The Essential Home Spring Cleaning Checklist

A spring cleaning checklist helps homeowners deep clean their homes, identify maintenance issues and prepare their property for the warmer months. The end of winter marks an excellent time to tackle indoor cleaning tasks, organize belongings and review household systems.

As part of your spring cleaning checklist, consider wiping down or washing the surfaces and items you interact with the most, getting rid of items you no longer need, ensuring your home’s alarms and systems are functioning properly and even taking a look at your finances to determine how you can optimize your budget and save money on home insurance.

Keep reading for several spring cleaning tips, including a rundown of the areas you should focus on most as you go through your home spring cleaning checklist.

On This Page

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  1. Gather Cleaning Supplies

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  2. Spruce Up Living Areas

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  3. Deep Clean the Kitchen

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  4. Declutter Bedrooms

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  5. Scrub Bathrooms

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  6. Organize Your Garage

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  7. Clear the Fireplace

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  8. Revitalize Your Yard

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  9. Sanitize Electronics

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  10. Check Alarms

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  11. Wipe Down Light Fixtures and Ceiling Fans

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  12. Clean Window Furnishings

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  13. Review Your Finances

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  Spring Cleaning Checklist FAQs

1. Gather Cleaning Supplies

Before you start your spring cleaning checklist, make sure you have all the supplies and materials you’ll need. Examples of cleaning supplies you may want to have on hand include the following:^[1]

• Squeegee
• Pumice stone cleaner
• Duster
• Rubbing alcohol
• Cloth rags
• All-purpose cleaning soaps and sprays
• White vinegar
• Baking soda
• Scrub brushes
• Sponges
• Vacuum cleaner
• Oxygen bleach
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Baseboard cleaner
• Bucket or caddy to hold other supplies

2. Spruce Up Living Areas

You can begin cleaning your living room, sunroom and other common spaces by sweeping and vacuuming floors and dusting shelves, chests, entertainment centers and picture frames. As you sweep, you may need to move or lift couches, chairs and ottomans to reach dust and crumbs that have accumulated in hard-to-reach places. Be prepared to vacuum fur and dander off your furniture and carpets if you have pets.

3. Deep Clean the Kitchen

As you prepare to spring clean your kitchen, plan on rinsing out and scrubbing your kitchen sink, wiping down hard surfaces — such as countertops and stovetops — and cleaning inside appliances, like microwaves and ovens. Also, throw away old food in your pantry and freezer. Similarly, use this opportunity to start a habit of regularly cleaning out your fridge so that you don’t allow spoiled food to stay in it for an extended period of time.

During your spring cleaning, it may be helpful to take food out of your refrigerator for up to two hours so you can thoroughly clean inside the fridge.^[2]

Feel free to take out removable parts — including the refrigerator’s shelves and drawers — to make them easier to wash. You should be able to adequately clean inside your fridge using a rag and hot, soapy water, but if you intend to use bleach to sanitize it after the initial cleaning, it’s best to make a solution consisting of one tablespoon of liquid bleach per gallon of water.^[2]

4. Declutter Bedrooms

Take the time to reorganize your bedroom and gather up items and clothes you no longer use so you can throw them out or give them away. This could also present you with a good chance to confirm the value of your possessions and document them in a home inventory. If appropriate, update your personal property coverage limit to make sure you have enough coverage to replace your most valuable items.

Meanwhile, it’s also important to put your pillowcases, sheets and blankets through the laundry cycle and then use a vacuum, baking soda or a stain remover — as needed — to thoroughly clean your mattress.^[3] If you keep a fan on your nightstand, you may want to remove its grill so you can easily access the fan blades in order to wipe dust off them.

5. Scrub Bathrooms

Here are some of the steps you ought to take when cleaning your bathroom:

1. Sweep and mop the floor.
2. Spray glass cleaner on your mirror, and gently wipe it with a microfiber cloth.
3. Use a damp cloth to wipe down hard surfaces, such as your sink and faucet, the outside of your toilet, your tub and your shower walls and showerhead.
4. Scrub the inside of the toilet bowl using a toilet brush and cleaning solution.
5. Check for leaks or broken pipes so you can prevent major water damage.

Experts recommend replacing your toothbrush every three to four months, so you may want to get in the habit of buying new toothbrushes at the beginning of each season.^[4]

6. Organize Your Garage

You can keep your garage, shed and other structures tidy by reorganizing the items you store in them and throwing away anything you don’t need anymore. It may also be beneficial to wipe down hard surfaces, sweep the floor and — if you haven’t been in there in a while — clear away spider webs. Be sure to keep an eye out for rats and other pests that may have taken up residence in your garage.

7. Clear the Fireplace

If you regularly use your fireplace during the winter months, take the time to clear away any soot and ashes that have built up once spring begins. In addition, it’s particularly important to keep an eye out for and clean up creosote — a sticky substance produced by wood-burning fireplaces that is highly flammable and can cause a chimney fire to ignite and expand quickly.^[5]

8. Revitalize Your Yard

Although snow and other winter weather conditions may leave your lawn in poor condition, you can get your grass back in shape by taking the following steps in early spring:^[6]

1. Remove leaves and dead grass from your yard with a rake once your soil has started to dry out.
2. Use a lawn aerator to break up compact soil so the roots of your plants can more easily access air and nutrients.
3. Add extra seeds to account for the grass that died during winter.
4. Apply lawn fertilizer once the outdoor temperature consistently stays above 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Mow your lawn once the grass grows to about three inches tall.

9. Sanitize Electronics

Your personal property insurance won’t cover damage to electronics caused by the progressive accumulation of dust, so it’s important to take the time to clean your electronic devices during your spring cleaning. Wipe your television and computer screens with a dry microfiber cloth, and use a dust brush to delicately remove dust from between the keys of your keyboard.^[7]

While you should avoid spraying water directly onto your electronics, you may be able to use an electrical contact cleaner, if necessary. If you don’t have any store-bought contact cleaners, you can make your own by filling a spray bottle halfway with distilled water and filling the remaining half with isopropyl alcohol that will help the liquid evaporate more quickly.^[7]

10. Check Alarms

It’s recommended that you check your smoke detectors at least twice a year — potentially around the beginning and end of daylight saving time. Replace the batteries in each detector and press the test button to make sure the alarm goes off.^[8] Testing your fire alarms to ensure they are functioning properly is crucial for keeping you and your family safe in case of a house fire.

11. Wipe Down Light Fixtures and Ceiling Fans

Before cleaning your lamps and other light fixtures, turn them off to give the bulbs some time to cool down. Then, apply a cleaning solution to a sponge or microfiber cloth, and gently wipe down the lights without allowing moisture to seep into the wires or electrical contacts. For hard-to-reach crevices, consider scrubbing with an old toothbrush dipped in your cleaning solution.^[9]

Additionally, it’s a good idea to clean the top of your ceiling fan using an extendable duster. Alternatively, you could clean the fan with an empty pillowcase by wrapping it around each blade one at a time and dragging dust and other debris into the pillowcase. Naturally, you’ll need to empty the dust into the trash and put the pillowcase in the washing machine before putting a pillow back in it.^[10]

12. Clean Window Furnishings

You may be able to wipe off your window blinds with either a duster or a damp cloth. Meanwhile, there are various methods for cleaning your curtains, including vacuuming them with your vacuum’s retractable hose, spot cleaning to get rid of noticeable stains, pressing them with a steam cleaner or taking them down to put them through the laundry cycle.^[11]

13. Review Your Finances

While it isn’t “cleaning” in the most literal sense of the word, making sure that your finances are in order can also be a valuable part of your home spring cleaning process. This may involve reevaluating your budget and looking for opportunities to cut costs. In particular, you need to think through what has changed in your life recently and how these changes could impact your homeowners insurance coverage needs and premiums.

For example, if there has been a surge in home break-ins and other crimes in your area recently, you may be viewed as a higher risk to insure, so you may need to budget for higher home insurance rates once your policy comes up for renewal. That said, you could reduce this risk by installing a home security system to lower your exposure to theft and potentially earn a homeowners insurance discount.

Spring cleaning can also help homeowners identify maintenance issues — such as leaks, fire hazards or faulty alarms — that could otherwise lead to costly insurance claims.