After a long winter, the sun is shining again, and the trees and flowers are bursting with life. For some, this means the time to get work done in the spring cleaning tradition, which is predominantly about thoroughly cleaning your home off the dust and dirt collected over the winter. But as you go about it, keeping yourself and your family safe by practicing spring cleaning safety tips is vital. So, we want to share some friendly reminders on staying safe during the spring cleaning exercise at your house.
Meta Description: Looking to clean this spring? Open this guidepost to discover our ultimate list of spring cleaning safety tips for all your cleaning operations all year round.
Why safety tips for spring cleaning are essential?
Spring cleaning is a widely popular initiative in Europe, USA, and parts of Asia. This springtime initiative involves thoroughly cleaning your home or rooms, leaving them spotlessly clean. In some areas, locals can gather to clean the neighborhood from junk, leaves, and litter.
But while it’s always satisfying to go through spring cleaning, it’s vital to note that this practice poses some dangerous risks at home. During a bad day, you can get injuries such as falling off a table, ladder, or stairs. But the good news is that most of these injuries are actually preventable. So, please keep reading to discover some working spring cleaning safety tips.
Top 9 Tips for Spring Cleaning
Tip #1: Only Clean When You Feel Like Cleaning
This is one of the best spring cleaning tips for 2023 and beyond. In fact, it’s the most basic safety tip on this list. Humans are prone to bowing to pressure, especially when everyone around us participates in the same event. However, you should know that spring cleaning can be tiring, so it’s vital to do it only when you’re in the mood.
Always ensure you’re in the right frame of mind and health to avoid losing focus and causing unnecessary damage. If you feel exhausted during the practice, take a break and re-energize. You can even suspend the whole project if you’re not feeling okay. All in all, don’t start cleaning your home because your neighbor is cleaning theirs.
Tip #2: Make a Realistic Spring Cleaning Plan
The ugliest spring cleaning accidents tend to happen when people don’t pace themselves. Therefore, you must map out your tasks and avoid doing everything in one day. Remember, as we said earlier, overworking yourself during spring cleaning will only do more damage than good. Take frequent breaks, and don’t try to do too much work at once.
With that said, you may want to use the room-to-room strategy, which is essentially working on one room before moving to the next one. For example, you can start by decluttering the rooms and then cleaning surfaces, windows, and light holders. If there is anything that your family doesn’t need, you can sell or donate them.
Tip #3: Sort Out Your Walkways and Stairs
This is a self-explanatory spring cleaning safety tip, isn’t it? While cleaning the house during springtime, most people forget to keep their stairs and walkways clear of any obstacles. This could be toys, bags, balls, and more. The thing is that it’s easy to trip over the trash left in the stairs and hallways, leading to a fall or injury.
So, what should you do? Start by removing any unwanted objects from the hallways and stairs to prevent you from unknowingly stumbling on them. You can also have a container in each room to place unwanted objects like toys and balls. This should help you work in a well-organized and safe environment.
Tip #4: Learn Vacuum Cleaning Safety Tips
One of the tools that you’ll definitely need in your spring cleaning operation is a vacuum cleaner. These machines can make cleaning easier, more effective, and time-saving. But no matter how convenient these machines are, they could lead to avoidable accidents if you don’t know how to use them.
So, follow these safety tips when using a vacuum cleaner for spring cleaning:
- Avoid vacuuming large objects using the cleaning machine.
- Ensure the cords are not torn to avoid electrocution.
- Store the machine cords safely to avoid tripping on them.
- Avoid cleaning flammable materials using a vacuum cleaner.
- Keep your kids/pets at a safe distance while vacuuming the house.
- Wear slippers to prevent your toes from accidentally getting stuck in the nozzle.
You can avoid some of the scenarios above by using a robot vacuum cleaner. For example, you don’t need a cord to clean with robovacs, and these machines also use advanced AI technology to auto-detect objects while cleaning your floor and rags. An example is eufy Clean X8 Pro, which uses AI to create accurate navigation maps for your home while cleaning. It also offers automatic detangling after cleaning, meaning you don’t need to wash the roller brush manually.
Tip #5: Climb Safely
This is one of those indoor and outdoor spring cleaning safety tips you must always keep in mind. Most accidents that happen during spring cleaning result from falling while reaching objects and walls. For this reason, always climb safely. Avoid the temptation of using a chair or table to reach surfaces and objects. Instead, invest in a sturdy ladder, as this will come in handy during other tasks in your home.
It’s also essential to place the ladder on a level surface when cleaning far-to-reach areas such as windows and roofs. An uneven surface can tilt the ladder, leading to an unexpected fall. Also, don’t lean too far on one side and get someone to hold the ladder if unsure about the surface. And yes, avoid climbing the ladder with wet rugs and skid shoes.
Tip #6: Choose Cleaning Detergents Wisely
This is one of the most basic spring cleaning safety tips for the workplace or any other place you intend to clean this spring. We always think that most cleaning detergents are safe and effective. But while many cleaners in the market can effectively remove dirt and grime, some may contain harmful solvents. Therefore, it’s vital to look for biodegradable cleaners. It’s generally best practice to avoid products with solvents, phosphates, phenols, and silicates.
Besides chemical concentration, you should consider the soil and dirt to clean. That’s because different soil and dirt need different cleaning detergents. For example, heavy-duty dirt like oil and grease may need alkaline-based detergents. Conversely, acidic-based detergents are ideal for removing mineral dirt like scale and rust. Moreover, you can choose specific detergents for aluminum and stainless steel surfaces to avoid corrosion.
Tip #7: Be careful on wet surfaces
You have probably had this nasty experience while cleaning the house. We all know slipping and falling on a wet floor is easy. This means you must take precautions to prevent accidental falls while dealing with wet floors. The damage could even be more severe if you fall from high places like stairs.
Start by warning everyone in your family, including children, about the dangers of walking on a wet floor. You may need to lock children out of rooms with wet floors or even take them to visit your parents or relatives for a few days. As for yourself, ensure you wear the appropriate anti-slip shoes to avoid accidental falls, which could be embarrassing in front of your kids.
Tip #8: Have an emergency plan
This isn’t the most fun spring cleaning safety tip to think about. However, having an emergency play could save a life during spring cleaning in your home. It’s important to have a safety plan in case of natural disasters, accidents, or pandemics. Remember, anything can happen when everyone around the house is busy cleaning and doing other things.
Purchase an emergency kit, a small box with antiseptic wipes, plasters, bandages, and more. Also, have a working fire drill for you and your family and plan an evacuation route. Moreover, it would help if you established an emergency contact with immediate response when an accident happens.
Tip #9: Ask the experts to do it
Do you find the tips above to be too much work? Or are you too busy to thoroughly clean your home yourself? If you have a few dollars left in your bank account, let the professionals do all the donkey work. Hiring a professional spring cleaning service will save you time, reduce stress, and increase productivity without putting yourself or your family in danger.
Unfortunately, choosing the exemplary spring cleaning service can be quite a task. But still, you can employ some of these tips to hire the most professional cleaning service:
- Ask a family member or friend about possible recommendations.
- Do in-depth research about the reputation of the cleaning service.
- After shortlisting several services, call them and ask about their services.
- Check the availability and flexibility of the company.
- Ask for a breakdown of pricing and compare different companies.
Conclusion
These are some spring cleaning safety tips to employ when thoroughly cleaning your house. You may also want to avoid carrying heavy loads down the steps and wear a mask while cleaning. Remember, keeping your home neat and clean is a never-ending task, so these tips should be helpful any time of the year. Have a productive spring cleaning!