Cooperative Living March/April 2018 - 23

WebTalk | by Laura Emery, Field Editor
Coming Clean This Spring:
Winter's Dirty Little Secret
W
inter's got a dirty little secret. And
it's time to come clean this spring.
Following unusually frigid
temperatures across the commonwealth this
winter, Virginians will crawl out from under
their thick blankets and warm coats to
welcome springtime on March 20th.
With the new season will come serenading
songbirds and blossoming flower buds.
And, for many, cleaning. Deep cleaning
and organizing.
It's likely a matter of simple biology as to why
many people find themselves knee-deep in
cleaning supplies and organizational tools as
soon as the weather begins to warm. During
winter, people are exposed to less sunlight due
to shorter, often-dreary days. With a lack of
exposure to light, the pineal gland produces
melatonin, a hormone that produces sleepiness
in humans. It's possible that people " spring
clean " simply because they wake up from a
winter-long, melatonin-induced torpor and
discover they have some extra energy as the
days grow longer upon spring's arrival.
Winter's dirty secret? " Nobody wants to
clean during the cold winter months, " says
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative member
Jenna Wheeler of Goochland. " It's too cold!
You just want hang out on the couch feeling
cozy and warm with your loved ones. But as
soon as the temperatures start to warm up, you
look around and realize you've put off cleaning
and organizing the house for too long - and
it's the perfect time to deep clean and get ready
for the new, less-sleepy season. "
www.bhg.com/homekeeping/housecleaning/tips/spring-cleaning-guide/
If
anyone knows a thing or two about spring
cleaning, it's certainly the folks at Better Homes&
Gardens (BHG). " The Ultimate Spring Cleaning
Guide " includes a free cleaning checklist,
window-washing tips, deep-cleaning carpet
tutorials, dusting tricks and so much more. If
it can be cleaned, BHGwill teach you how to
clean it. It's that easy - and these pointers are
useful any time of year, not just during
spring cleaning.
For other BHG-blessed house-cleaning tips,
check out this link: www.bhg.com/
homekeeping/house-cleaning. Here, you can
www.co-opliving.com
find out how to clean
your whole house for
less than $5, discover
the 10 dirtiest places in your
house (yes, you will be surprised), learn
how to clean smarter and not harder, how
to make eight amazing homemade cleaners,
the best way to clean your pillows and more.
www.womansday.com/home/organizingcleaning/tips/g2287/easy-cleaning-tips/
Just
when you think you know everything
there is to know about cleaning your house,
you stumble across a website like this. Spend
five minutes perusing this site and you will
surely want to make a beeline to your abode
to zap your soiled sponges in the microwave,
sprinkle your pillows with cornstarch, rub
lemon oil on your glass shower doors or
drop a teaspoon of Tang drink mix in your
toilet bowl. Oh, and there is a proper way to
hold the broom when sweeping. Do you
sweep properly? To find out (and learn
more cleaning tips), be sure and check out
this website.
www.thehappierhomemaker.com/how-toclean-your-house-fast/
Forget
a massive seasonal spruce-up.
Perhaps you'd like to wait until, say, the
day you're expecting company for a normal
house cleaning? You know who you are.
If speed-cleaning is your style, then this is
your website. According to The Happier
Homemaker, you can achieve a clean home
quickly by staying focused and moving at
lightning speed with laser focus. A red cape
is optional. Clean from the top down, allow
a certain number of minutes per room
(according to this website, seven minutes
is long enough to get a bathroom sparkling
clean) and don't get distracted. Don't. Get.
Distracted. Turn off your phone, put the
kids down for a nap and blast your favorite
music throughout the house. You can do
it in a few hours. And The Happier
Homemaker will hold your hand and
guide you through it.
But the website isn't just for super cleaners,
it also features the Seven Day Spring Cleaning
Challenge. It's a step-by-step manageable plan
to get your home sparkling in seven days.
www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/
cleaning/brilliant-spring-cleaning-shortcuts
For a quicker version of spring cleaning,
this is a great resource. Here, you will find some
quick but thorough strategies and cleaning
tips for carpets, windows, mattresses and
more. These tips will show you how to spring
clean in a way that fits your schedule, meets
your standards and still gives you that clean,
fresh feeling in your home.
www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/simple-tricksto-make-spring-cleaning-so-much-easier
Here,
you get two for one; you get a shiny,
spring-clean, guest-worthy home AND you
can " feel like a boss. " Or, so says
BuzzFeed.com. The secret lies in the featured
20 simple tricks to making spring cleaning
so much easier. So here's how it's done: clean
your toilet with coke, make Mr. Clean's
Magic Eraser your new BFF (the bald guy
knows best!), clean the big-screen TV with
coffee filters, use your old egg cartons in new
ways (you'll have to visit the website for this
tip), and don't fold clothing the way your
mother taught you. Once you do these things
(and more), you're guaranteed to feel like a
boss ... with a refreshed, clean home to boot.
www.womansday.com/home/organizingcleaning/tips/g2287/easy-cleaning-tips/
Sometimes,
simple is best. Instead of reading
through pages and pages of tips and tricks,
Woman's Day breaks spring cleaning down into
15 most-common tasks (accompanied with a
tip or trick associated with that task). They are:
freshen window treatments, wash the
windows, rotate and flip mattresses, scour
the stovetop, empty the fridge and defrost,
clear out cabinets, change out your closet,
clean your carpets, beautify your bathroom,
edit your rooms, replace batteries, clean
ceiling fans, clean and replace filters, service
your vacuum cleaner and polish pots and
pans. Once you break down the plan into
doable tasks, the only thing you have to
worry about is putting a big fat check mark
beside each task as you finish them. 
March-April 2018 | Cooperative Living | 21
http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/ http://www.womansday.com/home/organizing http://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/simple-tricks http://www.BuzzFeed.com http://www.thehappierhomemaker.com/how-to http://www.womansday.com/home/organizing http://www.bhg.com/homekeeping/house http://www.bhg.com/ http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living March/April 2018

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