It might be a tiring chore, but the satisfaction of a ‘spring clean’ will last the season.
Think about how you’ll tackle the job and who in the household needs to be involved, and go about it one room at a time.
And use our handy room-by-room checklists to work your way through the task.
Getting ready to spring clean
Before you get started, have a think about what tools you’ll need for each room and get them all ready to go. Some cleaning tools you might need include:
Motivation is important, too, so make the job more enjoyable with some good tunes – turn on the radio or put on your headphones and get in the zone.
How to spring clean your kitchen
Clean your fridge. Give the inside and outside a good clean, following the tips in our fridge maintenance guide (or if you find yourself thinking it’s time to look for a new fridge, check out our latest fridge reviews).
Clean your oven. If you have a pyrolytic oven, cleaning it will be a breeze. If your oven has catalytic liners it’ll still do a lot of the grunt work for you. If your oven boasts neither of these features, you’ll probably need to buy an oven cleaner to get the job done. We offer more instructions on how to clean different kinds of ovens in our oven cleaning and maintenance guide. How easy an oven is to clean plays a big part in the ease of use scores in our ovens reviews.
Clean your cooktop. It’s best to do this regularly, but if you’ve let grease and grime build up, our cooktop cleaning guide will give you some helpful tips. If it’s time for an upgrade and ease of cleaning is important to you, you’ll find induction cooktops and ceramic cooktops easier to clean than gas cooktops; some gas cooktops are easier to clean than others.
Clean your dishwasher. Maintaining your dishwasher properly will help to give it longevity and if you’ve held onto your manufacturer’s manual, they’ll give you some helpful instructions on how to keep it clean. If not, our dishwasher cleaning guide will help.
Clean your rangehood. It’s also probably a good time to clean or replace your filters. Our rangehood reviews tell you if a particular model’s filters can go in the dishwasher for easy cleaning.
Don’t forget your benchtop appliances too:
Clean out the crumbs from inside your toaster – your toaster’s crumb tray should be easy to slide in and out for emptying. You should do this frequently to prevent build-up; for a more thorough clean it’s also a good idea to give the toaster a good shake.
Remove whatever is on your kitchen benchtop to give the surface and your splashback a thorough clean. If you have tiled surfaces, you may even notice spots that need to be re-grouted.
Go through your kitchen cupboards – ditch any items you no longer need or use and re-organise areas that have become cluttered.
If you’ve got food items hidden in the depths of your pantry, now is a good time to clear it out, check the expiry dates and reorganise your pantry (e.g. move items with earlier expiry dates to the front to remind yourself to use them up).
How to spring clean your living room
Give cushion covers a wash, or take them outside to dust them.
Vacuum your rugs and lounges. Note: If your home has more carpet than hard flooring, you’ll want a vacuum cleaner that can tackle this task. Most vacuums generally perform well for cleaning hard floors but some can struggle when it comes to carpet. See our vacuum cleaner reviews for the models that do best on carpet.
Use a carpet cleaner to give your carpets or rugs a deeper clean.
Give your laundry sink and benchtop a thorough cleaning.
Clean out and reorganise your cupboards.
Clean your washing machine – our troubleshooting guide will run you through how to give it a good clean, plus there’s tips for fixing other issues you may be noticing.
How to spring clean your home office
Sort through and reorganise your desk drawers.
Clean the electronic equipment in your study – including computers, printers and keyboards. You can even take this opportunity to reorganise your desktop.
If you have piles of paperwork, bills, and other documents lying around in your study, now is the time to sort them out. File away your paperwork as necessary, or use a paper shredder to destroy any documents you no longer need.
What else should you spring clean?
If you’re keen to keep cleaning, here are some other tasks you can tackle now that you’re in the groove.
Remove cobwebs and built-up dust from ceilings, windowsills and cornices.
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.
Find Rebecca on LinkedIn.
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.
Find Rebecca on LinkedIn.
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