The Lawhead Team would like to share these tips from Coldwell Banker to keep your home sparkling through out Spring.

1. Wall Cleaning

A Magic Eraser is your best bet for tackling walls — it can spot clean anything from splatters to crayon marks. It’s tough enough to reach the cobwebs that collect in the corners of your walls and ceiling. You can also cover the bristles of a broom with a cloth or old T-shirt and use it to knock down any dusty spots.

2. Carpets and Rugs

Take a little more time vacuuming the high-traffic areas of your house. (Make sure you don’t forget to spot treat any stubborn stains with a stain-removal product.) If your rug or carpet has lingering odors, sprinkle some baking soda over it and let it sit for a few hours. Vacuum up the baking soda and you’ll find the odors have disappeared.

3. Mattress Ideas

Give your mattress cover a thorough spring cleaning in the washing machine — don’t forget to throw in a cup of white vinegar to boost the cleaning process. Sprinkle baking soda on your mattress while you’re washing the cover. You can vacuum it up later when you’re making the bed.

4. Shower Care

Don’t knock yourself out trying to clean glass shower doors. Add a couple drops of water to your dryer sheets and use them to wipe down your shower doors. You can even let your showerhead clean itself overnight while you sleep. Simply tie a bag filled with white vinegar around your showerhead and let it soak overnight. Remove the bag in the morning for a non-clogged shower experience.

5. Toilet Scrubbing

Have water stains built up in your toilet? Cola can help you attack these stains with little effort. Just pour some in the toilet, let it sit for several minutes, then flush.

6. Oven Shine

If you have an oven with a self-cleaning feature, spring is a great time to finally run that cycle. Otherwise, mix baking soda with a bit of water and use it to quickly clean up grease and various other spills inside the oven.

7. Clutter Solutions

When you don’t have time to clean but you need your house to look presentable, tackling clutter is the quickest way to create the illusion of a clean house. Zip through each room of the house and put anything that doesn’t belong into a basket. This strategy requires very little work and can make a big difference in your home’s appearance.

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Spring is here and that means it is time to start cleaning!

While spring cleaning may not seem like your idea of fun, the wonderful feeling of a clean and organized house is a reward in itself!

The Lawhead Team would like to share some spring cleaning ideas and tips to follow:

• To revive drab drapes, take them down, remove hooks and run them through an air-fluff cycle in the dryer with a damp towel (to attract the dust) for 15 minutes or so. Re-hang them immediately.
• When dusting for spring cleaning, take everything off shelves, tabletops and dressers to dust. Now is also the time to get to all the places you’ve been neglecting throughout the year, including ceiling fans, above kitchen cabinets and baseboards and doorways.
• Next, start cleaning out your garbage cans. Spray them with a hose and dump out the water. Next, spray the inside with a disinfectant spray, scrub with a handled brush and rinse. Leave them upside down to dry.
• Move furniture away from walls and clean underneath.
• Perform a deep cleaning for your floors. Have your carpets professionally cleaned and wax wooden floors.
• Upholstered furniture needs cleaning too. Vacuum pillows, as well as underneath the cushions. Look for stains and clean according to the care label.
• Start cleaning your refrigerator top to bottom. The best cleaner is a combination of abrasive salt and bubbly soda water.
• If there’s a lime buildup around the faucet, lay paper towels over the fixture and soak it with vinegar, letting it set for one hour. The deposits will soften and become easier to remove.
• Cleaning your stove top is easy if you use a toothbrush to remove softened food from around the burners, knobs and dials on the stove top.
• Organize pantry and throw out any expired foods.

You can open windows, let some fresh air in, and ORGANIZE when doing your spring cleaning!

We don’t know about you but as much as we love spring cleaning, we HATE buying cleaning products even more, YUCK! And that smell of bleach, no thank you. We would like to share with our readers how to make all your cleaning products for spring cleaning. Keep reading for some of our favorite recipes:

Wood Cleaner – Equal parts olive oil and white vinegar, shake, spray, and wipe off. The oil makes it shinny and is a dust repellent and the vinegar gets rid of the germs.

Counter Top, window, or any surface cleaner – White vinegar. I use it straight but you can add water if the smell is too strong. A perfect inexpensive solution for spring cleaning!

Shower/bath cleaner – This is our FAVORITE spring cleaning cleaner. Equal parts Dawn dish soap and white vinegar. Shake, spray, and take a break for about 20 minutes (the smell is STRONG). Come back and wipe off. Our shower doors look BRAND new every time we do this.

As you can tell, white vinegar is definitely our friend when it comes to spring cleaning.  We like to use it for everything. Now, if you have done this much work in a day, you deserve a drink!

Happy spring cleaning!

It doesn’t feel quite like winter now so some of these home maintenance tasks may even be performed before Spring.

In order to keep your home looking and performing its best, The Lawhead Team would like to share these spring home maintenance tips with our readers:

1. Perform a roof inspection. The roof is your home’s first line of defense against water damage. Don’t delay fixing leaks in your roof and avoid water damage when the next storm hits during spring.
2. Clean out your gutters. Fall time is when all the leaves and debris gather in your gutters. Before the spring rains hit, these gutters should be cleared out.
3. Replace or clean your HVAC filters in your home. We recommend twice a year but more if you have pets living in your home. A dirty filter makes your HVAC system work harder which not only uses more electricity but can also make your HVAC unit need repairs sooner than necessary.
4. Clean out your dryer vent. Of course you need to clean out your lint trap after every use but did you know lint can also make its way into the dryer vent? Cleaning your vent will save money on your electric bill as well as prevent a house fire.
5. When was the last time you checked your washing machine fill hose? A leaky hose under pressure can cause major damage in a short period of time so make sure you check for cracks that can become leaks.
6. Vacuum your refrigerator coils. Pull the fridge out from the wall and vacuum up the dust that has collected on the coils located on the back of the fridge. This will avoid your fridge from working harder which means less of an electric bill. A great spring cleaning activity!
7. Replace batteries in your smoke detectors. You never know when you’ll need to rely on your smoke detector to warn you of a fire…better safe than sorry so replace your batteries before spring.

Now is the time for Spring Cleaning! Set a day aside to get your house looking it’s best for the warmer months with the following tips:

• Organize your closet: This is the first step to organizing the rest of your home. Clear out unused clothing and accessories and organize by how you get dressed in the morning. It is also useful to organize your clothes by color and style.
• Shine up your stainless steel: Use a light mist of wax-based aerosol spray once or twice a week. Don’t use too much, you don’t want to soak the surface and make it greasy. Wipe the mist with a clean, lint-free cloth. Don’t use anything abrasive such as Soft Scrub or Scotch Brite pads. This will scratch and ruin the surface.
• Remove oils and marks from walls in your home: Start with a clean cloth or sponge and water. You can add a little dish-washing liquid into the water if you have stubborn wall marks. After cleaning, make sure to rinse the wall afterward with plain water. This is a great once a year spring cleaning thing to do.
• Give your interior a different look: Make a fast easy change with bedding, towels and table linens to create a different mood. You can also switch things out seasonally or whenever you want to play with a certain color or pattern, not just during spring cleaning.
• Clean your carpets: Always take your shoes off when you get home but leave your socks on because your bare feet leave natural oils which attract dirt. For high traffic areas, bring in a professional carpet cleaner 3-4 times a year. If only once a year, make it a point to do this during your spring cleaning activities.
• Reorganize your shelves: Sort your books on your bookshelf so they don’t look uniform. Remove any ripped dust jackets. Line your books horizontally and vertically in a pattern to relieve monotony or rows.
• Take on one task at a time: It’s exciting to get started spring cleaning and sometimes you may tend to get distracted with various projects throughout the house.  It is incredibly helpful and sanity-saving to work on one area at a time.  Inadvertently, piles of stuff will migrate to other rooms in your house, but those can be tackled when you get to them.
• Start at the top and work to the bottom: Let gravity make your job easier by working with it!  Start at the ceiling by dusting the ceiling fan or light fixture then get all the spider webs off the crown molding.  Work your way down the walls, over the furniture, all the way to the baseboards and flooring when spring cleaning.

Do you have some spring cleaning tips? We’d love to hear them! Comment on our blog to tell us your spring cleaning suggestions.

Spring is upon us and who doesn’t want their home looking its best as we come upon the warmer months of the year!  The Lawhead Team would like to share with you some helpful Spring Cleaning Tips:

Come up with a game plan – Jot down the areas of your home that you need to clean, come up with a plan and be sure to budget in time for distractions so you won’t get discouraged after just a few hours spring cleaning.  In essence, make a reasonable plan of attack that has at least a 98% chance of being accomplished!

Make sure you have your supplies first – There is nothing more frustrating than to start a project (or Spring Cleaning) only to find that you’re out of supplies.

Ask for help from your family – Having small tasks to accomplish while growing up gives children a feeling of accomplishment.  Delegate tasks for your children based on their age.  Or, if you wish, you can bring them over to their grandparents while you crank up the music and get cleaning!

Take on one task at a time – It’s exciting to get started cleaning and sometimes you may tend to get distracted with various projects throughout the house.  It is incredibly helpful and sanity-saving to work on one area at a time.  Inadvertently, piles of stuff will migrate to other rooms in your house, but those can be tackled when you get to them.

De-clutter Before Cleaning – It is frustrating to be ready to dust an area only to realize that you have to move 15 knick-knacks, 10 pieces of junk mail, broken crayons and wadded up tissues before you can get started. Save yourself a headache and get rid of the garbage and extraneous clutter before cleaning.

Use storage bins for organization – Instead of just dividing up things into separate piles that will likely get knocked over or mixed up, use plastic bins to keep them organized. Have a bin for garage sale items, items to donate, garbage and things that need to be returned to others.

Start at the top and work to the bottom – Let gravity make your job easier by working with it!  Start at the ceiling by dusting the ceiling fan or light fixture then get all the spider webs off the crown molding.  Work your way down the walls, over the furniture, all the way to the baseboards and flooring.

Get a new look – Since it’s Spring, try switching out heavy, darker items out with lighter and brighter accessories.  You can do this with all the decorations you already have.

Come up with a daily cleaning schedule – After all your hard work is done, make sure that you have a good cleaning schedule in place.  Whether you need to make one from scratch or update the one you have, set small daily tasks that will help keep your house in order until next Spring…or until you decide to deep clean your house again!