In this blog, we focus on the arrival of spring and the need for care and cleaning. We divide the content into four main areas: decluttering, sorting, storing, and cleaning. Here is a summary of what each section is about:
Declutter: Start by clearing away rubbish and tidying up your flowers. By doing this first, you quickly create order and structure in your work.
Sort: Sort your rubbish at the source and then take it to the recycling centre to get rid of all the scrap. This is an important step for organising efficiently and reducing clutter.
Store: Store winter clothes in a way that protects them from pests, and make sure your summer shoes are ready to be put away. It is important to wash clothes properly and use moth-control products to avoid damage.
Clean: Finish with the actual cleaning, but also ask yourself whether strong smells really indicate cleanliness. Chemicals are not always needed for effective cleaning; often soap, vinegar, distilled vinegar, and baking soda are enough!
The blog has four different sections:
1. Declutter 2. Sort 3. Store 4. Clean
We have made a few short video clips for each area. You can click on them to watch the clips or choose to read only the text. The content is roughly the same.
1. Declutter
This is a tip for anyone who finds cleaning a little difficult and may even feel that it gets “messier” when they start cleaning. By beginning the cleaning with decluttering, you quickly create order and tidiness, see results quickly, and above all create structure in your work. So, start by gathering up and throwing away all the rubbish lying around. Clear off kitchen counters, hall furniture, and so on, but do not clean them yet—just collect the rubbish. Do not forget the flowers. Go through them and remove wilted leaves, putting them in the compost. Spray flowers that need it with water, water them, and put the flowers back.
2. Sort
Throw things into the correct “bin” and sort them immediately: metal in one container, hard and soft plastics separately, and paper and compost separately. You will now see that there is actually not that much that needs to go into household waste. Gather all the rubbish, including that from the study and bathroom, and take this opportunity to clear out empty shampoo and soap bottles. Sort it at the source! Once you have thrown everything away, go to the recycling centre and get rid of all the scrap.
Phew! The worst part is done now 😉
3. Store
Store your winter clothes for the summer and avoid pests. Now deal with storing and switching between summer and winter clothes, and summer and winter shoes. If you live in a house with storage spaces separated by, for example, chicken wire, this is especially important.
Pests such as moths have become increasingly established in Sweden in recent years, and unfortunately moths spread both quickly and easily from one household to another. Jackets and other thick winter clothes, especially those made from natural materials such as wool, down, and cotton, are particularly vulnerable to moth infestations. Therefore, be sure to wash your clothes; it is best if they are freshly washed when put away.
Some garments are very difficult to wash. In that case, you can empty the pockets, brush off any hairs and dust, lightly spray with linen water, and hang the garment out to air. Once the garment is dry and clean, place a couple of mothballs in each pocket and leave the pockets open. If the garment has no pockets, you can hang a moth ring around the hanger. Both mothballs and moth rings are available in completely non-toxic red cedar.
Hang the garment on a hanger and place a plastic sack or large bag over the hanger. Tie the bottom closed and seal the opening where the hanger passes through the plastic with tape. Label the bag so you know what is in it by autumn. Store thick sweaters, gloves, hats, and thick socks that you do not need during the summer in the same way.
Store your winter shoes for the summer. Remove any insoles and wash them if possible. If the shoe feels stale, you can pour a couple of tablespoons of baking soda into each shoe. Leave it overnight and then shake it out. If any baking soda remains in the shoe, you can vacuum it out. Put the insole back and insert shoe trees to maintain the shoe’s shape. If you do not have shoe trees, you can make balls from newspaper and fill the shoes with them. The point is to keep the shoes in shape. Tie the straps and place the shoes in a plastic bag that you seal well.
Smelling good and smelling strong are not the same as actually being clean.
4. Clean
It is now time for the actual cleaning. Here we would like to raise the question: Does a strong smell mean that it is clean? A strong smell of perfume does not actually mean that something is not dirty, and do we really want to add chemicals when we clean? If the goal is to remove dirt, why add chemicals? You can handle virtually all household cleaning with soap, vinegar, distilled vinegar and baking soda. You can read more about this in the cleaning blog.
When you buy a natural cleaning package from Västerbottenssåpa, it also includes a simple guide on how to clean in an environmentally friendly and non-toxic way.
Soap can be used to clean all surfaces at home. Use soap sparingly only on plastic floors.
Baking soda cleans your stainless-steel sink and, together with vinegar, is an effective drain unblocker.
Distilled vinegar replaces rinse aid in the dishwasher and fabric softener in the washing machine, and removes bad odours.
Vinegar is, as mentioned, an effective drain unblocker together with baking soda; vinegar also removes tape and glue residue very effectively.
Here you need to decide whether you are doing a deep clean or a lighter clean. If you have planned a deep clean, we suggest starting by pulling out the stove, cleaning the oven and the extractor fan. Most extractor-fan filters can actually be washed in the dishwasher. All of this is easiest to do with soap. A fatty soap such as Västerbottenssåpa easily dissolves greasy dirt in and around the stove and oven. Then clean the bathroom, floor drain, sink drain, and toilet. The easiest way to do this is with warm water and soap. Special brushes are available for the sink to reach both the drain and the overflow guard. You can also easily clean the toilet with soap. If there are discolourations in the toilet, you can let the soap sit in the toilet for a while and then clean it with the brush. Change both the bathroom towels and kitchen textiles.
Hang rugs outside and, preferably, beat them. Dust, preferably with an ostrich- or wool-feather duster. They absorb dust instead of merely stirring it around. Shake the duster outdoors. Wipe surfaces with a damp cloth and a little soap: shelves, mouldings, tables, and counters. Now you can bring out the vacuum cleaner. Vacuum thoroughly, including behind furniture.
Finally, mop the floors. If your floors are very stained, a levang (a long-handled scrubbing brush) can be useful. There you go! A bunch of fresh tulips on the kitchen table, and the spring cleaning is complete!
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