Spring has sprung and it’s time to get the house spic and span! Follow these helpful tips to deep clean your kitchen and bath.
Kitchen & Bathroom Spring Cleaning
Commit to a time.
The best way to be successful in any goal is to break it down into manageable chunks. Tackling the entire house is overwhelming and counterproductive. Make a commitment to clean the kitchen and bathrooms this week. Seriously. Like, right now. I want you to access your Google Calendar, or Sugar Paper Planner, or sophisticated Sticky-Notepad (no judging) and write in ink (no penciling-in allowed) when you are committing to cleaning! We can do this!
Make a plan of attack and arm yourself with all the right tools.
Before you decide to just dive into your cleaning, first create a spring cleaning plan of attack and assess what supplies you need for the job. There is nothing more annoying than needing to stop in the middle of cleaning because you ran out of cleaning supplies. Take stock before you begin and be sure you have enough trash bags, cloths, paper towels, and cleaning supplies to tackle the rooms in your home. Here is a quick convenience tip for you! You can now order things from Walmart.com and receive free two-day shipping on orders over $35 without a membership fee! They have everything needed for spring cleaning, and I just ordered Clorox Splash Less Bleach (Unscented), Clorox Clean-Up, and Clorox Manual Toilet Brush Cleaner and a few other cleaning necessities needed to tackle our home.
Work from top to bottom in every room for speed cleaning.
No matter what room you’re in, always remember the top to bottom cleaning rule. Gravity is not always your friend when you clean so make it work for you instead of against you. If you clean your counters and then dust your light fixtures, you might find you have to clean your counters again. Start by dusting and spraying cleaners from the top of the room and finishing with the floors. Floors should always come last.
Kitchen Cleaning Tips
Maybe it’s just me, but if my kitchen is neat, tidy, clean, and organized, everything else in life seems much more manageable! Spring cleaning is about going deeper than your everyday tidying up, so now is a fantastic time to tackle the neglected areas.
- START WITH THE REFRIGERATOR Chances are good that your refrigerator hasn’t been cleaned in a while and will benefit from a deep clean. Start by emptying your refrigerator and then use a good all purpose cleaner such as Clorox Clean-Up to deep clean every surface. Just spray and wipe clean with this original cleaner and bleach which kills 99.9% of bacteria & viruses found in your home. Throw away expired items and use refrigerator organizers to keep shelves tidy. Pull refrigerator away from the wall and vacuum. You may be a bit horrified to see what all has accumulated back there! It’s gonna be gross but all the more reason to do it. Don’t forget to clean the outside of the refrigerator, including the top!
- ELIMINATE CLUTTER Get rid of any items that don’t belong in your kitchen, and sort through your dishes and appliances to see what can be donated or thrown away. Organize your pantry during this step.
- DUST EVERYTHING Use a duster to reach the tops of cabinets, ceilings, blinds, wall corners, shelves and cabinets. Remember our top to bottom rule!
- CLEAN WINDOWS Make sure you clean both sides of the glass and don’t forget about the sill.
- CLEAN THE DISHWASHER It doesn’t seem fair that we have to clean appliances that we use to clean, but such is life! I have an entire post devoted to tips on How to Clean the Dishwasher.
- CLEAN STOVETOP AND OVEN Apply oven cleaner to your oven, or use the self-cleaning mode to remove any baked-on buildup. Remove burners and clean entire surface.
- CLEAN COUNTERTOPS A diluted solution of Clorox Splash Less Bleach can be used to clean your countertops and remove stains. The bleach removes 70% more stains versus detergent alone and is safe to use on most sealed countertops. To dilute the bleach, use 3/4 cups of bleach per gallon of water.
- CLEAN CABINETRY Pay special attention to your range hood and cabinetry near your stove top. Grease accumulates in this spot.
- CLEAN ALL COUNTERTOP APPLIANCES Use Clorox Clean-Up and wipe down the exterior of all of your appliances.
- CLEAN FLOORS Vacuum your floors and mop. Don’t forget to clean all of your baseboards.
Woohoo! You are done! Nice job. Admire how clean and fresh everything is and pour yourself a cold one–you deserve it! Now let’s get ready to tackle a bathroom.
Bathroom Cleaning Tips
I’m not going to lie. I would much rather clean my kitchen on any given day than the bathrooms! The best tip I have for you when cleaning your bathroom is to be strategic in the order of what you clean. Most cleaning products need a little time on surface stains to really penetrate and do the hard work for you.
- DUST Before you begin spraying any cleaners, give the room a proper dusting from top to bottom, dust off any open shelves, the tops of mirrors, light fixtures, and woodwork.
- DECLUTTER DRAWERS AND BASKETS Hidden in your vanity and bathroom closet are probably a lot of unnecessary beauty supplies and expired toiletries. Declutter your drawers and baskets and clean the inside of drawers and basket liners.
- CLEAN THE SHOWER Spray some Clorox Clean-Up on all surfaces in the shower and allow it to penetrate for a few minutes while you tackle the toilet.
- CLEAN THE INSIDE OF THE TOILET One reason people dislike cleaning the toilet so much is the potential for “splashage”. No one wants to be splashed with toilet water, clean or otherwise! One tip I like to implement is to first flush the toilet. Then, take your toilet brush and plunge it a few times in the toilet hole. This will immediately lower the water in the tank making a splash less likely. I also like to use Clorox Splash Less Bleach (Unscented). The no splash formula allows you to control your pour for accurate application and less splashes and spills on your bathroom rug or floor. Simply add 1/4 cup of Clorox Splash Less Bleach (Unscented) to the toilet bowl, let stand a few minutes, brush with a toilet brush, then flush. This will clean and disinfect your entire bowl and toilet brush. If you have stains, use Clorox Manual Toilet Brush Cleaner. The Clorox Clinging Bleach Gel easily gets under and around the rim and destroys tough stains.
- CLEAN TOILET EXTERIOR Spray the entire exterior of the toilet down with Clorox Clean-Up and wipe and rinse until clean. If stains are present around the knobs of your toilet seat, remove the seat and thoroughly clean.
- CLEAN MIRRORS Spray some glass cleaner on your mirrors and remove all those mysterious white spots.
- CLEAN COUNTERTOPS Spray your sinks, counters, and faucets with cleaner and clean with a wet rag. Finish with a dry rag and polish faucets.
- RETURN TO SHOWER It’s time to wipe down the shower and assess if further cleaning is necessary. If you shower bathroom tile has porous grout, it absorbs oils from bath soaps which leads to mildew growth. Mix 10 parts water to 1 part bleach and use a soft-bristled brush, such as a designated toothbrush, to clean any mildewed areas. Rinse thoroughly and apply a pH-neutral cleaner to remove the bleach solution. Bonus Tip: I have an inexpensive electric toothbrush designated just for tile grout! The small brush gets into hard to reach places and I don’t have to work hard to scrub any mildew spots.
- CLEAN FLOORS Dry mop, vacuum, and then mop your bathroom floors.
You are done! Admire your work and tell everyone in the household to go eat out and use a public restroom. You worked hard and deserve to preserve this deep clean for a little while longer. 😉 Feel free to pin these tips for later and check out the related posts below for more cleaning tips and hacks.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Clorox. The opinions and text are all mine.
wendy says
Thanks for the useful tips on bathroom cleaning it was useful
Conall Smith says
Great cleaning tips for kitchen and bathroom. For effective cleaning and the instant result, you can use cleaning chemicals which can help keep bathroom and kitchen shiny, clean and odor free.