I too would like to hear any advice about spring cleaning that anyone has.

I start by renting a carpet cleaning machine, and doing my whole 2500 sq. ft. of carpeted area. Guest bedroom and all, including hand washing the baseboards. I do this twice a year. I live in the "black sand" area of northern Florida, and have a dog who is in and out of the backyard, so this is vital, and I find that when this big job is out of the way, the house looks and smells much cleaner. Takes 1 long day mostly due to moving furniture around, particularly in the computer room, or one Friday evening and one full Saturday. Costs about $40, with rug shampoo. Uses lots of hot water, too.

Next, I tackle the furniture. I have a lot of oil finished wooden furniture and kitchen and bathroom cabinets, that I re-oil at least twice a year. This takes a couple of evenings, as the bookcases have to be unloaded, to do a thorough job. Next, I clean the upholstered furniture and the leather peices. Finally, the lamps.

Next, I vacuum ceilings, window blinds, ceiling fans, and air vents and returns, thoroughly, including removing duct grills. I change the air filters on the central heat/air unit. I clean the dryer vent pipe (easy, as it is near ground level on the side of the garage). Then, I wash walls, particularly around light switches, doors around door handles, etc. and use some touch up paint on wall corner mouldings, baseboards, and other "wear" areas. This usually takes a day.

Next I do a major cleaning of the bathrooms, which takes a couple of hours. Then, I do a thorough cleaning of the kitchen, including moving the stove and fridge to mop under them, clean their sides and backs, and renew my boric acid powder trails behind them. I clean out the cupboards and renew shelf paper. I wash all the silverware, and clean out the drawers. I oil the exterior of the wooden cabinets. This can take the better part of a day.

I usually finish with a complete inside and outside cleaning of the windows and glass patio door, which is compartively easy on this single story ranch house.
My brother cleans our garage, while I'm doing the kitchen and windows.

i pick a day nice enough that i will be able to open all the doors and windows whilst cleaning, hence airing out the place as well as cleaning it, and set aside enough time to do the following Big Cleaning Raid:

i use murphy's oil soap and wipe down all the woodwork that's safe to wipe down (baseboards, furniture, cabinetry, hardwood, etc...) i used to clean rich people's houses as a teen and consequently murphy's smells like affluence to me, or something like that.

i change/wash all the bedding, wash the duvet cover(s), futon cover, flip the futon mattress, etc.

i clean the windows, or if i can't do all of them easily i clean the major ones i can reach and often look out of (like the big balcony doors on our 3rd storey apt).

i dust/vacuum/otherwise de-lint and de-spoogify all the lighting fixtures.

i bleach/scrub all the grout and/or scungy stuff in the bathroom(s).

last but not least: i set aside some spare cash to buy a couple bunches of fresh flowers. cos to me it's not spring cleaning without the 'spring' part.

i often tie the whole 'spring cleaning' boogie into an excuse to have people over. so my efforts aren't in vain. or something like that.

obviously paulsc owns a house and i am a lifelong apartment dweller but it looks like we're on similar pages here.

added to all my stuff above, i make an appointment with the apt. maintenance people to do stuff i don't control, like change fixtures and filters and fix stuff like missing knobs and sticky doors.

paulsc puts me to shame.

That's all I intend to say on this subject.

My spring what rituals?

I need to hire paulsc.

I am kind of obsessive about cleaning year-round, and do a thorough scrubbing of cabinets and surfaces every four to six weeks just 'cause I get fed up, so there's not much left for 'spring' cleaning. It usually doesn't take more than a day.

The ritual of spring cleaning comes to us from a time when it was really very meaningful. Before the advent of central heat, at least here in the Northern U.S., families were clustered into one or two heavily used rooms most of the winter months, conserving wood or coal heat and kerosene or oil light. The ceilings and walls picked up a coating of soot from woodsmoke and lamp or candle soot., Bedding and blankets were not laundered throughout most of the winter because they couldn't dry without freezing. Whole sections of houses were shut off so that they wouldn't need to be heated, dust-cloths thrown over the furniture and dust gathering on the millwork. Rugs were brought out and laid over hardwood floors, and heavier drapes hung over the curtains to shut out winter drafts.

So you can imagine that when the warmer spring air came around, it really meant turning the whole house upside down and inside out in order to go back to a warm-weather habitation pattern. The whole thing happened in reverse - rugs were beaten, hung to air, then rolled and stored in an attic; same for the drapes. Bedding was laundered and wool blankets stored away, made safe from moths with camphor or cedar. Ceilings were whitewashed. Walls painted or washed and floors scrubbed. Metal was polished, glass and mirrors shined. It was a huge undertaking, and spring cleaning took days or weeks. Even into the 20th century, many spring rituals hung on until modern conveniences, like home hot-air dryers, really made things easier.

I love the fact that we don't need to do spring cleaning as a specific annual chore as much as we did in those days, yet at this time of year there's still a yearning for freshness and lightness. We still want the scent of lemons or vinegar or ammonia to pervade the house. We still want to shine and polish surfaces, put away sweaters and coats and boots, mop the mud-season gunk off the floors, and pull the heavy furniture away from the wall to get the dust bunnies out. It's a cathartic process and a goodbye to winter. And it's at least a reminder that every now and then you do need to deep-clean your house, regardless of season...so why not spring?

The greatest pleasure of that day called 'spring cleaning,' for me, is just the opening of all the windows in the house to let that dull winter air out and fresh breezes in. Air is air, but that heavenly plant-soil-rain-sun smell from outside is irreplaceable.

As a kid, spring also meant bringing my bike up from the basement, borrowing my dad's chrome polish and WD-40, and giving it a good washing and de-rusting and shining-up, and then tooling around the neighborhood on the first warm, spring evening ride.

I know this hasn't been very helpful on a practical level...but it's fun to think about the ways our traditions persist even in this age of convenience.

I need to marry paulsc.

I need to invite paulsc over to my apartment and let him do his thing while I sit on the couch drinking beer and watching The Simpsons.

Spring cleaning? Easy! Just follow these directions:

1) Open all the doors and windows to create a cleansing cross-breeze

2) Round up wife, dog, and cat

3) Douse everything in kerosene

4) Go outside

5) Toss lit wooden match through window

I cannot stress the importance of Step 4 enough. Omitting it is a real rookie mistake.

I wash Possible.

Miko, my aunt who has the farm in Pennsylvania has a Hoosier type cabinet (with original flour bin) from the late 1800s or early 1900s. It still has a card telling the owner how to care for the cabinet, which includes hauling it outside twice a year, opening all doors, removing all drawers, and leaving it in the sun for airing.

My spring cleaning is only a little more intense than regular cleaning, but includes sorting of clothes, books, and bric a brac for keeping or donating. I've started becoming intrigued with the idea of changing drapes with the seasons, too. Heavy ones for winter, light ones for summer.

Mr. V tackles the yard work - raking, pulling weeds, mulching. The only areas he doesn't do are my garden areas. It only took the mistaken pulling of a treasured plant to end that real quick.

bmarkey, it took me three readings before realizing that you did not mean that one should douse the wife, dog, and cat with kerosene. Phew.

Gah! Sorry, occhiblu, bad writing on my part. This is not that kind of spring cleaning. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Indeed.

You two could've cleared that up earlier, you know.

*calls 911*

Note to self: DO NOT BURN!

redvixen: that's a cool story! I love hoosier cabinets...

I bathe myself in the blood of a thousand infants.

paulsc's cleaning sounds similar to my spring cleaning chores. It doesn't take too long. My house is about 1800 square feet and I have very little clutter, so things get done quickly.

I handwash the baseboards and walls. Especially the walls in the kitchen.

I wash my window blinds. I wash the windows inside and out, along with the screens. I pop them out, scrub, rinse with hose let them dry.

Husband pressure washes the driveway and sidewalks. He cleaned the garage yesterday.

Flip the mattress. Wash floors under bed.

Purge items and clean under bathroom and kitchen sinks.

Pull out washer and dryer and wash laundry room floor and walls throrougly.

Clean closets, get rid of ratty clothes, donate others.

Scrub the tile on my back screened porch, wash screens on porch.

Pull out fridge and oven. Wash floors.

We've done some of these chores already and I do a lot of these things throughout the year, especially when I'm having a lot of guests. I hope to be finished with the rest of the chores by next week.

I'm repainting a lot of our walls this month. Husband picked out the color last time we painted our great room a year or so ago. It's an okay khaki color, but very blah. It has to go, it's bringing me down. I'm thinking a pale, buttery yellow will be nice.

I bought a new white quilted coverlet and shams from Target not too long ago. I bought it especially for Spring. It's very fresh and crisp looking.

Virago risings are either anal-retentive or ROTTEN slobs--I'm the latter. Once the renovations are finished, I'll have to get a cleaning service in...I found one that pays their workers health insurance.

"I need to marry paulsc.
posted by essexjan 15 March | 18:23

I've been used (sniff, hiccup, sniff) that way, before, essexjan. And I felt so...cheap--and-(dare I confess???)...stupid, afterwards...

So, now, except for my own floors, or those of certian friends of long, long standing who know what I like for breakfast, I only scrub for money. That way, I'm always in control.