Do you loathe cleaning?  Does the thought of deep cleaning your home send shivers down your spine? I get it.  To deep clean without driving yourself batty, it’s best to work as efficiently as possible.  In this article, we’ll talk about how to spring clean quickly over seven days.  If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide for how to spring clean your home, then keep on reading! And if you want a printable spring cleaning checklist for your entire home, be sure to hop to the Home Beautifully Resource Collection to download your free printable guide.

What’s Spring Cleaning and Why Should You Do It?

A lot of people wonder what spring cleaning is, particularly compared to regular everyday cleaning. Spring cleaning means deep cleaning. It’s the process of doing a super thorough scrub, at least once per year, to get rid of funk and gunk that’s built up over time.

Why is it called spring cleaning? I spent some time researching this question and was surprised to learn that the term “spring cleaning” comes from the Jewish tradition. (Or so my online sources told me.) Every year, families would clean their homes to get rid of any unleavened bread during Passover.

For me, something is refreshing about dusting off the winter blues with a good, thorough cleaning.  It helps me mentally transition from winter to spring.

Bottom line: regardless of whether you do your yearly deep clean in the spring, summer, fall, or winter, you want to get it done.

Strategy for How to Spring Clean Your House

Deep cleaning your home can be a ginormous task. And if you didn’t have a clear plan, spring cleaning could take forever! But since you’re busy and got things to do, we want to make this cleaning routine as efficient as possible. So what’s our strategy for spring cleaning our home?

Want to spring clean as quickly as possible? Clean by category!

When we clean by category, rather than by room, we work a lot faster.  Why is this?  Cleaning by room forces us to switch tasks too often, which leads to major inefficiencies.

Inefficiencies of Task Switching

What do I mean? Sure you could clean your bathroom, then your bedroom, then the hallway and work your way all the way to the basement, room by room. But the cleaning room by room is inefficient. Why? When we clean each room at a time, we need to switch tasks often. We pick up the rag, put down the rag, plug in the vacuum, unplug the vacuum, pick up the rag… you get the point.

Task switching requires us to change direction. And unfortunately for many of us, when we change direction, we lose direction.

Have you ever started cleaning your closet only to get waylaid by something you found in your closet? Then four hours later, you’ve gone off in a different direction, and your closet STILL isn’t clean? That’s often what happens when we switch tasks.

Spring Cleaning by Category

Cleaning by category minimizes inefficiencies that come with switching tasks. And sure, we may end up taking a few more steps around our house. But by block cleaning by category, we’ll limit distractions and ultimately work more quickly.

Ready for the plan?

How to Spring Clean by Category

The goal in cleaning by category is to knock out every single instance of that type in your house. So when we dust, for example, we dust every single surface in the entire house. We walk from room to room, never putting down our dust cleaning supplies we wipe every surface.

Once we’ve finished dusting, we don’t need to do it again. Then we move onto the next category.

Spring Cleaning Checklist

To tackle how to spring clean, we’re going to spread the tasks out over seven days.  Whether you do these in one week or over the course of several weekends, spreading out tasks will make spring cleaning way easier.

To grab this free downloadable checklist, click the box below to jump to the Home Beautifully resource collection.  (Bonus: there are lots more free goodies in the collection for subscribers!).  The checklist also has several blank spaces for you to fill in extra tasks.  That way you can customize the checklist as you like for your home.

Throughout the post, I’m using affiliate links to show products I’ve used and recommend.  We’ve used these for both deep cleaning and everyday cleaning.  You’ll notice that there are some more eco friendly products and some more traditional products.  (We go back and forth on this in our house, usually depending on our budget.)  You can hop to the product page to learn more, and in the end, do what works for your family!

How to Spring Clean on Day 1: Wash Rugs, Curtains, and Bedding

Pull all the bedding off your beds. Take down your curtains. Gather up any mats that can be machine washed.

Begin to run these through your washing machine. You’ll probably end up having lots of loads to do. So it’s best to start this one right away so you can flip laundry over throughout the day.

How to Spring Clean on Day 2: Wipe down Mirrors and Windows

When you’re cleaning your glass mirrors and windows, you want to be sure to get all the grime and gunk without leaving streaks.

How? Try using a microfiber cloth or a squeegee rather than paper towels, which could leave a film.

You may want to attack globs on your mirrors with a little rubbing alcohol first, before spraying your cleaner.

We tend to use Windex for this step, but you could easily mix up your own DIY cleaner using white vinegar, water, and a spray bottle. Easy!

If you have glass tops on your dressers, you’ll want to spray them down and wipe the glass now.

How to Spring Clean on Day 3: Wipe Walls

Before you wash down your walls, you want to pay attention to the kind of paint you have. If your paint is latex, with a slight sheen, you’re good to go. Use a sponge and diluted all-purpose cleaner. Pay attention to high traffic areas, like light switches and doorknobs, looking for fingerprints and scuff marks.

Dish soap works well for this, as does a diluted solution of white vinegar and water. (Side note: if you’re using vinegar, you might want to crack a window! Not only will the room smell a bit less, but also the walls will dry faster)

For stubborn spots, try a magic eraser. Just be sure to use a light hand, so you don’t take the shine off your paint!

How to Spring Clean on Day 4: Clean the Bathroom

The trick to cleaning your bathroom is to work top to bottom. The second tip is to let the cleaning supplies do the work for you. What do I mean?

To begin, spray down your shower and bathtub, letting the cleaner sit while you tackle the rest of the room. This way, the cleaner has time to get to the dirty spots. When you’re spraying, be sure to spray your grout lines and the metal brace that holds the shower door.

While the cleaner’s doing its magic, spray down other surfaces, including window sills, the sink, and countertops. You can use warm soapy water for this, like diluted dish soap, or all-purpose cleaner.

Spray the outside of the toilet using the all-purpose cleaner. Using a toilet scrubber and toilet cleaner, get to the inside of your toilet bowl, making sure to clean up under the lip of the toilet to make it shiny and spotless.

How to Spring Clean on Day 5:  Counters and Cabinets

When you move to the kitchen, first take off the burners from your stove top and the knobs from your stove. Fill your sink with warm soapy water using dish soap and let these soak while you work.

With your warm soapy water, wipe down the countertops in your kitchen. For this step, use mild detergent and a soft sponge. If you have specialty stone countertops, be sure to follow the cleaning instructions from the manufacturer.

When you’re wiping down the counters, don’t forget to also remove the grime from stovetop and backsplash. If any areas are challenging to clean, let the spray soak for up to 20 minutes.

For wood cabinets, we use diluted Murphy’s oil soap. You might also try warm soapy water with a dishwashing soap that cuts grease. Be wary using vinegar on wood. While you’ll get the grease off your cabinets, you may dull the shine over time.

How to Spring Clean on Day 5: Clean Your Appliances

Spring Cleaning Your Oven

If you have a self-cleaning oven, set the oven on “self-clean.” The self-clean function will turn any residue in the oven to a pile of dust you can wipe up later. If you don’t have a self-cleaning oven, then you can use oven cleaner and let it do its job. Be sure to open a window to help get rid of any fumes.

Spray down the outside of your oven with all-purpose cleaner or stainless steel cleaner. For our stainless steel appliances, we use Pledge and a microfiber cloth.

Spring Cleaning Your Dishwasher

Fill a cup with white vinegar and place it in your dishwasher on the top. Run the dishwasher with the container inside. This vinegar will remove any built up grime and help sanitize your machine.

While the dishwasher’s running, spray it down with cleaner and wipe the outside.

Spring Cleaning Your Fridge

Take everything out of your fridge. Throw out any expired food. You may want to take the time to organize your fridge now. This article on how to organize your fridge has some great tips you might find helpful!

Using mild cleaner, like dish soap, wipe down the inside of the fridge. If you’re able to take the shelves and bins out, it may be easier to clean the bins and shelves outside of the refrigerator to scrub stuck on spills and sticky spots.

Use a clean towel to dry your shelves and bins and put your food back. (Hint: make sure you’re putting the food in the right place!)

Spring Cleaning Your Small Appliances

Put any washable appliance parts in the dishwasher, such as the coffee filter, the blender blades, and the food processor bowl. Wipe down other appliances with warm soapy water.

Before cleaning the toaster, shake out the toaster or empty the crumb tray.

Before cleaning your microwave, run a cup of water and lemon in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. This lemon will help remove any built up residue and odor. Then wipe down the inside and outside of the microwave.

How to Spring Clean on Day 6: Dust Everything

When you’re dusting, be sure to work top down, so that you’re not throwing dust onto a surface you just cleaned. Be sure to get the dust from your ceiling fan blades. Man, those edges sure can get filthy quickly, can’t they?

One Good Thing by Jillie provided an excellent idea to put a pillowcase on the fan blades so that the dust falls inside of the pillowcase, rather than on the floor. Genius!

Walk through the house with a microfiber cloth and wipe down surfaces and objects that collect dust. Be sure to look for dust bunnies hiding in spots, like behind the television stand or in the corners of windowsills.

How to Spring Clean on Day 7: Do the Floors

Sweep and Vacuum

Almost done! Now’s the time to vacuum all of the floors in your home. If your vacuum has a setting that alternates between laminate, hardwoods, and carpets, you’re in luck!

If not, attack your carpets with your vacuum and grab a broom and dustpan for your other floors.

Mop the Floors

Grab your mop. We have both the old-fashioned white string mop and a sponge mop. I use both, preferring the sponge mop for easier jobs and the white string mop for tougher jobs.

I tend to use a solution of mild dish soap and warm water, using about 2 tablespoons (one big squirt) per gallon of water. You could also use half a cup of diluted white vinegar and add essential oils for a nice smell.

When mopping wood floors, I use Murphy’s oil soap. Like for your wood cabinets, white vinegar could degrade the shine over time.

Dip your mop into the mopping solution and wring your mop out so that there isn’t too much water. Working from one corner of the room, mop the floor, ringing out your mop frequently. Be sure not to put too much water on your floors, which could warp them (and take forever to dry!)

Want to Grab the Spring Cleaning Printable Checklist?

Jump to the resource library to download your copy.  Be sure to tag me on Instagram if you use it so I can share your pic with the Home Beautifully tribe.

Thanks so much for checking out this post about how to spring clean your home!  Be sure to hop to the resource library to check out all of our freebies for decorating and organizing your home.  As always, lots of love from my house to yours!