Spring Cleaning Checklist

I live in southwest Ohio and, typically, cold weather sets in at the end of October. Seemingly overnight, temperatures plummet from daytime highs in the 80s to daytime highs in the 30s, with little middle ground. We continue to use the central air conditioning during the warm weather throughout October, and then allow the unit to idle until we need the heat when the truly cold weather comes in mid-December. Thus, we do not open the house windows and experience fresh air until spring. And, since our cool spring weather typically only lasts a few short weeks before we need to rely again on the central air conditioning, I only have a short window of opportunity to air out the house and perform my spring cleaning. Spring cleaning may sound daunting, especially if you live in a large home. However, if you have a spring cleaning checklist, there is no need to become overwhelmed with the amount of cleaning that needs to be done. Prepare a checklist per room, and then complete one room at a time. A representative spring cleaning checklist might include all of the areas of your home, such as:

• Bathrooms
• Bedrooms
• Kitchen
• Dining room
• Living areas

Once you decide upon separating your home by regions, and especially if you have a large house, you could include subsets of those regions, with a checklist for each, such as:

• Bathrooms; tubs, showers, sinks, toilets, windows, walls and ceilings, mats, floors
• Bedrooms; closets, bedding, walls and ceilings, windows, lamps, floors
• Kitchen; behind appliances, cupboards, drawers, pantry, table and chairs, windows, walls and ceiling, countertops, stove, sink, floors
• Dining room; table and chairs, curtains, windows, walls and ceiling, overhead lighting, sideboard and hutch, floors
• Living areas; furniture, drapes and curtains, walls and ceiling, overhead lighting and lamps, windows, floors

Now that you have a checklist of everything that needs to be cleaned in your home, choose one day to begin. If you have a family, you can assign one room per person. Print your checklist for each room and dole the checklists to each person, having them check off the task as they go. If you live alone, or live with lazy people, you can choose a large region and a small region, perform the tasks for each in one day, and save the other regions for another day. Even if you do have a large home, you can complete your spring cleaning easily over several weekends.