While a spring clean is the perfect time to take stock of your house and reorder your rooms, it’s a job that should be done twice a year – meaning in autumn, too. Spring and autumn cleans are the perfect opportunities to reorganise your house. It’s all about tackling the tasks you missed during the year. Here are the key jobs involved in an autumn clean:
One of the key focuses during an autumn clean is to rearrange furniture to either maximise or minimise breezeways, as, while you may want air to pass through your house in warmer weather, it’s best to keep chilly drafts when the temperature drops outside. The best way to do this is to arrange your furniture to either block windows and air passages or to keep these free..
While rearranging furniture, give your bookshelves a good clean and dust the books, giving any you don’t want to charity. Ask your kids to do the same with their bookshelves and pass on unwanted books to other children by holding a garage sale, or donating them to a school fete.
Next, move on to cleaning your windows. making a DIY window cleaner by adding a cup of white vinegar to half a bucket of water, transferring to a spray bottle, spraying on, wiping with a squeegee, then polishing with a paper towel. “Don’t use newspaper to clean windows,” she says. “Newspaper was a great cleaner when the ink was made of lamp black but these days, the ink has a latex base and will leave smear marks on the glass.”
An autumn clean is a great time to sort through your wardrobe, getting rid of any maternity wear if your pregnancy days are over, along with any other clothes that remain staunchly unworn. “Decide which ones will stay, which ones go into the rag bag and which ones can be donated to charity, adding that you should also empty out your wardrobe and vacuum inside. Do the same with your kids’ clothes, sorting through them to give to charity or pass on to friends with young children or babies.
An autumn clean is also time to sort through your linen cupboard, moving your most-used items to shelves at eye level and stacking the rest on higher shelves. “Find out what needs mending and set it aside, you should also vacuum the shelves, replace any shelf linings, and shake and refold all of the towels and sheets before replacing.
As bathrooms are usually cleaned on a regular basis, there’s not much involved in an autumn clean. The biggest job is sorting through your bathroom cabinet and auditing your cosmetics and bath and beauty products. It’s the perfect time to clear out any that are passed their use-by-date or simply unused.
Get a handle on your kitchen during an autumn clean, by clearing out all of your cupboards and cleaning them, and then overhauling your fridge and pantry by binning any items that are old or inedible. Also sort through your medicine cupboard for any creams and tablets that are out of date and dispose of them, along with any old cleaning products. “Check your cleaning products and get rid of anything you don’t use.
After a summer spent outdoors, whip your backyard into shape before winter hits. Clean all your outdoor furniture, the clothesline, your drains and guttering and it’s a good time to clear out the shed.
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