Winter is over and you and your house are ready for a total refresh! Make it easy with this room-by-room, top-to-bottom spring cleaning checklist! Simply download the free checklist and print it out, and you’re ready to tackle your spring cleaning head on.
What is Spring Cleaning?
Spring cleaning is basically when you give your entire house a deep cleaning after the cold winter season is over.
There are different guesses about where spring cleaning came from historically. One guess is that spring was the time when all the soot, ashes, and dust was thoroughly cleansed from the house after the wood burning season was over!
(We have a wood burning stove, and although we have no soot to speak of, we certainly do track firewood bits and ashes here and there all winter long!)
No matter the origin, spring cleaning is a great time for a whole-home-reset. At least you know that everything was done once that year!
How To Start Spring Cleaning Your Home
Have you ever heard the phrase “The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time?” The concept is that something SO massive can only be conquered step by step.
You just have to start.
Spring cleaning is no different. Cleaning your entire house in one spring might seem like an unsurmountable goal, but it just has to be broken down into bite size pieces that you focus on one by one!
This is one reason why this free spring cleaning checklist printable is so beneficial, it helps you keep track of where you’ve been, and what you have left to do.
Here are some more ideas for manageable spring cleaning
- Focus on one room per day, or per week.
- Alternatively, focus on one “task” at a time. (For example, wash all the walls, then all the windows, then all the floors…”)
- Complete the entire main floor before completing the upstairs.
- Start on one end of the house, and work your way to the other end.
- Assign each person in your family one task. (Mom does the cabinets, another person wipes the walls, another person dusts the light fixtures…)
- Do a “sitting” task, then a “standing” task to alternate how your body is moving. (For example, organizing the linen closet might require you to stay mostly in one spot for a while. Change it up by wiping all the windows afterwards, to get your blood flowing again.)
How to Use the Printable Spring Cleaning Checklist
Firstly, to download the checklist, click the “download” button below!
Make sure to preview it before you print it so that nothing gets cut off. Adjust your printer settings to “scale to fit”.
I designed this checklist to walk you through each room of the house one by one. Each room has a series of items to clean, from the top of the room to the bottom.
Start with the ceilings, look in the corners, nooks, and crannies for spider webs and dust. Work your way down with the walls, doors, and furniture.
I like to save the floors for very last so that they don’t accidentily get messy again while cleaning something else up!
At the end of each room, there are a few blank lines for you to add additional custom items you might have in your own home.
What Rooms are included on the List?
I have included the most common rooms that most houses have.
- Kitchen
- Dining
- Pantry
- Living Room
- Laundry Room
- Hallway
- Coat Closet
- Bathroom
- Bedroom
- Linen Closet
- Misc Areas
- Front Porch
- House Exterior
- Garage
You will notice that the “bathroom” and “bedroom” pages have multiple columns. You can print extra of these pages and assign each separate room it’s own checklist! There is a line for you to label which room goes to which list. (For example, “Master Bathroom” or “Guest Bathroom”.)
At the end of the PDF printable, there is a page with blank checklists. Print as many of this page as you need for any additional rooms, areas, or outdoor items you have at your house!
(For example, perhaps you are lucky enough to have a library, music room, homeschool room, shed, etc.)
How to involve your kids in spring cleaning
Have you ever noticed that if kids see mom doing something that looks interesting or out of the ordinary, they instantly want to help?
My kids are always jumping to help me cook dinner, help me wash windows, etc. They like to feel like they are doing a “grown up” job!
Kids, like adults, like to work hard and feel the pride after completing a task. They want to practice self efficacy, prove that they can “do it too!” and be like mommy.
I think involving your kids in spring cleaning is a great idea. Give them age appropriate tasks, and have realistic expectations.
Maybe their “help” wont really be that helpful, but allowing them to practice now is vital in how they will learn to be housekeepers themselves one day.
It also helps if you can make it fun for the kids. So how DO you make spring cleaning fun?
Turn on some music. Open up the windows. Make it a family activity!
If you need a few extra ideas of ways to make cleaning more fun for kids, you will enjoy reading the post I wrote over at “The Stay Sane Mom” called “5 Ways to Make Cleaning Fun For Kids.” These 5 tips are super easy to implement, and turn cleaning up into an enjoyable game for even the littlest ones.
How Will You Use Your Free Printable?
I really hope this printable resource is useful to you, I had fun preparing it and it is going to make tackling my first real spring cleaning a lot easier! One great thing about the printable is that you can just print another one next year, and use it again and again.
Let me know how you plan on using this printable.
Will you put it on a clipboard, hang it on your fridge? Let me know in the comments below!
And make sure to send a link to your friends and pin it on Pinterest, it helps me out so much!
