I took a few weeks off of blogging to take my very first solo trip since having kids plus a week to get back into the swing of things. I meant to get something posted last Friday, but both kids had dress up weeks at school, and my extra time went to that instead.
But here we are in March! I don’t know what this time of year looks like in your area, but here we are getting tons of windy days. When it’s not windy though, we have sunny days with highs in the 60s and 70s, and my spring bulbs are popping up in my front garden. I definitely feel a burst of energy as winter starts to give way to new life and more green outside. With some extra motivation, I wholeheartedly jump into Spring Cleaning.
In the past, I’ve tackled Spring Cleaning full force: my normal cleaning routine falls to the back burner as I tackle a room a day for some deep cleaning. Unfortunately, I end up burning out with this method. I think I’ve only completed Spring Cleaning in the whole house one spring. So this year I’m sticking with my usual weekly cleaning schedule and just adding a task or two a day of deep cleaning. That means Spring Cleaning is probably going to last most of the spring season, not just two weeks. But each week, I’m going to highlight just one room in case you want to try some Spring Cleaning too!
No matter what kind of laundry room/closet/space you have, there are probably some tasks you should be doing at least once a year to keep everything clean and working well. Now, don’t get me wrong, I wanted to find a way to condense everything I’d want to get done in just 5 things, but then I thought that was kind of cheating… so I really am just going to hit 5 things you can Spring Clean in the laundry room (with additional tasks if you’re going all out this spring!):
Declutter
Spring is a great time of year to go through anything you store in your laundry area. For me, I have baskets on a shelf that hold vacuum cleaner tools, extra light bulbs, paper products like tissues and toilet paper, and various laundry supplies. I honestly didn’t have much to declutter, but I did take the time to look through everything and straighten things up.
Clean your machines
Okay, so I’m leaving this up to you: take “clean your machines” however detailed (or not detailed) as you’d like. At a minimum, I’d recommend wiping down the visible parts of your machines. Feeling more ambitious? Look for the dirtiest/grossest part of your machine, and tackle that. If I had to guess… it will be lint build up somewhere in the dryer and either a gunky gasket in your front loading washing machine or detergent build up somewhere in your washer.
Want to go all out? Read on, my friend…
This one may take some muscle, depending on where your washing machine and dryer are located. I had to pull out one machine at a time to get to the floor space behind and underneath them. Then I took a brush attachment on my vacuum cleaner to vacuum down the backs of the machines, a microfiber cloth to wipe down the hoses, hook-ups, and baseboards, and ended with vacuuming and mopping the floor back there. It gets pretty dusty back there, and keeping on top of it makes it a quick job.
Once you get your machines pushed back to where they normally sit, put away anything that is sitting on top of them, then wipe the tops and panels down. This is probably another quick job unless you have detergent drips to scrub or a lot of things to put away.
Next up is the inside of the washing machine. This was pretty quick for me, but only because Andrew had recently fully cleaned the detergent dispenser area of our washing machine. Normally it gets kind of gross with detergent residue and spots of mold or mildew. You may also need to wash down the drum. I run a self-clean cycle once a month on my washing machine, so the inside was pretty clean. I did have to do some scrubbing on the door, but it wasn’t too bad. The grossest thing you may have to clean (if you have a front-loading washing machine) is the big rubber gasket where the door closes. Ours stays pretty clean with the self-clean cycle plus leaving the door open to dry out after a load of laundry, but in the past it has gotten slimy and gross. You can tackle a grimy gasket with white vinegar and some dish soap followed by a thorough rinse with a wet cloth and letting it air dry.
Cleaning the dryer should be a quicker job. You can wipe down the drum with a damp cloth with a bit of dish soap, but you’ll probably mostly be looking to clear built up lint on areas like the door and the lint trap area. I did my best to vacuum out the area the lint trap slides into, but I did most of my cleaning with a dry microfiber cloth in nooks and crannies.
Cleaning your baskets
Whatever way you store or sort your laundry (baskets, bins, bags), there’s a good chance that they need a wipe down. My clothes baskets in the laundry room tend to accumulate crumbs, dust, and dirt, so I wiped them out and got the dirt out of creases and crannies.
Baseboards, door frames, etc.
I think the baseboards in my laundry room not blocked by the laundry machines were dustier than the rest of the room. I like to use a brush attachment to suck up as much dust as I can first, then I wipe them down with a cloth sprayed with a multipurpose cleaner. This is a great time to get rid of the dust on the door frames, wipe down the doors (especially if they have any decorative features), and sanitize your doorknobs and light switches.
Vacuum & mop
Hopefully you already vacuumed and mopped the area where your laundry machines sit, so you should just have to vacuum and mop any remaining floor space. For me, I mostly had to vacuum up all the dust I wiped off of other areas!
After doing these five tasks, your laundry room should be dust-free and sparkling clean! I definitely could have done this in one day, but I chose to spread it out over the first week of March in chunks of free time I found. Whatever way you choose to do it, I hope you have a successful first wave of Spring Cleaning!
On An Even Kiel 