1. Before you start hausfrauing, purge. It may take you a few days or a week to go through your house, but it's worth it. For tips on decluttering, click here. You don't want to be moving things around to dust that you're going to get rid of anyway. That's extra work for nothing.
2. Make a list of what you'll do room by room. To me, spring hausfrauing means focusing on areas that don't get cleaned weekly, i.e. moving big furniture to vacuum, washing curtains, washing doorknobs and switch plates, washing walls as necessary, etc. There are 47029084 lists on spring cleaning on the Internet. I say just clean everything you can possibly think of to clean in every room, from top to bottom, from the corners to the vent covers. The End.
3. Arm yourself with a laundry basket that will serve two purposes: It will carry supplies you need for cleaning, and you will place items in there that need to be moved to other rooms to be put away.
4. Before you start in each room, pick up and put away whatever is laying around and remove all laundry (curtains, sheets, towels, clothes, whatever).
5. Hausfrauing hacks:
- Spray your cleaner on tubs and sinks and let it soak in for 5-10 minutes = less scrubbing
- Microwave a bowl of water with one tablespoon of vinegar on high for four minutes = steam loosens crud and it wipes right off
- Remove bags from trash cans, add cleaning solution, fill bottoms with water, and set outside
- Dust your ceiling fans with pillow cases, drawing the dust inside of the case. Shake them out and wash when finished
- If you have oily dust in your kitchen (on your stove hood, etc), the easiest way to get it off is by wiping it down with a little veggie oil. Then put some dish liquid on a sponge and get both off.
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This won't help you this year, but if you stick to a hausfrauing schedule, your spring hausfrauing won't be a big thing because your house is in pretty good shape all the time. I don't follow this verbatim every week - I move it around depending on my schedule - but it's a good idea of what goes on.
And since I do it weekly, it really takes no time at all to whip through whatever chore is on that day.
This won't help you this year, but if you stick to a hausfrauing schedule, your spring hausfrauing won't be a big thing because your house is in pretty good shape all the time. I don't follow this verbatim every week - I move it around depending on my schedule - but it's a good idea of what goes on.
And since I do it weekly, it really takes no time at all to whip through whatever chore is on that day.
Don't be sad if your spring hausfrauing takes more than one day.
You are a warrior and you got this.
Eye of the tiger, baby. Eye of the tiger.
And you? Any spring hausfrauing tips to share with the group?
