Spring Cleaning Checklist Schedule: 4 Week Challenge

What Month Do You Do Spring Cleaning?

Spring cleaning traditionally takes place in March or April when the weather starts to warm up. This timing allows you to open windows, air out your home, and take advantage of the longer daylight hours to clean thoroughly.

Imagine a home with more space, clearer air, and a renewed sense of order. Over the next four weeks, we’ll help you achieve just that. From decluttering and deep cleaning to organizing every nook and cranny, this interactive schedule will make your spring cleaning project not only achievable but also enjoyable.

Are you ready to tackle your spring cleaning? Consider renting a dumpster to make it easier!

How to use BTDT’s Deep Spring Cleaning House Schedule

Whether you’re a working mom, a twenty-something riding the Marie Kondo wave, or a stay-at-home parent, this printable spring cleaning checklist will leave you feeling renewed at the end of the month with a reusable house cleaning schedule you can bring out every April or May.

Before you jump in, here are three ways to use the calendar:

• On your mobile device: Carry it around like a personal assistant as you complete each task.
• Print it, and use it like a house cleaning checklist: Mark each task as finished, and burn it in a bonfire with your friends. Goodbye, cluttered abode of last year – hello, increased focus and fierceness of tomorrow.
• Laminate it, and use it every year: This is our favorite, and the most eco-friendly option.

Ready? Let’s get your spring cleaning underway.

Week One – The Purge: Big-Picture Organization

Week one is all about your big-picture decluttering strategy. After all, it doesn’t make sense to spend time deep-cleaning things you don’t need anymore. You wouldn’t break out the feather duster and furniture polish for the broken bookshelf in your garage (unless you’re planning on restoring it, that is).

Ready to KonMari the heck out of your castle? Let’s go.

Day One – The Heavy Lifting

• Initial Walkthrough: Begin by walking through each room and identifying large items you no longer need — keep note of these items either by taking pictures or using sticky notes.
• Sort Items: Create three categories: donate, replace, or toss!
• Rent a Dumpster: Rent a dumpster for the big throwaway stuff, and load up what’s still good to donate to a thrift store.
• Designate a Spot: Choose a spot to store all unwanted items until the end of the week.

Day Two – Kitchen/Mudroom

• Cabinet Clear-out: Empty your cabinets and shelves and take stock.
  • Are you hanging onto old cookware that you don’t use? Do you have unnecessary multiples of infrequently used items? Is it time to start saving for an appliance upgrade
• Optimize Space: Make a plan for optimizing your kitchen, and clear out anything you don’t need.

Day Three – Living Room, Family Room, and Office

• Declutter: These are the spaces where you and your family move around and coexist the most, so anything you can do to cut down on clutter will make life easier for everyone.
• Rearrange: Remove decor you don’t like and rearrange furniture for better feng shui (if you’re into that sort of thing).
• Electronics: Organize and tidy up electronics and cables.

Day Four – Bedrooms

• Furniture and Decor Check: Remove any furniture, rugs and decor that isn’t serving you anymore.
• Mattress Maintenance: Check your mattress: is it time for a replacement?
• Wardrobe Purge: Clear out clothes and accessories you no longer wear.

Day Five – Bathrooms

• Make It All Visible: Clear out the spaces under your sink and in your cabinets and showers to see what you’re working with.
• Product Purge: Soaps, creams, gels, and other grooming items tend to accumulate in the bathroom, go through everything and discard old or unused items..
  • Check for expired product dates – yes these things have a shelf life.
  • Be discerning: if you’re not a loofah-using type of person now, you probably will never be — so pitch it.

Day Six – Bonus Rooms and Closets

• Closet Check: Examine items in closets and decide what to keep, donate, or toss. A way to tackle your wardrobe clear-out is to go through and try every item on to see if it’s still your style, comfortable, or #SparksJoy.
  • Examine every closet — from those in your bedrooms to the front coat closet.

Day Seven – Let It Go

• Wrap It Up: It’s time. If there’s anything you haven’t sorted through, wrap it up today.
• Say Goodbye: Tackle your piles with these steps.
• Keep pile:
  • Find it a home. Ensure every item has a designated place. Use bins, baskets, and shelves to keep things tidy.
• Donate pile:
  • Goodwill
  • Salvation Army
  • Habitat For Humanity
  • ReStores
  • Any other local re-use it stores or thrift shops near you.
  • Have a garage sale.
• Throw away pile:
  • • Dumpster rental
    • Junk removal

Relax: You deserve it. Breathe easy knowing the rest of your deep-cleaning adventure is going to be that much easier without the clutter.

 

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Week Two – The Cozy Places: Living Areas, Bedrooms, and Closets

If you’re one of the 70 million Americans plagued with sleep problems, week two has massive life-changing potential for you. According to a study by the National Sleep Foundation, the cleaner and more comfortable your bed is, the better you’ll sleep. And it doesn’t stop there: less office clutter makes you more productive, and a clean house overall will keep you healthier and happier. Ready to transform the rooms where you get your R&R? Let’s do it!

Day One – Living Room

• Vacuum and Sweep: Clean floors thoroughly. Use a vacuum extension to deep-clean your couches and other small or hard-to-reach places, like the corners of vaulted ceilings.
• Windows and Baseboards: Clean baseboards and trim, and wash windows.
• Fireplace: If you have one, give your fireplace and chimney a deep cleaning — or hire it out.

Day Two – Master Bedroom

• Deep Clean Floors: Give your floors a little deep-cleaning TLC with a vacuum with a vacuum, since you’ll breathe better at night.
• Window Cleaning: Clean windows, trim, your ceiling fan, recessed ceilings and other architectural features.
• Bedding Refresh:  Wash all bedding, then scatter baking soda on your bare mattress, let it sit for a couple of hours, then vacuum it to freshen it up. Rotate it, if needed.

Day Three – Other Bedrooms

• Declutter: Remove unnecessary items and decor.
• Furniture Arrangement: Rearrange for better functionality or simply to change it up.

Day Four – Office or Bonus Rooms

• Deep Clean: If you have an office, craft room, or bonus room, take a day to deep-clean all furniture, flooring, windows, and details.

If you don’t, spend day four binge-watching Netflix.

Day Five – Closets

• Empty and Clean: It isn’t often we spend a lot of time in closets, but you might be surprised by the kind of dirt and other debris that can accumulate.  Empty closets, sweep, and mop floors.

Day Six – Fixtures and Features

Grab your rag and favorite all-purpose cleaner!

• Sanitize: Clean and sanitize door handles, light switches, and other fixtures.
• Light Fixtures: A well-lit house is a happy house, so give your lights some love too.
• Window Coverings: Don’t forget about those blinds, shutters, and shades. Cleaning your window coverings not only enhances their appearance but also extends their lifespan, protecting your investment.

Day Seven – Down Low, Up High

• High Dusting: Bring in the ladder and get a bird’s eye view of the rooms in your house. Dust or vacuum up high.
• Low Cleaning: Then go low and clean basement boards, crown molding, and other details that are normally out of view.

 

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Week Three – The Gritty Places: Kitchen, Bath, Garage, Basement and Attic

This week, it’s time to get down and dirty in the rooms most likely to have attained the most mud, gunk, and microscopic matter. The villains that threaten these rooms are those that have power to wreak serious havoc on your health: mold and mildew.

Even if you do a pretty good job of keeping your kitchen, bathroom, and garage clean, these are undoubtedly the rooms that need the most attention when it comes to deep cleaning time.

Materials you’ll need

Now that you’re thoroughly grossed out, here’s the good news – all it takes to get a handle on the grime in these rooms is having the right tools. You don’t need a hundred fancy cleaning products for each possible solution. In fact, you can get it all done with just a few things:

• Heavy-duty gloves
• Baking soda
• Distilled white vinegar
• Microfiber cloth
• Sponge
• Stiff-bristles brush or toothbrush
• Window/glass cleaner

Day One – Kitchen

• Appliance Cleaning: Deep-clean the oven, stove top, inside and outside of our fridge (time this task so that you’re cleaning your fridge when you’re low on food), microwave, and dishwasher.
• Simple Solutions: A simple baking soda, water, and vinegar mix is a great goo-to technique for these sticky places. Don’t forget about drain pans and exhaust fans, either.

Day Two – Kitchen

• Wall Cleaning: Wipe down walls and behind and under movable appliances.
• Everything Else: Clean the flooring, windows, light and door fixtures, and don’t forget any high-up dusting on your cabinets and other features.

Day Three – Bathroom

• Soak and Clean: Soak your shower head in a plastic bag filled with vinegar overnight and wipe it down the next day. Soak your toilet, shower floor, and any other grimy areas with baking soda and white vinegar to break down mildew.
• Curtain Cleaning: Run the shower current through the wash and soak the plastic portion.

Day Four – Bathroom

• Get Those Surfaces: Clean your cabinets, walls, flooring, windows, fixtures, and do any high-up dusting (skylights, for example). Reseal grout if necessary.

Day Five – Garage

• Sweep and Dust: Use an old broom to clear out dirt, dust, and cobwebs from walls, floors, and corners.
• Window Cleaning: Clean garage windows.

Use our Ultimate Garage Checklist to help tackle day five.

Day Six – Mudroom or Laundry Room

• Move Appliances:  Move the washer and dryer away from the walls and clean the floors around them, then clean the inside of both appliances (including the dryer vent).
• Surfaces: Dust and wipe down all surfaces, windows, and shelves.

Day Seven – Your Pick

• Catch Up: Spend some more time on whichever of the precious rooms you couldn’t quite finish.
• Rest: If you’ve already achieved that “Godliness” level of cleanliness, take a page out of the good book and use your seventh day for rest.

 

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Week Four – The Finish Line: Wrapping Everything Up

Every house is a little different, and some spring cleaning endeavors are a little more involved than others. This week, we’ll focus on miscellaneous rooms or tasks that didn’t fit into the other sections — and we’ll offer preventative maintenance tips for keeping your house cleaner all year.

Day One – Basement

• Clean: Clean floors, light fixtures, and storage areas.
• Optimize Storage: Take the opportunity to optimize your storage with stack-able containers and labels.

Day Two – Attic

• Safety First: Wear a mask and gloves. Clean thoroughly and walk only on the joists (wooden beams) as you work.
• Maintenance: Dust, vacuum, and sweep wherever necessary. Check your attic fan for dirt buildup and clean it thoroughly.

Day Three – Hallways and Other Rooms

Have a room that didn’t make the list above? Take some time today to clean it thoroughly.

• Thorough Cleaning: Clean any rooms not covered previously.

Day Four – Carpet Cleaning

• Deep Clean: Use a carpet shampooer or hire a carpet cleaning service to rid your flooring of deep-seeded stains, dust, debris.

Day Five – Special Maintenance

• Apply Treatments: Do you have marble countertops or hardwood floors that require turtle wax or other sealants to protect them from the elements? Any grout that needs re-grouting?

Day Six – Remember Safety

• Safety Checks: Change the batteries in your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector at least twice a year, check the pressure on fire extinguishers, and optimize outlet usage (don’t cram too many electrical devices in the same area).

Day Seven –  Outdoor Equipment

• Clean and Dispose: Clean outdoor furniture and dispose of yard waste and broken items.

Rent a dumpster to get rid of your yard waste. Broken outdoor items, and that barrel your husband brought home that he swore he’d convert into a planter but has since been rotting in your shed.

That’s it! You’ve made it through the month. We hope this house cleaning schedule assists you every Spring Cleaning season going forward.