Your Spring Cleaning Tips and Hacks

By now, your home should start looking and feeling better. Week 1 laid the foundation and Week 2 helped us start digging into the nitty gritty details of the home. Now, for Week 3 we’ll be piggy backing off of Week 2 and focusing our attention on the bathroom. 

The bathroom is a sacred place for everyone. It’s where we start and end, both our good and bad days, making it a vital space for ourselves, families, and guests.

Take some extra time to care for the bathroom, so it can continue to serve you. 

Start with a Wipe Down

The best starting point for Week 3 is giving the entire bathroom a complete wipe-down from top to bottom. 

Bathrooms are notorious for collecting not just dust and grime, but also hair and skin cells that naturally fall off while we groom. Throughout the year, we mostly focus on cleaning high-touch and visible surface areas, like counter tops, but the spring cleaning edition of the bathroom wipe down goes deeper. 

The Tub

Who doesn’t love a clean shower? 

Nothing is worse than a tub that has hair, soap build up, hard water stains, and other random marks all over it. It can make us feel less clean than we actually are when the tub is dirty. 

To start, take down your shower curtain and dispose, or clean, the shower liner. These liners capture a lot of what we wash off ourselves, making it prone to getting dirty quickly. 

With the shower curtain out of the way, you can start wiping down the entire tub. Take some time to thoroughly clean the grout if your bathtub has any, otherwise it’ll start seeping moisture and encourage mold to grow. 

Cleaning the tub requires minimal tools only needing a clean rag, a cleaning solution, and gloves for your protection. When cleaning grout a simple homemade paste composed of baking soda and water will help clear stains along with a scrub brush. After you apply the paste, let it sit for a few minutes before you scrub it off. For tougher stains you can combine your baking soda mixture with a small amount of hydrogen peroxide or a store bought commercial cleaning product.  

Spring Cleaning Tip: You should check that the cleaning solution is appropriate for the type of material your tub is made of to avoid damaging it. Some tub materials are sensitive to certain chemicals or cleaning tools, resulting in quick degradation or damage. 

The Toilet

Woman with spray and rag cleaning toilet seat in bathroom, closeup

A home is not a home without a toilet. Furthermore, a home is not clean with a dirty toilet. We’re all aware of how dirty toilets can get, so it’s best to take the time and give it your full attention. 

Grab a clean rag or even one-time use rags that you don’t mind using on the toilet and your preferred cleaner. Some opt for a home cleaning solution like distilled white vinegar and water while others prefer commercial products given the toilet’s utility. It’s definitely a recommendation to use gloves as well, and be sure to not touch other surfaces after cleaning the toilet with the contaminated gloves. 

Wipe down the entire surface of the toilet, including behind it, an often neglected area. 

For those who want to go a step further, you can remove the toilet cover and seat by unscrewing the bolts holding it down and cleaning it in its entirety. You’ll be shocked how much builds up under there! 

Don’t forget to clean inside the toilet bowl too, to save from stains making their stay permanent. 

Bathroom Counters

Wipe down all the bathroom counters including the sink and in between the faucet too. Depending on the color of your countertop, you may not see all the dirty details covering the surface, so be ready for a few wipes. 

While you’re at it be sure to wipe down the mirror too, as it frequently picks up scuffs from soap, toothpaste, and water.  

Mopping

After wiping down all of the surface areas in the bathroom, you can top it off by mopping down the floors in the bathroom. In addition to what was already there, chances are you’ll mop up some extra filth that fell on the ground from when the earlier wipe down. Be sure to sweep the floor before mopping otherwise you’ll end up pushing around filth instead of cleaning it.

Using a traditional mop and bucket or even an all-in-one mopping system that can be used on all flooring around the house. Again, some homeowners have a go-to store bought cleaning product for mopping, while others choose natural solutions made of warm water and vinegar. 

Clear Out the Cabinet & Closets

It’s too easy for random items to accumulate in our bathroom cabinets and closets over the years without us fully realizing it. Typically, we buy new hygiene or beauty products, use them once, and then forget about them after a few uses.

Take out all of the items sitting in your bathroom cabinets, medicine cabinet, and linen closet. As you pull out each item take note of how often you use them and either set it aside or discard it, especially if it’s covered in dust or expired. You’ll likely end up getting rid of more items than you keep, and might even find things that you haven’t seen in years. 

While going through these storage areas, be sure to check the contents inside your emergency first-aid kit and other medical equipment. Medical equipment can expire and the last thing you want to do is use it when you need it most only for it to fail. 

By now, you’ve probably thrown away a lot of different items, but maybe you’ve found some old linen sets or other random items stored away. It’s common to store something away in a place like a linen closet only for it to sit there for years, accumulating dust and taking up space. 

For the items that you want to keep, but don’t have the room for, you can always put them in boxes and stow them away in your self-storage unit! 5×5 storage units are ideal for household storage offering a boost in storage capacity, much like having an additional closet for the house, that’s also out of the way. 

Checking the Plumbing Lines

Life is busy throughout the year which is why we dedicate this spring cleaning time to allow ourselves to take on those problems we’ve been waiting to address. 

A common problem for any home is leaking pipes. It’s common for pipes to leak, but it’s uncommon for the problem to resolve on its own. A leaking pipe could lead to a much larger issue if ignored long enough, but it’s easy to tell yourself to worry about it later when the leak is minimal. 

Spring cleaning isn’t just about cleaning as it is about taking the time to do regular home maintenance like fixing leaking pipes. 

For those who’ve put a bowl under the sink with the intention of taking care of it later, it’s time to dive into the problem. It’s best to figure out what’s causing the leak now so it doesn’t grow into your next headache, especially because plumbing problems can quickly propel into a homeowner’s nightmare.

Maintaining Drains

Have you ever maintained your drains? Even if you use your drains properly, they can still build up and cause draining issues– sometimes they’ll even start to smell bad. 

The best way to avoid drain problems is by keeping it as clean as possible, starting with an annual clean out. Since the drains collect a variety of different residues and grime, it’s best to start with a simple solution that eats away at build up and keeps it clean. 

To start, take half a cup of baking soda and half a cup of white vinegar and pour them down the drain. This home drain cleaner will start to eat away the build up and it’s best to give it time to be truly effective, so wait a few minutes before washing it away with hot water. 

For those drains that are still struggling to drain, there could be a physical obstruction in the way that the solution can’t remove. You should try running a snake down the drain to pull out whatever is blocking up the drain. If you want to be extra thorough with your spring cleaning, you can always snake the drain anyway even if you’re not having any issues. 

For the stubborn drains that are still failing to properly drain, it might require a disassembly to remove the root of the problem. If you’re unsure about how to tackle the drain or the fix a leaking pipe, it’s best to leave it to a professional to ensure the problem doesn’t worsen. 

Week 3 Complete!

Just like that, you’re done with Week 3! 

The bathroom is a precious place that deserves to be well-maintained. Following this guide, you can stay on top of your bathroom and ensure it’s ready to continue serving you until the next round of spring cleaning.

Prepare for next week, because we’ll start buffing up the bedrooms which might take a bit more time, but will be even more worthwhile!