3 Best Ways to Kick Off Spring

As winter rolls into spring, you may want to concentrate on fixing, organizing, and cleaning what’s outside — after all, most say that working in the sun is better than working under a light bulb — but there are some tasks inside that just shouldn’t be ignored. Here are a few that will help your indoor air quality the minute you handle them.

Dusty decisions

A cold, hard winter means the house has been closed up and not aired out. The natural tendency is to think there is no dust coming in. That’s not true. Spring is a good time to thoroughly dust your entire home, picking up small items off table and desktops, cleaning off the tops of window frames, and don’t forget the baseboards. Dust the entire home. Be sure to use rags or towels that will collect the dust, instead of spreading it around or pushing it off surfaces onto the floor, where you will just walk on it and kick it around. All this work means you will be rewarded with less exposure to indoor airborne allergens.

Ducts and vents

Your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system works hard to keep you comfortable, and while it does that, the ductwork gets dusty and dirty. You don’t see it, so the tendency is you don’t worry about it. Take off a vent or two and inspect. Get out the flashlight. Take a white towel and push it into the ductwork. Does it come out brown? While you can clean the vents, it’s virtually impossible to clean the ductwork yourself. You need to call a professional for the duct cleaning work.

Vacuum and sweep

This is a good time to get out your vacuum, inspect it thoroughly and clean it up, and start vacuuming everything. Every square inch of carpet you can get to and move as much furniture as you can. You would be amazed how much dust can build up under furniture over the winter. Besides vacuuming the carpet, get a vacuum tool that can handle the hard floors as well. If you use a regular broom, you will stir up the dust and put it up in your breathing space. If you must sweep, find a tool that doesn’t “whisk” the dust up.

A real clean

When you realize the job is tough and you are ready to throw in the towel, do the right thing. Call your favorite cleaning company. After all, it pays to call a pro!