A Room-by-Room Checklist of All the Things You’re Forgetting to Clean

Spring cleaning time is around the corner and while you’re prepping your regular to-do list, there are a few things you might be overlooking—we all have blind spots, after all. Let’s go over a few of the places you are likely to forget about so you can add them into your routine. Once you familiarize yourself with these suggestions and tips, you can use this checklist I created in Google Sheets to help remind you about what you might have missed. You can make your own copy out of this doc and open it up every couple of months to check off each of the tasks as you work through them.

Most overlooked spots in your bathroom

You already know to clean your toilet (and how not to do it) and your tub. You have no water stains and your tile is pristine. Forgetting anything? It might be these:

• Clean and unclog the overflow holes in your sink, if you have them.

• Clean and disinfect high-touch but rarely-noticed surfaces like your shower head handle, toilet flusher, and drawer pulls. (Familiarize yourself with the difference between disinfecting, sanitizing, and cleaning while you're at it.)

• Dust and wipe down any vents.

• Wash your shower curtain.

• Clean your shower head thoroughly, as well as the sink faucet's aerator, which can get gunky over time.

• Wipe down the inside your medicine cabinet (and maybe take some time to declutter it).

• Wipe down the outside of your toilet, including the sides.

• Do the same for the exterior of your garbage can.

• Clean any dusty light fixtures.

• Finish up with the baseboards, then mop.

What you're forgetting to clean in your kitchen

The kitchen experiences a fresh mess every day (multiple times a day, even), so while you're spending all that time wiping down the counters and loading the dishwasher, it's easy to miss the grime that is building up over time in less-noticed spots. Periodically, you should:

• Clean under and behind your major appliances (which you can actually do without moving them).

• Dust and wipe down the top of your refrigerator, not just inside and under it.

• ...but empty out and clean your fridge, including the shelves, too. (When you're putting everything back inside is a great time to reorganize the contents.)

• When you’re tackling the oven, don’t forget the warming drawer, plus the vent, hood, and knobs.

• Scrub down your backsplash.

• Clean out your toaster's crumb tray.

• Wipe down the outer surface of your garbage can.

• Clean and disinfect your drawer pulls and the handles on your cabinets, fridge, and microwave.

• Disinfect the light-switches (and any other switches in the room).

• Spruce up your light fixtures.

• Wipe down the tops and undersides of your cabinets, especially the ones up top that have exposed space under the ceiling.

• Thoroughly dust and clean all the baseboards before you sweep and mop the floor.

What to clean in your living room

You pay attention to cleaning your kitchen and bathroom for sanitary reasons, which makes sense, but the living room? That’s all about aesthetics, baby. You want to impress your guests, after all. Impress them even more by remembering to:

• Dust your plants (even your fake ones).

• Dust your candles.

• Clean and disinfect high-touch items like remotes and coasters (plus those light switches).

• Dust picture frames and any other knick-knacks.

• Remove couch and chair cushions and vacuum underneath them for a horrifying surprise.

• Clean window blinds and curtains. (Blinds are easy: There's a hack.)

• Dust and wipe down your windowsills, too.

• Clean the undersides of coffee tables, side tables, and ottomans.

• Clean your light fixtures.

• End with the baseboards again before sweeping, vacuuming, and/or mopping.

What needs to be cleaned in the bedrooms

Your bedroom is the one area that is all about you—so treat yourself to an extra clean one. Try cleaning these for some bonus points:

• Wipe your curtain rods and windowsills when you toss your curtains in the wash. (If you have blinds, clean those instead.)

• Clean and disinfect high-touch items like alarm clocks, drawer pulls, door knobs, and light switches.

• Clean your ceiling fan (but make sure to do that before you vacuum).

• Dust the top of your headboard.

• Dust plants, candles, picture frames, and knick-knacks.

• As usual, finish up with those baseboards before cleaning the floor.

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