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2/24/11

Simple, Cost-Effective Ways to Spring Clean

Simple, Cost-Effective Ways to Spring Clean

With the end of winter thankfully coming up, it's now time for all of us to get our homes ready for the great weather, good spirits, and joyful activity that comes with the arrival of spring and the promise of summer. It's time to Spring Clean!

The one problem with Spring Cleaning is that it can get expensive, especially if you are doing a very thorough clean of your entire home. There are all the products you need to buy. There are the cleaning appliances that you'll eventually replace. There are bigger considerations for your house, such as the maintenance of your air conditioning system. These things are all a part of Spring Cleaning, and so there are often high costs, but necessary, if you want to have a clean, healthy home for the rest of the year.

So how can you avoid some of these high expenses? Well, you have to be willing to compromise. You also have to be creative! With that in mind, take a look at some of the following tips and feel free to add you own!

Use Home-Cleaning-Remedies
You know all of those expensive cleaning products? Well, you can often find home remedies that can clean your house just as well as some of those expensive products. And often, these home remedies are easier on your house, because they lack the harsh chemicals of bleach and ammonia. They are also good for your health and the environment. For example, try using baking soda to clean mildew off of the shower curtain in your bathroom. You can use diluted vinegar to clean soap scum from the bathtub as well. You simply have to be a little creative. For more cleaning recipes be sure to check out Lisa’s earlier post, “Make Your Own Household Cleaners

Buy Efficient Cleaning Supplies
By efficient, I mean the classic tools, those cleaning supplies that have been around forever: mops, brooms, bagless vacuum cleaners. These cleaning tools are less-expensive than their newer counterparts, and they are more efficient. Think of all the waste that a combination sweeper/mop creates; also think about how much money you spend buying those replaceable pads every few weeks. If you have a mop, you may have to spend a bit more time wringing it out and cleaning it as you use it, but you won't have to spend a lot of money in order to use it. Likewise, if you use an efficient bagless vacuum cleaner, you can avoid having to buy bags every few weeks. The vacuum cleaner will run much more efficiently, allowing you to clean your house easier.

Clean Creatively!
Finally, think about how you can clean your house creatively. Cleaning creatively means you have to clean areas you wouldn't normally think of as being dirty. Consider the area behind your refrigerator. That's where your refrigerator coils are located. But, the dirtier they get, the more inefficient they become, forcing your refrigerator to work harder in order to cool its insides. In a way, cleaning your house thoroughly can save you money! Dust light bulbs and light fixtures, replace your air filters, clean your windows around your doors, and you might find that your house is more efficient, thus helping you save money on energy.

What's your favorite Spring Cleaning tip? 

By-line:
Lauren Bailey, regularly writes on the topics of online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.

4 comments:

  1. Great post. Thanks for the ideas!

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  2. I like to do a quarterly sort during Spring and rid my home of any unused items or things that we no longer need. With 5 kids in the house it's easy to let the clutter take over, but I've noticed that if I just do it once every season it's so much less stressful.

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  3. Colorado Girl Thank you.

    Randi Controlling clutter is a full time job around here! lol I try to have a system/schedule also, but some rooms need it more often than others for me.

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  4. I don't Spring clean! Each month I take one day to wipe down a room. Rotate to a different room each month. Rooms never get that bad this way and much easier than trying to do it all at one time. Between, I sweep cobwebs and dust, sweep & wipe as needed while doing regular weekly cleaning.

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