Spring cleaning concept - cleaning supplies and flowers on blur background

The Best Players For Your Spring Clean A-Team

There’s an illness that has been documented by poets for centuries and I’ve got it. Spring Fever is that wonderfully amorphous disease we all recognize come March and April. While it remains a fuzzy medical condition, there has been a great deal of research on how seasonal changes affect our mood and behavior. I know how it affects me—it makes me want to spring clean!

Spring cleaning concept - cleaning supplies and flowers on blur background

While I don’t invite all my friends over to join in, I have built a cleaning team of DIY cleaners and equipment that make the job not necessarily fun, but at least enjoyable. Today, I’d like to introduce you to my Spring Clean A-Team.

All-Purpose Cleaner

Once you find that perfect all-purpose cleaner, you’ll probably go through gallons of it. Want to make sure it’s fantastic and cheap? Make it yourself—better, cheaper, faster!

Here’s one version for your consideration: Get a 16-oz or larger spray bottle and drop in the following:

  • 1 teaspoon borax
  • 1/2 teaspoon washing soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon blue Dawn dishwashing liquid
  • 2 two cups warm water

Optional: Add 20 drops of your favorite essential oil—lavender or lemon are great choices—to make it smell nice. Label clearly. Shake well and use as needed.

This cleaner has a long shelf life. Because it contains no vinegar or other acidic ingredient, this all-purpose cleaner is safe to use on quartz, granite, soapstone, and even marble surfaces. Cleans like a boss.

Soap and Scum Cleaner

This is the most amazing household super cleaner ever—a recipe and instructions sent to me more than 25 years ago by a reader who cleans dorms and apartments between tenants for a living. You can only imagine what he faces in the showers and tubs. This is magic.

  1. Pour 1 cup (yes, cup) blue Dawn into a 32-ounce spray bottle (1/2 cup Dawn if you are using a 16-ounce bottle).
  2. Fill the bottle the rest of the way with white vinegar.
  3. Apply sprayer top and shake gently to mix.

To Use: Open the windows and turn on the bathroom exhaust fan. Spray liberally on the tub, the shower walls, floor, doors, and even the faucets. That’s it. Walk away.

Allow to sit from 30 minutes minimum up to overnight, depending on the severity of the problem. All of the offensive gunk and grime will break down and become soft and gooey. Hours later, or in the morning, simply rinse it away.

For especially challenging situations—or if this is the initial treatment—use a sponge or brush to gently scrub the surfaces before rinsing.

For routine maintenance, just spray, wait, and rinse.

 

 

  • MORE: Sparkling Clean Windows—Cheaper, Better, Faster!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there’s my first-string, A-team line-up! Now that I think about it, I see no reason to wait until all threat of winter has passed before getting started with my spring cleaning.

Let’s go get ’em, team!

 

Question: How about you? Got the Spring Fever, yet?


 

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