The spring and autumn cleans are the perfect opportunities to reorganise your house. It’s a bit like a department store stocktake: twice a year reassess and renew each room in the house. Spring and autumn cleaning is about tackling all the tasks you missed during the year—so look where you don’t normally look, high and low. It’s a chance to rearrange furniture to suit the seasons, freshen carpets or change the doona cover. I think a good time to tackle your spring or autumn clean is around the time of the council clean-up. If you unearth items you don’t need or use any more, get rid of them so that they are not left lingering in the house and gathering dust. Find out when your next one is due and make a note of it in your master list.
Begin with the master list that you’ve been adding to during the weekly speedcleans. Organise and tackle your chores room by room.
If you have a hallstand, clear all items and vacuum inside the drawers. If you want to freshen up the space, consider a new plant or decoration.
When spring cleaning the linen cupboard, I use a traymobile to store the items I’ve removed from the linen cupboard. Find out what needs mending and set it aside. Vacuum the shelves inside the linen cupboard. Replace lining on your shelves. Then shake and refold each item before returning it to the cupboard.
The linen cupboard should be sorted by having items most used at eye level, those least used on higher levels and items for children, such as towels, on lower levels.
Clean light shades and stands. Clean brass and metal arms with a good-quality brass polish.
Clean paintings. Acrylic paintings can be cleaned with a damp cloth. Water colours should be cleaned by a professional. To remove residue and dust from oil paintings, clean with stale urine, salt and potato. This technique is a guaranteed barbecue stopper! Collect 1 litre of female urine and leave it in the sun for a week to reduce to 500 millilitres. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of grated raw potato. Stir and allow the mixture to sit for 30 minutes. Dampen a cloth in the mixture, wring it out and then wipe gently over the painting. Dampen a clean cloth in water and wipe the painting gently and pat it dry. You can also rub brown bread over the painting to clean it but it can induce mould if the atmosphere is damp, so don’t use this technique if you’re in a damp, dark spot. For any serious cleaning problems, see a restorer. Never use alcohol-based cleaners such as methylated spirits or turpentine on gilded frames. Most gilding is covered with a layer of shellac and alcohol-based cleaners will affect it. Instead, dust the frame with a hairdryer on the cool setting. This should be enough to clean it but if dirt remains, wipe a damp cloth over the frame and then dry it with a soft cloth.
A key focus during the spring and autumn cleans is to rearrange furniture to maximise breezeways. In the warmer months, you want air to flow. In the cooler months, you want air to be retained.
Give couches and cushions a good whack, remove cushions and vacuum all the crevices. Change cushion covers or wash existing covers. Clean the underside of tables and chairs where spider webs lurk. Do the same with chairs. Shampoo carpets and rugs. Clean blinds and curtains. Remove covers from light fittings and clean them. Give lampshades a really good clean. Sort out your bookshelves. Take all the books out, clean the shelves, dust each book and recycle the ones you don’t want any more. Either take them to a second-hand shop or donate them to a school fete. Return borrowed books. Dispose of any old magazines or recycle them for the kids to make cutouts with. Dispose of any videos or DVDs that don’t work any more. Sort out your CDs. In the study, deal with bills and paperwork. Catch up on filing.
Remove all the clothes from the wardrobe and vacuum inside. Go through your clothes and decide which ones will stay, which ones go into the rag bag and which ones can be donated to charity. If there are some quality garments, try selling them online. Audit your clothes without being wasteful. Keep this in mind—if you have clothes you don’t wear, it’s either because they’re out of fashion or you don’t like them. If you don’t like them, don’t keep them. Determine which clothes need mending. Then organise summer clothes at one end of the wardrobe and winter clothes at the other end. If you don’t have enough room, store the off-season gear elsewhere. Sort through your shoes, too. If they’re damaged, have them repaired or throw them out. Hang a new muslin bag filled with lavender in the wardrobe to ward off nasties. Wash the doona and change all the blankets on the bed. If you like, change the doona cover to give the room a completely new feel. Wash blankets every six months or when they become dirty. Make sure you get under the bed and clean it well. Clean the curtains, blinds and windows. Shampoo carpets and rugs.
There’s actually very little to spring clean in the bathroom. The main task is to clean out the cabinets. Remember the rule—a place for everything and everything in its place.
This is a big job. Begin by cleaning the cupboards. Do it cupboard by cupboard rather than all at once or you’ll create a huge overwhelming mess. Remove items and clean the shelves. Vacuum inside drawers. Throw out or recycle anything that’s chipped or broken. If you have problems with bugs, either spray cupboards with insecticide or use non-toxic alternatives. If you use insecticide spray, wait 1 hour before putting items back. Go through the pantry and check use-by dates. The same applies to food in the freezer. Also check your cleaning products and get rid of anything you don’t use. Clean the filter in the range hood. Clean blinds, curtains and windows.
Clean out your sewing kit. Remove the tail end of threads and little bits of fabric. Go through your medicine cabinet and throw out items that are past their use-by date.
Clean out the garage or shed. Return borrowed items and retrieve anything you’ve lent. Clean outdoor furniture. Clear gutters, drains, eaves and awnings. Clean the clothesline. Organise pest inspections. Clean windows either yourself or hire a professional. To clean them yourself, add 1 cup of methylated spirits to half a bucket of water then transfer to a spray bottle. Spray the solution onto the glass and wipe with a squeegee. Polish with paper towel if needed. Don’t use newspaper to clean windows. Newspaper was a great cleaner when the ink was made of lamp black but these days, the ink has a latex base and will leave smear marks on the glass. One of the frustrating things when cleaning a window is working out which side of the window a smudge is on. To deal with this, use vertical stripes on the outside of the window and horizontal stripes on the inside of the window. You can tell which side of the window the smudge is on by the direction of the stripes. The reason to use vertical stripes on the outside of the window is because that’s the direction rain falls so when it rains, it won’t leave streaks against the window.
When you’ve finished the spring or autumn clean, reward yourself and the family—because cleaning should be a total household effort. Go out for dinner or throw a dinner party to show off your gleaming newly cleaned house.
