Spring Cleaning: Start at the Top

Well it’s only a couple days away – the long awaited SPRING. So ready. Do you actually “spring” clean your house? I don’t usually. I do get the bug to declutter and clean a lot more this time of year, and I do try to do some deep cleaning, but sometimes it’s more early summer than spring. ;)
But I have a new passion for our house lately – and it’s funny saying that because I have always adored our house. But the changes we’ve made in the past year have made it even more us – and I’m especially excited about the changes in store for the kitchen. I’ve waited SO LONG to work on the kitchen and make it something I really love.
Anyway, I have come to appreciate our home even more. I didn’t really think that was possible, but I do. And I’ve treated it better lately. I mentioned on Instagram the other day that I’ve been able to keep the kitchen clutter-free for the past few weeks. Someone mentioned how much more we respect our spaces when we really, really love them. I think that’s true. I do think it’s getting older too (40 is coming this year – I keep forgetting and then it hits me) and my tolerance for clutter is dwindling every year.
So…long story short the house and I have rekindled our love affair and I’m treating it better than ever. Because of that I’m making a concentrated effort to really clean top to bottom this year. I’ve just started and it’s going to take a few weeks, but it feels so good to clean the places I rarely get to.
Whenever I clean at all, I always start at the top and then work my way down, and this is especially true when you’re deep cleaning. If you start at the bottom you’ll end up doing it all over again (as things settle) by the time you move your way up.
I started by getting all the little cobwebs from the top of each room – I just use my vacuum attachment:

In all honesty it’s been a few years since I’ve done this one but the webs weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be.
While I was at it I did a quick sweep around the recessed lights in the ceiling as well – for some reason those attract them.
Next up – the vents. I used my attachment again and got the fan vents in the bathrooms (awfully fuzzy) and then the intake vent in our loft:

That’s the before – you can’t tell but it had some decent fuzz as well. So nice.
If yours is really dirty you can take it off and run it through the dishwasher or of course take it outside and scrub it down.
We have a couple ledges in our home that I thought were so cool when we built and now I don’t know what to do with them so they sit empty. :) Other than the dust that is. The one above the book nook was grody:

While I was at it, I used the vacuum to get the tops of all the door trim, the tops of the doors (who knew? Yuck) and the panels on the doors. (I’ll wipe them down and actually clean those later.)
I had the ladder out so I tackled the lights. I use this little trick for the ceiling fan – spray the top of the blades, take an old pillow case and then swipe out towards the end. All the fuzz goes into the pillow case:

Works every time!
So here’s one thing we don’t think about a lot – cleaning light fixtures makes a big difference on the amount of light that comes through. We have two lights that are WAY high up and after nearly 11 years the bulbs were finally burnt on one. Even before they burnt out though, I felt like the light was hardly letting off any light at all. It was so frustrating because it felt so dark.
We paid someone to come out and change out the bulbs (we thought they’d have to use a scaffolding but it turns out a really tall ladder worked) and while they were at it I asked them to do a quick wipe inside the lights. OH MY GOODNESS. It was amazing! We were laughing because the dust had probably cut the light that got through in half. The lights were so crazy bright that night we couldn’t believe it. And they just look a million times better too:

Yes that fixture is ridiculously small for that huge space…someday it will be changed out. Low on the list. :) What matters is we can actually SEE when walking up the stairs again!
The difference was truly amazing, so I’m on a clean-all-the-lights kick now. They get pretty gross, especially those in the bathroom. What is it about the bathroom?:

I use a slightly damp microfiber cloth (light off) to wipe ours down. SO much better.
I do the same with the light bulbs in lamps (take them out first) – it really makes a difference on the amount of light that gets through over time. Gross:

Now that I’m thinking of it – cleaning the lights would be a good one for “winter cleaning”  -- I need all the light I can get in those darker months.
Finally, many of you have asked how often I clean the trim I have on the walls in our house. The answer? Hardly ever. I just don’t. I never think to do it and they really don’t get that dirty. But for spring cleaning, it happened:
I used the damp cloth along the tops and then the brush attachment for the lower parts. (I didn’t touch the baseboard yet though.)
I’m not done with all of these upper spots just yet – I’m about half way through the house. Honestly, it doesn’t take that long, at least the parts that use the vacuum. I got through each room pretty quick. When the music is on and the windows are open that helps things quite a bit too!
Do you ever do a deep cleaning of your house? Did I miss any tips? It feels good to take care of our place. It certainly deserves it. :)