How does a busy single mom and business person manage to have a cleaner house than most everyone? By breaking big jobs down into little manageable tasks that only take a few minutes here and there.

Spring cleaning would certainly qualify as a big job, wouldn't you say?

There's quite a few things you can do before it actually gets warm. Those are phase 1. The things that it doesn't make sense to do before it gets warm would be phase 2.

So here are the things you want to knock out now before the warm weather settles in. After all, who wants to be indoors cleaning house when it finally gets warm?

OK, here's the list for phase 1 Spring cleaning-

Take items off shelves and tables, clean them, clean the shelves and tables. This includes books, CDs, DVDs, figures, pictures, plants, whatever. Take a few minutes and do one every night if you're limited on time.

Clean all pictures on the walls, including behind them.

If you're really ambitious, you can wash walls and ceilings, but that will take you a few days of hard work. At a minimum, take your upholstery brush on the vacuum cleaner and vacuum all walls and ceilings. You'll be surprised how much dust sticks there. I try to wash down a couple rooms every year at a minimum.

Vacuum behind and under all furniture. Pull over everything that you can and clean behind it.

Vacuum all upholstery, including under cushions. If you're ambitious, clean the upholstery. If you're not that ambitious, use an instant spray cleaner to freshen up the upholstery. Make sure to thoroughly vacuum when it's dry.

Dust all plants, both real and silk. Even better, wipe leaves of live plants - they'll love you for it. Is re-potting needed?

Do the silk plants need a good bath?

Clean out cabinets and drawers. Remove items and wipe out the cabinets. Do one every night when you do the dishes.

If you have an open area above your cabinets, clean it.

Clean the underside of the range hood. Hopefully this is part of your regular routine too. If not, make it a point after this.

Wash curtains.

Wash light fixtures.

The cabinet exteriors should be part of your regular routine, right? ;-)

That's really it for phase one. It's too early yet to do some things. And I don't want you to feel overwhelmed. Just tackle those things for now and you'll be in good shape! You don't have to kill yourself. You have a few weeks to get this stuff done. Tackling a little at a time will make it a breeze.

I remember the days when I had a plate rail full of collectors plates around the entire formal dining room, and a chandelier, and sconces. Why did we used to put ourselves through all that? Yeah, it was pretty, but man - it was a lot of work!

And we're all about making life easier here, aren't we?

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Written By Carole Pagan

Carole is a Clean Freak, but doesn't have a lot of time to spend cleaning house. Can you relate? You can find Carole's secrets for keeping the cleanest house in the least amount of time inside Secret Confessions of a Clean Freak Get it here - http://HowtoCleanHouseFast.com

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