The Arizona Daily Star

Published: 03.12.2006

Cleaning house
Spring is the season when we clear away winter's clutter and get ready for the lazy days of summer. Here's how to do it right.
By Rebecca Boren
SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
» Resources
The Maids of Tucson 795-7977, www.maidsoftucson.com
Springfresh Cleaning 272-4971
We Organize It 591-9331
Industrial Chemicals of AZ, 5302 E. Pima St., 327-6331 (source for cleaning chemicals and Earth-friendly products such as those The Maids of Tucson use.)
Prep work
The caddy. You will want a portable container — a bucket will do, but you can also buy handy little caddies — to carry your supplies as you work your way through the house. Fill it with:
Microfiber cleaning cloths. These are your workhorses, replacing dust cloths and feather dusters, cleaning rags and most sponges. They attract and hold onto dirt, eliminating any need for dust-attracting polishes like Endust. And, they are washable.
All-purpose disinfecting cleaner. The trend is away from specialized cleaning products, and toward use of a few reliables. For washing most floors, kitchen counters and other nonpermeable surfaces, buy a good, basic cleaner like Lysol or Pine-Sol original scent.
Window cleaner. The familiar spray-bottle of Windex or an equivalent product. "Windex is good for so much," said Joyce Omylyon, owner of Springfresh Cleaning. She uses it to clean electronics and computer screens, countertops, nonwood kitchen cabinets, exteriors of appliances and chrome faucets, as well as glass and mirrors.
Lemon oil. Although you won't need a dusting product, wood surfaces still need regular moisture in the desert. A plain, lemon-oil product works wonders (check labels to make sure you are getting lemon oil, not petroleum products).
Bath cleaner. Many of the pros rely on Bon Ami cleaning powder as a nonscratching but effective cleaner for porcelain.
How to use. Unless you are pre-treating a disaster area, apply cleaners to your cleaning cloth, not to the surface you are cleaning. You'll waste less and inhale fewer fumes.
Vacuum cleaner. This won't fit in your caddy, of course, but spring cleaning requires that your vacuum be in tip-top shape. It's such a vital tool that cleaners from The Maids of Tucson wear a backpack vacuum. This is the time to haul out all those special attachments for cleaning corners and furniture and put them to work.
Other stuff: bucket for cleaning solutions, gloves, bleach (optional).
more prep
● Strip the house. Before air conditioning and central heating, traditional spring cleaning was the time to take down winter curtains, roll up the rugs and generally prepare a house for summer. Today it's that, and time to get organized.
● Remove, clean and store wraps and throws, any lingering winter decorations, everything velvet that you can move, comforters and heavy bed covers.
● Take down and wash, or have cleaned, drapes and curtains, so they will be ready to put back up when you are done cleaning.
● Consider putting washable slipcovers on heavy upholstered furniture and throw pillows.
organize it
Professional organizer Sue Zepeda — who owns We Organize It — quotes statistics to the effect that 40 percent of professional cleaners' time is spent simply dealing with clutter. While decluttering can be a whole 'nother job, you can clean faster and keep your house cleaner by taking some baby steps.
Put away all the stuff that accumulates or decorates bare surfaces in your house — knickknacks, photos, books and magazines. Hang photos on the wall; put books and magazines on shelves.
Reduce knickknacks to a single display. You can rotate it seasonally if you want and enjoy things more because they are fresh.
Frame real heirlooms, or put them behind glass. Zepeda says her mother put her father's childhood clarinet in a glass display case so visitors could see and enjoy it.
Handle paper once — each piece of mail should go into a file or into recycling, without stopping along the way. Put the recycling bin on your route from mailbox to house, and all that junk mail will never even make it indoors.
With tax time coming up, Zepeda suggests that this is a good opportunity to put away all 2005 paper records and start a 2006 file.
Now you're ready to clean.
living room
This is the basic protocol, which you will modify for different rooms. Adapt as needed if you have Saltillo tile or wood floors.
Start at the top. Vacuum and wash any ceiling fan and fixtures.
Clean "top to bottom, left to right" is Suzanne Faustlin's refrain. "Start at one side of the room and go around to the other, and by the time you get there, everything behind you is done," explains the owner of The Maids of Tucson.
On each wall:
● Vacuum the corners and edges for cobwebs.
● Take down pictures and mirrors, and vacuum or dust the spaces behind. Clean the picture frames, then replace on walls.
● Use window cleaner to clean glass surfaces and electronics.
● Ditto switch plates and any other places prone to fingerprints.
● Damp-wipe all baseboards.
● Using edging tool, vacuum edges of room.
● After making sure ashes are totally cold, shovel out fireplace, then sweep. Wash fireplace exterior. Close damper for summer.
● Vacuum slide tracks for windows and sliding doors.
In center of room:
● Dust furniture with microfiber cloth.
● Pour lemon oil on cloth and wipe down wood furniture. Wait a few minutes, then buff with a clean, dry cloth.
● Move furniture and vacuum where it was. If furniture is too heavy to move, Faustlin suggests cleaning underneath with an old-fashioned dust mop.
● Vacuum furniture.
● Vacuum rest of room.
kitchen
● If your oven doesn't clean itself, spray interior with oven cleaner the night before you plan to clean. Wipe out with a sponge and clean water the next day.
● Pull out refrigerator and stove, being careful not to disconnect gas and water lines. Vacuum/mop behind both. Clean the refrigerator coils with vacuum or damp sponge.
● Empty kitchen cupboards, and wipe down interiors and interiors of doors with all-purpose cleaners. Sort and discard expired canned goods before replacing everything. Be sure to clean the tops of cupboards, too.
● Clean out refrigerator and freezer, discarding outdated food.
● Clean counters with all-purpose cleaner.
● Wipe down appliance exteriors with Windex or equivalent.
● Clean cabinet fronts with lemon oil or Windex, depending on surface.
● Clean sink with non-abrasive cleaners and wipe sink and faucets dry to avoid spotting.
● Vacuum, then mop, floor.
bathroom
● Flush toilet, and, when bowl starts to refill, squirt all around interior and inner rim with toilet-bowl cleaner. Close lid and allow cleaner to work while you clean rest of bath.
● Inspect shower and pre-treat if needed before following basic room protocol.
● Take down and launder shower curtain and liner, or wipe thoroughly with disinfectant.
● Scrub tub and shower enclosure, then sink, with appropriate cleaner. Although disposable cleaning products are controversial, the Mr. Clean Magic Reach with disposable pads is terrific for those awkward spaces.
● Use Lime-A-Way or similar product for really stubborn build-up (but use it carefully, there are many reports of it damaging stainless-steel fixtures).
● Dry and polish tile and chrome to avoid water spots.
● Replace shower curtain.
● The Maids' cleaners scrub bathroom floors on their hands and knees — Suzanne Faustlin says it's the only way to get around all the pipes and corners.
● Scrub toilet bowl with special brush, and flush again.
bedroom
● Vacuum bed frame, and mattress and box spring.
● Turn mattress.
● Launder or dry-clean bed pillows.
● Vacuum shoulders of clothes (honest) that have been collecting dust in closet.
● Store winter clothes in moth-proof containers.
● Contact freelance reporter Rebecca Boren at rboren@azstarnet.com.
Three signs of spring in Tucson: house sparrows nesting in roof tiles, baseball players and fans flocking to pre-season games, and clouds of dust rising from homes where Tucsonans are embarking on their own versions of shaping up their nests for the new season.
Yes, it's time for spring cleaning. Time to clear away the remains of cozy winter nights and give your house a thorough going-over before it gets too hot to do anything more ambitious than lounge with your feather duster by the pool. We've talked to the folks who clean for a living to find out how to do it right.
Illustration by Leah Tiscione / Arizona Daily Star
» Resources
The Maids of Tucson 795-7977, www.maidsoftucson.com
Springfresh Cleaning 272-4971
We Organize It 591-9331
Industrial Chemicals of AZ, 5302 E. Pima St., 327-6331 (source for cleaning chemicals and Earth-friendly products such as those The Maids of Tucson use.)
Prep work
The caddy. You will want a portable container — a bucket will do, but you can also buy handy little caddies — to carry your supplies as you work your way through the house. Fill it with:
Microfiber cleaning cloths. These are your workhorses, replacing dust cloths and feather dusters, cleaning rags and most sponges. They attract and hold onto dirt, eliminating any need for dust-attracting polishes like Endust. And, they are washable.
All-purpose disinfecting cleaner. The trend is away from specialized cleaning products, and toward use of a few reliables. For washing most floors, kitchen counters and other nonpermeable surfaces, buy a good, basic cleaner like Lysol or Pine-Sol original scent.
Window cleaner. The familiar spray-bottle of Windex or an equivalent product. "Windex is good for so much," said Joyce Omylyon, owner of Springfresh Cleaning. She uses it to clean electronics and computer screens, countertops, nonwood kitchen cabinets, exteriors of appliances and chrome faucets, as well as glass and mirrors.
Lemon oil. Although you won't need a dusting product, wood surfaces still need regular moisture in the desert. A plain, lemon-oil product works wonders (check labels to make sure you are getting lemon oil, not petroleum products).
Bath cleaner. Many of the pros rely on Bon Ami cleaning powder as a nonscratching but effective cleaner for porcelain.
How to use. Unless you are pre-treating a disaster area, apply cleaners to your cleaning cloth, not to the surface you are cleaning. You'll waste less and inhale fewer fumes.
Vacuum cleaner. This won't fit in your caddy, of course, but spring cleaning requires that your vacuum be in tip-top shape. It's such a vital tool that cleaners from The Maids of Tucson wear a backpack vacuum. This is the time to haul out all those special attachments for cleaning corners and furniture and put them to work.
Other stuff: bucket for cleaning solutions, gloves, bleach (optional).
more prep
● Strip the house. Before air conditioning and central heating, traditional spring cleaning was the time to take down winter curtains, roll up the rugs and generally prepare a house for summer. Today it's that, and time to get organized.
● Remove, clean and store wraps and throws, any lingering winter decorations, everything velvet that you can move, comforters and heavy bed covers.
● Take down and wash, or have cleaned, drapes and curtains, so they will be ready to put back up when you are done cleaning.
● Consider putting washable slipcovers on heavy upholstered furniture and throw pillows.
organize it
Professional organizer Sue Zepeda — who owns We Organize It — quotes statistics to the effect that 40 percent of professional cleaners' time is spent simply dealing with clutter. While decluttering can be a whole 'nother job, you can clean faster and keep your house cleaner by taking some baby steps.
Put away all the stuff that accumulates or decorates bare surfaces in your house — knickknacks, photos, books and magazines. Hang photos on the wall; put books and magazines on shelves.
Reduce knickknacks to a single display. You can rotate it seasonally if you want and enjoy things more because they are fresh.
Frame real heirlooms, or put them behind glass. Zepeda says her mother put her father's childhood clarinet in a glass display case so visitors could see and enjoy it.
Handle paper once — each piece of mail should go into a file or into recycling, without stopping along the way. Put the recycling bin on your route from mailbox to house, and all that junk mail will never even make it indoors.
With tax time coming up, Zepeda suggests that this is a good opportunity to put away all 2005 paper records and start a 2006 file.
Now you're ready to clean.
living room
This is the basic protocol, which you will modify for different rooms. Adapt as needed if you have Saltillo tile or wood floors.
Start at the top. Vacuum and wash any ceiling fan and fixtures.
Clean "top to bottom, left to right" is Suzanne Faustlin's refrain. "Start at one side of the room and go around to the other, and by the time you get there, everything behind you is done," explains the owner of The Maids of Tucson.
On each wall:
● Vacuum the corners and edges for cobwebs.
● Take down pictures and mirrors, and vacuum or dust the spaces behind. Clean the picture frames, then replace on walls.
● Use window cleaner to clean glass surfaces and electronics.
● Ditto switch plates and any other places prone to fingerprints.
● Damp-wipe all baseboards.
● Using edging tool, vacuum edges of room.
● After making sure ashes are totally cold, shovel out fireplace, then sweep. Wash fireplace exterior. Close damper for summer.
● Vacuum slide tracks for windows and sliding doors.
In center of room:
● Dust furniture with microfiber cloth.
● Pour lemon oil on cloth and wipe down wood furniture. Wait a few minutes, then buff with a clean, dry cloth.
● Move furniture and vacuum where it was. If furniture is too heavy to move, Faustlin suggests cleaning underneath with an old-fashioned dust mop.
● Vacuum furniture.
● Vacuum rest of room.
kitchen
● If your oven doesn't clean itself, spray interior with oven cleaner the night before you plan to clean. Wipe out with a sponge and clean water the next day.
● Pull out refrigerator and stove, being careful not to disconnect gas and water lines. Vacuum/mop behind both. Clean the refrigerator coils with vacuum or damp sponge.
● Empty kitchen cupboards, and wipe down interiors and interiors of doors with all-purpose cleaners. Sort and discard expired canned goods before replacing everything. Be sure to clean the tops of cupboards, too.
● Clean out refrigerator and freezer, discarding outdated food.
● Clean counters with all-purpose cleaner.
● Wipe down appliance exteriors with Windex or equivalent.
● Clean cabinet fronts with lemon oil or Windex, depending on surface.
● Clean sink with non-abrasive cleaners and wipe sink and faucets dry to avoid spotting.
● Vacuum, then mop, floor.
bathroom
● Flush toilet, and, when bowl starts to refill, squirt all around interior and inner rim with toilet-bowl cleaner. Close lid and allow cleaner to work while you clean rest of bath.
● Inspect shower and pre-treat if needed before following basic room protocol.
● Take down and launder shower curtain and liner, or wipe thoroughly with disinfectant.
● Scrub tub and shower enclosure, then sink, with appropriate cleaner. Although disposable cleaning products are controversial, the Mr. Clean Magic Reach with disposable pads is terrific for those awkward spaces.
● Use Lime-A-Way or similar product for really stubborn build-up (but use it carefully, there are many reports of it damaging stainless-steel fixtures).
● Dry and polish tile and chrome to avoid water spots.
● Replace shower curtain.
● The Maids' cleaners scrub bathroom floors on their hands and knees — Suzanne Faustlin says it's the only way to get around all the pipes and corners.
● Scrub toilet bowl with special brush, and flush again.
bedroom
● Vacuum bed frame, and mattress and box spring.
● Turn mattress.
● Launder or dry-clean bed pillows.
● Vacuum shoulders of clothes (honest) that have been collecting dust in closet.
● Store winter clothes in moth-proof containers.
● Contact freelance reporter Rebecca Boren at rboren@azstarnet.com.

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