It’s that time of year again — let the spring cleaning begin. Many homeowners may be hemming and hawing about where to start after surveying the mountains of dust bunnies that have taken up residence in the nooks and crannies of their homes.
Vontracia Edwards, the owner of Edward’s Cleaning Services, recently offered some tips on how to get a house or an apartment so clean it’ll sparkle beyond spring and well into summer.
Here are her suggestions for taking your dwelling
from
grungy to glowing. Happy spring cleaning!
1. Take a look in the closet. “Put the winter clothes up and bring the summer clothes out,” Edwards advised.  “Put hats up and shoes, too. Put boots back in boxes and take out other shoes.”
2. Time to cool down. “Change bedding from thick comforters to the thin comforters,” she said. Lighter comforters facilitate better sleep when the summer heat starts to roll in.
3. Start getting ready for that pool party. Edwards suggests focusing on tidying up the outside areas of a home so the patio or pool will be ready when visitors and guests drop by for summertime soirees.
The cleaning expert said it’s easy to start by raking up dead leaves and washing patio furniture.
“Start decorating the outside. (We) love playing in the yard, putting up tents and pools; that’s my favorite thing,” she said.
4. Let the light in. This is the time of year to take down dark, fall-colored curtains and hang up airy, light, flowered curtains, which allow natural light to filter in.
“In the summertime, I like the lighter curtains. More summery and flowery,” Edwards said. “(The) thinner ones let a little more light in.”
5. Don’t get hot, hot, hot. Edwards recommends putting fans on the patio and inside the house to cut down on electric costs. She said people tend to turn down the thermostat instead of relying on overhead fans to circulate the air.
“They save electricity instead of turning on the A/C,” Edwards said.  “As long as (you use the A/C) before 2 p.m. and after 7 p.m., you’re good to go.”
6. Shine up those windows. Bust out the paper towels and cleaning products to get winter grime and grit off the windows. Although it isn’t a fun task, Edwards said it must be done.
“Dust around the windows and window seals,” she said. And, if all else fails and the amount of cleaning to be done is too overwhelming, Edwards has one directive: “Call the cleaning service!”