About the Authors: Sarah is a long time member of the Dappered team, typically working behind the scenes editing posts, taking some photos, and keeping the books in good standing. Occasionally she’ll come out from behind the curtain to offer her two cents. Meanwhile, Joe is the sentient tumbleweed who operates the website you’re presently reading. He’s cleaner than most, and oddly enough one of his (few) skills is cleaning.
Watch shown above: The Invicta 1953 automatic on a Crown and Buckle supreme NATO.
Turns out spring cleaning has quite the history, shared across religious beliefs and cultural traditions. And yet we still value it in modern times, since the spring season brings renewal in nature and more sunlight, giving us more energy to get our crap together when it comes to our spaces. If spring cleaning feels like a daunting task, here are 8 tips that’ll hopefully help you get started, and get you through the process.
If you have the room to store it, a preassembled cleaning kit can make getting started a little easier. Rather than getting under different cupboards for different sprays, brushes, and towels, just have it all assembled in a caddy (or bucket) that you can quickly grab and then get to it. It’s in the pause between thinking and action where procrastination can get it’s foot in the door. Getting started quickly can halt all the excuses your mind will create to delay getting the task done.
Commit to the job. That means wearing comfortable, flexible clothes you can get dirty and/or work up a sweat in. You don’t want to be wearing clothes that you’re hesitant to get down on your hands and knees in. That’ll only extend the timeline and make you terribly inefficient. That deep forgotten space behind the toilet isn’t gonna scrub itself. Get down there. Get it done. Work up a sweat doing so. If you’re a workout warrior, then schedule a spring cleaning day(s) into your training regime. It’ll feel like a workout. Promise.
A big stack of these cheap suckers will change your life. Why? Because paper towels are mostly a lie. Aside from quick jobs, paper towels are basically useless. You need something that can take and deliver a beating. That’s where (cheap!) bar towels come in. A solid stack of bar towels are a cleaning-machine’s best friend. You can use them to wipe surfaces down, dust (they don’t really leave lint behind), dry, scrub, and soak up. Easy to machine wash and dry, and can be bleached if needed. Also, if you use some on something you don’t want running through your washing machine (say oven grease or motor oil…) they’re so inexpensive that throwing out the odd towel won’t leave you despondent.
Cheap baby wipes can be uber handy when it comes to cleaning. Since they are premoistened, they easily wipe up collected dirt and grime on baseboards, floors, and other surfaces. They’re really helpful for a quick cleanup in a pinch, or somewhere you don’t want to use a spray cleaner on. If you’re using them on a surface where residue could be visible (see the moisture in the above photo, bottom left corner), use a dry towel to dry and buff the surface. And remember, baby wipes are made for skin. So if you want to disinfect, follow up with something stronger.
Have a healthy respect (read: fear) for bleach when it comes to getting it on your skin, but a little bit of bleach can go a long way in getting stains out of white porcelain (think toilets and sinks) and fiberglass (bathtubs/showers). A bleach based cleaner can, in a matter of minutes, get coffee and tea stains out of a sink. And filling your tub with about 4 inches of warm water with about a cup of bleach mixed in, and letting it soak for a little while, will help bleach out grimy stains in a textured bathtub floor. If you use a fabric based shower curtain liner, you can even soak the liner in the water at the same time to help bleach out stains and mildew. (Be sure to rinse the liner after soaking.) Just a reminder, bleach can burn skin and permanently discolor clothes, and the fumes can damage lungs. Be sure to wear rubber gloves, and ventilate the area you’re working in. And never, ever, ever, everrrrr mix cleaning products.
Best for cleaning small spaces, or daily quick cleans, but man do they make life a little easier. While subject to battery power and a smaller canister, the trade off for the lighter weight and ease of use can make a cordless vacuum worth it to many. If you do have more to vacuum than the battery can handle, you can always stagger what you’re cleaning to create time for a recharge. Dyson seems to be the king of the cordless vacuum, and they’ll charge you for it, but many other brands have followed suit and offer their own versions.
You can certainly buy cleaning brushes specifically designed for smaller jobs, but old toothbrushes are pretty handy for scrubbing smaller spaces like around a drain flange, or grout. Plus you’re reusing something you’d just throw away, saving money AND creating less trash in the process. If using an old toothbrush isn’t appealing, just buy a cheap one to use specifically for cleaning.
Podcasts. Live sports. Audiobooks. Singing. Beer. Whatever you can (safely) use to make it more enjoyable… use it. Some people do actually enjoy the process of cleaning, but the majority of folks do not. You clearly need to pay attention and not get sloppy (no one is saying get sloppy drunk and end up with a Swiffer impaled through your eye), but if an adult beverage or a coffee, and some non-distracting entertainment makes the chore not just tolerable but fun… then you’ll be likely to do it more often. Do it more often and the less intimidating it’ll be the next time you’re due to give your place a good scrub. Which *spoiler* is much more than once a year in the spring.
By no means required, but if you like gadgets and extras, here are a few additional items that might make cleaning a little easier.
The Dappered Space is a series designed to help guys apply the sense of personal style they’ve developed to the space they inhabit. Watch for articles on furniture and decor sales & picks, advice on how to style a room or work space, and tackling creating a space that reflects your own (and perhaps a significant other’s) personal tastes. We’ll suggest items that can be sourced online, but always keep in mind that deals can be found at consignment and thrift stores, local stores with floor models, discount stores, and even yard sales.
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