Let the Sun Shine In!
Our Favorite Spring (& Year-Long) Cleaning Tips to Keep Your Home Looking and Feeling Fresh
Does sunshine make you want to clean? That’s how many of us here at Union Furniture & Flooring feel. Maybe we’re not alone and that’s where the idea of Spring Cleaning came from?!
No matter what time of year, we field a lot of questions at the store about how to care for all of the different kinds of furniture and flooring that we sell. Of course, the answer depends on a lot of factors — for example, are we talking about fabric or leather, wood or metal? If you have questions on a specific piece of furniture, it’s best to ask us about that one piece or visit the manufacturer’s website for instructions, but in general, the methods that work best for cleaning just about anything are dusting with a clean, soft cloth and/or vacuuming with a soft brush attachment. How often you need to do this depends on your lifestyle. Some of us who live with pets really should do it daily (even though we don’t!) and others can go a week or more between cleanings.
Regardless, the change of seasons always inspires us to do more deep cleaning around our houses, and we thought you might be feeling the same, so we’ve compiled a list of 10 cleaning tips that we use in our own homes. Let us know what you think, or share your own tips with us!
1. Open the windows! There’s no easier or quicker fix to making a house feel fresh than simply opening the windows, at least for a little while (and if your allergies allow it). Of course, that’s easy to do on spring days when the temperature is around 70 degrees, but we advise doing this in the winter too whenever you get a surprise 50-degree day, or in July if you get a sudden 70- or 75-degree day.
2. Make your bed every morning. You’ve heard this before (and if you’re a mom, you’ve said it!), but it’s a simple thing you can do to make you feel like you’re starting the day on the right foot. And you’ll really love it when you come home at the end of the day. You don’t have to make your bed perfectly to achieve this. Just straightening the sheets and organizing the pillows is enough to make you feel good.
3. Add lavender scent to everything. OK, this may be a personal choice, but adding a fragrance (unless you or someone in your house is sensitive to them) can really lift your mood, and some fragrances have been found to help with things like focus, concentration and creativity. We highly recommend the Tyler laundry detergent that we sell (although it doesn’t come in lavender) for washing your sheets, towels, throws and favorite cardigan every week. Don’t hate us if you become addicted to it.
4. Power wash everything (outside). This seems self-explanatory, but you probably don’t realize how much dirt and grime are built up on the surface of things outside until you power wash them. We’ve seen for ourselves the difference it can make, and we are believers!
5. Use a solution of vinegar and water and old newspaper to clean your windows and glass surfaces. The vinegar will provide a streak-free clean, and the newspaper won’t leave lint behind.
6. Buy (or pick) fresh flowers as often as you can. They will add natural beauty, color and fragrance to any room.
7. If you have a green enough thumb to keep indoor plants alive, add one to as many rooms as you can. Not only do they soften the look of a space, they actually help clean the indoor air too.
Tyler Wash is an easy way to add a fresh fragrance to your home. Many of us use it to wash our bedsheets, throws, kitchen linens, not to mention our delicate clothing.
8. Add a boot tray or some other designated place to kick off your shoes as soon as you come in the door. It will remind you to remove your shoes to prevent tracking in any dirt and debris from outside, protect your floors from scratches and keep your floor looking cleaner longer.
9. Straighten the sofa pillows and throws (and maybe the slipcovers, if you use them) whenever you leave the house or go to bed at night. This does wonders for making a space look uncluttered and organized.
10. Get down on the floor to really see where dirt is hiding. This is something we learned when we had young children, and we were on the floor with them constantly. You can really see the dirt along baseboards, on your lower kitchen cabinets, the lower part of the appliances (like the kick plate grille at the bottom of your refrigerator) . . .
We hope you find some or all of these tips useful. Do you have a great cleaning tip to share? Let us know, and we’ll add it to the list and give you full credit. We’re all in this together!!