5 Spring Cleaning Tips

Yes I love lists! 



So the inventories of each room in our house are very appealing to me.

Even though Spring Cleaning is NOT!!

But the Spring Cleaning has got to be done so why not have some tips to help us out.

I hate to spend a long time at any task (except things on the computer where I could spend my whole day if meals and a husband did not disturb me) so I don't intend to do all of the inventory of a large room at one given time.


This then was part of my reasoning when I chose to do the Ensuite of our bedroom first. Also because the first week of January is always busy for us so to work on a smaller room first makes more sense than our larger bedroom.

Developing on from the yearly Schedule found in How to Get The Housework Organised (see part of it below)

I took all the monthly, weekly and daily activities around housework and organising in our home and made another spreadsheet for these.

I know I will think of more things later that should go into my monthly / weekly / daily schedule below but these are my main things for now.  

The idea is to get into a regular system of doing things in small doses so that it will never get to be a real chore and take up lots of time.

Then I placed the bigger tasks into Weeks of the Month along with the monthly tasks and created the first two months of my Organising Schedule.

As you can see I used four weeks to each month and then in any month with five weeks I can either have a week off from the bigger tasks or have it as some catch-up time if I am getting behind.

I did not include the weekly and daily tasks into this as it would make it too cumbersome and probably better to keep them on their own perhaps into todo lists. 

Everyone's house is different and everyone's home life is different so anyone taking on this idea would have a unique schedule.  

Now on to the first main Task of January 

Master Bedroom Ensuite Overhaul

The room is only about 8 foot square so not a huge job.

There is a corner shower, a vanity unit with wash hand basin and a toilet.

TIP 1.

I always have a container with a handle, in which I keep the essential cleaning materials I would need for any room.  Then I can just grab it as I set off to clean.

TIP 2.

I keep one of these in all 3 of our showers.

These are the best ones I have found and I love them so much I bought our son in England one a couple of years ago for his apartment there and our son, who just got married in October, got one in his Christmas stocking (no kidding).

The family are all well warned that they should spray the shower glass doors and sides with a shower cleaner that is always sitting in the shower cubicle then spray with water and then use the squeegee.  This means it is easier when it comes to the bigger cleaning times.
They are from Lakeland and are cheap.

TIP 3.

I use my steamer throughout the house and it is great here for the floor tiles, wall tiles, shower unit base and under the rim of the toilet.  Steam cleans thoroughly.

When we lived in Belgium we had a much larger ensuite and I had a really large laundry basket in it.

 It was too big for this room now so last year I decided to get a smaller white laundry box instead.

I was rather pleased with myself because I managed to put it together without the help of my husband.

I also hated my ensuite in Belgium because it was so dark due to the colour of the tiles and bathroom suite in it and also because several of the tiles were broken.

I love my ensuite here because even though it is smaller it is so much brighter and in good condition.  

NOTE:  We rented our home in Belgium and the landlord did not believe in updating any of the bathrooms or even the kitchen and hall tiles. 

Here is our nice bright Ensuite

With everything cleaned down and round and up and under and the shelves in the vanity unit sorted out it was now time for a coffee and I could read some of my book.

Don't worry I haven't forgotten the rest of the tips.

Master Bedroom Ensuite Inventory

Out comes the iPad and my inventory app.

I have very little in this room so this was an easy job.

Although I could tell already that it may be more efficient in future (with larger rooms) to do the inventory of drawers and shelves while they are being sorted out and not leave it to later.

I have already started the inventory for the Master Bedroom so I thought I would show it as there is much more to it than to the Ensuite.

TIP 4.

Obviously I did not do a thorough inventory of toiletries in the vanity unit but I made a list of all the toiletries we are likely to want in the ensuite and have this on a Todo List app on my iPad which can be referred to at any time.

And finally

TIP 5.

I made a note of any toiletries that needed replenishing in my shopping list app so that I will remember to get these the next time I am shopping.

I have not spent a long time at any one part of the inventory or the housework throughout the week so not finding it a hard job so far.

 

Not a lot of  FUN but not bad either.