I’ll wash screens and the windows that I can get to, but that’s about the extent of my spring cleaning.
Mom used to haul carpets outside and beat them (naughty carpets!), and I think she did something with pillows too, but I don’t remember what. Maybe new feathers, or maybe just an airing, in the sun.
I’ll scrub the cushions that go on the outdoor furniture. Stray cats have slept on them, and there are probably some dead lady beetles in the folds.
Who spring cleans? Do you have a system? Do you have any help?
How about new cleaning stuff, or homemade things that work well? I’m loving Mr. Clean Multi-Surface and the eraser thingie, but I could use a good window washing formula.
I’d also like to know how to get the hard water spots off of my glass coffee pot.
My late mother-in-law swore by the old vinegar-and-water trick for cleaning glass coffee pots. I seldom agreed with her, but she was right on this matter. I’ve found nothing better.
Yep, I run (diluted) vinegar thru the machine, why not clean out the works while I’m doing the pot itself? Then pour the hot brewed vinegar down a bathroom sink that likes to get cloggy. Multitasking at it’s finest!
I use them to wash my walls, my dishes, my windows and if you get them just damp they make excellent dusters (picking up dust, rather than spreading it and stirring it up). I use vinegar and water as my cleaning solution for many things, and this combined with the microfiber gets things quite clean (stunned my Mom when she went away for a week and came back to the walls so bright… reminds me, I should do that this weekend… little finger marks all over the place).
I wash the few window dressings I have and rehang them. I put all of the feather pillows in the washing machine, a few at a time then add a tennis ball to the dryer to fluff them up again. Occasionally, I’ll lay them out all day in the sun too. I wash down the fronts of the kitchen cabinets. I wash the blankets and coverlets and put the heavy ones in the closet til next year. Clean the frig, put away winter clothes, sort out the closets, vacuum upholstered furniture…(ya know, I’m getting a little turned on by this. Is that weird?)
Great book to have on hand for reference is Home Comforts . I give it as a gift to college grads and newly marrieds. Keeping house is a vanishing art but I value it.
Does it matter what kind of vinegar you use? White or the apple cider? What’s the water to vinegar ratio?
Haven’t seen any microfiber cloths. Are they kind of sticky? My husband bought some new cloths to wash his bike, and one side of them actually sticks to you, almost like Velcro. One side is smooth and the other side is looped, like a towel.
Didn’t know the tennis ball trick with pillows in the dryer – I’ll try that.
for fluffing in the dryer you can toss in your sneakers. keds are washable and toss them into the dryer with anything that needs kicking.
thanks for that queen tonya, i don’t have a coffee maker buy i do the water-vinegar thing in the microwave, now i’ll just take it to the bathroom.
for super cleaning i try to go room by room. move as much stuff as i can out, start at the top and go to the floor; furthest from the door to the door. then after everything that can be dusted is dusted and washed is washed; i go back to the furthest point and wash the floor (no rugs in the house). after the floor dries i move things back in decluttering and rerouting as i go. usually i do one room a day. bathroom and hallway go together. 6 rooms all together.
I’ve always used white vinegar for cleaning, because it’s cheaper. I think the amount of acetic acid in cider vinegar is about the same, so it would probably work just as well. A solution of half vinegar and half water is what my mother-in-law recommended for cleaning coffee pots, and every now and then the old battleaxe was right about something. For cleaning windows, you don’t need as much vinegar. I’d go with 1 part vinegar, 3 parts water, or thereabouts.
To stray a bit from the topic while still staying vaguely attached to it:
Once when I was out of vinegar, I went into my home darkroom supplies and fetched out an old bottle of photographic stop-bath. Not only did it work fine as a cleaning agent, it also tasted good on spinach. I suspect that “indicator” stop-bath (the kind that changes color when it’s exhausted) might not be good to eat, though.
I find some of them are sticky, until you get them damp of course. I’ve seen them at Walmart and you can get them at Costco. The lady who introduced me to them said she got hers at Ikea (I think).
Hagesan, or HG products, are all you will ever need, once you’ve discovered them.
For instance, this is the ultimate window washing product. And this beats all other bathroom (tile/chrome, so it also works in the kitchen) cleaning products I’ve ever used. The problem with vinegar is that you have to let it work on the surfaces for some time. With HG, put a bit on a sponge, rub twice, and oohhh, shiney! And it doesn’t bite your skin and it smells fine and you need only the tiniest bit.
I can’t recommend this stuff enough. In the Netherlands, they don’t do commercials, and the products are sold in plain looking no-nonsense bottle at DIY stores and major supermarkets. Nevertheless, through word of mouth, more and more places now stock HG products.
When I’m feeling down, I buy a HG product I haven’t tried before and I use it. Last week, I did it with an anti-algae spray for use on furniture and, in this case, on a horizontal window. Cleaned right up. Ha! A couple months ago, I did the same thing with a little bottle of HG sticker remover. Got all those old torn sticker remnants off everything in sight. Again, ha !
I the days of burning wood and coal for heat a house was at it’s dirtiest in the spring. This is why everyone had the big spring cleaning and the tradition has held into modern times even though most homes are now at their dirtiest in the fall.
Maybe the house was dirtiest in spring, hence the need to do a spring cleaning, but there’s kind of an… itch, to throw, clean, purge, sweat, make new and clean and bright that just doesn’t hit in the fall. Autumn’s the time I feel like nesting, making big meals, stocking up, making the house cosy and warm. Spring means a sudden urge, not felt during the rest of the year, to fling the contents of closets out and make huge piles of stuff to throw away. I get an urge to move the furniture and vacuum places that haven’t seen light in 8 months or so. It’s definitely a spring thing, along with the practicality of being able to get a winter’s worth of grime scrubbed. Or maybe it’s just something my mother did because her mother did, who did because her mother did…
Last weekend or so it was the back bedroom that got purged, this weekend I am finally going to give into the itch to clean and vacuum my car out. And I’m eyeing the hall closet, and the kitchen cupboards with stuff in them that we never use.
Urge to purge, scrub, sweep… It’s definitely spring.
Exactly. My spring cleaning routine includes washing the windows, washing the curtains, washing and storing the winter quilts, and taking big bags of stuff to Salvation Army. Plus the usual vaccuuming, dusting and scrubbing.
I find it very satisfying to make order out of chaos. It’s my home and I take pride in keeping it welcoming and comfortable, which for me means clean. I send my husband out to play D&D, have a nice beer, put on my happiest CDs and get to work.
I find the best thing for pillows (other than washing them) is putting them in a large plastic bag and sucking all the air out with a vacuum cleaner - it sucks out all the dirt and (most of) the dust mites from the pillows. Then leave them in the sun for 5-6 hours to kill off any remaining dust mites and musty smells!
Cleaning!! :dubious: