Spring is here in Dallas after a long winter. Finally! This is the perfect opportunity to take a step back, realize what needs some serious cleaning and organizing in your home, and get the job done!

If you haven’t hired a cleaning service before, they usually include a deep cleaning service which is a must every couple of months, or right before an event or holiday is coming soon and you want to impress your guests with a spotless home.

And if you want to tackle this on your own, don’t worry! With our spring cleaning guide, you will be able to handle great results. It will take some time and energy though! We’ve split this guide into two parts so it’s easier to read and go through it without burning or giving up first.

Now, here’s how you can do it:

First Step: Before Spring Cleaning, Assess the Situation

Whenever you have a spring cleaning coming soon, it’s important to think clearly about what you want to achieve and what is not a priority right now. Some people enjoy organizing their cleaning by room, while other prefer to organize by task.

Think about the last time you cleaned each big part of your home and think how long will it take for each task. Then, multiply that times 1.5x: if you estimated 2 hours, think of 3 hours instead. We always tend to be over-optimistic when calculating the time it requires to clean, and 2 hours go by faster than you think!

It’s easy to get frustrated or overwhelmed when that happens and you start to run behind the schedule. It’s better to calculate extra time.

Creating a schedule is not easy. You can check our 3-Hour Weekly Schedule, but that won’t do it for a spring cleaning. You may use it as a template and start adding areas or cleaning tasks.

Spring cleaning means that you will have to reach areas that you probably haven’t even seen in a while. Make sure you have all the essential tools and equipment to reach everywhere and remove all the grease, dirt, and dust.

Step Two: Grab all Your Spring Cleaning Supplies

We’re almost ready to get started! Now it’s time to choose all your tools, gadgets, and cleaning products. There are many great products for you to choose from, but if you don’t have any, we can talk about the most basic, natural ones you can find in your pantry.

You can check the entire guide for supplies for Spring Cleaning from Emily’s Maids if you want a more detailed guide.

Vinegar

As far as cleaning goes, vinegar (or acetic acid) is one of the most versatile cleaning agents in your home. It is one of our favorite cleaning products and you can use it on pretty much any surface. Everything from removing pet stains from your carpet to cleaning your oven, with white vinegar you can take care of pretty much every area of your home.

Baking Soda

Baking soda is another popular product, and for all the good reasons. In fact, it is one of the very few cleaning agents that can be safely mixed with bleach.

Soap

There are hundreds of options on the market. You should choose those with a smaller impact on the environment and on your own health: check if they are free of phosphates, ammonia, and/or artificial colors, as well as cruelty-free.

Microfiber Towels And Sponges

Microfiber towels and cloths work better than those made of cotton. They can absorb dirt and moisture better, which is why they’ve become popular over the years.

Your tools: A Steam Cleaner, a Mop, and a Vacuum Cleaner

It’s important to have good, reliable devices to help you get through this. A steam cleaner is a device that sprays steam, just hot water. But you will notice the difference when you start using it, as it can get through grease and dirt in an instant, especially for nook and crannies. If you haven’t got yourself one yet, look for a multi-purpose steam cleaner that works as a long-handled and handheld device.

Don’t worry about the price! You can get a standard, handheld steam cleaner for less than $30, or a steam mop with a detachable handheld unit for less than $70.

Of course, you will need a mop as well (unless you have carpet floors) and a vacuum cleaner. Make sure you replace the dirty water as you go, otherwise you’ll just be spreading the dirty water and going back to square one.

Special Products for Special Surfaces

You will need a specialized product if you have natural stone countertops (marble, granite, or quartz) and for glass-ceramic cooktops.

Last But Not Least: Take All the Safety Measures for Spring Cleaning

Since you’re spring cleaning, you’re going to be in contact with lint, dirt, and chemicals for a long time. Always wear safety gloves, goggles, and a mask.

Remember to open windows to let air flow, especially in small spaces like your bathroom.

It’s Time for Some Cleaning! Let’s Start with Your Kitchen

It’s a good idea to start with your kitchen for several reasons. Even if it’s not the biggest room of your home, it will probably take the longest to clean. You need to let your cleaning agents act for a while, and your kitchen is one of those areas with a lot to clean and organize.

Now that you’re in your kitchen, it’s not easy to decide which appliance or area to clean first. In most cases, it should be the oven, because the cleaning agents need some time to act on the surface.

Check our 5 Easy Tips for Cleaning Your Oven if you want to hear all the details!

Take Care of Your Pantry

If you have the time, remove everything from your pantry and leave your counters empty. Make some soapy water with 2 cups of warm water and ½ teaspoon of concentrated dish soap. Apply using a spray bottle inside your cabinets and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. You can use a 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup warm water mix too.

While you’re at it, organize and declutter your dishware and cookware. Think of your everyday needs and organize your items in a way that you have the most used items closer to you, and then go from there and place the less-used items in the upper and lower cabinets away from your reach.

Deep Cleaning Your Fridge

The same goes for your fridge: grab all your food and take it out, remove all the fridge shelves and drawers, and apply your cleaning mix. If it has liquid stains (e.g., tomato sauce, meat juice) you can use your steam cleaner to get rid of them.

Clean all your shelves and drawers using soapy water and a sponge while you let your cleaning mix act on the inside of your fridge and then wipe it out with a microfiber cloth.

If your fridge is particularly in serious cleaning issues, or if you have a secondary fridge that hasn’t been cleaned in a long time, you can check our Refrigerator Renew article.

By now, you should have a few appliances and your stove waiting for your cleaning touch. For your microwave, you can try our tip on the article from Insider to get it looking -and smelling- like new.

Stovetops and Countertops

In the meantime, wipe any big crumbs or food residues with a dishcloth. Now, grab a bowl of hot soapy water and a clean sponge and start scrubbing! Use a spray bottle with clean water to rinse and wipe out the dirty soapy water with a microfiber cloth. You might need to repeat the process and swipe the cloth for a clean one a few times.

For glass-ceramic stovetops, you should use a specialized product. Remove any debris first, using a glass scraper and very carefully scraping the surface. If you want to play safe you can use a sponge, but it will take longer and you will need to let sit the cleaning product for a few minutes before starting to scrub.

Last but not least, remember to clean your countertops! This is saved for last because you’ve probably used them to place your food and ingredients on top while reorganizing your pantry and your fridge.

The type of cleaning will depend on the material. Vinegar is an excellent option for laminate countertops, but not so much for natural stone (granite, marble, quartz) because of its acidity, which may cause staining.

Now your kitchen should be squeaky clean! Next up, your bathrooms.

Spring Cleaning Step Three: Your Bathroom

Just like your kitchen, your bathroom might need some time to absorb all the cleaning properties from your products and tools. This is why you might want to start here (or in the kitchen) while doing other tasks in the meantime.

The big question is: where can you start? Well, if all your fixtures look more or less the same (i.e., none of them is dirtier than the others in a significant way) then you should start with your shower. It has the biggest surface of the usual fixtures (sink, toilet).

A really good strategy for your shower is to add some hot, soapy water with a spray bottle, and then sprinkle baking soda on your shower pan. After 15 minutes, scrub using a clean broom, and then use the steam cleaner to soften up every residue of soap scum or dirt on your tiles.

With your sink and toilet, you might want to use baking soda, let sit for 15 minutes and then spray white vinegar on the surface. Clean using either a toilet brush (toilet) or a sponge or an old toothbrush (sink).  

For your mirrors, you can spray rubbing alcohol and wipe with a microfiber cloth, using an “S” pattern. You might have to scrub a bit harder right after spraying if you have toothpaste or soap residues.  

You can check our guide on how to clean your bathroom if you need a more detailed approach.

Conclusion (Before Part II)

We still have so many areas that we need to take care of! Your living area, your bedroom, your office, and all floors!

Spring cleaning is an exciting activity, with a high chance of making you feel accomplished and happy. But that’s not the case for everyone: you need lots of free time, as well as mental and physical energy. If you’ve realized that it’s too much work, feel free to visit our booking page if you’d prefer a professional cleaning service.  

Keep reading our blog and wait next week for part II of this spring cleaning guide!

The post Spring Is Here In Dallas! Our Spring Cleaning Guide (Part I) appeared first on Dallas Maids® | Maid Service & House Cleaning Services Voted #1 for a Reason.

Your bathroom is probably the most dreaded place you can think of when you need to clean your home. You have different types of surfaces and fixtures in a very small area and they all require different types of attention.

Here’s how you can clean them!

Why Should You Clean Your Bathroom Regularly

Now that you know how to clean a kitchen, let’s move on to another commonly used room in the house, and that is the bathroom. It’s very important to know how to clean it properly because this is probably the area that accumulates the most germs and dirt in the entire house. People spend a lot of their time here, whether it is to shower or take a bath, brush their teeth or simply to use the toilet.

As before, you should do some light cleaning every day, and a more thorough one once a week. Make sure to use gloves to protect your hands from any chemicals you might be using.

Where to Start Cleaning Your Bathroom?

This, once again, depends on the person’s preference, but it’s best to start with the largest, most used objects first. Start with the bathtub or shower, and then move on to the toilet. Next, clean the sink, bidet and soap dish, followed by the tiles, mirrors, and windows. At the very end, sweep and clean the floor.

Start by removing any and all objects from the bathroom, like decorations and toiletries; anything that can bother you while cleaning. Every surface must be completely free so you can clean the bathroom as quickly and easily as possible. Also, you can take advantage of this opportunity to throw out anything useless, take out the garbage and put any dirty towels in the hamper to wash later.

Remember to open any windows to keep the room ventilated while you clean. That way you will not risk breathing in any toxic chemicals.

Bathtub or Shower:

Remove any hairs and debris that might have been gathered up in the drain. Next, scrub the entire surface of the tub or shower plate with a cream or powder bathroom cleaner and a sponge. You can also use a liquid cleaner to remove the brown sediment from the tiles and the tap.

After scrubbing everything thoroughly, rinse with plenty of water until you don’t see any more residues. If the bathtub has rust or mold stains, use chlorine-based disinfectants like bleach or ammonia. Let them rest for several minutes, and then rinse them away with water.

If there are any hard-to-remove stains, use turpentine and rubbing alcohol, then rinse with hot water and dish soap. You can easily remove water stains with glass-cleaning products.

Your Bathroom Toilet: The Biggest Challenge

This is the object that you must clean absolutely thoroughly because it is the most exposed to germs and other disease-causing organisms. Once a month, clean the toilet tank with a long-handle brush to remove the debris that has gathered up at the bottom of the tank.

Flush the toilet once finished. Then, scrub the interior with a cloth that has been soaked in disinfectant, or simply put a chlorine tablet inside.

More often, you will have to clean the bowl. Use a chlorine-based disinfectant, like bleach or ammonia, to do so. Spray them inside the bowl and let them rest for a while. Then, use the long-handled brush to scrub the sides of the bowl and flush.

Make sure to empty the tank completely to remove all traces of the disinfectant and check that everything is clean. Otherwise, you will have to start all over again. If the bowl has any rust stains or sediment, apply an abrasive cleaner, scrub the stain with a sponge, rinse and let dry.

Finally, you will have to clean the outside of the toilet. Simply scrub the surfaces with a cloth and a cleaning product, then rinse. Don’t forget to clean the toilet handles, the outside of the tank and the base.

Sink and Bidet

Cleaning these can be a tricky business; the drain connections and the tap itself tend to accumulate a lot of filth, so you will have to use a toothbrush or similar brush to get to all those hard places to reach.

Also, you must be careful with the sink countertops, as they are usually made of delicate materials. Make sure to use the appropriate cleaning products for these.

The process of cleaning a sink and bidet tap also differs depending on the material it is made of.

• Golden and enameled taps must be cleaned with special products or dried every time after use. Never use cleaning products that can damage these materials.
• Chrome taps should be scrubbed with a lemon wedge until any rust stains disappear. Then rinse and dry.
• Taps with a wooden finish must be cleaned with water and bleach. To clean the base, use an old toothbrush with a cream or powder cleaner. Rinse and dry.

If you want your taps to be spotless, dry and scrub them with a dry cloth to remove any water stains. To avoid lime scales, wipe them with a cloth after using them. You can also clean them with water and baking soda, then dry and scrub them with a dry cloth so that they shine.

Soap Dish:

This usually accumulates soap debris in its surface, so it’s necessary to clean it every once in a while. Wash the dish with hot water, scrub with a sponge, rinse and dry. If the dish is made of plastic, leave it soaking in a solution of warm water and baking soda.

Remove Mold from Bathroom Tiles

One of the largest problems when cleaning tiles is that mold tends to grow on them if the bathroom doesn’t have enough proper ventilation. To remove mold, you should use a diluted solution of bleach and water, and scrub the tiles thoroughly with a sponge.

Make sure that it is not made of any hard materials, or it will damage the tiles. If the tiles are relatively clean, then simply use water and soap. Do this every week to keep your tiles in a perfect state.

Mirrors and Windows

If they only have water stains, then use a commercial glass cleaner. If they have filth or soap stains, then scrub them first with a solution of water and vinegar. Let this solution rest for 30 minutes. Rinse and polish the windows with a dry cloth. Also make sure to clean the frames; after all, excellence is in the details.

Floor:

Start by sweeping the floor, because it always gathers up stray hairs and debris. After doing so, scrub the floor with water and the cleaning product of your choice, depending on the materials the floor is made of. Finish everything by drying the floor with a dry cloth so that it has no water stains.

You have finished! Hopefully, these tips will help you keep your bathroom spotless!

Conclusion

Here’s all of our tips on how to clean your bathroom! We hope this helps with your cleaning routine to make you work smarter, not harder.

And remember, you can always hire a professional service to clean not only your bathroom but also the rest of your home. This means more free time to spend with friends or family.

The post How to Clean Your Bathroom appeared first on Dallas Maids® | Maid Service & House Cleaning Services Voted #1 for a Reason.