Birds are singing once more. You can see grass greening. The snow is finally gone, and the last of winter’s chill has been replaced with a gradually warming new season. Sure, there are frequent rainstorms—along with the occasional spring snowstorm in Ontario—that can prevent you from truly embracing nature, but spring is here, and with it, it’s time to sort out your home, break out the cleaning supplies, and tackle your spring cleaning checklist.
But spring cleaning time can feel overwhelming, as traditionally, it involves deep cleaning your entire property, and many people can run out of steam halfway through the process. That’s why the insurance brokers at Morison Insurance are sharing our spring cleaning checklist to help make the actual cleaning process more manageable for you and your entire home.
With these easy-to-follow tips that you’ve picked up while using our spring cleaning checklist, you can ensure that you can tackle every room in your home for a spotless clean.
The first item on your overall spring checklist is to make a plan. Consider how big your home is and what type of annual spring cleaning chores you need to do outside your regular cleaning routine. For instance, you may regularly change furnace filters, wash your bed linens, or clean the floors, but do you regularly clean your baseboards or faucets? What about the last time you cleaned blinds, replaced the plastic shower curtain liner, or cleaned dryer vents?
Consider any deep cleaning tasks beyond regular cleaning preferences when crafting your spring cleaning checklist. Writing out and creating a physical spring cleaning checklist can help you tackle your chores and ensure nothing important gets missed as you clean the entire house.
While you should be cleaning your home regularly, the spring cleaning process features a much deeper clean than what you usually do, so make sure you have all the cleaning supplies you need before you start tackling your spring cleaning checklist.
Some important cleaning products and equipment you should have beforehand include:
Depending on the state of some items in your home, you may need specialized items, such as caulk or a drywall repair kit. However, the above items will help you check most of the items off your spring cleaning checklist.
When working on your spring cleaning checklist, make sure to finish cleaning one room before starting on another. Attempting to clean out multiple rooms at once can be overwhelming, and it becomes easier to miss steps or spaces, such as dusting decorative items, washing bed skirts, or deep cleaning air vents.
But by focusing your attention on one room at a time, you can ensure that room gets a thorough cleaning job while making the workload more manageable as you check off items on your spring cleaning checklist and organize your home.
Depending on the use of the room, you likely have different areas to focus on and different maintenance, declutter and cleaning tasks that you would need to check off on your spring cleaning checklist. Below are some unique tasks in each room you should make sure to include as you go through our printable spring cleaning checklist and room-by-room guide:
While the above items are spring cleaning checklist items that are more or less unique to the rooms they’re in, there are still a lot more items that you need to address while going through your spring cleaning checklist.
Some items you may not address during regular cleaning that you need to address on your spring cleaning checklist include:
Most people generally don’t wipe down their home’s trim work regularly, and it can take its fair share of abuse from whacks and everyday wear and tear. So on your spring cleaning checklist, include wiping down, dusting, fixing trim work. Whether it’s crown molding or a baseboard, this is an essential item that all spring cleaning checklists should include.
Winter may be freezing, but it’s also a time for a lot of wet weather. As the snow and ice melt, you should take care to check your home for any signs of water damage or mould growth. Look for signs of discolouration or water spots, paying attention to your ceilings, foundation, under sinks, around water-based appliances, and anywhere else in your home where there is a risk for water leaks. If you spot any signs of water damage, it’s best to contact a professional to come out and look at it, as there may be underlying issues there as well.
During the holiday season, you may have gotten a fancy new tool set or an expensive set of earrings. Whether you’ve got insurance coverage for them or not, it’s a good idea to keep photos for your records, along with information such as serial numbers and written descriptions. Including this task on your spring cleaning checklist will ensure that you have a clear and up-to-date record of your valuable belongings should something happen.
During your cleaning sprees, you’ve probably accumulated a pile of things you don’t need or don’t use anymore. So it’s important to take the time to get rid of it as part of your spring cleaning checklist.
Whether it’s taking them to a local consignment store, dropping them off at a donate bin, giving them to a family/friend who could use them, or selling them on a local online marketplace, giving your unwanted items a new home is a must-have on any spring cleaning checklist. For any broken items, however, unless someone can fix them, it may be best to put them in the garbage rather than the donation bin. After all, you want a clean garage, and unwanted or broken items can easily turn your garage into a dumping ground.
It’s a good idea to conduct an annual review of your home insurance policy whether you include it as part of your spring cleaning checklist or at policy renewal time. Your Morison Insurance broker will be happy to go over your policies with you. Give us a call today at 1-800-463-8074, or reach out online to get expert insurance advice for your spring cleaning checklist and to get the insurance coverage you need.
This content is written by our Morison Insurance team. All
information posted is merely for educational and informational purposes. It is
not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Should you decide to act
upon any information in this article, you do so at your own risk. While the
information on this website has been verified to the best of our abilities, we
cannot guarantee that there are no mistakes or errors.