After the snow of winter has melted and the spring flowers begin to bloom comes the perfect time of year to pack up your house and relocate to another city or town. Cleaning and packing might seem like an overwhelming task, but you can look at it as just another year of the spring cleaning tradition. The only difference is that you will be cleaning a little deeper and cover more areas than usual. To avoid any unnecessary stress, our Gainesville movers at UF Mover Guys have you covered with tips and tricks that will make spring cleaning before a move manageable!
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Cleaning To Do Before Packing
Purge The Old
Being on the verge of a spring move is an excellent time to get rid of some of those older winter clothes in your wardrobe. Clothes falling apart at the seams or tattered can either be thrown away or donated, depending on their condition. Getting rid of any bulky winter sweaters and clothing can help save some space in your boxes and make your move lighter. Thanks to moving in spring, you will have a whole year to get some new winter clothing!
Declutter
During your process of cleaning and packing, you might find that you have too much stuff to shove into your new place. Nobody wants to move into a new home just for it to be filled with clutter. While it is tempting just to shove all your belongings into a box and sort it out at your new location, this would waste both time and money on both packing it up and moving it. Consider some affordable storage for any items that are too big or too much for you to take with you.
Deep Clean The Home
There are some things in your house that you might clean pretty regularly, despite spring cleaning, but for this step, you will have to clean all the areas you might not normally think about, such as the walls and behind any appliances. When a new family moves into a clean space, they will be given a fresh slate. Make sure to scrub any grout, wash your windows, and clean all the lights, fans, and any tight nooks and crannies.
Post-Packing Cleaning
Don’t Leave The Cleaning To The Last Minute
Before your big moving day, we recommend doing some cleaning a few weeks before your planned move-out day. This will save you some moving stress, and the last thing that you would want is to wait until the day of your planned move out to find out that you don’t have all the correct tools and cleaning products. While you should try to clean as much as possible before the day, it is a good idea to allow some time for any last-minute cleaning.
Clean High To Low
When you start to clean a room, try your best to clean it from the highest point of a room to the lowest. This will make sure that any first or dust that was on the upper levels will fall to the next level and so on. When you work from the lowest point to the highest, it is easy to make a mess of an area that you have already cleaned. After dusting, dust tends to fall, and it could fall onto a surface that has already been cleaned as well.
Don’t Forget The Details
While spring cleaning, it is easy to skip past some tasks, but no matter how much you hate to do them, now is the time when they have to be done. Don’t forget to clean things like refrigerator shelves or the inside of your oven. Also, make sure that you clean out all your cabinets and ensure that you clean and polish any wood flooring or furniture that you have. When moving out, the devil is truly in the details.
Work In Stages
The same principle applies to cleaning as it does to eating an elephant; take it one step at a time. It can be pretty overwhelming to try to tackle the entire house in one go, but breaking the cleaning into chunks and spacing it out throughout a longer period can help to relieve some stress. Take your time to clean each section of your house or apartment thoroughly.
Get Rid Of Any Old Appliances
When going through spring cleaning, you usually wouldn’t have to sort through any junk drawers or any old appliances. But before a move, doing some sorting is a great way to get rid of unnecessary bulk — more than likely, you will find several small and useless kitchen appliances. If these are appliances you can live without, it is probably a good idea to part ways with them.
Staging Your House
Once you are done removing all the dirt and dust from your home and decluttering your home, the only thing left to do is properly stage your home. This means taking any items that aren’t personal to the family, such as seating areas and decorative pieces, and setting them up in a way that will make the home look fresh. This will help any potential buyers imagine their lives there and create an interesting space for them to discover.
What Not To Spring Clean
Old bed linens and old towels may seem like items that you can throw away, but they can be useful no matter how tattered or torn they may be. These can be used as dust covers, protective wrappings for furniture, or for covering any carpets if you need any painting. If you do not have any bubble wrap or newspaper, you can use towels and bed linens to protect any fragile items, such as any glassware or dishes that you are scared to break.
While packing and throwing things away, you might find some old belongings that might still have some resale value. Instead of tossing everything, you should consider a garage sale or selling them on a good online marketplace to advertise them after you are done with spring cleaning.