I try to keep things as clean as I can. With no kids or animals inside all the time, it is not to hard to keep things livable. My husband has allergies. Farmland is all around us. I wouldn't want to have my windows open when the wind is blowing and the land is sitting with no crops growing. :lol3:

The last time I did a complete housecleaning was 2 summers ago, so I guess it was summer cleaning.  But I didn't do the walls!  So maybe it was just a cleaning.  

Do walls actually get dirty?  Or just dusty?  My parents used to wash walls and even ceilings when they housecleaned, but I don't think I'm ready to try ceilings.

If Mother Nature co-operates and gives us a warm, dry spring before the pollen starts flying, I might try to do a complete spring cleaning.  But usually spring is wet and rainy and by the time the good weather gets here, it is garden time so the inside gets forgotten. 

dust-my walls at the ceiling always get dust bunnies-the side effect of forced hot air and cold dry winter air-i usually vacuum the upper walls and around the ceiling edge-then damp clothe the walls down-i have allergies and an asthmatic kitty-if i dont keep on top of dust i am absolutely miserable!!

I'm going to start spring cleaning tomorrow. Management is going around to all untis later this week with the fire sprinkler / alarm company for a mandatory inspection. I haven't vacuumed or dusted in awhile Then next week I have someone coming over to discuss custom glide out shelves for my black hole of a kitchen cabinet. So definitely time to clean. While I'm at it, I'm ging to swap out my heavy energy saving "winter" curtains for my light meshy "warm weather" curtains and maybe organize my closets a bit.

rubysmama said:

 
Do walls actually get dirty?  Or just dusty?  My parents used to wash walls and even ceilings when they housecleaned, but I don't think I'm ready to try ceilings.

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They can. The walls in my parents' house are covered with visible clumps of dust and dirt that has collected over the years, particularly near the floor and around the old radiators and in corners. On the ceiling there's hanging strings of dust and dirt. Let's just say that cleaning the house is not something my parents do

LTS3 said:

 
The walls in my parents' house are covered with visible clumps of dust and dirt that has collected over the years, particularly near the floor and around the old radiators and in corners. On the ceiling there's hanging strings of dust and dirt. Let's just say that cleaning the house is not something my parents do

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Yikes!  I know for a fact I do no have hanging strings from ceilings!  But I'm sure there's dust bunnies behind furniture. 

rubysmama said:

 
The last time I did a complete housecleaning was 2 summers ago, so I guess it was summer cleaning.  But I didn't do the walls!  So maybe it was just a cleaning.  

Do walls actually get dirty?  Or just dusty?  My parents used to wash walls and even ceilings when they housecleaned, but I don't think I'm ready to try ceilings.

If Mother Nature co-operates and gives us a warm, dry spring before the pollen starts flying, I might try to do a complete spring cleaning.  But usually spring is wet and rainy and by the time the good weather gets here, it is garden time so the inside gets forgotten. 

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My parents had a woodburner and my father also had the house way over-insulated. My mom used to walk around in shorts and sleeveless tops, even during the coldest winter spells. He even had the plastic sheeting over the windows....made my mother crazy. You'd walk in their house and sweat terribly. The walls  got dirty quickly (from the woodburner) and I used to go up twice a year to wash the walls down.

Our walls are dusty more so than dirty. I do take a dust mop to them regularly (it's amazing how fast cobwebs can grow when there are spiders in the house). But I also wash our walls down twice a year.....as well as the ceilings in all but the foyer (no way can I reach the ceiling in the foyer). In the kitchen, I wipe the walls down about once a month, particularly around the stove, but also where my mixer is placed. Just the area between the counter tops and the bottom of the top cabinets. I am a cooking slob and no matter how clean and neat I try to be, my kitchen usually looks like a war zone til I'm done baking anything.

I think a lot of my cleaning is simply habit and what I'm used to doing. I used to spring and fall clean my parents' house, help out when I was younger and took it over when my parents could no longer do it. I painted the rooms in their house more than once. My brother is the same way and we always said that he'd make some woman a great wife....he's like mom in that he'd have a sink full of water to wash one coffee cup and he never goes to bed with dirty dishes in the sink. (Neither do I, but the very last thing Rick does before he goes to bed is turn the dishwasher on.)

Quite some time ago, my mother and I went to visit her step-sister, who was in very ill health. Her house was horrible, I mean to the point where I didn't even want to sit down. Anywhere. I realize that when you visit people you're not supposed to look at things like dirty dishes and dust and dirt, but OMGosh, this was simply horrible. I thought about offering to clean for her, but didn't want to embarrass her and, on the way home, Mom said it didn't bother her step-sister at all to be living like that; that was how she had always lived. Needless to say, I dropped Mom off at the house, went home and I ripped through our house like there was no tomorrow. I had to. I just had to. (I found out later that Mom ripped through their house, too. In a lot of ways, I am my mother's daughter.)

If any of you ever came to visit us, our house is messy. It is cluttered and it is messy. I try to keep things clean, but with the animals it's not easy. Just know that anybody is welcome any time you want to visit. My motto has always been: I keep the house as clean as I can. You cannot eat off my floors, but why would you want to?

Winchester said:

 
Quite some time ago, my mother and I went to visit her step-sister, who was in very ill health. Her house was horrible, I mean to the point where I didn't even want to sit down. Anywhere. I realize that when you visit people you're not supposed to look at things like dirty dishes and dust and dirt, but OMGosh, this was simply horrible. I thought about offering to clean for her, but didn't want to embarrass her and, on the way home, Mom said it didn't bother her step-sister at all to be living like that; that was how she had always lived. Needless to say, I dropped Mom off at the house, went home and I ripped through our house like there was no tomorrow. I had to. I just had to. (I found out later that Mom ripped through their house, too. In a lot of ways, I am my mother's daughter.)

If any of you ever came to visit us, our house is messy. It is cluttered and it is messy. I try to keep things clean, but with the animals it's not easy. Just know that anybody is welcome any time you want to visit. My motto has always been: I keep the house as clean as I can. You cannot eat off my floors, but why would you want to?

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HAHAHA I love this! Yeah my house is cluttered and dusty-with forced hot air its very hard to keep clean..in the New England spiders are a part of life. Yep I hear you about going home and cleaning. My mother was like that. Drove my dad completely nuts..but he didnt help..he always said it was a woman's job

Now that mom is gone he has to do his own laundry and cleaning. He has a companion but even she put her foot down to him and said you are on your own buddy! HAHAHA!

I keep an ok clean house-never smelly. I am particular about the catboxes and food dishes. I have had spider webs that are impressive in as little as a few days way up high on the cathedral ceilings..I just use a broom and knock them down but whoever painted the ceiling put that ANNOYING popcorn type texture=which a neatfreak like me-drive me INSANE because I cant vacuum the edges of the ceiling where the walls/ceiling meets as thats where the dumb dust bunnies are...If I didnt work so much I could do a better job...

I am always dusting...I wiped down the tv last week and this morning noticed more dust..but I didnt use a damp rag..I like to vacuum the walls because it keeps the dust out of my nose. Otherwise I am miserable until its vacuumed up. I know I need to really find someone to clean out the ductwork but for now I havent found anyone reliable-last year I spent TOO much fixing the roof with holes that the first person nailed shingles right over...grr..so I am gun shy now..did pay someone to rip it all off and now I am out of extra cash..so for now-air filters or air purifier does a great job at pulling dust out of the air but I need 3 more but dont have the money..

 and vacuum..I need to get some kind of cheeseclothe and tape it over the vents to collect the dust-I am thinking about running the furnace once a week in the summer to just keep the ducts clear-not sure if this will work-maybe a cold rainy day run it for a couple of hours...dust...I dont mind clutter..its the dust that makes my eyes and throat hurt..and my asthmatic kitty get sick...and well I just dont want to move..I like where i live...grrrrrrr...I dont think it will matter...ok I am done.

I have forced hot air heating too, so I totally understand about the dust.  I wonder if the cheesecloth over the ducts would work.  And would it be safe?  I'm always scared of fire. 

I'm grateful that I don't seem to have any cobwebs in my ceiling corners.  And thankfully, Ruby keeps spiders and any over unwelcome creepy crawlers under control, so I never see any.  She loves my furnace room, it's like her playground. One day she sauntered out of there licking her lips!   I shudder to think what she found to eat, but at least I didn't have to worry about coming across it.