It’s finally Spring! And we’re springing into action (get it?) with a complete Spring home maintenance checklist to help keep your property in top condition. The different tasks are outlined below, so read through for the things to do and our insight and top tricks on some of the best ways to deal with annoying problems.
It’s inspection time!
First things first; it’s time to take a good hard look at your home and start to get an understanding of exactly what havoc those long winter months have wreaked on your property. You won’t be alone in having spent the minimum amount of time possible outside during the winter, meaning any external problems have been left to worsen. And with seasonal festivities adding more to your already busy workload it’s expected that interior problems may have been left to the future, too.
Your exterior spring home maintenance checklist
With nicer weather comes the opportunity to get outdoors, meaning the exterior issues your property may be facing can finally be addressed.
Gutter clean and inspection
Winter weather can be brutal on the exterior of your home and your roof and gutters can get really battered. Fallen leaves and other wind-borne debris can clog up your gutters, meaning they fail to function properly and, before you know it, you have a leak. In the first weeks of spring make sure your gutters are checked over and emptied should they need it. This also gives you the perfect opportunity to check over your roof for any issues so that you can get resolved them in nicer weather.
Jetwash patios and drives
It’s an arduous job but there is something satisfying about blasting off that muck that’s built up on your exterior hard surfaces. Put aside a weekend where the weather is relatively nice and get to work. Or, even better, get the man in to do it . . .
Got rust stains that won’t budge? Try using tomato ketchup to remove those marks, leaving the sauce on for around 5 minutes before gently scrubbing with some aluminium foil. Another widely recommended product for this problem is WD40.
Spray fences
Annoyingly, even if you just spent the previous summer repainting your fences, this won’t necessarily stop them from developing a lovely build-up of acid green algae, preventing your garden from looking as neat and tidy as you had envisaged. Spray them down with a white vinegar solution or buy a specific product exactly for this purpose. Be warned – some mild scrubbing may be involved!
Weed beds
The first flush of spring means all the green things start growing and usually weeds are the first things to pop up. Weed now – properly, removing the root of the plant too – and you’ll thank yourself in the future. It also means you can clearly visualise your flower beds and plan for new plants and so on, without weeds getting in the way. You could use a weed spray but generally these don’t work as well as advertised and the toxins affect the ground and wildlife nearby, too. For patios and drives with small gaps, a specific patio brush will prove to be worth the investment.
Lawn maintenance
One of the most arduous tasks with home ownership is maintaining the lawn. However, good groundwork early on will make it into the grassy carpet of your dreams. At this time of the year you should be re-edging any garden beds, trimming any overgrowth that has spread to the patio and aerating it, too. The latter can be a little time-consuming but it is completely worth it, helping your lawn to circulate oxygen better and helping to avoid waterlogging issues the next winter. You should also remove any weeds throughout the lawn. Make sure to get the root when you do this, rather than just removing the surface of the plant. This may leave you with empty patches throughout your lawn but this should only be temporary. Once it warms up a little bit you can add plenty of grass seed to these areas.
Open windows and clean them well
A lack of light and plenty of winter storms means dirty windows are easily ignored throughout winter. However as soon as that spring sunshine starts peeking through there’s always a shock at how filthy they actually are. Against better judgement it’s also easy to spend most of winter with all the windows firmly closed to keep that heat in . . .so now is definitely the time for some long overdue ventilation. Clean the sills, frames and seals first, as this is where the dirtiest grime likes to sit, before making your way to the glass. You don’t need any special cleaner for windows. In fact, we’ve found fairy liquid is really the best solution to your streaky window woes.
Your interior spring home maintenance checklist
We know; you’re already tired after addressing all of those outdoor issues, but if you really want to conduct some property spring home maintenance for your property then it’s time to move to the indoors . . .
Cleaning tips for your bathroom
Let’s start with the place where you get clean everyday – the bathroom! There are a lot of surfaces to keep clean in a bathroom, which makes it one of the more time-consuming rooms to keep clean. Thankfully, there are plenty of cleaning tips and tricks you can follow to get this room sparkling and free of dust and grime.
- Start with the tasks that take time to work first. You might have noticed that the holes in the shower head where the water comes out can become clogged after a while. To fix this fill a sandwich bag with white vinegar and immerse the shower head in it overnight, after which you can wipe it clean.
- Another task that you should do first is to spray bathroom cleaner over your shower tiles and entire shower and/or bath area before cleaning anything else to give the solution enough time to lift up any grime. Fairy liquid is also great at lifting up bathtub grime.
- To get your whole shower area clean, wash your shower curtain with laundry detergent in the washing machine along with a few towels. Stretch out the curtain after washing to help the moisture dissipate.
- Bring discoloured grout back to life by scrubbing with a toothbrush dipped in a bleach/water mix.
- For discoloured sealant, simply roll two pieces of kitchen roll up separately so they form rolls. Place these stacked on top of one another over the marked area and douse in bleach. The kitchen roll will help to keep the bleach pressed against the offending marks, rather than dripping down the bathtub. Leave for as long as possible before removing the paper and rinsing thoroughly.
Note: always clean your toilet handle with disinfectant – people rarely wash their hands before flushing, making this a hotbed for bacteria!
Give your furniture and finishes some new life
Furnitures and furnishings in your home, such as skirting boards, can cost a lot of money to replace, which is why looking after what you’ve got is really important. These cleaning tips for your house should help to bring new life to what you already have:
- Use toothpaste to clean felt tip marks from woodwork around the house. This is especially handy if you’ve got little ones!
- Gently scrub wall doodles off your painted walls with a damp sponge sprinkled in baking powder to help lift up those marks.
- Rub scratches on wooden furniture with a shelled walnut to mask them. You can also buy furniture pens that match the colour of your furniture and which can help to conceal any damages but try the walnut trick first before shelling out.
- Sort out the problem of white rings on your wooden tables by placing a towel on top of the mark and pressing with a warm (not hot!), dry iron for five to ten seconds. This should help to release the excess moisture in the woodwork, which makes the ring mark.
- Get rid of wax marks by filling a plastic bag with ice cubes, wrapping in a towel and leaving on top of the mark until it hardens. After a few minutes it should be much easier to get the wax off the surface by using an item such as a credit card.
Invigorate the soft furnishings in your home
They keep us warm and cosy, which means they’re in near constant contact with our bodies. For that reason, giving the soft furnishings in your home a thorough deep clean every now and again is definitely recommended.
- Make your carpets, rugs and dog beds smell fresh by sprinkling with baking soda, allowing it to sit for fifteen minutes and then vacuuming.
- Spring cleaning is the time of year to really get on top of the jobs you would otherwise not get around to. In addition to cleaning your bedding you should aim to clean your pillows, duvet and mattress at least twice a year. To refresh your mattress simply hoover first, before cleaning any stains with a carpet cleaner and wiping away with a clean cloth. if you need to get rid of any odours sprinkle bicarbonate of soda over the mattress and leave for as long as possible before hoovering.
- To clean pillows and duvets simply check the care label on both of these items, which will indicate how to go about cleaning them. Most duvets and pillows can be washed at home, in the washing machine. Aim to dry your duvet in sunlight but wash pillows in the washing machine to get them really fluffy. Chucking a clean tennis ball in the drum as they dry will help to make them even fluffier, trust us!
Cleaning tips for your kitchen
All that cooking can make the kitchen a pretty grimy place and even if you wipe your countertops regularly there will definitely be a few things you’ve overlooked in the kitchen. From baseboards to the kitchen sink, there are plenty of kitchen cleaning tips that will help make this mammoth task just that bit more manageable.
- Empty your fridge entirely before pulling out all the shelves, boxes and trays and washing in warm, soapy water. Food spillages and crumbs can quickly make your fridge unsanitary so it’s important to deep clean it every now and again.
- What cleans the machine that does all your washing for you? You of course! Show your washing machine some appreciation by disinfecting with white vinegar and baking soda. Run a hot wash first, then clean with the solution, allowing it to sit for 30 to 60 minutes. Restart the machine afterwards, allow to drain and then wipe it down thoroughly.
- Oven cleaning is the bane of most of our existences but it really helps to do it at least semi-regularly. You can buy specific oven-cleaning kits which will involve using strong chemicals and they really are the best thing for the job. Do this task before you’ve wiped down your cupboards and other kitchen surfaces as it can make a bit of a mess.
- Your microwave may get used more than your oven but there’s a good chance it will be a lot easier to clean! If there is stuck on food that’s proving hard to budge you can try heating a cup of water in a mug with several tablespoons of vinegar and some chopped lemon before you engage the elbow grease!
Other additions for your spring home maintenance checklist
There are certain other overlooked tasks that are worth a consideration at this point of the year.
- Your door handles, light switches and remotes are all bound to end up a little grimy so make sure you don’t miss giving them a wipe as you clean.
- Your front door may also not look its best after a long winter so make sure giving that a freshen up is something that makes its way onto your To Do list.
- Trickle vents, bathroom vents and the filters on hob extractor fans can easily become blocked with dust and grime. For your extractor fan these can either by put in the dishwasher or left to soak in the bath with some fairy liquid before giving them a brief scrub (you’ll find the kitchen sink is not deep enough). Trickle vents should be cleaned before you do your windows and bathroom vents can either be blasted with some compressed air or cleaned manually once the cover is taken off.
- If you work from home you’ll be familiar with how quickly your keyboard can get littered with crumbs. Again, compressed air is your saviour here, but you could also wipe over the small gaps and keys with cotton buds.
Throughout this post we’ve called this the complete spring home maintenance checklist, however all homes are different, whether that’s because of the style of the property or how many people live in it. We hope this list is exhaustive for you – as there’s certainly more than enough tasks to be getting on with! – but if not, then we hope it helps you to keep track of the majority of the things you need to do and the best ways to go about doing them. Happy cleaning!
