It’s getting to be the time of year where households across the country are feeling the effects of the recent additional hour of daylight given to us thanks to Daylight Savings Time. What do you do with the extra light? When it comes to our home, we are outside doing our spring chores to be ready for the warm weather to come! But as many know, this time of year is especially known for days of rain and mud. These rainy spring days make me especially antsy to get some work done. So, the cabin fever soon turns into indoor spring cleaning!

In addition to the normal laundry, sweeping, mopping, dishes, etc. I like to do some extra deep cleaning and organizing in our home to freshen things up and help with dust/allergens. One thing people tend to forget about are the insides of their window sills. They get dirty and dusty during the winter and once the warmer weather starts happening, they want to open up their windows to let the fresh air in! If the sills are filthy, you get a lot more than just fresh air coming into your home. A quick vacuum and wipe down is all they really need to reduce the dirt and dust!

Another important thing we like to do is shampoo our rugs and carpets. With my rugs I use a pretty straight forward process of beating and vacuuming. To get a deep clean I will put my small rugs in my washing machine on a delicate cycle with laundry detergent and some sort of oxi-boosting powder. Once they are finished I make sure to air dry them as rubbery plastic bits get shredded off in the dryer and will ruin the rug! For our big area rugs and carpets we will move out furniture and throughly vacuum the area before taking a carpet cleaner to finish the job. If you’ve got small children that insist on playing on your wet, freshly cleaned carpets, I would recommend giving them a good clean early in the morning and then taking them out for the day to grandmas or the zoo! When you get home they will have had the time to properly dry.

The next thing on the list for me is to do a deep clean of our linoleum and synthetic wood floors. The synthetic wood flooring should be fairly straight forward to clean as it was recently installed. A quick sweep and mop should do the trick. Our kitchen and bathroom floors on the other hand will be more of a challenge. They are textured linoleum and get build up from our daily farm shenanigans even though we have a shoe off policy at the door. The best way to I know get those floors shining is good old Pine-sol and some old fashioned hands-and-knees scrubbing. I don’t do this all the time and when I do, I only have time to do it in sections. Usually I’ll start on one end of the house and slowly work my way to the other end until everything is scrubbed down. If I keep up with spot cleaning and a quick weekly mop, it keeps me from having to scrub the floors as often.

Another thing I like to do in the spring is go through the closets to thin out, donate, and organize clothing. When I have our dressers and closets organized it makes finding things every day much quicker and easier for the family. I also like to fold and store things in a way that all items are visible and easy to find. I tend to use small boxes and organizers for smaller things like underwear, socks, and onesies.

As for our hanging clothes, I don’t have much of a method for organizing them in the closet except that I use uniform, space saving hangers. They make a huge difference in making the closet looking more organized and clothes more visible.

What are some things your family like to do to freshen things up for the spring? What are some tips and tricks that you need to make your spring cleaning go smoother? I would love to hear from you!

Until next time…

The Ag Wife