Spring is here and that means it’s time for spring cleaning! After months of keeping our houses shut up tight to keep the heat in, we are being greeted with warmer temperatures, blooming plants, and an opportunity to really refresh our homes. If your home feels stale and dreary, a thorough cleaning can inject new life into it—and help you improve your quality of life at the same time.

Here are some helpful tips to make the most of your spring cleaning this year.

Use a Trapping Dust Cloth to Dust the Hard-to-Reach Places

Traditional dusters have a problem: sure they take the dust off of where it was, but most of the time it simply releases a bunch of this dust back into your air. Eventually, this dust just settles somewhere else. Your air filter in your HVAC system takes care of some of this dust, but it is far from perfect. This is why we strongly recommend a specialized dust cloth that is made for trapping dust. These can typically be found in the cleaning aisle at most grocery or home improvement stores, along with a host of arms, poles, and attachments that allow you to extend them upward into the hard-to-reach areas of your home.

A traditional feather duster might be fine for light duty, but they are real trouble in those extremely dusty areas like high shelves or above cabinets. Instead, these trapping cloths are designed to gather as much dust as possible and hold it in place. From there, you can simply chuck the cloth in the trash and pull out a new one to keep going.

Don’t Just Vacuum—Shampoo!

Vacuuming your carpet will never remove everything from your flooring. The fibers in your carpet are capable of trapping dirt, crumbs, and plenty of other debris, preventing them from being removed by standard vacuuming. Even with high-power, industrial vacuuming, getting this debris out can be exceedingly difficult. Likewise, vacuums can’t remove things like mud, moisture, and more. This is why any carpet care company will strongly recommend shampooing your carpet at least once per year.

Carpet shampooing is best done by a professional, however there are quite a few DIY options as well. Many home improvement stores and even some grocery stores will rent carpet shampooing machines by the hour or by the day. All you have to do is buy the cleaning chemicals, fill the tank, and push the machine around. Use this opportunity to focus on getting into the difficult areas—move the couches out of the way to get the carpet beneath them, and really focus on those high-traffic areas near doors and in hallways.

Trim Down Your Outdoor Landscape

While most plant life is dormant through the winter season, it can certainly become disheveled and overgrown through the freezing weather. Many people do not bother to trim down or groom their landscape during the fall months, purely because its growth will be stopping so quickly. However, when plants spring back to life and resume their growth cycle, they can quickly overcrowd your property and give it an unkempt look.

Once your lawn reaches a height where it needs to be mown again, remove the bag from your mower and allow the clippings to fall on your lawn. The clippings will become fertilizer and nutrients for your grass, giving it the ability to grow even stronger and brighter than before. You can use your collecting bag again after your first mow of the season. This is also a great time to trim away plants that have started to encroach on your deck or patio, your windows, and even just up against your house. Keep in mind that bugs often use these plants as a bridge to get into your home, so trimming them away will help keep the bugs at bay.

Start Your Mosquito Control Today

Finally, spring is when mosquitos begin hatching for the year. As soon as the temperature warms up enough, the eggs spring to life, hatch, and mosquitos flood your yard. This is why we typically recommend starting up mosquito treatments during the springtime: these treatments are a lot more effective when mosquitos are still in their nymph stage, and this lays the foundation for a much more effective mosquito prevention plan all season long.

Start your pest control services by calling Horizon Pest Control at (201) 447-2530 today!