12 Non-Toxic, Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Home
Spring is around the corner, which means it’s time to get a head start on your spring cleaning! As a team of clean home enthusiasts, we’ve compiled a list of 12 spring cleaning tips that are amazingly effective, without requiring significant time or the use of harsh chemicals. These can be accomplished with a few everyday ingredients to help keep your home and the environment free of undesirable chemicals.
1. Start With Clean Sponges
Before starting any of your spring cleaning, you want to make sure items such as sponges or scrub brushes are fresh so you aren’t spreading more germs while cleaning. Disinfect your sponge by running it through a cycle in the dishwasher on the top rack or soak it in full-strength vinegar for 5 minutes. Rinse the sponge thoroughly and let dry. Keep in mind, sponges should be cleaned frequently and replaced every two weeks.
2. Deep-Clean Your Microwave
Easily clean up a dirty microwave by filling a glass bowl halfway with water and squeezing in a lemon. Microwave for 4-5 minutes and let it sit with the door shut to utilize steam to remove old residue. Safely remove the bowl with an oven mitt and quickly wipe down the interior.
3. Wash Your Pillows + Down Comforters
When was the last time you cleaned your pillow or down comforter? First things first, every pillow or down comforter is different. Make sure to check the care and cleaning instructions for your specific bedding. In general, you can usually wash feather, down, cotton, and fiberfill pillows or comforters on a delicate cycle with a small amount of your favorite non-toxic laundry detergent. To dry, place in the dryer with dryer balls or clean tennis balls to help prevent clumping.
If your pillow or comforter can not be machine washed, you can vacuum and spot clean with gentle soap.
4. Spruce up Your Mattress
While we are talking about bedding, don’t forget to clean your mattress. To clean, start by grabbing a vacuum with an upholstery attachment and vacuum the entire surface of your mattress to remove dust. Next, sprinkle your mattress with baking soda and let it sit for 3 hours then vacuum again.
5. Wipe Down Light Switches
Every time you walk in and out of a room, you switch on the light. But have you ever cleaned your light switches? Especially during flu season, a quick wipe-down of all your home light switches and covers is essential. Grab a microfiber cloth paired with your cleaner of choice and wipe down the area weekly or daily if anyone is sick in your home. If you want to clean the small crevices, use a Q-tip.
6. Upgrade Your Bath Mat
Mold is a fungus that thrives in damp environments in the home, especially in areas such as bathtubs, shower curtains, and bath mats. No one likes stepping onto a soggy bath mat or walking into a bathroom that reeks of mildew. Preventing mold in damp areas with limited airflow is extremely difficult even with continual upkeep and cleaning. Our favorite cleaning tip for keeping bath mats clean is ditching the fabric bath mat and upgrading to the Dorai Bath Stone. Unlike traditional bath mats that absorb moisture and generate bacteria, the Bath Stone mat is designed to instantly remove water, actually helping prevent mold.
7. Clean Your Walls & Baseboards
Your walls gather fingerprints, dust, scrapes, and grime buildup from candles/fires all winter, so doing a full house wipe-down of walls and baseboards is essential. First, remove dust with a long-handed dry floor map with a clean microfiber cloth. The microfiber cloth can also be used on baseboards. Follow this with a bucket of lukewarm water + a small amount of your favorite natural dish soap and a sponge. Wring out the sponge and wipe down needed areas making sure they don’t get overly wet.
8. De-gunk the Garbage Disposal
Within the daily chores of doing dishes and wiping down counters, we often forget to clean the kitchen garbage disposal. To clean, sprinkle ½ cup baking soda into the garbage disposal + 1 cup of white vinegar and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Run hot water to rinse while the disposal is running. Additionally, you can finish this up by placing a few lemon rinds into the disposal and running for 15-30 seconds allowing the disposal to take on a fresh scent.
9. Get Rid of Expired Makeup and Skincare
Do you keep track of the expiration date on your makeup and skincare? Some items have an expiration date but many just have a timeframe in which the product is still good after opening. Check all your skincare and makeup items and ditch those that have passed their expiration date. When possible, instead of throwing away expired products in their entirety, first empty the product container of the expired product and then clean. You can now save these containers to use as vessels to hold your skincare or lotion when traveling. For future purchases, you can use a thin-tip sharpie to write the date you open your products on the bottom of the container so you can keep track.
10. Don’t Forget About the Appliances
It’s easy to forget about cleaning large appliances in our homes. Running the clean cycle on the oven is fairly simple and easy to remember thanks to build-up and gunk from cooking, but cleaning the dishwasher or washing machine often goes overlooked.
To clean the dishwasher: First, clean the dishwasher filter and drain. Next, fill a bowl with 1 cup of white vinegar and place it on the bottom rack of the dishwasher. Run on a hot cycle.
To clean the washing machine: Run the washing machine on a hot cycle with 2 cups of white vinegar instead of detergent. Next, use a sponge + a mixture of vinegar and water to scrub the basin. Focus on those small details! Run a final hot cycle without any vinegar or detergent.
11. Remove Build-Up from the Bathroom Sink
Due to moisture from hot showers, it’s not surprising that the bathroom is a hotbed for germs. The bathroom sink is one area that is usually neglected in the weekly bathroom cleaning routine. Sure, you wipe down the counters, but what about the pool of water under your soap dispenser or the moisture around your toothbrush holder? Outside of the weekly disinfectant cleaning, we love the addition of the Dorai Sink Caddy to keep our bathroom sink free of unnecessary build-up and keep our toothbrush elevated from the counter.
12. Sanitize Electronics
Computer keyboards and phones are often used by multiple members of the household and are rarely cleaned. We’re all guilty of eating at our desks or browsing while enjoying a bite, a recipe for getting sick during flu season! One of our favorite additions to our home has been the Homesoap which cleans electronics like phones, laptops, and remotes by using UV-C Light. When you’re done working for the day, put your high-touch items in the Homesoap and it cleans in 10 minutes! If you’re not ready to make the jump to a Homesoap, use your go-to disinfecting cleaner daily while enjoying a 10-minute screen break (the amount of time it takes for most disinfectants to kill up to 99% of viruses and bacteria).
We know a full house clean deep-clean can feel daunting, prevent cleaning overwhelm by starting with the floor. Get everything off of the floor and onto a couch/bed or into a bin. Vacuum or sweep, then get to organizing and prioritizing cleaning tasks once you already have momentum and a quick win. In addition, all your spring cleaning doesn’t have to be done at once! Choose 1-2 items you’d like to clean every weekend this month and tackle it step by step.
