Spring Cleaning - The Bedrooms
If you have allergies, that annual Spring clean of the bedroom is extremely important. It’s so important, we recommend you start with the bedroom.
What makes the bedroom crucial? Aside from the fact that you spend about 8 of every 24 hours in that room, bedrooms are filled with fiber surfaces. Fiber surfaces collect allergens from dust mites and other household allergens like a magnet.
Bedrooms need a good deep cleaning, but you must be careful how you do it. Spring cleaning bedrooms should improve the indoor environment, not make it worse.
It’s best to tackle the bedrooms early in the day. No matter how careful you are, you’re going to stir up some dust and that dust needs time to settle before you enter the room to sleep.
First, turn your HEPA air cleaner up to the highest setting. Next, if you are highly allergic to dust mites and dust, be sure to wear a mask when cleaning. Unlike the cleaning strategy used in the other rooms, instead of working from the outside in and top-down you are going to start with the bed.
Stripping the Bed
Strip all protective bedding off the bed. This means sheets, blankets, duvets, duvet covers, zippered mattress, and pillow covers. Everything comes off.
Put washable linens in the washer and wash them with 140℉ water. If you want to wash with a cooler temperature, wash with Allersearch Allerwash allergen wash or add De-Mite Laundry additive to your favorite detergent.
Go ahead and take down washable curtains and remove washable dust ruffles and pillow shams. If it is washable, get it out of the bedroom and into the laundry.
Take bedding that is not washable, such as silk or wool, outside while you are cleaning and expose it to sunlight. Natural sunlight will refresh wool and silk.
Lightly spray non-washable bedding with Allersearch ADMS Anti-Allergen Spray before you bring it back inside to put on the bed. This treatment denatures any pollen or mold spores the bedding picked up outside as well as neutralizes any other allergens that remain.
Once the bed is stripped and the laundry has started, it's time to get cleaning. Now you can execute your top-down and outside to inside strategy. So, clean the walls from the top to the bottom.
My canister vacuum cleaner is a powerful tool for Spring cleaning the bedroom. I extend the wand fully, install the smooth floor brush, then vacuum from the top down starting in one corner and working my way around the room.
Next vacuum and wipe down woodwork. If you have pictures on the wall, this is the time to take them down, clean them and put them back up. Pull furniture slightly away from walls so you can clean behind it.
Cleaning the Furniture
After the walls are clean, tackle the furniture. Start with the nightstand. Open the drawers and remove all items. This is a good time to sort through and throw out items you don’t need to keep and haven’t used in the last 6 months or a year.
Resist the urge to hang onto everything. I know it’s hard, it’s hard for me too.
Once the drawers are empty, use the round dusting brush on the vacuum cleaner to thoroughly clean the inside of the drawer and the rails where the drawers glide. If the glides stick and the drawer doesn’t open and close smoothly, rub the rails with a bar of soap. Return the contents and move to the next drawer. Repeat this process for all chests and dressers.
Now, wipe down the exterior surfaces of the furniture. First vacuum everything with the round dusting brush, then polish. Old tee shirts make great cleaning rags as they don’t leave lint behind.
Clean those knickknacks
Next, it's time to wipe down the knick-knacks or wash them in the sink. Every allergist or indoor environmental specialist will tell you that it’s a bad idea to have many dust catching knick-knacks in the bedroom.
So, if you are following their advice, this step just takes a few minutes. If it doesn’t, this is a clear sign it’s time to declutter.
Sorting contents
As you clean the contents of the room, keep two trash bags handy. One bag holds the things you are discarding and the others hold the items you are donating.
Since you are going to take everything out of every drawer, this is a perfect time to sort and donate any clothing or knick-knacks you no longer wear or need. Simplify!
Clean the bed
This is the perfect time to vacuum under the bed and wipe down the bed rails. By now, you should be ready to bring clean linens back into the room.
Zip back up mattress, pillows, and duvets. Put your freshly washed sheets on the bed and re-assemble. Leave the air cleaner on the high setting for the next couple of hours.
Floors for last
As with the other rooms, leave the floors for last. If you have a hard surface floor, thoroughly vacuum and then steam clean.
If you have carpet, vacuum thoroughly and then treat with the X-Mite Carpet Powder or ADMS Spray as described in the section for cleaning living areas.
Now, close the bedroom door. Now, treat yourself to a soak in the bath, a cup of tea or adult beverage of your choice, or just sit outside and swing. Just rest, you deserve it! Let the HEPA air cleaner do the heavy lifting for the next 2 hours and then turn it back down to medium or low.
A word about closets
If you have the energy, you can clean your bedroom closets as you clean each bedroom. Frankly, I can’t do it so I clean the closets separately. When I Spring clean a bedroom, I make sure both sides of the closet door are clean and leave the contents for another day.
Next up - Spring Cleaning the Kitchen. Spring cleaning the kitchen can be such a big job that it can tire you out just to think about it, much less do it. But, if you have a strategy, a plan, and the right tools, it doesn’t have to be so bad. Follow these tips and you will get your kitchen clean in no time at all.