Spring cleaning for a happier, healthier home

Hello, my name is Maggie and I'm a neat freak. My house is far from perfect, but everything has a place and that's how I like it. But the other day I got an itch to spring clean and I ventured into (cue scary music in the background)... the basement. Eew. It may look relatively neat down there, but I found boxes that haven't been moved in ages. There were dust bunnies that were mutating into dust elephants. By the end of it all, I was slightly disgusted at what was lurking in the unseen corners of my basement, but I was happy to have all that dust and dirt removed from my house.

While it's, of course, important to keep your home sanitary and clean year-round the spring cleaning ritual is a great time to get into all the spots you may overlook during regular house cleaning. Some ideas:

• Have your mattresses steam-cleaned.
• Empty closets/pantries and scrub down the shelves and walls.
• Vacuum underneath furniture.
• Move your fridge and scrub the back of it and vacuum any gathered dust.
• Wipe down tops of door frames and other places where dust can collect.
• Steam clean your carpets and furniture.
• Remove and wash drapes.
• Wipe down window blinds.