This is something I remember my mother doing, but not something I do.
Anyone here do it? Exactly what do you do?
I don’t personally do it, but I always feel like I should be doing spring cleaning. In my imagination, it consists of:
Washing windows
Cleaning carpets and upholstery
Cleaning baseboards and ceilings
Waxing floors
Washing curtains
General dusting and airing
Cleaning and storing comforters and heavy blankets
For me, “spring cleaning” implies opening the house up and doing all the heavy chores that it’s more difficult to get done in the winter, because it’s too cold or there’s not enough daylight. I once read a book that suggested autumn cleaning makes more sense, because you’ve been tracking dirt through the house all summer, but I don’t know I buy that.
Now, in real life, if I even get around to actually dusting the books, I feel a real sense of accomplishment. And I do manage to get the windows washed over the course of a summer. But it would be a reach to say I do spring cleaning, since there’s usually something still left undone when October rolls around and it gets too cold to leave the doors and windows open.
I do it. Just did it this past week in fact, as it was spring break and I had a week off.
Take down and wash/iron the curtains.
Wash all the winter blankets/extra bedding and put it into storage.
Go through all the kids clothes and get rid of outgrown stuff.
Get all the shorts/sundresses out of the storage boxes at the top of the closet.
Pack away all but one pair of pants for each kid.
Clean the oven. We don’t use the oven much between April-Nov because it heats up the house too much.
That’s about it.
I do my “spring cleaning” over the course of several weeks.
It pretty much includes what the other two posters above me mentioned–opening up the house and switching the heavier winter stuff (curtains, blankets, clothes, bedspreads, etc.) with lighter weight items. I’ll get to the windows at some point once the weather becomes warmer, and likely rearrange, or at least move and clean behind, the furniture. (My bedroom is rearranged differently for the summer than during the winter, due to a window AC during the summer.)
Once the weather becomes much warmer (no frost, and temps into the 60’s and above), I’ll move all my houseplants outside.
When the weather becomes warm, I spend a lot of time outside–gardening, fixing up the yard, etc. so when I come in during the evenings/night, I want to do the bare minimum inside the house.
This.
I don’t have a formal plan, but the open windows and renewed energy always lead to extra cleaning. I clean out closets and drawers, wash the floors, vacuum ceiling corners, send curtains to be dry-cleaned, all those big occasional cleaning tasks that are easy to ignore when it’s winter and you hate everything.