Monthly and Seasonal Cleaning

you’ve looked up at your light fixtures or inside the burners of your stovetop recently, you may have encountered an unpleasant surprise. These are the type of cleaning tasks that we tend to forget about until company is ringing the doorbell or flames begin shooting out of the stove. By getting in the habit of tackling certain cleaning tasks on a monthly and seasonal schedule, you can avoid these potential problems.

Begin by setting up a schedule to handle certain tasks on a monthly basis. You can do this in several different ways. One method would be to set aside one day of the month to handle all of them, such as the first or the last day of the month. Another technique would be to assign each task one day of the month. For example, you might assign dusting the air vents to the 15th day of the month and note it on your calendar. Either technique will work, just make sure that you have some type of schedule devised to help you remember these very easy to forget tasks.

• Clean light fixtures to remove dust and bugs.
• Clean air vents to prevent dust from blowing into your home and prevent build-up of dust. Change air filter as needed.
• Remove furniture scuffs, wall splatters and crayon marks.
• Wash, clean, dust and vacuum window treatments. Always check the manufacturer’s instructions first.
• Move furniture and dust, vacuum, mop, etc.
• Vacuum inside furniture, remove stray items, etc.
• Clean inside and outside of windows. An overcast day works best for this chore to reduce streaking.
• Spot train or shampoo carpet and upholstery as needed.
• Check smoke alarms and replace batteries as needed.
• Clean out the freezer, removing outdated food.
• Clean out and organize cabinets and/or pantry.
• Straighten drawers and cabinets; removing items that you no longer need, want or provide a use.
• Dust the baseboards
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On a seasonal basis, be sure to tackle the following chores:
• Focus on outdoor areas, cleaning grills, patio furniture, etc. Also clean out the gutters to prevent build-up.
• Clean out the vents of your dryer to remove any lint and debris that may have slipped past the vent. This can be a fire hazard.
• Remove items from closets that no longer fit or are worn and donate to charity.
• Go through toy boxes and purge toys that are broken, no longer wanted and used. Trash those they no longer work, replace batteries as needed in toys that are still loved and donate toys that are no longer wanted. This can help to reduce clutter and toy overflow as well as helps children of all ages to better appreciate their favorites.

 
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