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Spring Cleaning Basics

Some incredible news just came in today. I found out that my book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Cleaning is being combined with CIG to Green Living and will be sold through Sam's Clubs this year. I will send out an announcement when it comes out.

This is the time of year for spring cleaning articles. I have contributed to a good number of them yet who has time to set aside a couple of weekends to spring clean? Let's take a look at a basic cleaning kit and starting point.

First head out to the garage and look at the collection of tools out there. Folks buy SnapOns, DeWalts and Makitas because they know the blue light specials break and bust knuckles doing it. Why buy blue light specials to clean your home? They bust your bank account rather than your knuckles.

My Mop is so versatile you can mop floors, dust cobwebs or clean windows or skylights up high just by switching towels and in far less time. It lasts for 17 or 18 years to save $400 replacing mop heads.

Next invest in concentrated cleaners like CleanEz all-purpose cleaner. A bottle of Clean Ez is $26 instead of $248 for equivalent amounts of ready to use cleaners. The same is true for concentrated window cleaners.

Nab a tote tray found in hardware stores. Avoid aprons as the weight of the bottles cause sore necks and slow down progress. Toss in lint free towels for glass surfaces, old hand towels that you don't use in the bathroom and soft baby diapers or old cotton t-shirts for dusting. Avoid the use of microfiber unless you like that just scratched look on furniture and floors.

Tuck in baking soda that comes in the plastic shaker with holes in the lid, a toilet bowl brush, small toothbrush type scrub brush and any other cleaner like my Wood Care or Leather Care that you need for caring for your furniture.

Next write down all the areas of your home that you don't clean on a weekly basis like cabinets, closets, blinds, baseboards, underneath furniture and mattresses. Then relist them in order of importance. Is it more important to declutter or clean out the closets than to do baseboards? Does the fridge rate over mini-blinds?

How long has it been since you cleaned the kitchen cabinets? Definitely clean out any cabinet with stored food tossing outdated food. Wipe the shelves to avoid an influx of hungry ants.

How do you tackle all this? Take one room a week and tackle the high priority items on your list for that room. A top goal is to destroy hiding places for dust mites since they cause a multitude of health issues beyond sinus congestion. They love dusty, dark, moist places so declutter, clean and open up space to improve air flow in congested areas.

Did you catch that one room a week idea? Start now with one room or one chore a week in addition to your weekly chores and by the time the snow melts the end of March your home is clean and you are ready to plant a spring garden.