Prepare to Spring Forward with a Little Biofriendly Cleaning

Spring is traditionally the time of year when people go through their homes to give them a really good, deep cleaning. Closets are cleaned out, cabinets are gone through and everything that has been shoved into various corners of the house are finally pulled out. The fact that a majority of people keep their homes locked up good and tight during the winter months, spring is actually a great time for them to open up and clean out. This year daylight savings time begins on Sunday, March 9th and the first day of spring (Spring Equinox) is just a week and a half later on March 20th. To help you prepare to spring forward here are a few biofriendly cleaning tips you can use:

• Let’s start with opening your windows to let the indoor air pollution out and the fresh air in. No matter where you live, there is a strong possibility that the quality of air inside your home is far worse (between 2 and 5 times worse) than the air outside your home. Yes, even in big cities. Do not waste your money or pollute your home further by using air fresheners. Even the “natural” ones will not do as good of a job as a little fresh air straight from great outdoors.  Just open your windows and you are on your way.
• In general, most people have a lot more material possessions than they really need or even use. As part of preparing for spring, now is a great time to go through your stuff and take a real and honest survey or what you do and do not need. If you haven’t used it in the past 6 months, then it may be time to get rid of it.
• Before you start throwing away stuff you no longer use (or maybe never used), see if there are ways that you can reuse or re-purpose them. T-shirts can be used as cleaning rags, As a little inspiration, you can look at this list of 100 ideas of how to reuse commonly thrown away items.
• If you just can’t figure out how to reuse an item, or you don’t really need to hang on to it, then try recycling it. I often “recycle” the kids’ clothes by donating them to local charities or to their friends. My kids are very tall, and they just keep on growing, so most of the clothes they have grown out of can be used (for years to come) by friends or neighbors.
• Spring cleaning is the perfect opportunity to organize your life, or at least your home.
• Now that your home is not quite so full of miscellaneous “stuff”, it’s time to start using a little elbow grease.
• In biofriendly cleaning, harmful chemicals are not an option. You are trying to make your home less toxic, not more. Here are 66 all-natural cleaning solutions you can use to get rid of that dust, dirt and grime. It’s time to give your home that fresh clean look and smell once again.
• After working to get lower the levels of indoor air pollution, why not add a little life into your home by getting a few plants. Certain plants can also help you filter the air in your home and improve indoor air quality naturally.
• Many people love having their homes filled with natural scents. Setting up a kitchen herb garden will let you have fresh herbs to use in your cooking and it will also make your home smell wonderful. This list provides 10 easy-to-grow herbs for a simple kitchen garden. Don’t forget to use organic seeds!

Now that I’ve given you some biofriendly cleaning tips to help you prepare to spring forward, the rest is up to you. Take each step one at a time or dive in head-first to get them all done over the course of a couple of days, whatever works for you. Here’s to a fresh, clean and refreshing spring!

Image by Michael Bertulat via Flickr Creative Commons License