With the weather warming up, many North Carolina residents are coming out of their winter hibernation to declutter and clean up their homes. However, cleaning your entire home from top to bottom can be a daunting task if you don’t tackle it intelligently. Check out our spring-cleaning checklist so you can make the most of your time and finish up before spring has sprung.
Start at the Top
During your normal, everyday cleaning routine, you probably focus on what you can see—floors, surfaces and the like. However, spring cleaning is the perfect time to meander upwards from your line of sight and tidy up areas that might have escaped your notice all year. Clean off ceiling fans and light fixtures, and dust off ledges and wall hangings. While you’re at it, replace light bulbs and make sure your fixtures are in working order.
Prepare Your Appliances
If you did most of your cozy winter cooking in a crock pot or instant cooker, you may not have had much reason to clean your kitchen appliances. Add the sparkle back this spring by putting appliance cleaning and maintenance on your spring-cleaning checklist. Put some elbow grease into the bottom of your oven, clean off your stove and defrost the refrigerator. This is a great time to clean out your freezer and find items that you need to use up quickly or are better off tossed, and a perfect time to clean behind your refrigerator and oven and under your sink and run a cleaning cycle through your dishwasher.
Deep Clean Carpets
Whether you have wall-to-wall carpeting in your home or just a few rugs, spring is a great time to freshen them up. Go beyond your regular vacuuming routine by renting a deep cleaner or hiring a professional to clean and sanitize your carpeted areas. This will remove dirt and debris, and give your home a fresh, clean feeling.
Organize Your Bathrooms
Over the year, you may have collected items like soaps, candles, random shampoos and other odds and ends that have ended up shoved in bathroom cabinets. Now is the time to clean out your bathroom and reorganize the space for maximum efficiency. Once you’ve gone through your cabinets, give your entire bathroom a deep clean, including the toilet, shower and bathtub and sanitize the floors.
Declutter
While you don’t need to go full Marie Kondo on your home, spring is a perfect time to go through your house and get rid of items you don’t use or no longer need. Enlist your entire family to go through their items to decide what they need to keep and what needs to be donated, sold or thrown away. Consider holding a yard sale to get rid of some items and donate what doesn’t need to be thrown away. You’ll be removing clutter and stress from your home and for a year of growth and excitement.
If even after you’ve cleaned your house from top to bottom, it doesn’t feel quite right, it might be time to move on up to a new home. The good news is, after spring cleaning, you’ve already done most of the prep work that goes into preparing to put your home on the market. And the NC Housing Finance Agency can take care of the rest--check out how our NC Home Advantage Mortgage™ with down payment assistance up to 5 percent of the loan amount can help make a new home affordable for you.
Learn more at www.HousingBuildsNC.com.
