Entries Tagged as 'Seasonal Cleaning'

Spring Cleaning: bedrooms

March 27th, 2008 10 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

 Thanks to commenter Sandy, I am getting back on track with the spring cleaning posts. I totally have blogging ADD. I’ll be chugging along with something and then suddenly- “Look! A puppy!”

So, today we’ll talk about spring cleaning your bedrooms. Here we go, wheee!

  • I like to start with the closets. I toss everything except the clothes out of the closet and try to get rid of about half the stuff that’s in there, if possible. Eventually, you’ll get your clutter level down so low that there is mostly essential items in there, but you’ll still find stuff you don’t need, guaranteed.
  • Then take all the clothes out of the closet and get rid of anything that doesn’t fit, you hate, or is stained or torn.
  • Once you have everything out of the closet, dust the walls, ceiling and light fixtures, wash the baseboards, and vacuum. Then put everything back in there.
  • Take your comforter off the bed and then dust the fan and/or light fixtures. The reason I say take the comforter off is because funky dust is easily washed off sheets, but depending on the laundry instructions for your comforter, it may not easily be washed off. If you do have a washable comforter, take your comforter off and wash it, store it, or whatever you do with it in the spring.
  • Take the sheets, dust ruffle, and any other extraneous stuff you have on your bed and wash them. Put pillows out in the sun to air out.
  • Pull all the furniture away from the walls and wash the baseboards and use your edging tool on your vacuum cleaner to clean where the wall and carpet meet.
  • If your curtains can be washed, take them down and wash them. If not, do a thorough vacuuming of your curtains. Wash the windows, too!
  • Thoroughly dust the walls and furniture. Remember: top to bottom!
  • Empty the trash in your room.
  • Move all the furniture back and vacuum the entire room.
  • Clean out your nightstands. Get rid of anything you don’t need.
  • Put clean sheets on your bed.

Enjoy your fresh, clean bedroom!

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Spring Cleaning: room-by-room

March 13th, 2008 13 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Thanks for all the great comments on my post yesterday. No, you are not alone, I promise. There are plenty of people with super messy houses, it happens. Now you’ve just got to get it clean and I know you can do it! There were a couple of questions in the comments I wanted to address.

Angela wrote “I always have the problem of once it is clean the kids think that is the best room to play in…therefore not lasting very long” Ha, I know, what’s up with that?! That’s one of the reasons it’s best to start with one of the smallest rooms in the house- the kids are less likely to want to play in there, and it’s easier to clean up afterward if they do.

CanadianCarrie asked “I’m wondering if the mess gets more managable when the kids are all in school all day? ANYONE?? Does it?” Well, yes and no. Yes because they’re just not there as much to mess things up, but no because it seems like they work overtime to make a giant mess. But yes again, because by the time they’re in school, they’re old enough to put to work.

If your kids are anything like my 4 year old who is part Tasmanian Devil, it can be hard and frustrating to have kids who go right behind you messing up as you’re cleaning. Don’t stand for it- put them to work. Even the youngest two year old can be put to work with a spray bottle filled with a water/vinegar mix and a rag, washing fingerprints off walls and doors. Make the work age-appropriate and don’t let them get away with playing when they should be cleaning. Talk to them about how great it feels to have a clean house, and enlist them in helping to keep it clean. Eventually, it will sink in and they won’t be so messy- or so I keep telling myself. My two older kids are pretty good about cleaning up after themselves, but I’m beginning to wonder about my 4 year old.

So, remember yesterday I told you I was going to give you room-by-room cleaning tips? Here they are:

Kitchen

  • Start with the dishes. If you have a dishwasher, load it, then hand wash the rest of the dishes, dry them and put them away.
  • Once the dishes are dealt with, fill up your sink with some hot, soapy water. Completely clear off your counters and give them a good wash-down.
  • Then move on to the refrigerator. Clean it out and wash it thoroughly, inside and out. Don’t forget to vacuum the coils!
  • Dust the ceilings and tops of your cabinets, then wash the fronts of the cabinets. Pull your stuff out of the cabinets and re-organize. Wash the insides of the cabinets if necessary.
  • Yes, you are going to have to deal with the plastic stuff cabinet, too. Suck it up and just do it.
  • Go through your pantry or wherever you keep the food. Get rid of anything that is expired or you’re just never going to eat. Don’t give expired stuff to a food pantry, but anything you’re not going to eat can be donated to a food pantry.
  • Wash the floors and woodwork on your hands and knees*. Yes, yes, I know. A mop is so much faster. But washing the floors on your hands and knees gets it cleaner. You can mop normally, but for spring and fall cleaning, get down there and do it right.

Bathroom

  • Start at the top. Dust the ceilings, light fixtures, walls, etc.
  • Put some toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet bowl to get it soaking. Same with spraying your shower.
  • While you’re giving the toilet and shower some time to soak, pick up any trash that may be out, and then take the trash out.
  • Clean everything off the bathroom counters. Just set it aside for now, you’ll deal with it later.
  • Wipe down your shower walls and rinse them off. If you have tile grout that needs to be dealt with, deal with it.
  • Now, the crappy part. (Pun totally intended) Tackle the toilet. Start with cleaning the bowl, then clean everything else. Take it apart, if you need to. If cleaning the toilet really grosses you out, imagine you’re a crime scene investigator or you’re cleaning some rich and famous person’s toilet. I used to clean toilets of the rich and famous and their toilets were as nasty- sometimes nastier- than anyone else’s. Then you can imagine yourself telling your friends how nasty your Kix Brooks’ toilet was**.
  • Clean your sink and bathroom counters. Use an old toothbrush to get around the corners.
  • Get out the Windex and clean your mirrors and chrome bathroom fixtures, if you have chrome.
  • Go through your cabinets and all the stuff you took off your counters. Get rid of anything that’s expired or you won’t use. Same with your towels and washcloths. Anything that’s torn or really worn, put it in the rag bag. What, you don’t have a rag bag? Start one!
  • Finally, wash the floor, cabinets, and woodwork. Again, on your hands and knees unless you have a physical problem preventing it.

Whew, that’s a lot of information for one post! Tomorrow, we’ll explore cleaning the bedrooms, living room, dining room and all that fun junk.
*Unless, of course, you have some physical reason you can’t. In that case, use your normal method. Or, make someone else do it.

**I have never cleaned a toilet Kix Brooks has owned, so I don’t know if he has nasty toilets or not. I just wanted to type “Kix Brooks” a few times.

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Spring cleaning for disastrously messy homes

March 12th, 2008 10 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Recently, I ran into a friend who asked me when I was going to write about spring cleaning here on Home-Ec 101. Well, normally I do my spring cleaning right after Easter so I can find any  rogue Easter eggs running around my house. (Because it always rains here on Easter, always.)

Then my friend said  she didn’t normally do spring cleaning because her house was so “disastrously messy” that it could take months. Haha, I understand the feeling of “it could take months to clean my house, so why bother?” I’ve had that kind of mess on my hands before when I had been on bed rest for 6 weeks and my husband who is apparently allergic to cleaning was in charge of the cooking and cleaning and kid-raising. When I finally came off bed rest with a new baby and a horribly messy house, I got depressed about it all and just thought, “why bother?”

But having a clean house is beneficial on so many levels. First, it makes you feel better in general. My mom always would harangue me about my messy house contributing to my depression. I thought, “Right, mom, a clean house would totally fix my depression.” But I found she was right- having a clean house really does make me feel better.

Add that to being able to find things easily, thereby saving you money (how many times have you had to buy something you couldn’t find, only to find it again later and be mad that you wasted the money?), time, and energy. Once your house is clean, it is far easier to maintain.

So how can you get that super-messy house under control? First, you have to be completely determined that you are going to get your house under control once and for all. It might take you months, but I doubt it. Check your supplies and make sure you have enough cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and trash bags. Once you’ve done that, you need to set goals and just get started.

A completely messy house is overwhelming, so let me tell you where to start. Start with the laundry. Picking up those clothes that are strewn everywhere will make an immediate difference in how your house looks, plus it’s a task that you can do while you’re doing lots of other things. As you’re doing laundry, put a plastic bag by the dryer for  clothes you are going to give away. Now, I always fold the clothes right in the laundry room, and when I have everything folded I call the kids in who have clothes in that particular load and ask them about each item of clothing. If it doesn’t fit, or they just don’t like the item of clothing, out it goes. Same goes for me and my stuff. My husband, well, I just get rid of stuff that’s unusually holey and hope he doesn’t notice.

Once the laundry’s rolling, go clean the smallest room in your house. Usually, that’s a bathroom. Or sometimes it’s your laundry room, which is handy since you’re doing all this laundry anyway- might as well have a sparkly clean laundry room to do all that laundry in. Bag up trash, get rid of stuff you won’t use, and wash the floors. Dust the walls and wash the woodwork. Clean it as if your mother-in-law was coming to inspect it with white gloves.

Once you have the smallest room in your house cleaned, enjoy the nice feeling of a completely clean room, and then move on to your hardest room to clean. For some, this might be the kitchen, for others, it might be a kid bedroom. Whatever it is, you are going to have to tackle it sometime and it might as well be sooner rather than later. Whatever it is, buckle down and get to work on it.

Once you have the worst room tackled, the rest can’t be all that bad. Just work room by room until you have it all finished. Then enjoy your clean house!

Tomorrow, I’ll give you step by step room specific cleaning tips.

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Tis the season to clean your closets

October 28th, 2007 2 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Since the weather is finally changing from hot to cold, now’s a good time to go through all your kids’ clothing and get rid of the stuff that doesn’t fit or just generally looks like crap. I use two methods to do this: at the source (drawers and closets) and during laundry time.

First, I go through the entire house and look under beds, dressers, and all the other places tiny little clothes like to hide. I have no idea why clothes like to hide so much under dressers, but they sure do in my house. I suspect my kids are trying something on, hating it, and then kicking the clothing item under the dresser. I’ve never been known to do that myself, no, never. ;)

I have 2 boxes in my laundry room. One is marked “consignment” and the other is marked “goodwill”, even though I have generally stopped giving to Goodwill and have started giving things away on Freecycle instead. Clothing that is too small, but looks practically new and is a good brand goes to the consignment store. Clothing that doesn’t look horrible, but doesn’t look practically new, or is an off-brand goes to Freecycle. Anything that looks horrible goes into my rag bag.

Once the laundry is finished (is laundry ever really finished? I don’t think so) I go into the closets and dressers and take a look. All the summer clothes are moved to either the top dresser drawer or the outskirts of the closet. I check the tags and take a look at each item. Clothing that is the smaller size my kids can still fit into goes either to the consignment or goodwill box. Larger size clothing stays.

Then I go through the winter clothing, making notes of what is needed, so I can go to the consignment store and buy more clothing for winter. Since my kids have such vast age differences, very little clothing is able to be passed between them, but anything that might stand the test of time is packed and placed into boxes in the attic with the size written on the box. Since I don’t have a lot of clothing that can be passed down, I generally use shoeboxes for this purpose.

Since I’m busy cleaning for all the guests that are coming, now is a good time to do this chore.

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Cleaning refrigerator coils: A tutorial

July 24th, 2007 3 Comments

Heather says:

Ivy recently reminded us to clean our fridge coils to keep our refrigerators running efficiently. However, some have asked “Just how do I do that?” Here is a step by step guide to removing the dust and dirt to ensure your fridge is operating in peak condition.

  • To reduce the risk of shock, either unplug the fridge or flip the circuit breaker.
  • The location of your appliance’s coils will depend on the age of your fridge. On many older models the coils can be reached by removing the kickplate just beneath the doors. This may either snap out of place or may be secured with screws. Once this is removed, I take it outside and spray it down with the hose. If yours is particularly grimy, use degreaser to help break up the film.
  • Using the wand attachment to your vacuum and carefully suck out all the grime. Some companies sell specialized attachments that have bristles solely for this purpose, but I believe it to be unnecessary. Replace the kick plate when you have finished.
  • There are two other possible locations for the coils. If they are not located beneath the doors, carefully pull the fridge away from the wall. Always move the fridge straight in and straight out to minimize damage to the flooring. The coils will either be exposed on the back of the appliance or behind a kick plate. If the coils are exposed simply vacuum of any dust with the vacuum’s soft bristle attachment. Alternatively, if the coils are extremely grimy, use a rag dampened with degreaser or white vinegar.
  • If the coils are not exposed, use a wrench or screwdriver to remove the screws. Just so you don’t think I know everything, I had to look up what these screws are called – hex headed screws.
  • Once the plate has been removed, use the soft bristled vacuum tool to remove any built up dust. Replace the cover, sweep or vacuum up any debris, and carefully push the appliance back into place, being sure not to pinch any electrical cords or water lines.
  • Restore power to the unit by either resetting the breaker or plugging it in.
  • This project should take less than ten minutes start to finish, if it is performed on a regular basis. However, if neglected it may take longer.

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